In Japan, seats on highway buses and Shinkansen bullet trains are adjustable so you can recline them, which makes your journey more comfortable. As a courtesy, it's considered good manners to ask permission from the passenger behind you when doing so.

Here's a hand-drawn animated short created by テコまる Tecomaru (@tecomaIupepepe) on the theme of reclining a highway bus seat.

The animation begins simply enough. A man riding a highway bus turns around to ask the passenger behind him if he may recline his seat.

In Japanese, the transitive verb phrase "to recline a seat" is イスを倒す isu wo taosu, so in this context, people would normally interpret his question this way:

But when he gets permission from the passenger sitting behind him, it becomes clear that he was using another meaning of the verb 倒す taosu, which is "to defeat." He says:

The man and the chair engage in an epic battle reminiscent of a certain famous fighting video game.

Since the chair isn't a living thing by nature, it would seem that the man has an overwhelming advantage.

But this chair was a formidable foe, defending itself and even strangling the contender with its seatbelt!

The fight comes to a sudden conclusion when the conductor intervenes, showing some impressive moves of his own. In the "defeat screen" at the end of the animated short, he tells the would-be "seat fighter":

Tekomaru's hilarious animated short made many people smile, eliciting comments such as:

Combat in many fighting games takes place in arenas but it might be interesting to use a familiar place like a highway bus for a change. Some of those who saw the animated short may now wish such a game existed...