I Am a Hero
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I Am a Hero

Alternative Titles

Japanese: アイアムアヒーロー
English: I Am a Hero
More titles

Information

Type: Manga
Volumes: 22
Chapters: 264
Status: Finished
Published: Apr 20, 2009 to Feb 27, 2017
Genres: Award Winning Award Winning, Drama Drama, Horror Horror
Themes: Gore Gore, Psychological Psychological
Demographic: Seinen Seinen
Serialization: Big Comic Spirits
Authors: Hanazawa, Kengo (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.641 (scored by 3389733,897 users)
1 indicates a weighted score.
Ranked: #20982
2 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity: #134
Members: 111,316
Favorites: 2,511

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Resources

Reviews

Filtered Results: 38 / 60
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Preliminary Spoiler
Mar 17, 2018
I didn't really like this. This is not a manga for people like me, who value meaning, ambition, purpose, ya get it. However, even I can recognize that this manga is amazing. It is the scariest manga that I've ever read, it beats out the "disturbing" scary of Junjo Ito, the "gory" scary of your stereotypical apocalypse survival horror manga, and the "existential crisis" scary of psychological horror, it comes close to jumpscare shock. Why?

Because everything is so goddam pointless. I believe "I Am a Hero" is actually one of the most realistic tellings of an survival horror story. The realism is precisely what gets ...
Dec 28, 2013
Preliminary (Unknown/264 chp)
There's a reason why the summary is so vague. And how it explicitly does not state it's a manga about zombies; what makes this manga exceptionally creepy is how it portrays a zombie outbreak. There's no big TV announcement that goes "MAN-EATING ZOMBIES ON THE LOOSE STAY HOME AND LOCK ALL YOUR DOORS" by some frantic news reporter. There are just little hints here and there, and in the beginning it wouldn't even cross your mind this is gonna be a manga about zombies. The true horror starts when this realisation suddenly hits you.

But oh well, since everybody is just dropping the zombie bomb in ...
May 27, 2017
I'm gonna let this would-be masterpiece pop my first review cherry.

TL;DR: Imagine yourself chewing a fresh piece of gum. First couple of chews were all hard and boring. But as its flavour starts to release, it motivates you to want more. This continues to build up and up. Until when you've finally chewed and moisturised it enough to have that pleasant squishy feel with its flavour at its prime. Absolute Bliss. But wait. Right now, you are getting told to stop and spit it out. A mix of disappointment, dissatisfaction and perhaps anger, right? That's my experience with I Am a Hero. Dissatisfaction and disappointment ...
Jan 13, 2011
Preliminary (34/264 chp)
I was avoiding this manga because the summary looked stupid and really boring but I was wrong !!

Its a great horror manga , and a great zombie manga.Some people tell me its like HOTD but its wrong the manga is kind of slow but with that its more realistic.Don t give up the manga just because the zombies ( well i think they are zombies ) aren t appearing in the first chapters.

Story 8
I give the manga a 8 for the story its slow but pretty interesting and the author first explains the life of the main character before the monsters get in.There are only ...
Apr 29, 2012
Preliminary (54/264 chp)
I Am a Hero is not your average zombie manga - it's best compared to other horror zombie books/movies that have become so popular recently.
I am a Hero focuses on your everyday character, no one special, as is common with most zombie stories. A zombie outbreak occurs in Japan, and he tries his best to survive.
What sets this apart from regular zombie manga is that:
1. This manga manages to terrify you even though it's still (it scared me more than some zombie movies) and
2. The emotions that the artist conveys are great.
The artist draws the zombies in a very gory fashion - if you don't ...
Sep 29, 2013
Preliminary (143/264 chp)
I'm not zombie/horror connoisseur by any means nowadays because it tends to be all the same, where there is a break out of a virus and every one fights to survival. But I Am a Hero is different. It takes a 180 approach to the zombie genre and turns in up on it's head. Not to be specific, when the outbreak begins, the reaction of from Japan is much more realistic, not your atypical Marshall law panic as seen in many movies, but a more subtle and unusual response to the sudden pandemic.

The main character stars, Hideo suzuki, a socially awkward and average unfulfilled mangaka ...
Apr 9, 2011
Preliminary (34/264 chp)
Note: I included one spoiler, because it actually relates to one of my points in the review. I gave a fair warning, so don't complain if you spoil things for yourself! You've been warned! ;)

Currently at the time of this review, I've read 34 chapters of I am a Hero (only 35 -I believe- are currently released), so this is more of a review of the first "segment", if you will, rather than the entire series.

Story - 7 (good)
In a nutshell: We have our quirky, 35-year old, perhaps mentally unstable?, main character, Hideo trying to survive a zombie outbreak. It's as simple as that! I ...
Apr 26, 2012
Preliminary (93/264 chp)
I love a good post-apocalyptic manga... I've read the 8 volumes released so far and the mangaka is doing great capitalizing on all the potential of the story. It's a thrilling read so far.

Hideo, a manga illustrator struggling with his job and maintaining a relationship with his girlfriend, finds himself trying to stay alive in world where a virus is spreading like rapidfire and people are rabid and biting each other. A lot of the scenes were actually incredibly disturbing like the scene where all the manga illustrators go crazy. Not to mention, Hideo isn't all right in the head ...
Aug 7, 2015
Preliminary (Unknown/264 chp)
This review will be based upon the the first 191 chapters and might change according to how the story turns out.

Story: The story is the typical zombie apocalypse story but compared to other manga or movies it starts some days before the apocalypse. It follows the life of a mangaka during his daily routine. Its a boring normal life but seeing it through the eyes of Suzuki Hideo will make it interesting and fun. It will keep you focused even if its not what you started the manga for. After some chapters the apocalypse breaks out and you follow this character to his journey for ...
Nov 25, 2012
Preliminary (117/264 chp)
although the pace is often criticised in I Am A Hero, especially in the first and second volume, i feel like was a valuable section to build the characters personality. the build up was very necessary. the main character is likeable yet very uncool.

The zombies i feel are the best zombies i have 'encountered'. being able to move at a range of paces and have slight personalities carried on from the moment of their death. This makes them that much scarier than ordinary zombies.

the best thing about this manga is the art style- the drawing is immense, the faces are not drawn exactly like a ...
Jan 20, 2025
I just finished reading the "I Am a Hero" manga omnibuses, and it was quite the journey! It took me a while to collect all the volumes since the series is out of print, making it a bit of a challenge to find them. However, I can confidently say that "I Am a Hero" has become one of my favorite mangas.

The story follows Hideo Suzuki, a man grappling with schizophrenia as he navigates life in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. It's a fascinating and unique perspective that adds depth to the narrative.

To those who criticize the ending, I respectfully disagree. I found ...
Sep 30, 2021
"yajima help me" -a man running from reality

this manga is good, the fact it having a rating 7 it deserve more than this. It's hard for an individual to understand each other so they either stand beside them, behind them, or the opposite of them.
Now i'm going in to some spicy matter so go look back if you haven't read it yet.


right ok
its probably the ending isn't it people expect more than this after all of that bullshit happening, just like in the manga it called out " suspension bridge effect " human expect a reward after a hardship.
THE ENDING WASN'T BAD ITS JUST DOESN'T ...
Oct 28, 2012
Preliminary (105/264 chp)
I am a hero is, at first glance, pretty mediocre. In the first few chapters, we get to know mediocre characters, who lead mediocre lives, have mediocre problems. Our "hero" is an (almost) average guy with some mental problems, and anyone can easily see that he is not a hero. He isn't even supposed to be a main character. Main characters are dependable, good-willed and most of all, they have determination. This may not be the case for every genre, but in the end, we all want our main characters to be role models, right?

Back to our hero. After he and his mediocre girlfriend get ...
Sep 6, 2016
Preliminary (Unknown/264 chp)
Alright. This is my favourite manga of all time so far closely beating out Molester Man. So it starts off with this Mangaka, Hideo who has his own delusions and hallucinations and problems with his GF. For the starting first 10 chapters i would say? It goes very slowly while fleshing out Hideo and his problems and TBH i enjoyed it a lot because it felt real to me but i can see why a lot of people dropped the manga before it got to the juicy part. Hideo then thinks all the zombie problems are part of his delusions so he keeps trying to ...
Dec 15, 2020
*NO Spoilers Review"

tl;dr: This is the BEST zombie manga ever written so if you enjoy the zombie subgenre I would recommend this. However, the manga has 3-4 problems with it that prevent it from being amazing. So it may be the best zombie manga, but in general it is a good (not superb) manga.

If you are a fan of The Walking Dead and Tokyo Ghoul I would recommend this manga. It starts off as a traditional Hollywood zombie movie, but about half-way becomes very animesque.

The Good:

The manga follows traditional zombie tropes, which for zombie movie lovers is great. Happily it also ...
Jul 14, 2013
Preliminary (Unknown/264 chp)
This is a great manga and it shows a lot of... How should I say .. Spunk!
Usually in other story's the lead character is automatically a natural born
Leader are a skilled fight ect ect, but the hideo is non of those shock makes
Him more interesting. He can be weird sim thumbs but that make it better and funnier
and hell he's no whimp when he has that beretta 687 in his hands. This is more
Of a reality manga not something that would have a kid turning flips with a katana in his/her hands
I think they should turn this into an anime or movie
Sep 30, 2020
I started I am a Hero not knowing much about it, except that it has excellent art and it's a zombie apocalypse story. And that is pretty much what this manga is. Overall, the story is solid, however it is deeply corrupted by a dissatisfying ending that resolves almost none of mysteries that the reader might want solved. Despite this, strong characters and amazing art make it worth a read.

Story: 3/10
As someone who loves fulfilling and resolved conclusions, this manga was quite disappointing to me. There is a subplot with one or two chapters about the zombie invasion in Spain that was very interesting, but ...
May 11, 2020
(I have not read the side stories that Hanazawa made) I am a Hero is slightly more interesting then good.

The reader can make assumptions of what the ZQN really are and i found that quite fun and interesting. Most of the characters are well done and feel real and its interesting to see what the characters decide to do in the situations they are put in.

The art style is great and Hanazawa made the ZQN's look terrifying and the characters are extremely realistic so you are more immersed. I love gore filled manga and I am hero has a lot of gore so ...
Mar 4, 2021
The story was good at first, it had some unexpected aspects to it. I was expecting a regular zombie apocalypse survival story but there were some bizarro aspects to it.

Sadly, I think the terrible 30-ish last chapters dropped this from an overall 8-9 to a 7 for me. The last few chapters felt very rushed and nonsensical and the way the author just threw away Hiromi sucked.

The best thing about the manga was definitely the characters. Hideo was a pretty complex character and in the end he had grown in some way.

Overall I would say it's one of the best zombie mangas if that's ...
Aug 10, 2021
If you have been reading reviews, then you have no doubt read plenty of people complain about the ending. As someone that is very sensitive to a bad ending ruining an entire series, I must tell you it's truly not a bad ending, it's just not a super anime shounen ending of the main character saving the world through the power of friendship.

When I finished the manga, the ending stuck with me for days while I pondered through the deeper meanings of theanga as a whole and started contemplating the meanings of collectivist attitude, self- isolation from society, the way one may block off ...