Just my two spoilsport cents: The thing everyone's referring to as "ABBA" is from one of the Akai Kiba doujinshi anthologies that Nihei contributed to. The color page is the cover of the anthology; it's not related to the short story. I found another volume with another macabre 6-page Nihei short called "Sabrina." I don't find any reason to believe these doujinshi are connected to the Blame! universe in any way. I also doubt that Zeb-noid is related; he did that for another publisher I don't think he worked with again. Maybe that was a potential new series that didn't get enough positive feedback. I can't imagine what it would have been like, Romeo and Juliet Nihei-style? Anyway, I don't think we need to connect the dots between every single thing he writes. It's all going to have his trademark style, but it doesn't have to exist in one universe.

I do think Shade's theory about how Biomega will lead up to Noise is right on track. By the way, here's something I've been thinking about: Do you suppose the original Blame! one-shot could be connected to the larger Blame! story? Like I said with Zeb-noid and Digimortal, these one-shots are done by artists trying to get their break, or when a magazine wants to test the reader response to a new author. These stories are usually "prototypes" of something that would actually appear in the series. However, in the series we are told that Killy existed before the Safeguard. If you think of the one-shot as a story from when Killy was still a (human?) cop, it might just be a snapshot of what happened around or before the time of Biomega.

As long as we're making up crazy theories... way back when I first read the first magazine chapter of Biomega, I thought the guy on the bike must be Seu and the electronic girl must be a "young" Mensab. If you complain about Seu's hair color, remember that Cibo's hair color changed too when she got "resurrected." Anyway, then they finally gave their names halfway through the first volume, but I still wondered if they might "change" later. I thought maybe Nihei had let that go so long on purpose to make readers think of a connection. This probably isn't the case though, it was just the fanboy in me... Can anyone remember if Seu was supposed to be a real human? That would kill the theory.

Some time ago we had a about the possibility of Kanoe being Seu. At that time itd didn''t looked reasonable to for for 3 reasons: 1 - The stylle of the are very different (but this could change with the time); 2 - Seu have the NSG, while Kanoe appears before the Net Sphere appears. 3 - I like Killy, and I like Kanoe, so I want them to be the same person. =D Anyway, only the second reason is really strong. Then the question is: in some point of the story Kanoe did became a "real" human with the NSG? Or he was made a human to could have the NSG and use it in some mission against the GA? But anyway, there is really a possibility of it, and Kanoe can't be Killy iw woul wish that he is Seu and the AI is Mensab. =D

And if any of Nihei's one-shots have to be related with Blame, the only reasonable is Abba. But it could fit in tons of scenarios, so we can't assume anything...

Psiberpunk:

You're forgetting that there are two (maybe three) different forces at work. The people who spread the virus are most likely the same as the "Order/silicon creatures" from Noise/Blame, a group devoted to radical transformation and anarchy. In contrast, there is the "Governing Agency" that designed the foundation of the megastructure, the netsphere, and the safeguard system; they're more like a totalitarian communist kind of society. Of course, the biggest giveaway that Biomega is part of the Blame continuity is the inclusion of Toha Heavy Industries specifically. This is not a generic name; their logo even resembles the actual THI structure in Blame.

Shade:

Not everyone who survives the virus will necessarily be like Ion. Ion didn't just resist the virus; Fuyu says that she "adapted" to it. She's exceptional. Also, remember that the TV message at the end of Biomega v.1 is just the DRF's prewritten statement; they assumed the missiles would have hit already. Reading the last chapter, I'm not sure how many of those missiles actually got through Zouichi's bombardment, but I believe most of the world will escape the effects of the virus.

Also, I think the foundations of the megastructure can be seen already in Biomega; transcontinental bridges fit the real-life definition of "megastructure," as well as those mega-city "islands." So, we basically have chunks of megastructure connected by gigantic bridges. Maybe in Noise all we see until the end is one large "island;" Only after the Order does its work does the massive extra-planetary structure begin, and its growth is unguided. It's just the berserk Builders building uncontrollably, so there's no purpose to its size. The Netsphere is probably intended to pacify the populace, but the existence of the Safeguard suggests it has more "real-world" power to control the building. This reminds me of a whitepaper I read somewhere about a theoretical real megastructure. The proposal was that the citizens could use the internet to supervise the building, like a "wiki-structure." <-- I'm coining this term.

I was also interested in a chronology, but I think that nihei isn´t the genius big brain, that build a big story into several books.

I think he started something and build here and there a little bit at it. Maybe he wanted to do something with zombies and thought "Hey, I make a story before Blame with a virus!", Biomega was born.

Also in the shorty "Negative Corridor" () is a butterfly that mutates to a silicon creature. In Biomega in the ruins on the mars, one of the astronauts looks at a butterfly on the wall before the girl appears.

To make the chronology more complex, whats about Blame²?

After NSE?

Sorry to bring this thread from the dead, but have any of you considered that Biomega may be an... alternate City?

Think about it - in Blame we have the gravity furnaces that apparently take material from alternate universes (or parallel Cities) to construct moar megastructures. So how farfetched is it to suppose that one of those alternates could be Biomega, and that what we saw in Biomega was the origins of this alternate City?