My Home Hero

This is one of the most excellent thrillers I have ever read. It keeps you hooked throughout the whole thing and will always keep you on your toes.

I have to say what makes this series shine if the characters for sure. The MC, the father, is really a nice guy. He is a bit timid in the very beginning but he genuinely cares for his daughter and will honestly do everything in his power to make sure that no harm comes to her. His interests as a mystery novelist was a nice touch but he is character who does seem smart enough to pull off what is depicted. My personal favorite character though is the mother. She is loyal and cares about her daughter as much as her husband. From the very beginning her trust in her husband is shown to be pretty high. She can think on her toes, but the author does not indulge in any superhuman feats - she is the same as her husband - someone who trusts her spouse, wants to protect her kid, and will do everything in her power to keep her family safe. The daughter is yet another great character - not because she is particualrly virtuous, though you can't really say she is a bad person in anyway, but because the story doesn't try to adjust her to the plot. It doesn't take her long to realize what her parents are doing for her and she reacts in kind. The rest of the cast is pretty fantastic too but its getting too long. The characters along with the plot are the strong points on this manga.

The plot is excellent as well, realistic 50 something man with a college age daughter kills likely dangerous boyfriend to prevent his daughter from coming to harm. The pact throughtout is very well controlled, its a slow burn that will masterfullly build up tension. Covering up the crime and dealing with those who got tangled up in it - the story takes everything at the pace it should and nothing is forced. The reader isn't thrown for any loops with the logic - everything makes sense and the MC isn't some psychic who can figure out everything from an out of place book or something. You get to see all the stress that comes with planning every step of this out and the real danger in what a misspeak or uncaught error could bring. Those trying to catch the crime stick to their own motivations for doing so and the opponents that the father must face are not all the same or on a tiered hierarchy - they possess differing levels of intelligence and drive. Tosu, the father, must keep thinking and keep paying attention - creating plans and contingency plans for almost every action and likely reaction. In terms of coincidence - while there is some, it never favors the MC, you almost want to ask the author to give him a break at points but really its not unrealistic either. Thing can go wrong and the MC is an amateur. There are a lot of variables, and there is a lot the MC wants to keep hidden even from his daughter - a smart and kind decision imo. There is one part of the story, that while I do like, isn't explained from the get go fully. Its the wifes character - it makes sense given the consequences to perhaps cover the murder, but for her to endure the level she did is only explained by her own family and past with Tosu. Its a more than satisfying explanation and one that also sheds light onto why Tosu treats his own daughter how he does. Afterall it is the reason why they are in this mess to begin with. All the characters as mentioned above, are full and have their own personalitiles, pasts, and motivations and all act in a reasonable manner. Thats not to say some of the characters are exceptional in some way, but just that it isn't something the author pulls out of his ass. The MC did catch a break, but really given how fully he was dedicating himself he would have caught something. Lucky for him it did turn out to be there, but even here the author did show that the MC had a basic idea of what would needed to be done had nothing come out of that encounter.

If I had to say something - this should probably have ended around chapter 50. The continuation of the story isn't so much a rehashing (don't worry) but an afterstory caused by a bad accident.

The art definitely gets the job done, and it really shines in character design and expression. Without this the story would not have been as impactful.

10/10 - A very enjoyable weekend read, there is quite a few chapters so you won't finish it terribly quickly but its not so long that it'll take more than a couple of days. Highly recommend

It might be early to make this review, seeing as there are only 17 chapters out at the moment. But, man this shit is good. The story manages to follow both the stream of consciousness of a character and the actions that take place wonderfully. I find that the writer has a great sense of showing the audience certain things and then doing a full 360. I would say the only critique I have is that you barely see the psychological effects of the actions the character have on themselves, I mean, there is a scene with a dream but that's about it. I highly recommend this read! Oh! And the wife, she's the best wife.

This is my first review and I'm writing this because of how unknow this amazing manga is

Story: 10/10

My Home Hero is a thriller, and excels at that.

It manages to build constant tension, not giving you rest and not letting you to ever get bored, as our protagonist (Tetsuo) is constantly in the verge of being caught, and even if, up until now, he has managed every time to not let his murder be discovered by the yakuza or police, it always is in a very realistic way and he can never get completely rid on suspicion over him. This is also another plus for this work, as the author managed to construct believable situations, in wich characters take believable choices, be it the right one or a mistake, while having a balanced quantity of lucky and unlucky events.

The pacing is also very good. You'll never get bored and when we have some time to relax a little bit, the fear of being caught never disappears, with the author managing to maintain a consistent atmosphere, all the while he make us reflect a constant theme over the manga: How much you're disposed to do for your family?

The story is divided in two parts, and while at the start of the second things seem a little off, it returns to the previous quality very fast

Art: 8/10

It's pretty good, and the more "realistic" style helps a lot with the atmosphere of the manga

Character: 9/10

This manga doesn't have that much complex characters, but it manages to make every one believable, and in some way, like a real person, wich is something very difficult and rare.

Every important character has his motivations and a little of backstory, and while they aren't that much unique, they all feel suficient different, but in the end, as the manga is centered around the plot, the characters are much more than sufficient to do everything it needs to with perfection, but they still need something to be outstanding even if this wasn't a plot-centered manga, so I can't give it a 10/10

A exception to this is our protagonist, Tetsuo. He's a very well written character and has the most development of the cast as the story progresses and he become each time more and more decided to do anything for the well-being of his family, doesn't matter what it costs for others and himselfs, but all the while constantly being haunted by the sins he commited to do so.

Enjoyment: 10/10

I honestly loved this manga, reading everything up to chapter 75 (the latest until now) in 3 days, having reading up to chapter 50 in the first day. I really hope that, with online fan translations now available and the author mantaining this quality, it one day will get the recognition it deserves, and maybe even a anime adaptation, like the other work of this author, I'm Standing on a 1,000,000 lives.

I've just read 14 chapters but this is an amazing story. It is a thriller that will stand the test of time. The entire set up is 100% believable and the traits of the MC make sense given his passion for murder mysteries and sales abilities. He's a quick thinker and excellent bullshiter and liar. You will get hooked as the stakes are high and he is far from overpowered, using his brain and skills to manipulate all the antagonists involved. If he makes one mistake he is dead, which is what keeps you reading. So far there are no hail marries nor deux ex-machina to save the day. Everything depends on the MC's knowledge and abilities.

The worst aspect is the art and it is far from bad, being good in the least. Everything that happens is clear and easy to process. The drawings are rooted in realism, which helps with keeping the story believable.

This manga starts out pretty funny, I'll admit.

The whole gag about how the daughter gives him a gift, but then charges him a deposit for it was hilarious somehow. Throughout the rest of the story, it's straightforward; father does what he has to do to makes sure his only daughter is protected from this asshole. HOWEVER, father becomes crouching idiot, secret badass which is my favorite character trope.

Of course you have background characters and side characters, but I only really cared for maybe five? Six let's say, throughout the whole story. I don't see this as a downside because the characters are at the forefront for the most part. Haven't gotten the chance to read anything past chapter 47 (Up to Volume 6) but I really, really want to! I wish this was serialized in English, but I will buy the Japanese version if I have to.

My Home Hero is a psychological thriller series that certainly has its ups and downs. I think that a lot of stories that are of this genre tend to add supernatural effects, like Death Note, so My Home Hero is a nice breath of fresh air, talking about a person with absolutely no powers, and the only asset to his name are his quick wits and plans that he hatches.
My Home Hero depicts of a realistic middle aged man, who, in the heat of the moment, killed a person, and needs to cover up his crime. The pace is almost agonizingly slow at times, but I think it's all essential to the buildup of the plot. It really allows you, as the reader, to immerse in the small details that the protagonist has to catch and execute on in order to survive, and if it were fast paced, this would be ruined.
I think another thing about this story that's pretty different from others is that the main character is really on the backfoot of a lot of situations, as in, he's always the one on the tightrope, not the other party. It's only in a critical moment where a reversal happens to his opponent, after all of his planning comes to fruition. Any misstep would have been death.
That's the other thing, though. He has a lot of backup plans or makes decisions that don't have a 100% succession rate. In fact, while a lot of his decisions are logical and calculative, sometimes, his emotions get the better of him, and that is all so apparent when he commits his first crime. Or, maybe it's not because of information, but because the main character truly just made an amateurs' mistake, because he is not truly a criminal mastermind that protagonists tend to be in this type of genre. He's above average in intelligence, and can work under pressure, but that's about it. He has some special knowledge, but nothing over the top. As a result, he sometimes has to get lucky for his plans to work, and of course, they will fail. And I think that the balance between "unlucky" and "lucky" encounters are fairly balanced throughout the story, because while he gets a lot of small bursts of luck that slightly tilt the favor towards him, he gets truly a lot of "unlucky" encounters that I don't see often, so I actually find the protagonist to have pretty mediocre luck than most other ones.
In the end, his strategies are all grounded within reality, and while some of them are complex, most of them are very simple, but also effective.
I think lack of side characters sort of hurts the story a bit, though. There are so many untapped characters that could have affected the story in some way, but there wasn't any. You get to know the very few characters that do impact the story in some major form, but there are only so many in this story, and some of them play to the convenience of our MC. I won't say who, but these are the lucky encounters I talked about. Some characters act sort of strangely or one dimensionally when dealing with the protagonist, resulting in an advantage for him, especially his wife.
There are just some absolutely useless characters too, like his daughter who actually impedes him in different ways.
Overall, there's nothing too special about this manga, but it's a realistic psychological thriller with sparse bits of action. The entire series focuses around the mental state of the protagonist, and how he deals with his situation. I do have to also admit that there is a point in the series where it could have been cut off, but it just keeps on going, to where I am caught up with translations, and honestly, this series should have been a 40 chapter done deal sort of thing, and this lackluster "sequel" of the first arc is pretty dull comparatively, and it lacks the charm of the first arc, which, in my opinion, had "completeness." Why not just end it there? Instead, new characters get introduced out of the blue that make the story go ahead, and you're off to a new arc which has some connection and implications from the first one. This point, along with the "easy" characters the MC gets to deal with, (as in, where he gets crucial information/gets them to do something for him in a positive way) made me have to drop the score by a little bit. It's not bad, though.