Tokyo Zombie

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Tokyo Zombie is a Japanese zombie comedy comparable to Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland. Next Sunday A.D. in Tokyo a landfill has massively over-grown to become known by the populace as Black Mount Fuji, a place where anyone can go to dump anything they want and not be questioned about it or bother with pesky environmental safety laws. It is also a very popular place to dump bodies (living or dead). Eventually through radiation, the anger of the dead bodies, and mis-dumped recyclables in the landfill, the dead rise again as zombies. The main characters are Mii-chan and Fujio, a couple of Brazilian jiu-jitsu enthusiasts who bumble their way through the zombie hordes. Half way through the movie there is a Time Skip of five years where all the rich people have made a safe zone in the remains of Tokyo and use the poor people they saved from the zombies as slaves. To entertain themselves they host zombie fights- pit matches between various fighters and zombies in which Fujio competes.

Tropes used in Tokyo Zombie include:
  • Accidental Murder - Mii-chan and Fujio's murder of their boss by hitting him on the head with a fire extinguisher. Also serves as a Sacrificial Lamb.
  • After the End - "Tokyo died."
  • Apocalypse How - Variable the movie never states how far the Zombie Apocalypse spreads. It could be limited to Tokyo alone or Japan. or perhaps it went further we never know so anywhere from a Class 0 to a localized Class 3a. depending on how you want to view it.
  • Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other - Fujio and Yoko, through the domestic disputes and swearing in front of their little daughter, really do get a cute moment in the end.
  • Berserk Button - "He did it to you, didn't he?" - intentionally pressed.
  • Boring but Practical - Fujio's use of jiu-jitsu in the zombie fighting area.
    • Most likely emphasized because of Brazilian jiu-jitsu's real life reputation for being highly effective, but boring to watch (at least for those who don't practice it themselves).
  • Crapsack World - Even before the Zombie Apocalypse, every single person in the movie was either a pervert, a psychopath, or just ridiculously apathetic.
  • Jerkass - Yoko, and several others.
  • Gaia's Vengeance - Part of the implied cause behind the zombie apocalypse was that we pissed off the spirits of the land.
  • Halfway Plot Switch - The first half of the movie centers on the main characters trying to escape the zombies on the streets of Tokyo. Five years later, and it's set in a bizarre society controlled by the rich, and Fujio is now a professional 'zombie-wrestler'
  • Lampshade Hanging - "That made no sense." Seemed to sum up the feelings of everyone watching at the time.
  • The Last Dance - Mitsuo took it upon himself to teach Fujio Jujitsu because he was dying of stomach cancer. Except he wasn't. He had a stress-induced gastrointestinal problem, and basically bullied his doctor into saying it was cancer in a hypochondriac fit.
    • Becomes a Brick Joke in the second half of the movie. Mitsuo was bitten by a zombie before the Time Skip, but at the very end, it's revealed that the zombie in question had dentures, and his hypochondria made him believe he was a zombie despite all signs to the contrary.
  • Suddenly Voiced - Fumiyo at the end. "Are you fucking retarded?" are her first official words, after copying her mother. And she's also the narrator for the time skip and at the very end of the film.
  • Rape as Backstory - Fujio has repeated flashbacks to being sexually abused by his teacher.
  • Toilet Humor - "Is it number two... or number one?" "Correct, it's both."
  • Zombie Apocalypse - Duh.
  • Zombie Gait - Played straight.