A six-part original net animation (ONA) by Group TAC was produced in 2003, with a seventh episode included on the DVD release.

However, a terrorist cult known as "the Order" released a retrovirus that deleted the Net Terminal Gene from all humans, thus cutting off their access to the Netsphere and their control over the Builders.

Without specific instructions, the Builders began to build chaotically and indefinitely, while the Safeguards' programming degraded into a mandate to kill all humans without the Net Terminal Gene, whether they wanted to access the Netsphere or not.

By the time of the events of the manga, the City has come to resemble a series of layered, concentric Dyson spheres, filled with haphazard architecture and largely devoid of life.

The buildings on each layer are largely uninhabited, although scattered human and post-human tribes, rogue Builders, hostile Safeguards, and Silicon Life can be found throughout the entire City.

Killy, a silent loner possessing an incredibly powerful weapon known as a Gravitational Beam Emitter, wanders a vast technological world known as "The City".

He is searching for Net Terminal Genes, a (possibly) extinct genetic marker that allows humans to access the "Netsphere", a sort of computerized control network for The City.

The Net Terminal Genes appear to be the key to halting the unhindered, chaotic expansion of the Megastructure, as well as a way of stopping the murderous robot horde known as the Safeguard from destroying all of humanity.

Together, Killy and Cibo meet a young girl named Sanakan and a tribe of human warriors called the Electro-Fishers.

The megastructure is ultimately destroyed due to attacks by Silicon Life and Sanakan, but Mensab is able to give Cibo a sample of Seu's DNA.

Killy and Cibo next come to a region of the City ruled by a group of Silicon Life, where they ally with a pair of "provisional Safeguards" named Dhomochevsky and Iko.

Dhomochevsky sacrifices his life to kill Davine, but not before she downloads an extremely powerful Level 9 Safeguard from the Netsphere which manifests in Cibo's body.

In the final page, Killy is seen fighting in the corridors of the City again, alongside a small child wearing a hazmat suit.

Tsū, stylized as BLAME!²), subtitled Chronicle of the Escape from the Megastructure by the Eighth Incarnation of Pcell (第八系子体プセルの都市構造体脱出記, Dai-hachi Keikotai Puseru no Toshikōzōtai Dasshutsu Ki), is a full-color, 16-page one-shot.

She eventually makes it to the edge of the City, where it is implied she travels to another planet and restarts Silicon Life civilization using the stored gene-data of her dead companions.

film illustrated by Kotaro Sekine was serialized in Kodansha's Monthly Shōnen Sirius from April 26 to October 26, 2017,[38][39][40] and collected into one volume, released on February 9, 2018.

[44] The film is directed by Hiroyuki Seshita and written by Tsutomu Nihei and Sadayuki Murai, with animation by Polygon Pictures and character designs by Yuki Moriyama.

[45] On October 5, 2017, Viz Media announced at their New York Comic Con panel that they licensed the home video rights to the film.

doesn't have a mass appeal and "there will be quite a strong line dividing those who love and hate Nihei's unique and convoluted cyberpunk journey".