To your left, excellent local amenities, and to your right, a Japanese man in his underwear battling bears and the undead with a pink trowel.

With young people flooding to the cities in search of work and many never returning, many towns in Japan face gradually declining populations. Where most towns or regions will try and appeal to potential residents or tourists with frankly bizarre mascots or with professionally made videos highlighting the benefits to life in their particular corner of the world, one small town in Yamanashi Prefecture has gone in another direction. Featuring the picturesque town and local residents, the promotional video has taken the form of a trailer for an unfortunately unavailable-to-buy zombie survival adventure game.

The small town of Kosugemura, located in the mountains to the west of Tokyo with a population of just 700 people, has gone all out to promote itself. However, it clearly isn’t above making fun of itself in doing so, as seen with the cameo of the village mayor who first appears as a NPC (non-player character) walking into a wall, reminiscent of countless buggy games. There’s also a class full of scruffy, dishevelled creatures who can only communicate in grunts and groans, but while that might describe any class of teenagers in any classroom in the world, this time they’re zombies.

▼ The character selection menu shows that residents
old and young have been getting in on the fun.

▼ Pink trowel isn’t a euphemism, it’s this adventurer’s weapon of choice.

▼ While the super-realistic graphics (or reality as it’s otherwise known) look great,
the bear attack is less convincing.

The video finishes with the main character defeating his ursine assailant before turning around to find something worse. The video asks viewers if they want to continue playing in real life, and this is more than just a rhetorical question, as the village is hosting a “horror attraction” on November 11, where visitors can live the full “zombie village” survival experience. For more details, visit the event website (Japanese).

While not many promotional videos feature the main protagonist dying (twice) the town’s residents and the makers of the trailer deserve praise for their creative take on drumming up interest in their quiet countryside town, and it makes a nice change from the usual child-scaring, freaky town mascots aiming to raise their town’s profile.

Source: Youtube/こ、こすげぇー ～小菅村情報発信中！～ via Netorabo
Featured image: YouTube/こ、こすげぇー ～小菅村情報発信中！～