, subtitled , is a full-color, 16-page one-shot manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 by Tsutomu Nihei

Tsutomu Nihei

is a Japanese manga artist. His cyberpunk-influenced artwork has gained a strong cult following. He has a relatively large community of fans in Germany where his manga Blame!, NOiSE and Biomega were published by Ehapa. Blame! was also published in France and Spain by Glénat, in the US by Tokyopop...

. Like NSE: Net Sphere Engineer, Blame!² is a sequel

Sequel

A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...

 to the original Blame!

Blame!

, pronounced "blam", is a ten-volume 1998 cyberpunk manga by Tsutomu Nihei published by Kodansha. A six part original net animation was produced in 2003, with a seventh episode included on the DVD release.- Plot :...

, taking place at a point in the distant future. It was published March 21, 2008 in the second volume of Kodansha

Kodansha

, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...

's Weekly Morning Special Edition magazine, Mandala.

Plot

As the subtitle implies, Blame!² follows the escape of the eighth incarnation of from the Megastructure. The story is set long after the events of the original in a period where the humans have begun to reclaim the Megastructure. It is presented from the unique perspective of the Silicon Creatures, who know the hero of Blame! as , a calamity that brought destruction to their kind. Following the tracks he left behind, she ultimately reaches the of the Megastructure and is attacked by Safeguard. Pcell is then saved by Killy, much to her surprise, and falls unconscious. When she wakes up, she finds herself outside of the city in the vacuum of space. With the record of her family in her possession, Pcell sprouts strange-looking wings, and seemingly flies off into the vastness of space, determined to rebuild her village.

External links

• Mandala Vol. 2 on Kodansha's website