Mr. Sato revisits and reviews the 2012 classic that critics called “a confusing mess” and “so much unwanted junk.”
zombies
The newest instalment of Sanrio’s yearly horror night has a special twist, and covering your eyes won’t help you!
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.
Real escape games involve getting out of a certain place within a tight time limit, so it’s no surprise that the latest franchise to get the real escape treatment is I am a Hero, a zombie horror manga.
Halloween just keeps getting bigger in Japan. While stores are full of all sorts of cute paraphernalia to mark the celebration and a number of Halloween activities are marked on the calendar, there’s one very special event that’s bigger and more unusual than any other in Tokyo. In fact, it’s so popular the organisers sold all 2,000 tickets in one evening and are now offering an extra three hundred tickets to those who get in quick by applying online.
It’s the Zombie Party Village, which comes alive once a year with thousands of walking dead—all of whom are free to dance to their unbeating heart’s content without being bothered by angry mobs and cross-bearing priests. If you’d like to be a part of the 2,300-strong zombie dance collective, read on to find out all the details after the break.
I’m never really sure what I should call the zombie action series that began as a hit PlayStation game in 1996. Resident Evil, its internationally used name, is a lot more colorful than Biohazard, its Japanese one, but only the first of the many games takes place primarily in a home. What’s more, the source of the trouble is science run amok, not dark magic, so the “evil” part seems a touch melodramatic.
On the other hand, there are now five films in the franchise, with a sixth on the way, all of which are produced in English and usually come to Japan only after already premiering overseas, so score one point for Resident Evil.
But in the case of its upcoming stage adaptation, set to open in two months, I really think Biohazard is the most appropriate name, because it looks like every single member of the cast is Japanese.
Resident Evil 2 was released for the original Sony Playstation in 1998 and built upon the foundations of the first Resident Evil game to spawn an entire franchise of viral zombie horror games, movies, and other media. While the first game had a fairly self-contained “haunted house” type story, the second game put a Hollywood-esque movie-style spin on things, pitting players against an entire city of bloodthirsty zombies. It is Resident Evil 2 that gave birth to the Resident Evil franchise, and it is Resident Evil 2 that fans most desperately wish to see remade with modern technology.
But, while Capcom, the series’ creator, has recently been busy polishing up and re-releasing two old remakes of the original game and its prequel, an official Resident Evil 2 remake has yet to materialise. Instead, several dedicated fans from Italian indie software development studio Invader Games has taken matters into their own hands and rolled out their own version of Resident Evil 2, built using Unreal Engine 4.
Miffy, the adorable fluffy white rabbit from Holland, has several reasons to be angry. Not only has she been to court to kill off Cathy, the doppelgänger bunny character created by Sanrio, she also has to put up with people confusing her for Hello Kitty, and then to top it all off, her creator, Dick Bruna, announced his retirement last year. Sometimes, it’s all too much for a bunny to bear.
So it’s not hard to imagine that Miffy would one day be out for blood, especially if she were to become a flesh-eating zombie. And when you multiply one zombified Miffy with an army of hundreds, things become genuinely terrifying. Take a look at the bunny apocalypse that’s threatening to take down the citizens of Hong Kong and cheer for the group that fights them after the break.
Summer is the season for ghost stories in Japan, and at the end of August we sent one of our reporters to try out the terrifying haunted house from the horror masters and game fans at Obaken. Amazing as that six-room production is, Obaken has since expanded its scale to something even bigger: Zombie Camp, a two-day excursion that combines the majesty of the great outdoors with the threat of rampaging zombies!
Here’s something to make “Not Sure if…” Fry’s head explode out of sheer confusion. It looks like there may or may not be a zombie epidemic spreading throughout Tokyo which affects only young, college-aged girls.
…Or it could be a strange, niche soft porn site for lonely Japanese lovers of horror and very cute girls.
Like millions of people around the world, I am a member of a sports club. For a small monthly fee, I can take classes, run, cycle, lift weights, swim lengths in the pool or just relax in the sauna. And just like so many others, I hardly ever go.
I have every intention of exercising, I really do, but getting off my arse and carrying myself to the gym can be harder than the exercise itself sometimes. If only I had something to motivate me, something that wouldn’t take “I’ll go tomorrow” for an answer. Something like, oh I don’t know, a herd of ravenous zombies sprinting after me…
As we announced earlier this month, Japan will get its own version of Left 4 Dead at four selected arcades beginning this weekend. However, the Square Enix and Valve collaboration will look a little different once Japanese gamers deposit their 100 yen coins into the machine. Although Left 4 Dead’s zombie apocalypse is still set in the United States, the undead exterminating main characters take the far less intimidating form of a schoolgirl, university student, bartender, and tour guide.
If you were in Yoyogi Park this past Saturday, you may have been slightly unnerved to see the apparent signs of an impending zombie apocalypse. On Saturday May 16, I, your intrepid RocketNews24 reporter, rose up as one of the walking dead and joined other brain-hungry biters in a sunny shamble through the park.
Gore-splattered heads up, zombie fans! Left 4 Dead Seizonshatachi, or “survivors”, arcade magnate Taito’s riff on Valve and Turtle Rock Studios’ hugely popular first-person zombie shooter, is not only ready to tear through the population of Japan but is about to be trialled at four selected arcades beginning May 23.
Details and videos after the jump.
Starting this April in arcades everywhere, darlings of the idol scene, AKB48 will be making their debut in an arcade game. Unfortunately for fans they are also zombified and require you to take aim and unload on them with your handgun.
It’s called Sailor Zombie AKB48 Edition, and as the name suggests it features members of the pop squad dressed up in adorable sailor outfits. Also as the name implies, the cuties are reanimated corpses who desire to eat your brains.
Since its inception in Canada in 2003, Zombie Walk for Kids has spread to England, Australia, Mexico, and, at last, Japan. And, like a proper infection, it’s really catching!
Though still focused mostly on major cities like Sapporo, Osaka, and Tokyo, the events are growing and gaining lots of shuffling, moaning followers. Just a few days ago, one was held at the Arakawa Amusement Park in Tokyo–and we have the horrifyingly adorable photos of zombie kids to prove it!
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