I Am a Hero

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This manga could easily have won a 10 from me, if it weren't for the ending.
I still give it a 9, because I rarely read a manga that interesting. If you forget about the end, it truly is a masterpiece.
Lovely characters that you get attached to, stunning art, a very interesting plot with a lot of mystery... This sure was a ride, and a good one. It was exactly what I was looking for.

In overall, this is a very solid manga. But I understand this might not be the opinion of everyone, hence the users' score.

Go read it if you haven't already and make your ... own opinion on the matter. It really is worth the time.

First off, this is one of my absolute favorite reads of the zombie genre, so obviously I will be biased. Secondly, please bear with this reviewer's inadequate paragraph structure as I am writing this on my mobile.

Yes the story is slow and whatnot, but in my opinion, this is one of its greatest assets. It helps build tension and suspense, not to mention the reader will become completely absorbed in the plot development. Therefore, if you are the type to make judgement on a manga within the first 10 or so chapters, then you may want to stick with it a little longer before ... you draw your conclusion.

The character development is impeccable in my eyes. We are able to see see the changes in the protagonist and other characters from a simple mangaka, to the hero we all believe ourselves to be. Just in a more realistic fashion. Frankly, the fact that he's a mangaka makes the character and plot development all the more realistic in my opinion with the tension in the air.

To add to the realism, the artwork gives the reader a more fearful sense thanks to the gory disposition . The characters are a little more simple with the grotesque zombies drawn in a more detailed fashion.

All in all, you may wonder what's going on all of a sudden, but as others will tell you, every chapter is imperative to the story development so try to bear with it! In conclusion, I hope you guys will enjoy this manga as much as I do, happy reading all.

As I am writing this I have read 141 chapters of the manga and I do not plan to continue any longer. This manga I enjoyed very thoroughly throughout the first few arcs, I loved the main cast of characters, and I loved the way this story handled the zombie outbreak and all the suspenseful moments. So you might be wondering, why are you dropping it even thought you are rating it a 7?

After a hundred chapters of building up the story, developing the characters, exploring ideas, and drawing you into the story, It introduces a side plot with a whole new cast of characters ... that you don't have any connection to. And that's totally fine! Introducing different characters in a different part of japan, but experiencing the same zombie outbreak is a great idea and could make the story feel more real. However, the story introduced this side plot with these other character and focused on them for a good 20 chapters, which led me to loose interest. There was little to no correlation between these two casts of characters and It didn't seem that they were going to all combine together any time soon. Building up a story and having you fall in love with it's characters only to abandon them for 20 chapters even if it will all come together eventually is not a pro gamer move and I just no longer felt the need to read those next 120 chapters.

I've had many strong feelings regarding I Am A Hero, ever since I picked up the first volume on a whim after seeing it for years, being recommended constantly and having it haunt library shelves while passing by. Those feelings lasted to the very end of the series, and those who have read any of I Am a Hero know how fascinating and troublesome having strong feelings about this series is. But after having some time to reflect on everything, and to think about the journey that it led myself as a reader and its characters down, I'm ultimately happy with everything, in a way ... that I can say it's a remarkable piece of literature that stands out against all its peers with a deft, brutal regard that few other authors and artists are able to capture.

To begin, and put most simply, I Am A Hero is a zombie thriller. With years of the zombie trends of the west behind it, this series is a fusion of classic zombie tropes, unique and new views on what zombie fiction can be, and harnesses the best the genre has to offer while blending it with familiar manga tropes and unique Japanese sensibilities to help make a story that's truly unique amongst its contemporaries.

I Am A Hero spends the majority of its first arc with no zombies. No threats. Not much of anything really. It's all about contextualizing what normality is for our protagonist, Hideo Suzuki. He is troubled, he's a huge otaku, and he's a deeply idyllic if not a bit self-conscious soul. We learn about him, his weird mood swings and tendencies of seeing hallucinations with some sort of mental health problem similar to dissociative identity disorder, and learn about all his various relationships with his romantic partner, co-workers, and the various parts of the world that surround him in the midst of the sprawl of Tokyo.

It seems all simple, and plain, almost boring. This is intentional, a very slow burn that leads into the inevitable, unavoidable conflagration of any good zombie thriller: that literally everything is about to crumble around Suzuki. In a land of moral niceties, and politeness, and law abiding, the fabric of everything that people know as correct is going to be stripped away, and the series is going to test everyone's acceptance of the new reality versus their desire to hold on to what made Japan unique before the apocalypse. Despite this happening in a million other zombie stories throughout media, something about the setting of Japan, and the odd character dynamics of the various people the story introduces brings a new context to things that makes sure the story feels fresh.

I also would be remiss to mention the female lead Hiromi. She really brings a lot of heart and soul into the series. And while it's best to let her express herself in the narrative through her own actions and statements, the level of emotional attachment and passion her presence injects into the series is unparalleled. Despite Suzuki holding own as the central protagonist, many may argue that Hiromi is actually the star of the show from beginning to end.

When the zombies hit, I Am A Hero doesn't hold back. If what you're looking for is freaky, high-octane zombie apocalypse storytelling, this series has you covered. Zombies run at full-tilt, upping the danger factor in the scenes of actions. Zombies are also often so mindless and crazed, that they act in ways that are actively bizarre and horrifying. We might be scared to sprint non-stop for 3000 meters, because we know we'll be injured, but a zombie will run the same distance and keep going, even if it's ankles rip at the joints. Zombies also remember their past, and mumble sweet somethings in their bloodlust. There is something just downright creepy about a store-clerk zombie grumbling "ARIGATO GOZAIMASU" with a mouthful of hair and flesh. Moreover, the level of violence and gore is refreshingly beautiful if downright disturbing. Zombies don't care where or how they bite you. Your arm, your leg, sure... Your neck? Your actual face down past the eyebrow? It doesn't matter to them, you're still food, or at very least a vector for infection.

And without going any further into describing both the zombies themselves, and where the narrative takes them, I Am A Hero doesn't rest on its laurels once it gets up to speed. Every time you feel comfortable with the story, the author adds in a new complexity. Zombies will do things you didn't expect, horrific and unexpected scenes of violence will blindside you, characters will act in the most gut-wrenchingly awful ways you can imagine and yet you can perfectly imagine it as logical in the context. And as the narrative develops, it continually evolves, over and over again, until the "new world" created by the apocalypse almost begins to resemble an alien landscape from the humble origins it once came from.

Which is about the time that I need to discuss a crucial thing mention to anyone who has already read the series. No review of I Am A Hero can be complete without it, but people who haven't experienced should skip this part of the review until you have the entire experience under your belt. Skip down a few paragraphs if you want no spoilers, but...

Put simply, the ending is something else.

It's easy to have a lot of strong feelings about the ending of I Am A Hero. For everything that the series and the author were able to construct over their not-insignificant publishing time, it all seems to snap out of place at the finish line. You can barely say it limps across, so much as ekes out a crawl. And after the journey that led here, especially in the final climax with... whatever you want to say happened, in all its epicness, the finale of the series almost seems like a cop-out. I've researched a little into what happened. Apparently there are statements around the time that the author, Hanazawa, was blindsided by a serious death in his family, and it kind of destroyed his artistic output at the worst time possible. This can maybe better contextualize things for some people, at very least.

It's a truly heartbreaking resolution, however, and nobody can blame you if it leaves you with a bitter taste. It can feel cruel and mean to experience, and while there are ways you can rationalize the ending, as many others have before in their criticisms, this ending is truly one of the worst in my recent memory. It's a black mark, and if only it could be repaired, although that's almost certainly never going to happen.

This all beings said, with any criticisms that can be raised from things that should be left unmentioned til the end of this wild tale, I Am A Hero is nevertheless an immaculate read that I've come to cherish. It's a story I've thought about almost daily since I finished it; different scenes, scenarios, and moods evoked in the manga that seem to echo in my mind. This has to speak to something that the manga did far above its peers, dwarfing its competition with ease from beginning leading all the way up to the end.

You'll note that, despite me critiquing a manga, I have nary a mention about the artwork or the dialogue. It's mostly because there isn't much to say when you're looking at something that executes on its fundamentals so well. How many ways can I say that the visuals are so breathtaking that they can actively haunt you? How does one express the raw beauty in loneliness the manga so often captures in its full-page spreads, or single frames that demand your eyes to study it while the story begs you to keep reading? How does one explain the ugly, disgusting reality of the bleak, violent world put to page, one that continually defies your expectations over what visuals you expect to see? What do you even say better than the plain yet contemplative philosophy laid out by the characters themselves? If anything is to be questioned in I Am A Hero, it is certainly not the art or dialogue.

Sure, I Am A Hero has its flaws. It really likes to pander to the otaku identity of the protagonist, leaning very heavily on the fact that many people are expected to relate to him. A lot of the jokes about Suzuki also being a licensed gun-owner in Japan or a polite individual in a polite society, while chuckle-worthy, do start to wear thin as he parrots the same lines a few times every volume. We get it, bro, there are lots of laws about guns in Japan; yes, okay Japan is a very polite, lawful society, but you don't ACTUALLY have to apologize for everything you do or report yourself to police for every crime you commit in a survival situation. The narrative can also go on tangents here and there. I do like how they further contextualize the story on a broader scale, and the tangents are NEVER boring, and always engrossing. But there were a few times where the narrative perused some new, legitimately interesting characters, but left me turning page after page hungry to know what happens to the main cast, frustrated that I wasn't getting any resolution on their condition or safety, like some bizarre, chapters-long cliffhanger.

But for the sheer ingenuity, the desolate beauty, the cruel philosophy, and the bizarre science-fiction that I Am A Hero is able to concoct, I can only come to the conclusion that I Am A Hero is so close to perfect, that the less than stellar parts are still light-years ahead of any other manga or piece of media even closely related to it. I Am A Hero shoots for the moon, and some might say it misses in its attempt, but the journey the manga will take you on still has it on a trajectory that's out of this galaxy, leaving you with the contemplative acceptance that the journey this manga takes you on is far more amazing than any destination it could have reached.

ENDING SPOILERS AHEAD: The ending is not happy ending. Hideo loses his mind and there are a lot of questions left unanswered but I feel like this was a good ending especially for a Manga like 'I am a hero' where there's no real happy points in the story. The bits that give off the happiest vibe are just the bits where they're ignoring everything shitty going on around them. A lot of people are unsatisfied with the ending, they say that Hiromi should have been saved or that Hideo should have simply just killed himself however I say that the ending was probably the ... best ending for a story like this. Hideo losing his mind and being alone really fills you with despair and I think that that fits really well with this story. A happy ending would have been totally off from the rest of the story and I feel like a lot of people don't realize that. I AM A HERO IS NOT A HAPPY MANGA. IF YOU WANT A HAPPY ENDING GO READ A SLICE OF LIFE.

I am a hero is an amazing manga. It follows thirty-five year Hideo Suzuki who constantly feels as if he is being sidelined within his own life, and all he craves is to be the main character, a hero, of just himself.

The story is extremely character driven and personally I think a slow-burn. It doesn't have awesome fights with interesting tactics, it's just a guy who was lucky enough to carry a gun the day the world ended and him figuring out what to do from there. The art isn't sub-par but it certainly isn't amazing either. It never takes away from the story, moreover ... the panelling is one of the best experiences I had while reading and elevates the way you read and take in the world so much. Plot developments are interesting and keep you on your toes throughout the whole read and are paced relatively well barely feeling boring or like you've been stuck dragging on the same story beats over and over. (beside what some people may say about the beginning, that I personally disagree with.)

The characters feel real, human and like they actually exist. I mean the main character is just some loser, it can't get any more real than that. It can switch to other characters views with relative ease and show what's happening within the world and how it's changed the daily life for the remaining survivors. Though sometimes these change of perspectives can be meaningless, they are still very interesting. The horror is also done very well and simply. The horror is basically just the fact you're in a zombie apocalypse and everything is going to shit, thus it feels real. The actual horror elements are there, especially with the typical seinen overuse of weird and bizarre gore but overall it's practically just the realness of it all.

The manga is not without it's faults obviously. I've heard people say things about not liking the art style, though I think that doesn't matter too much, especially when the panelling is so great. I feel like there are many missed opportunities within plot points however. For example Hideo has some form of schizophrenia and it vastly improves the horror aspect in the beginning but it disappears soon after for a large quantity of the manga and I feel as if it could've added some type of physiological horror aspect and given a different interesting, atmosphere. Hideo effectively becomes a kingdom with an entire army by being one of the very few with a gun within this apocalypse, but him going from what he considers a 'side character' to a 'main character' are rarely explored despite him saying so much about what he wishes in the beginning. He could've been someone who goes from a loser to stuck up, entitled but ultimately realizing that's not going to help him survive, or maybe he'd never realize. Nonetheless, I just wish more was done with those plot points a bit.

This review is spoiler-free.

I Am a Hero is a story that I picked up a few years ago and couldn't stop reading, until the last published chapter of that time. Then I got bored of waiting and just pushed it off for a while. Usually happens with anything ongoing that I read.

It's February, 2020, years later, that I somehow came across this manga on MAL and to my surprise saw that it was completed. I decided to refresh my memory by reading it once again from the beginning and now, here I am, both relieved and disappointed that I finally reached the end of ... the journey.

If I could summarize my whole experience in one sentence it would be: It's an amazing story, with great characters, wonderful ideas and... a lackluster ending.
Now don't get me wrong. I understand (I think) what the author was going for, but even for realistic take of things, it still left an enormous amount of unanswered questions. It feels as if the series got dropped or the author got bored and just dumped a full-fledged piece of art to the trashcan. The last few chapters would've been absolutely perfect if there was like a volume in between them with the rest of the story.

The art started a little wonky but soon improved, the characters were given a personality that bloomed if they weren't killed off quickly (especially the main character, Suzuki Hideo) and there wasn't a case of people acting out unreasonably under a zombie story setting.

Still, many missed opportunities, hinted encounters that never actually happened, unfulfilling end to a long journey but an awesome read worth your time nonetheless. I sincerely hope that the author throws us a bone sometime in the future and gives us the answers that we deserve. I would've given this series a 9 if not for the flaws mentioned above (more like, flaw in singular).

If you're into stories with zombies, then this is for you! Be prepared though! :)

Story-Probably the best zombie manga I ever seen.The story started very slow,but it's a good things! Coz it is very detailed and it very claim to the climax it the middle ,and you will read & read ,can't stop read until to the end.The actual story is about "Hero"which is Hideo,and the zombies stuff is no the point,the whole manga is focus on Hideo, how he from a sidecharacter become a MC,so the ending is all about him and it is not bad.The mangaka is very kind enough to show us the other country situation and he had switched to others characters story.9/10

Art-The art ... is magnificent! It's so detailed and the mangaka using a uniq way to show us which is many pages just using his art and less diaglong.The expression of each characters is so detailed like he can draw Hideo's cringe face goodly and us readers can feel it.When reading it ,is more likely watching it,he drew the manga very slowly ,and drew every movement the characters have ,and it is like watching a epic zombie movie rather than reading a manga.The background also is very beautiful and detailed.I personally very like when he drew Hideo fired the gun,it is just so beautiful!
9/10

Characters-The characters is deginsed very good,the feelings of them is so true like the things that ppl will do when some zombie virus explosive began.Some of them are ignored it,some of it take advantages like create a new religion, some of them relieved it is a true dangerous.It is show perfectly that how can human's stupidly worse the whole situation.The anger,jealously,greedily & others ugliness emotions showed up perfectly true in the each characters.The development of the characters ,mostly is the MC Is amazing,from a properly useless person to a person that will take responsibility. And I very like how the mangaka focused on the MC ,which is the "Hero" ,a hero that nobody see,and know.9/10

Enjoyment-I very enjoy this manga,when I picked up this manga,I just addicted to it and reading it as fast as I can .I love the whole manga,I means the WHOLE,the characters, art,story,coz it is so detailed and very interesting.I knew many ppl so pissed off and don't enjoy the end of the manga coz it is like a downfall when the manga is at it climax and the mangaka don't explain many mysterious things that have been wondering at our head from the start.I also feel the ending also should not be like that,the mangaka had lefted many untold story,but again,the little is about "Hero"which is our MC ,the others things beside the MC IS NOT THE PRIORITY.How is the life of the MC after the incident?How he feel about it ?What is he doing the whole time?THAT IS THE POINT!So after thinking sometime later,I changed my mind and accepted the ending which is probably the most suitable ending for the MC and mangaka.9.5/10

Any zombie-horror fan should read this.

Ever since i can remember I have been a fan of zombies. TWD, Resident Evil, and many more have been with me since childhood.

In traditional western media, Zombies are mostly a factor in the character's decision-making, but never really a plot point.

I am a hero was my first taste of an Eastern Zombie story and the way they treated it really blew me away. True, in every sense of the word they are flesh-eating zombies just as we know and love, but the more you read I am a hero the more you realize these zombies are actually ... a lot more than mere walkers.

As always, I avoid all kinds of spoilers in my reviews, But if you are a zombie fan, do yourself a favor and give this manga a try.

I'm going to split this into three sections, the beginning, final "arc" and the actual ending.

I think the start of this manga is handled exceptionally, the first volume can be somewhat slow as we are introduced the the MC and the first wave of characters. I would say the story only fully begins from volume 2 at which point the true zombie nature of the story is brought in. But the way in which we see the spread of the virus, from multiple perspectives and in different formats, be that message boards, the MC's view or news articles really gives a good perspective of how ... something like this could spread to the extent it did without much opposition in the early stages.

Some of the characters can be unpleasant but I think extreme situations can bring out bad sides in people and especially when sudden power is achieved, as is shown in the shopping mall arc, this can be exaggerated further. This worked well and gave a good range of characters and interactions that both provides tension, pushes the story further and gives new insight into the nature of the virus.

There are numerous points throughout where the story will split off from our MC and we will see other characters battle the zombies in their own way and from this we can see how wide spread it is and watch the new developments of the zombies.

To summarise the first part, I think it gives a very believable account of how a zombie infection could spread throughout humanity and the various ways people would react to that.

The following may get a little spoiler ish:
From, I would say, the death of Oda, though there were certainly references before that point, the story takes a significant shift to the nature of the zombies, pushing it from simply an unknown infection and attempts to put reasoning behind its occurrence and why it effects people in the way it does. Some may not like this so much as the "survival" element gets reduced to an extent, but I do think it is an interesting idea and the interactions that occur between Hiromi and the mass brain provide interesting insight.

To me, the ending could have been handled much better. The actual conclusion was alright I feel, but I felt as though the writer forgot the objectives of the characters. For example, Hideo went to Tokyo in order to save Hiromi, but it seemed to slip his mind somewhere along the way and he his actions seemed to lose meaning really. The final few chapters felt like they had just been stuck on the end and I don't think they were necessary.

I enjoyed it on the whole, the art was very good, characters mostly believable and plot line was well thought out up until the final stages. Give it a try, but if you do I recommend getting past volume 1.

This was a bit long-winded sorry.

Hideo Suzuki, your usual deadbeat mangaka, struggling as assistant mangaka, but life is hard, especially when the non-life trying to destroy the world.

well, for the story and plot it's quite interesting, while maintaining the sanity, this mangaka must fight a whole bunch of zombies, first case happen to be the dearest one of the MC, and yet, the trouble doesn't end up in here, because this unreliable, bloody coward MC doesn't want any responsibility and courage, for the first part, and yet he keep growing, or at least keep up the courage and sanity trough out the whole story in unusual way.

another character beside ... MC surprisingly dependable, and yet because of it they had to take care the MC to help , at least himself.

certainly if you want an zombie story with unusual description of realism for the picture, with vibe for the whole story as dark as it could be happen in manga for this type, well you can try it.

I Am a Hero - A Mangaka Trying to Survive in Chaos.

The invasion of zombies is one of the most repeated themes in recent years. They are in movies like "Dawn of the Dead", in games like Resident Evil, in books like "World War Z" and even comics and series with "The Walking Dead". And it was not just stories with the kind of terror that were created. We have the movie "Shaun of the Dead" which is a very entertaining comedy and even a romance between a zombie and a hot blood girl. (It's ... awesome). And our Japanese friends are not out of ... this. Many may have watched the famous "Highschool of The Dead", but I've never been much of a fan of it because of a large amount of fanservice of the worst quality and many bizarre situations. For example, all your college friends and perhaps your family may have died and yet the girls take showers together and measure the size of their breasts. But it's not just fanservice that Japan lives and this is shown very well with the manga - "I Am A Hero". But being frankly honest, I don't believe there is any comparison between the two works because they are completely different and develop differently, completely opposite.

Hideo Suzuki is a 35-year-old mangaka assistant who dreams of one day being able to have his own series in a publishing house. He demonstrates that has a great mental problem, at times he hallucinates with a boy named Yajima and also features tormenting visions, with faces and hands showing up around him. In the midst of all, he still needs to deal with his dating, which is not going through a good time thanks to the jealousy with an ex-boyfriend by his girl.

While all Hideo problems only seem to increase, something terrible starts across Japan. Sick people are entering into a kind of uncontrollable rage, attacking anyone appearing in front of them and who is attacked also end up getting infected. These patients continue to move furiously toward their prey, even if they are seriously injured. The chaos will start to spread, but Hideo is slow to realize that it is something real and no longer a hallucination of his mind.

"I Am a Hero" is a manga created by Kengo Hanazawa, currently has 10 volumes released and is still in progress since August 2009 in the magazine Big Comics Spirits, Shogakukan magazine. The story goes at a very slow pace at the beginning, which may be far from the unsuspecting readers and would have walked away if I had not known that it was a story with zombies. "I Am a Hero" only really shows his true face at the end of the first volume, on chapter 11. After this it's crazy and you end up getting stuck wondering what happens even though the pace still varies greatly between fast action scenes and still scenes of reflection. And we also have some really heavy and disturbing scenes.

The main character might be my big problem with the manga: I can not really like him at all. The author manages to make Hideo a real person, but he's so weird (sometimes crazy) that it makes me really uncomfortable and doesn't care so much about the life he had. The first few chapters were terrible for me, I just kept going just because I knew that at some point the "shit was about to go down". He sometimes irritated me, either with the song about female genitalia or with the fact that he tries to continue to follow the law even with everything going to hell.

Later we know other secondary characters that end up appearing very little. It's worth mentioning one that I really like that is Hiromi, although it often ends up having some unrealistic reactions that end up upsetting everything we had already seen and going a bit against what we witnessed in the manga as a whole.

Well, I also have to highlight the author's vision for the zombies, perhaps one of the scariest I've ever seen. They are of that type that runs and possesses physical strength above the ordinary, able to even pull half of your face with a bite. They are still able to speak a few sentences and seem to still maintain the habits of when they were still alive.

This raises an interesting question: most of the time, "experts" and "critics" often say that a good zombie story does not "deal with zombies," but rather with "humans." And it really is so in most cases, so much so that zombies mostly have no feelings, just act instinctively like animals, letting the whole plot unfold upon the psychological pressure between the living. But in the case of "I Am a Hero" the thing is different. The human characters in the stories are so strangely or emotionally unbalanced that you have no more notion if the story really focuses on them or the zombies. The author's choice to portray the "beings" with gestures and human actions ends up raising a debate about this, and only those who read (or intend) will be able to say whether this is a truth or just a theory.

Going back to the technical part, the art is amazing, we have an incredibly realistic look and with the passage of time, it becomes disturbing. Kengo Hanazawa's zombies are scary, the appearance with veins appearing on the skin, bulging, squinting eyes, and even larvae coming out of the holes even bothered me at times more than some classic movies. Other than the moments he uses whole pages alike and with slight differences to give an unbelievable sense of movement. The author who had already made a highly praised story for the development of human feelings ("Boys On The Run") seems to put everything into practice in "I Am A Hero", now with a much bigger technique. Some even believe that his manga actually is a criticism of Japanese society, something very common in some works there.

Unlike "Highschool of The Dead" that follows more to a "shounen" side with high levels of fanservice, "I Am a Hero" follows another serious and mature line. This is not to say that there is no action, the story has several moments that you read several pages in minutes and want to know soon what will happen. You will follow the survival of an aspiring mangaka, with no confidence and with a questionable sanity, in the midst of a zombie apocalypse.

It was not an easy manga to read at first for me. The main character could only make me angry for being so loser and even insane, but all my effort to continue reading was rewarded. The story begins to look great after the first volume and is an excellent recommendation for lovers of the zombie genre. With the release of The Walking Dead and others, it is a great opportunity to venture into an alternative reading and quite fun and well-taken advantage of. That's the recommendation. READ IT!

Story: 10 | Art: 9 | Character: 8 | Enjoyment: 9
Score: 9/10

This review was made from the first volume omnibus, brought by Dark Horse.

I am a hero, you can't even tell what its about by the title or even the cover and that's what i love about this manga, every page is something unexpected. I am by no means a zombie genre fan since all zombie related media today tends to be the same, I am a hero takes everything you know about zombies and redefines it by making the characters believable and really vulnerable by putting them in situations most zombie movies wouldn't even think of. This manga made me scared of zombies again the vivid detail and the art style is amazing. This is not for ... people who are looking for a HOTD clone this is something very different, this is also not a kid manga either none of Hanazawa Kengo's manga is, I highly recommend this to all manga readers 17 and up :)

This manga is written well and builds up a strong world and narrative, but in the end, it just sort of ends without any of that amounting to anything. The plot itself was pretty interesting from beginning to end. However, even though it's a 22-volume manga, not all that much happens because the manga moves incredibly slowly. This is for two reasons. One of them is that it just doesn't have a lot happening per page, with lots of pages that go on random tangents completely unrelated to the main characters or story, or even just random panels showing off the world without any purpose, as well as using larger ... panels and more panels than most manga do to show the same content. Honestly, this was a bit of a drag even while reading the whole manga in one shot, and I think if I was reading it as it came out it would have been excruciatingly annoying. The other reason is that the manga is much more focused on character relationships within the context of a zombie apocalypse rather than the plot surrounding it. This isn't something unique to this work, rather it's something pretty standard, but I feel this does it to a greater degree than most. For example, the first volume is entirely dedicated to building up the relationship situation set up around Hideo, and the first zombie doesn't appear until the last page of the first volume. There's a point to all this, as we see how these relationships fare in as the zombie apocalypse begins. However, this is over pretty much instantly so it leaves the question of whether it was worth it. That's a recurring theme in this you could say, where relationships take quite a bit of time to build up, but fall apart instantaneously. How fickle everything seems, makes most of the characters unlikable. I sympathized with Hideo, simply because he was the main character and how much of the manga was spent focusing on him, but to be honest he was sort of a jerk too. Nakata seemed pretty cool too, but he wasn't the focus. Rather, the entire side story with people other than those surrounding Hideo felt rushed and random due to not being developed all that much and rather just felt like it was making things slower, especially as when the stories all connected, the effect on Hideo's story felt minimal. Rather, the ending all around felt incredibly underwhelming, in that it felt incredibly arbitrary, resolved nothing, and explained nothing. Rather, it was just suddenly over, and it was completely anticlimactic. Furthermore, it was sad in a way such that I have no idea what sort of point the manga was trying to ultimately trying to convey. There seemed to be some higher-level commentary about unity and hive minds and such, but it didn't feel like it had much of a purpose beyond simply making this different from normal zombie fiction. Similarly, in the end his delusions didn't seem to have much value either. The action was pretty weak. The art was okay.

tl;dr: A character focused zombie manga that's well written but in the end doesn't really say anything.

Despite its relatively common premise for a zombie story, Kengo Hanazawa's horror manga stands out when we get to know its characters better - both the living and the dead.

I Am a Hero uses his time well to present each person and situation of its story. As we started the manga, we spent a good deal of time getting to know Hideo's routine and mind. We understand, in the details, all the characteristics of the protagonist and also his problems: the lack of professional success; The few close friends and acquaintances in his life; his relationship with his (also tormented) girlfriend, who despises him and ... only accepts him to satisfy her needs; The way his fears, almost infantile, materialize as visions every night, causing Hideo to avoid sleeping while it is dark, and to "protect himself" by holding his loaded shotgun ... Elements are not lacking in order to understand who he is and how he thinks.

If in a conventional zombies story the personality of any infected person disapears the moment that character becomes a monster, in I Am a Hero the transformation only makes that personality to stand out, making each undead a -- de facto -- single character.

The author accomplishes this through a very interesting twist in the basic formula of the genre: instead of causing them to be brainless creatures in search of brains (no pun intended) and other human parts, the ZQNs (as the infected are called in history), those monsters not only seek to kill and consume other humans: they also reenact some thought or action of their final moments as living beings.

In the end, it is as if each confrontation against these creatures is a struggle against our mundane routines, and also against the characteristics that make us belong to the modern society.

This quality of I Am a Hero only strengthens itself with the work of art of Hanazawa, that manages to value every moment of the story. His realistic trait, the way he portrays the macabre positions and movements of creatures, and especially the scenes I call "horror frames" -- when the author seems to pause the time to focus on really disturbing things --, help to make each zombie an unique character.

In the end, unlike most stories in that genre, I Am a Hero does not try to put all the human characters on a common ground, resisting against a group of zombies that acts as a destructive force of nature. He makes each of his characters special and meaningful to the story, turning the fight against every undead into a struggle against what makes us human.

You can check my full review here (in brazilian portuguese):
http://bit.ly/I-am-a-Hero

Even though zombie stories hit their peak a while back, I highly recommend checking out "I am a Hero". It's quite different from anything else out there.

For starters, it's more than just a zombie story. To say anything else would be spoiling the plot, but it gets progressively weirder as it goes on. Even better, it rarely spells anything out for you, forcing the reader to notice details themselves and reach those, "Wait, what WAS that?" moments on their own.

And despite all the weirdness, everything else is wonderfully realistic, from the actions the characters take while attempting to surviving the apocalypse, to the messy ... relationships they foster with each other. Sure, the backgrounds are based on photographs, but the end result makes for one breathtaking page after another.

i do have to point out the slow pace, however. While I personally love the way the story meanders, it does take a while to get going... or get anywhere for that matter, and that may turn some people off. But if you're the type that enjoys the journey more than the destination, I can't recommend this manga enough.

The manga seemed difficult to read at first, but I think it was due to the narrative style of the author. The work takes time to present many characters very slowly, an example of this is that I remember that the zombies dont appear until after the first 5 or 10 chapters (I dont remember) since there they take the effort to present us the daily life of hideo, the protagonist. For my part I loved it and I would like to recommend that you read it if you like a zombie story focused on human relationships (similarly
to the walking dead).

i haven't read very much manga I've read a few decently long series but as far as they go this one is actually really good for a majority of the time, it has weird moments especially earlier on but they dissipate after a while. This definitely has the scariest imagery out of any manga I've ever seen, the author is actually just amazing at drawing creepy visuals and I applaud him for it. He's also great at creating a sense of dread that lingers on because he's great at not pulling punches and it's horrible knowing any character could die at any time, sometimes it ... doesn't work great but overall it does it's job. Now getting to the final chapters is where my score gets kind of iffy because I'm gonna be honest they're a little weird and the ending is abrupt, it's not bad by any means but it could've been expanded much more than it did. The ending was still really sad for me though seeing our main character be in his situation. After reading the epilogue though I do feel as though it expanded enough for me to raise my score a little, it was a really sweet ending with some beautiful imagery and some emotional moments from our main character. I do really wish the author expanded a little more or kept the series going but I understand that he may not have wanted to, I just feel there was so much more to explore and he probably knew it. Overall worth a read if you like the idea of zombie stories, because out of the things I've seen I feel this is probably the best zombie story for manga to an extent.