WIBR: Biomega vol. 2

Two volumes in and mangaka Tsutomu Nihei’s latest work to be translated into English continues to be a stellar example of how to properly do style over substance.  Badass synthetic human Zoichi Kanoe and his AI partner Fuyu continue their quest to stop the evil machinations of the Data Recovery Foundation by blowing up lots of bio-zombies, buildings, planes, ships, and anything else that gets in their way with maximum prejudice.  We’re also introduced to one of his fellow synthetic humans, Nishu Mizunoe, as she teams up with the now one-handed grizzly bear sniper Kozlov Grebnev in order to find out if he can shed any light on the activities of his father who was one of the founding members of the DRF. 

While Nihei gets a lot of rightly deserved praise for his art, which effectively depicts a run-down future dystopia and the high-speed chase scenes that take place within it, I continue to be impressed at the clarity of his storytelling here.  Granted, it’s nothing new or particularly original, but after reading through all ten volumes of “BLAME!” and thinking that he only had the capacity to make something that only he understood, the fact that he demonstrates a solid grasp of the fundamentals of storytelling is downright refreshing.