By Yusaku Hanakuma
Last Gasp, 164 pp.
Rating: Adults

From the mind of Yusaku Hanakuma comes the darkly comical Tokyo Zombie, an over-the-top horror/comedy which follows two garbage men, Mitsuo and Fujio, as they engage in bizarre hijinks and attempt to survive in a Tokyo that’s been overrun by zombies.

As the story opens, Tokyo’s facing a nasty garbage crisis, one of such epic proportions that a literal mountain of garbage has been created and dubbed “Dark Fuji.” Everything–food, TV, porn, bodies–is dumped there and nobody says a word. Of course, anyone who has passing knowledge of the zombie genre knows that poorly disposed-of waste products and corpses don’t mix. So naturally the inevitable happens and hilarity ensues. After a brief time skip we’re treated to a radically rebuilt Japanese society in which humanity is forced to live within a massive walled compound. Gentrification has run rampant as the rich live comfortably in apartments built, and even powered by, the poor. With no TV or radio the only form of entertainment comes from gladiatorial combat between the poor and zombies.

Any of this sound familiar? Zombie comedy? Gentrification? The poor laboring thanklessly to provide for the rich who live in furnished apartments? Zombie games? Believe it or not but these aren’t tributes or nods to any of the recent spate of zombie movies. No, in fact this book came out back in 1999, well before either of the movies that most people will compare it to. It’s almost enough to make one wonder whether or not Romero and Wright are closeted manga fans with hard drives full of scanlated volumes of underground horror series.

The story is a little lacking in the character development department. Mitsuo and Fujio are fairly flat and undeveloped as Hanakuma instead focuses on the laughs on the social satire. Frankly I think this works well for the book and helps give it a distinct and unique feel. If it had been bogged down with giving the two huge drawn-out back stories it wouldn’t be half as amusing. At times, the one-note feel of them even works in its favor, adding to the satiric nature of the book. After all, who n their right mind would still want to be the best Jiu-Jitsu artist in the world when it’s overrun by zombies? You’d think there would be other priorities, but no, Fujio clings to his dream in a manner that would make any shonen protagonist proud.

Sad to say, but the artwork will turn many, many people off of this book. My first reaction to seeing it was something along the lines of “You can’t be serious.” It’s an incredibly amateurish style, verging on idle doodling at times. But the heta uma (“bad, but good”) artwork belies Hanakuma’s surprisingly strong story telling abilities. True, it does look something you might quickly sketch on napkin, but it’s simple and easy to follow and lends itself to the over-the-top humor of the tale. One of the real treats that almost no one else has really mentioned is the fight scene’s. Tokyo Zombie; contains some of the most technical MMA style fight scene’s that I’ve every seen on paper. Frankly my jaw was on the floor when I first saw them, out of all the things I expected to see in this book, displays of Jiu-Jitsu wasn’t among them! The fact that some of these scene’s involve zombies just make them even better.

Don’t let the artwork turn you off. Tokyo Zombie is a fun, black comedy and folks who get a kick out of rampaging pigs, zombie sex jokes and the like will definitely find things to enjoy about this excellent manga. It’s clearly not for everyone, but those who give it a try will find a really enjoyable reading experience. I can only hope to see more of Yusaku Hanakuma’s in the future and maybe, just maybe, an official US release for the live action Tokyo Zombie movie too.

Tokyo Zombie is available now.