東京ゾンビ

by Yusaku Hanakuma

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.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Horror, Zombies, Graphic Novels, Comedy, Japan

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

a.k.a. 花くま ゆうさく

Yusaku Hanakuma is a Japanese illustrator and cartoonist living in Tokyo. He studied at the premier Setsu Mode Seminar in Tokyo, and is the winner of numerous manga awards, including the GARO Magazine Nagai Katsuichi Award and the 13th Annual Manga Award for Excellence. Hanakuma is famous for his heta uma style (literally, "Bad, but Good") of kinetic and grotesque illustration, and has released numerous titles in Japan, featuring his hapless characters AFRO and HAGE ("Baldie").

In addition to his cult fame as a cartoonist, Hanakuma is a skilled martial artist with a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and writes columns on the sport for a variety of publications.

[--from the Last Gasp edition of Tokyo Zombie]

Reviews

[StrictlySequential · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm just as sick of zombies as I was over vampires a few years ago but I knew this didn't apply. It's not a "take" on the genre and even pre-dated the fad. The zombies are kind of incidental- a funny way to add intense action to a purely original story and endearing about friendship and camaraderie in troubled times.

His "Heta Uma" (good- but bad) art style perfectly suits the ever-present chaos and horror.

It's REALLY really good- the plot critic in me wouldn't change ANYTHING.

[Mizuki · Rating 4 out of 5]

First thing, if you like gross and violence just for the sake of gross and violence, meaningless death just for the sake of meaningless death; if you also like zombies, death-match and dark sense of humor, if zombie-handjob and people losing their heads don't gross you out too much. I think you will like Tokyo Zombie (sub title: Tokyo of the Dead).

The artwork is simple and sometime...to be honest, quite ugly; but strangely I still enjoy seeing 'black and white' zombies drawn with simple ink-line roaming around the streets looking for people to eat a lot. The plot are okay-ish (zombies show up from nowhere and turn Tokyo into a living hell, typical enough) and it keeps my attention for throughout the volume, and some of the humorous scenes make me laugh. That's it.

[Juan Fuentes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un cómic totalmente gamberro sobre una invasión de zombies en la ciudad de Tokio. Con un estilo de dibujo que sólo se puede denominar como manga underground, la historia se va volviendo cada vez más loca hasta llegar a la apoteosis final. He disfrutado como un gorrino, absolútamente genial.

[Mike E. Mancini]

Still a fun crazy read. Jujitsu, zombies, cartoon slapstick violence. Repeat.
I dig it.

[Maricruz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Qué burrada de historia. Qué cosa más gamberra. Si te gustan las películas de zombis con su dosis de gore, el MMA, el humor negro y las películas testosterónicas de artes marciales, este es tu cómic. Si no, mantente alejado de él. Glorioso.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Didn’t think I would like this bc I’m not a zombie guy, but turns out it’s actually just about a guy who loves jiu-jitsu with some zombies in the background. Also the art is perfect, more stuff should aim to be this crude. Someone should really reprint this.

[Gaia Ferrazzano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un caposaldo del fumetto brutto. Indimenticabile.

[Anne Mey · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'avais vu le film qui adaptait ce manga avant et l'oeuvre originale est tout aussi déjantée. On suit deux gars travaillant dans une usine qui à leurs perdues s'entraînent à la lutte. Pas loin de là existe le Fuji noir, une montagne de déchets où tout le monde apporte tout ce dont ielles veulent se débarrasser. Au fur et à mesure les gens commencent à enterrer des cadavres à cet endroit. Mais un jour ces cadavres vont sortir de leur tombe et commencer à envahir la planète. Les deux gars s'en aperçoivent sans trop stresser et prennent un camion pour s'enfuir. On suit leur expédition à travers le pays à rencontrer des dangers puis à se retrouver séparés pour finir bien plus tard alors que la société a créé un nouvel ordre où les riches sont bien protégés et organisent des combats de zombies pour s'occuper. L'oeuvre est très mal dessinée avec beaucoup de génie, c'est cracra et absurde au possible, une oeuvre vraiment à part !

[Vittorio Rainone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chiaro, il genere di riferimento dell’autore è l’heta-uma, una corrente che adatta al fumetto l’etica del punk in musica. Il problema è che a furia di levare, qui mancano gli sfondi, le ambientazioni, le fisionomie sono ridotte all’osso, gli snodi di trama sono similmente scheletrici, i personaggi non sono per niente sviluppati. Non c’è praticamente null’altro che uno screen play con una bella copertina.

Ok, Hanakuma mirava ad altro, a una critica del sistema e dell’umanità e della morale comune e ... dopo tante esperienze in qualche modo simili ho l’impressione che questo volume, anche contestualizzato (perché è nel 1998-99, ben prima di Walking Dead) abbia davvero poca forza.

[Natilin Alpaca Saurio · Rating 4 out of 5]

XD Qué mamada fue esto? Jajajjajajajjaja
El incio estuvo buenisimo, me reí mucho.
Ya la segunda como me me bajoneó un poco, pero estaba bien.

Igualmente, entre risa y risa, el autor te mete muchisimas criticas a la sociedad. Wow.

[Lamp · Rating 3 out of 5]

ha ha

[Jota Caparrós · Rating 4 out of 5]

El cómic es canelita en rama, pero se me ha hecho demasiado corto. Zombies, artes marciales y un protagonista con el pelo a lo afro. No necesitas saber más.

[Alessandro Concas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sublime

[Daniel Vlasaty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love that good/bad art style.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

delightful and charming!

[Cas]

think you’re hot shit because you’re bald?! so what, i’m going bald too!

[Carlos Fedriani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Empieza más divertido de lo que sigue, pero me he reído

[clemencia]

a looot was going on and honestly i didn't care sorryyy. i was not the target -!

[JaumeMuntane · Rating 3 out of 5]

3'5/5

Cómic underground desenfadado y pasadísimo de vueltas que garantiza diversión y sorpresa página tras páginas. Habrá que ver la película.

[think blue count two · Rating 4 out of 5]

good dumb fun

[Bouman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este manga, digamos underground, es una delicia en que los acontecimientos se encadenan con un ritmo que no cesa. Hay que tener en cuenta que Tokyo zombie se publicó originalmente por entregas en las páginas de una revista. Tal vez por eso es tan descabelladamente loco, cosa que ...more

[Erik · Rating 1 out of 5]

You'll either like the jokes or think they're terrible. I thought they were terrible (particularly the oft repeated "Pig Surfing!"). You'll find the amateur art brilliant or terrible. I thought it was terrible. Half the book is wrestling matches between humans and zombies. The dialogue is awful. Feels like something a 5 year old would come up with. This is one of the worst comics I've ever read.

[sweet pea · Rating 2 out of 5]

this has most everything one could want in a zombie comic: class warfare, pigs, martial arts, bunny masks, afros, and lots of blood. an often-hilarious tale of Tokyo gone dead and the rich person's utopia that develops. in the end, there's not enough, uh, meat in the story to keep me satisfied.

[Rich Gamble · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artwork in this reminds me of a Dolan comic. It started off quite funny with zombie handjobs and random deaths but for more than half of the book towards the end is just repetitive zombie fight scenes. Still not a bad way to spend half an hour...

[Erik Erickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent "avant-absurd" zombie tale (see samehat.blogspot.com). Hanakuma's visual style is every bit as good/bad as I've read. Great self-contained, gross and hilarious story.

[Thea · Rating 5 out of 5]

AWESOME! my favorite character is the dog.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pure unadulterated zombie goodness.

[Erik Wirfs-Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty awesome, I am not surprised they made it into a movie as it is the perfect mixture of stupid and awesome that you want out of anaction/horror movie.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is CRAZY! In the best possible way.

[PMP · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unbelievably heta uma!