OneChanbara
OneChanbara is a series of third-person hack-and-slash games developed by Tamsoft, originally appearing as part of a budget game line released only in Japan and, yes, Europe. The games involve a team of sisters, Aya and Saki, who are among the few survivors of a zombie outbreak. Complicating matters, both sisters suffer from a curse known as "Baneful Blood", which drives them crazy when they come in contact with the zombies' blood. They have vowed to use everything in their power to drive back the zombies so that they can once again live in peace.
Two games from the series have been released in the United States: Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad (for Xbox 360) and Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers (for the Wii). There's also a live-action movie based on the game series.
A new game called Onechanbara Z: Kagura was released on 1/19/2012, in Japan for Xbox 360. Instead of Aya and Saki in this game, we have Kagura and Saaya: a pair of vampire sisters.
Tropes used in OneChanbara include:
- Action Commands: Onechanbara Z: Kagura uses this for finishers and a new system called blood recovery. Blood recovery is when you can come back from dying by drawing in your own blood. This will make you very powerful, but the draw back is that you are more susceptible to damage
- Action Girl: Every female character!
- And Your Reward Is Clothes
- Badass Adorable: Saki.
- Badass Biker: Ada.
- Badass Long Hair: Saki, Ada and Misery.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted.
- Bittersweet Ending: Happens in almost every game in the series.
- Onechanbara 2 ends up with Eva being killed and EATEN by Reiko which makes a Face Heel Turn.
- In Bikini Samurai Squad Himiko is killed, but Annna's brother David dies and it is hinted that Saki may lose control over herself in future.
- Chainsaw Good: Saaya.
- Cute Bruiser: Saki.
- Deadly Upgrade: The "Baneful Blood" curse induces a rage-like state when they come in contact with zombie blood. It greatly increases their strength and agility, but slowly burns away at their life force until they die. Under certain conditions, a second, more powerful rage state can be induced.
- Defeat Means Playable: In Bikini Zombie Slayers, you have to win the end boss battles against Reiko and Misery (i.e. complete Story Mode as Aya and Saki, respectively) to unlock them as playable characters.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: David.
- Dual-Wielding: Aya and Kagura's twin swords and Reiko and Anna's Sword and Gun combo.
- Essence Drop
- Expy: In Bikini Samurai Squad there are zombies that look nearly like Hugo Andore
- Face Heel Turn: Reiko in Zombie Hunters 2.
- Five-Man Band: An all-female team formed and disbanded in Onechanbara Special.
- The Hero: Aya
- The Lancer: Misery
- The Smart Guy: Reiko
- The Big Guy: Saki
- The Chick: Annna
- Fluffy Fashion Feathers: Aya's outfit has the bikini and feather boa. Kagura's outfit is very similar.
- Fur Bikini: Since feather-trimmed ones count.
- Gratuitous English: Kagura sure loves some Engrish.
- Guns Akimbo: Annna
- Heel Face Turn: Saki
- High-Pressure Blood
- Joshikousei: Saki
- Karmic Death: Eva
- Katanas Are Just Better: Aya's weapon of choice.
- Multi Mook Melee: Survival Mode.
- My Nayme Is: Annna.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Kagura and Saaya seem to do perfect fighting in the sunlight. The trailers explain they're Dhampyr born from a union of a vampire and women who had Baneful Blood.
- Also a case of Our Zombies Are Different - Reiko in her story arc within Bikini Zombie Slayers mentions that most zombies encountered during the outbreaks are in fact not former humans (although contact with zombie bodily fluids can still cause zombification) but made of the very stuff of Earth itself, leading her to wonder if the zombie crisis is merely nature's revenge against the greed of humans.
- Portmantitle: The title, 'Onechanbara', is a portmanteau of 'onē-chan', an affectionate Japanese term of address for an older sister or a young woman, and 'chanbara', a word referring to the genre of samurai films, particularly the classic ones (much like Wild West films over here in the West). [1]
- Psycho for Hire: Reiko and Misery.
- Sexy Packaging
- Sexy Walk: Aya especially.
- Sibling Team: Aya and Saki.
- Stripperiffic:Most of the female characters, but mainly Aya.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Kagura & Saaya to Aya & Saki; but more so Kagura because she wears an outfit similar to Aya and carries twins swords. Though Kagura seems to have a cockier attitude compared to Aya going by the first trailer.
- Swipe Your Blade Off: A necessary tactic, as blood accumulates on your weapons quickly as you slice through the zombie hordes, and getting too much blood on it will cause them to get stuck.
- Sword and Gun: Reiko can switch between a regular sword and either a shotgun or SMG.
- Time Abyss: Himiko is 300 years old human.
- Vampires Are Rich: The main villains look like their of nobility in Onechanbara Z: Kagura.
- Virtual Paper Doll: Bikini Samurai Squad allows you to customize the appearance of your characters.
- Whip Sword: Eva's weapon which is later used by Misery. Kagura uses a rope dart-like variant consisting of two knives with long ribbons tied to the handles.
- Zettai Ryouiki
- Zombie Apocalypse
- ↑ Note that for the pun to be retained in romanization, one has to use modified Hepburn (or another romanization scheme like Nihonsiki - indeed, since these romanization schemes tend to drop the hyphen used for honorifics like 'Onē-chan', this might be better anyway) rather than traditional Hepburn, which romanizes the kana ん / ン as 'm' rather than 'n' before an m, b or p (since that's closer to how it's actual pronounced).