Tokyo Zombie

By Yusaku Hanakuma

Book Overview

Tokyo Zombie is a horror-comedy manga about two blue-collar factory workers (who happen to be jiu-jitsu experts) dealing with a zombie uprising in Tokyo.

When the story begins, Fujio and Mitsuo are dreaming of training in martial arts overseas and becoming famous. When they accidentally kill their overbearing boss, they decide to cover up the evidence and bury him at a man-made garbage mountain known as DARK FUJI. Unfortunately for them, the tons of rotting garbage have been contaminated with industrial waste... Which, naturally, transforms the bodies of the dead into ravenous, flesh-eating zombies.

Fuji and Mitsuo try their best to survive in this horrific new landscape, but the hapless pair become separated after an idiotic mistake involving potato chips and a stray dog.

Skip to a few years later. Post-apocalyptic Tokyo has become a feudalistic society, in which the rich have enslaved the lower classes, who toil in the walled city for protection against the zombies. To alleviate boredom, the rich have created gladiator death matches, pitting zombies against slaves. Fuji and Mitsuo meet up under strange circumstances in the ring of one of these death matches. All hell breaks loose when the two are reunited, and the sanctuary city of the rich comes under fire from a revolutionary pig farmer and a motorcycle gang of roving bandits.

Tokyo Zombie was originally serialized in the cutting-edge manga magazine AX from 1998 to 1999. Many years before the film Shaun of the Dead introduced Western audiences to the zombie comedy genre, Hanakuma's send up of Romero zombie films and post-apocalyptic survival story was already a cult classic in Japan. Now English-speaking audiences will have the chance to check out the genre-mashing tale that started it all.

Hanakuma's "heta uma" (Literally "Bad, but Good") drawing style punctuates the gory but hilarious depiction of a Tokyo overrun with zombies. This is mixed with a dynamic and authentic depiction of actual martial arts, sourced from Hanakuma's own years of training and competing as a professional martial artist. In addition to the success of the cult manga, Tokyo Zombie was also adapted into a hit film directed by Sakichi Sato and starring cult film stars Tadanobu Asano (Ichi the Killer) and Sho Aikawa (Dead or Alive), with a cameo from famed horror manga artist Kazuo Umezu.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0867197013
• ISBN13: 9780867197013
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Last Gasp
• Length: 164 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

The best dog in literary history

First of all, this book is ridiculously short, especially considering half of the storyboards are wrestling scenes with corny onomatopoeia at the rate of five words a page. I read it in under an hour and I read slow. The drawings are pretty goofy and simple, and the action sequences, again, are long and not much to look at. The gore, however, is awesomely extravagant and Hanakuma's bare-bones (i know, i know), stylized anatomy detracts from the horror and lets you laugh. Because the book is just hilariously cruel and gross at times. Really funny and campy. Great zombie attacks, heroic story, and pretty decent social commentary. By about page five, which is to say 20 seconds in, you'll either be completely engrossed or completely grossed-out, or, ideally, both.

fine amazon, I'll write a review.

I really can't say anything really bad about the whole process of buy this book. It was cheap, delivery was quick, and when the dealer said the book was still in good shape they didn't lie! not that I'm saying that I've had previous accounts order communication confusion, but you get the just of what I'm saying. Five stars.

Amazing

It's sad to see such good work go mostly overlooked by the comix community. But at the same time, it's understandable; this is far from typical art. It could even be considered dada - a step up from traditional shonen storytelling yet a step down in artistical merit in compensation for its unique and ball-busting style. (The style of drawing itself is called "heta-uma" - which means "bad, but good"!) This manga was originally published ten years ago, but thankfully it's been revived by Ryan Sands and published by Last Gasp. Afro and Hage represent the working class, and those who indulge in on-shift wrestling matches as well. When the mountain of Black Fuji erupts not in fire and ash but with zombies and fellacio, this comic really kicks everything up to eleven and doesn't let up until its end (which feels like it comes all too soon). This is something you'll be coming back to read again. And seeing that Afro & Hage have had their fair share of shine in the comic world of Japan, here's hoping that more of Hanakuma's wonderful humor and zombie-loving satire make it stateside. This is just too good.

Rah! Rah!! Rah!!!

This manga rox! Anyone who is a fan of zombies, Japan, dogs, blood sports, pig farming, afros, Mt. Fuji and bringing down the upper class, this one's for you! Rah! Rah!! Rah!!!