Bly Tanaka

> "All this a full day before the nuke ever leaves the launchpad. Easy peasy Japanesey."
>
> Bly Tanaka, *Army of the Dead*

**Bly Tanaka** was an infamous billionaire who possessed all four of Hans Wagner's legendary Ring Cycle safes prior to the zombie outbreak in Las Vegas. Three of these safes were targeted by an internationally wanted gang of thieves, while the fourth was later used by the wealthy casino owner in a ploy for greater power.

Tanaka was portrayed by Hiroyuki Sanada in *Army of the Dead* and appeared in a photograph as the character in *Army of Thieves*.

## Biography

### Las Vegas outbreak

Bly was a billionaire casino owner with casinos in Las Vegas and St. Moritz, if not other locations as well. He also owned the four masterpiece safes of Hans Wagner, designed based on Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle. Of these safes, the Götterdämmerung was kept in his Vegas casino, the Siegfried was kept in his St. Moritz casino, the Valkyrie was kept in NPIB Prague, and the Rheingold was kept in a credit union in Paris. When the Las Vegas outbreak quarantined the Götterdämmerung, Bly decided to move the other three safes to Geneva where they were to be decommissioned. Catching wind of this plan and using their final window available, Gwendoline's heist crew set their sights on the three European safes and engaged in a series of heists across Europe. All three safes were successfully cracked, with some amount of the contents taken from each. $200 million was left behind in the Götterdämmerung when Vegas was walled off, and Bly's insurance covered the loss.

### Götterdämmerung heist

When he heard the government planned to nuke Las Vegas, Bly supposedly realized that he had one last chance to retrieve his money, and so set out to hire veteran zombie hunter Scott Ward to lead a team into the city. In truth, Bly's motives involved collecting a living alpha head in association with the United States government. Bly was meeting with a few high-ranking government officials when Scott called to agree to the mission.

The next day Bly met with the team at a warehouse to go over the heist plan. Unbeknownst to him, one member of the team had acted as the safecracker who had broken into and stolen from the other three Wagner safes that Tanaka owned. The team headed to Vegas while Bly waited for their results. Watching the nuclear blast on WBC World News later, having heard nothing of the mission, he realized that it must have ended in failure.

## Abilities

* **Business acuity**: As a self-made billionaire, Tanaka had great skill in developing, maintaining, and progessing his business.
	+ **Leadership**: Tanaka would have needed to employ some level of leadership during his business practices, though many believed his methods to be less than savory.
* **Social manipulation**: Tanaka manipulated Scott Ward and the rest of the Götterdämmerung heist team into smuggling Martin into the city to fetch an alpha head, which was many times more valuable than the contents of the Götterdämmerung. Due to the ethical concerns some members might have had with the capability to create more zombies, this information was hidden, with the heist team ultimately treated as a sacrifice for the true goal.
* **Plan-making**: Tanaka developed the deeper plan within the Götterdämmerung heist of installing Martin on the team for the sake of accomplishing his true goal.

## Equipment

* **Ghost**: Tanaka's personal vehicle was a Rolls-Royce Ghost.

## Trivia

* For his own safety, Tanaka doesn't know the combination to the Götterdämmerung, nor the nature of the deterrents that protect it.

## References

Shay Hatten (writer) & Matthias Schweighöfer (director) (October 29, 2021). *Army of Thieves*.
Shay Hatten, Zack Snyder, Joby Harold (writers) & Zack Snyder (director) (May 14, 2021). *Army of the Dead*.
Peter Aperlo (author) (June 1, 2021). *Army of the Dead: A Film by Zack Snyder: The Making of the Film*. Great Britain: Titan Books.

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