Basic Trope: In Japanese or Japan-influenced media, anything interesting happens only in Tokyo.
- Straight: The Monster of the Week only ever attacks Tokyo.
- Exaggerated: Tokyo is regularly gangbanged by aliens, demons, zombies, alien-demon-zombies, and so much else.
- Downplayed: Interesting stuff happens in other places, but the most interesting stuff (or most of the interesting stuff) happens in Tokyo.
- Justified:
- Tokyo is the monsters' target of choice.
- The Japanese government plays a major role in the work's setting (Tokyo being the nation's capital).
- The Japanese government created the monsters or allowed them easy access into Japan.
- The work is about a specific locale or event within Tokyo.
- Tokyo is the international travel-hub for getting anywhere in Japan.
- Inverted: While the rest of the world is busy holding back Alien Invasion, people go on with their lives in Tokyo.
- Subverted: The Alien Invasion fleet descends from orbit and is moving toward Tokyo, but they attack Kyoto instead.
- Tokyo is attacked, but it's only one in a string of many attacks elsewhere in the world.
- Double Subverted: ...and after they're done with Kyoto, they continue moving toward Tokyo.
- Parodied: Tokyo Cataclysm Management, a government body that schedules disasters of the week.
- Zig Zagged: Aliens invade Tokyo. Alice and Bob knew in advance that earth was going to be invaded and where else than Tokyo. So they try to stop the invasion before they can even land. But it turns out that at the same time many other cities are being invaded as well, confusing Alice and Bob. In the end, the main invasion was planned for Tokyo. But thanks to Alice and Bob, Tokyo is the only city able to hold them off, due to the Imported Alien Phlebotinum that the Japanese Government was hiding underneath the city. New aliens show up and they tell the heroes who saved Tokyo that the Phlebotinum is literally a weirdness magnet for this alien race but it's too late for them to destroy it now. In the meantime, world leaders flee to Tokyo and declare it the new capital of the Free World as Tokyo is the only city not in Alien hands and under weekly attack. After a few weeks Alice and Bob discover London has managed to free itself from Alien control by using an even bigger weapon made out of Imported Alien Phlebotinum it was hiding and it is quickly decided that since London now has a better defense, it now is centre of the Free world. After saving Britain from the Aliens and non-Japanese cities being the only places where the main action takes place, the aliens finally manage to get hold of the London weapon which could destroy planet earth in one big swoop. Bob and Alice then discuss that they should go immediately go back to Tokyo even though they're told not and that the aliens would more likely attack recently freed Washington D.C.
- Averted:
- Tokyo is not the setting.
- Each Monster of the Week attacks a different city.
- Enforced:
- The production company is based in Tokyo, and due to their familiarity with the city and/or not wanting to risk offending residents of other cities, always set their "when aliens/monsters attack" works in Tokyo.
- The writers know that Tokyo is the only Japanese location that most non-Japanese people will have any familiarity with, and so consistently set their stories there to appeal to the foreign market.
- Lampshaded:JSDF Private: "Ye gods! They again? Do they think Tokyo is the most important city in the world or something?"
- Invoked:
- The Japanese government hides Imported Alien Phlebotinum underneath Tokyo.
- The Monster of the Week is seeking out human settlements, and Tokyo's metropolitan area does contain about a third of the entire population of Japan.
- Exploited:
- After hearing all the news about Alien Invasion in Tokyo, Soldado de Fortuna Bob moved to Tokyo in the hope of making some money.
- After hearing all the fascinating news about Alien Invasion in Tokyo, a cult of alien-worshiping nuts sets up their HQ in Tokyo. They have a plan for the mass ascension of humanity (or at least their members).
- Defied:
- Orochi rises from his slumber, and completely skims over Tokyo, instead going after New York, and Rio de Janeiro, and Moscow, and New Delhi, and Shanghai, and London, and Jerusalem, and Paris, and Sydney, and Johannesburg, and Berlin, and Rome, and Madrid, and Seoul, and Toronto, and Cairo, and Istanbul, and Jakarta, and the South Pole.
- Japan's leaders decide not to hide the Phlebotinum under Tokyo knowing it will attract aliens.
- Discussed: "What are these aliens doing here? I thought excitement only ever took place in Tokyo."
- Conversed: "Do the monsters on this show only ever want to attack Tokyo? It sure seems that way to me!"
- Deconstructed:
- The Tokyo Fireball happened, the story is now about the people of Tokyo bitterly fighting for survival, depicted realistically.
- Due to monsters attacking Tokyo with alarming frequency, all of its citizens move away and the city falls into economic and social decline.
- World-shattering events that are set to determine the fate of humanity occur in Tokyo, but all of the other countries note that it's not fair that the fate of all humanity rests on the shoulders of the inhabitants of one city that doesn't adequately represent all of the people of the world.
- Reconstructed: The survivors are powered by whatever Imported Alien Phlebotinum destroyed Tokyo. Let the Adventures begin!
- Played For Laughs: The Fighting Clown monsters attack Tokyo by Super-Cute Superpowers, which cause everyone in Tokyo turns into Moe Kawaiiko, the Japanese government is OUTRAGEOUS!!
- Plotted A Good Waste: The rest of Japan is fucking fuming at being swept aside like nothing, with the only person who's both not from Kanto and actually known in Japan being Flash Wakamono. A massive alliance is formed, with every region banding up to put Tokyo in its place (suggested by Tohoku Toji, led by Flash), having a gigantic numbers advantage even if Tokyo's in complete control of Japan.
Back to Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe. Don't forget to send us genuine alien/demon/zombie souvenirs.
