Tsutomu Nihei

A seinen mangaka. His works include vast amounts of Post Cyber Punk Scenery Porn with neat building structure due to the fact that he studied architecture. He's also gained a large cult following in Germany. Aside from the more famous series he's written, he's made several one-shot comics, including Blame Academy, a High School AU parody of his own series and 5 Wolverine comics published by Marvel Comics.

A Halo fan, he was quite inspired by that series' megastructures, and was doubtless quite happy to write and illustrate part of The Halo Graphic Novel.


 * Blame
 * Biomega
 * N Oi SE
 * Abara
 * The Knights Of Cydonia: His newest feature, which is currently ongoing. Not to be confused with Knights of Cydonia by Muse. Some translators romanize it as "Sidonia" to avoid this confusion.


 * Aborted Arc: Has become slightly infamous for this - several of his oneshot works were intended to be pilot episodes for their own series - but for one reason or another they never came to fruition.
 * Author Appeal: Absurdly scaled architecture, powerful weapons, and transhumanism.
 * Art Evolution: Especially notable over the course of Blame, his longest manga.
 * Biopunk: Nihei really likes to blur the distinction between mechanical and Organic Technology. In Biomega, this is done to such a degree that after a few volumes, the distinction becomes more or less meaningless.
 * Cyberpunk: N Oi SE being a fitting example.
 * Dull Surprise: A common criticism leveled at his rendition of human characters.
 * Decompressed Comic
 * Germans Love Tsutomu Nihei: His three most famous mangas were published there first.
 * Humongous Mecha: Show up in short stories Zeb-Noid and Winged Armor Suzumega and the new serial The Knights Of Cydonia seems to be Nihei's take on the typical Mecha story. Strange in that its mechs lack the technorganic quality that has come to define the author's work.
 * Mukokuseki: Most of his manga have several distinctly Asian-looking characters, although considering the trans-human leanings of most of them, this could often be more an issue of personal taste than ethnicity.
 * Post Cyber Punk
 * Silent Scenery Panel
 * Scenery Porn
 * Scenery Gorn
 * The Verse: The Blameverse, so far consisting of, in rough chronological order:
 * N Oi SE
 * Blame!
 * Blame^2
 * Netsphere Engineer!
 * Abara, The Knights Of Cydonia and a short Humongous Mecha piece called Winged Armor Suzumega, also known as The Armored Insects Sphingidae may also have some connection, as all feature aliens known as Gaunas, though they're somewhat different in each incarnation, ranging from spiny, shape-shifting humanoids in Abara, to giant fetus-like monsters in Cydonia, while in Suzumega it's not exactly clear what they're supposed to be. Dialogue in Suzumega, referring to a "Planet Vanishing" and Cydonia's premise of being an evacuee ship from Earth, which was destroyed by the Gaunas also apparently allude to the events of Abara.
 * Then again, it could be he's just pulling an H.P. Lovecraft and reusing names and themes to create the impression of a Mythos.
 * Word of God: He has cleared the confusion-- Biomega is not in the same 'verse as Blame!