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Bly Tanaka is the overarching antagonist of both Army of the Dead and Army of Thieves. He's a corrupt billionaire who asks the hero, Scott Ward, and his team of mercenaries (including Martin) to retrieve his casino's money which is located within Las Vegas, the city having been overrun with zombies. However, Tanaka had another goal in mind.

He was portrayed by Hiroyuki Sanada, who also played Shingen Yashida in The Wolverine, Takeshi Nagase in The Railway Man, Akihiko in Avengers: Endgame, Musashi/Sato (aka Dolores Abernathy) in Westworld and Kenji in Rush Hour 3.

Biography[]

Army of Thieves[]

In this prequel to Army of the Dead, Bly Tanaka is mentioned as the owner of Hans Wagner's 4 legendary vaults.

Army of the Dead[]

Bly Tanaka founded his casino in Las Vegas, and became very wealthy thanks to his casino as well as his criminal connections. He also used lethal traps to protect his casino's vault from any intrusion. While his operation was successful, one day Las Vegas fell to a zombie outbreak, and the city was due to be blasted with an atomic bomb in order to exterminate the remaining zombies.

This angered Tanaka, who asked Scott Ward, a mercenary who helped fend off the zombies, to assemble a team composed of the finest gunmen Ward knew, as well as an expert cracker, and retrieve the vault's money, promising Ward and his team at least $50 millions if he manages to do so. After much hesitation, Ward accepted his offer, and he along with a dozen of mercenaries entered the hellhole that Las Vegas had become. He also sent his associate, Martin, to assist the team and oversee the heist's progression.

However, the heist was merely a cover to hide Tanaka's true goal: to retrieve an Alpha zombie's sample so that they could sell it to the US government in exchange for big money, making him wealthier than he could ever conceive. While Martin managed to cut off the zombie queen's head, he later lost it and was then mauled to death by Valentine, a tiger that fell ill to the virus and turned into a zombie.

Thus, not only Tanaka didn't manage to get an Alpha zombie's sample, but he also failed to retrieve any money, as all but one of the robbers died, and the remaining one, Vanderohe, just stole several millions from the vault and then fled to Mexico City (although he was infected by Zeus and presumably turned into a zombie soon after), leaving him possibly bankrupted.

It is unknown what happened to Tanaka afterward, although he likely didn't face justice for his corruption and treachery.

Personality[]

Tanaka is an extravagant, corrupt, calculating, and above all greedy mobster only interested in money, who devised a plan involving the betrayal of the team and selling an Alpha zombie's sample to the US military so they can recreate and weaponize zombies, regardless of its consequences. Despite his treachery, he was still more friendly than Martin, enjoying puns with the heist's crew.

Trivia[]

  • Tanaka is one of the only two main cast to not die or be infected.
  • Despite being the overarching antagonist and having only a limited amount of screen-time, Tanaka served as the bigger bad because he was the one who sent Scott and his team to do his job.

Navigation[]

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