Most horror genre works, be they movies, manga, or western comics, are anchored in the elements of terror, survival and sometimes black comedy. With Tokyo Zombie, a new tongue-in-cheek horror manga from Last Gasp, the stuff anchoring the book is the martial art of jiujitsu. Just published by Last Gasp, Tokyo Zombie will introduce Western readers to the absurd and grotesque work of manga-ka Yasunaka Hanakuma and the art style of heta uma, which literally means, "bad but good."
The San Francisco based indie publisher and distributor publishes manga such as Barefoot Gen and Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms, which garnered a nomination at this past year's Eisners, as well as biographies about classic comics artists like Hergé, creator of Tintin.
In Tokyo Zombie, a mountain of garbage and industrial waste, dubbed Dark Fuji, becomes a burial ground for all things organic and inorganic—and suddenly starts spitting out zombies. Two jiujitsu loving factory workers, Fujio and Mitsuo, are forced apart when they flee a zombie invasion of their warehouse home. But their martial arts practice soon brings them back together under extraordinary circumstances. As funny and over the top as Tokyo Zombie can be, the series also lends itself to funny, over-the-top social commentary, especially when the book explores the hierarchical structure of haves vs. have-nots that the reader encounters in the aftermath of life with the living dead.
Last Gasp associate publisher Colin Turner first read Tokyo Zombie as an undergrad, when the series appeared in the Japanese avant-garde manga anthology, AX magazine, Garo's successor. (Garo was Japan's original indie manga anthology and featured work by Sanpei Shirato and gekiga master Yoshihiro Tatsumi). Turner described Garo and AX as the Japanese equivalents to the classic underground/alternative comics anthologies Wierdo and RAW magazines.
"I thought the story "Tokyo of the Dead" (the original name) was hilarious,” Turner said. "It is crude, dark, and yet doesn't take itself seriously. And the drawing has an indescribable, inherent kinetic humor. It is the unspoken humor of the illustrations that really grabbed me.”
"Tokyo Zombie is a real piece of work, a blend of social satire, buddy comedy and post-apocalyptic horror,” according to Ryan Sands, a translator and editor who also maintains Same Hat!, a blog about horror manga. The Tokyo Zombie manga-ka Hanakuma (www.hanakuma.com) is also a brown belt in Brazilian jiujitsu and writes about martial arts for various magazines.
"My research involved sitting and reading jiu-jitsu terminology and Hanakuma's other manga for hours on end,” Sands said. Additionally, Sands wanted to make sure that the buddy element was not lost in the English translation. "For all the severed heads and class warfare that goes on in the book, the story is really about two hapless blue-collar dudes on a mission and, as editor, it was important to maintain the focus on Mitsuo and Fujio's friendship."
Although the book is drawn in a style that is likely to appeal to American comics readers, Turner has no special plans to market the book, although Last Gasp did have copies at the San Diego Comic-Con. By the end of Comic-Con weekend, about half the copies were gone. Turner does plan to focus on online marketing for the publication and Sands has already posted cover art and some interior work on his blog. "I think Hanakuma's unfettered storytelling should definitely appeal to fans of comics and manga, and readers across genres,” Sands Said.
