Tsutomu Nihei

Tsutomu Nihei (弐瓶 勉, Nihei Tsutomu, born 1971) is a Japanese manga artist known for his cyberpunk-influenced artwork.

Works

Serialized works

• Blame! - Nihei's most popular work, detailing the adventures of Killy as he searches for a human with compatible genes to save the world. Originally published in Afternoon.
• NOiSE - A prequel to Blame!, in which a police officer investigates the murder of a gang. Originally publishing in Afternoon.
• Abara - Published in Ultra Jump, Abara follows Kudou Denji, a man able to transform into a Gauna – a creature with bone-like armor and weaponry.
• Biomega - Zouichi Kanoe and the AI in his motorbike set out to find humans resistant to N5S, a virus that turns people into zombie-like "Drones". Originally appeared in Young Magazine.
• Knights of Sidonia - Nihei's latest series about mecha and the Gauna, published in Afternoon. It is currently ongoing.

One-shots and additional works

• Abba - A short one-shot about a man looking for his brother.
• Blame - A one-shot prototype for Blame!, collected in NOiSE.

• Blame!² - A full color, 16 page one-shot published in Kodansha's Mandala Vol.2, following up on the story of Blame! with one of Pcell's future incarnations.
• Blame! Academy - A comedy featuring the characters from Blame! as students in a school. Published infrequently.
• Dead Heads - First issue of a canceled series; collected, as thumbnails, in Blame! and So on.
• Digimortal - A two part one-shot about a mercenary hired to assassinate a leader of a new Inquisition. Originally appeared in Ultra Jump, published in Vol.2 of Abara.
• Halo: Breaking Quarantine - Set in the Halo series, the untold story of Sergeant Avery J. Johnson and his escape from the bowels of Halo and the Flood.
• Negative Corridor - A short one-shot, collected in NOiSE.
• NSE: Net Sphere Engineer - A sequel to Blame!, about the Net Sphere. Series ongoing, though only one chapter has been published to date.
• Sabrina - A short one-shot about a man coming across a girl whose arm is stuck in a hole.
• Wolverine: Snikt! - A 5 issue limited series of the X-Men character Wolverine. Originally published by Marvel Comics.
• Winged Armor Suzumega - A short one-shot about a battle between alien beings.
• Zeb-Noid - A short one-shot about a hostile encounter between two different species that takes an unexpected turn.

Artbooks

• Bitch's Life - An erotic illustrations book, featuring contributions from over twenty manga artists; four of which come from Nihei.
• Blame! and So On - Published in 2003, Blame! and So On contains artwork and sketches for Blame!, Noise, and Wolverine: Snikt!, amongst others; it also contains the illustrations Nihei provided for Bitch's Life and the aborted Dead Heads as thumbnails.