I Am a Hero

a história no início é bem fundamentada, depois começaram a ficar bem mal explicadas, além de cenas nojentas como a hiromi ter se apaixonado por ele e ele retribuir fazendo sexo, a diferença de idade é absurda. Pior ainda foi no final a ex dele pedir p irmão salvar o hideo e ele cobrar sexo como pagamento.



A DIFERENÇA É GIGANTE VAI SE FUDER, os traços são tão lindos, fazem vc se apegar aos personagens p dps eles virarem oq viraram (hiromi e hideo) pelo menos a aoda salva, cara péssimo. Algumas partes ficaram meio?? na minha cabeça, mas isso foi absurdamente estranho.


SPOILER O CARALHO CLARO QUE EU VOU DAR SPOILER NESSA MERDA EU ME OBRIGUEI A LER O RESTO P VER O FINAL, E ACABA SENDO SIMPLESMENTE O HIDEO ENDOIDANDO E OS ZUMBIS TODOS VIRARAM UMA BOLA CARALHO VAI TOMAR NO CU TAMBEM. ALÉM DA MINHA PERSONAGEM FAVORITA TER FEITO SEXO COM UM MAIOR DE IDADE, ODIAR A MINHA OUTRA FAV QUE MORREU E ELA MANDAR NUM FUCKIG ZUMBI GIGANTE QUE ANDA CARALHO

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

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 into a fight, he decides to make it up to her. She doesn't answer his calls, so he decides to stop by, and finds her lying on her bed.


You are now entering the world of awkward survival horror.

The true power of this manga lies in its ability to put a mediocre character in a crapsack world, and instead of the regular 'rise to greatness', the world remains a shithole, and our hero remains unlikeable. Well, not entirely, but there are better people to end up with in an apocalypse. Up until now, he has made me cringe more often than Bleach characters get their powers back, although in current chapters he becomes quite a bit more reliable. Remaining silent about the apocalypse because you are afraid to speak up in public isn't exactly the heroic thing to do. Neither is ducking so the girl behind you becomes the victim (while yelling/thinking "I am a hero" at that). Still, these moments are what make the manga and the main character so thoroughly interesting.

Precisely for this reason, the story and our hero's personality are allowed to progress or regress as much as the author wants. Since the hero does not 'need' moments of glory, there really is no need to give him any, and this manga remains strangely realistic (although I don't think anyone would recite the laws concerning weapon possession in these situations). That really is a good thing. Many aspects of it have already been covered in other similar stories: People are used, deceived, thrown aside, as would probably be the case if this were to happen in real life. If you're a woman in a group of male survivors, how far should you go to survive? What if you have superior firepower but are on your own? Would you be willing to kill? To sacrifice yourself? These and similar questions arise quickly, as humanity's downfall will invite many to take justice into own hands. The author provides us with quite realistic answers.

The art is at first (you guessed it) quite mediocre. This may have even been done purposefully. However, if you're willing to sit out a few chapters of average character design, the body horror will make up for it. The author really went all out with this, with surrealism rivaling that of Uzumaki.

All in all, if you're up for some awkward moments with an surrealism on the side, portrayed by a realistic yet delusional hero, I can really recommend this manga. After all, the true heroes are the ones that can survive, aren't they?

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 until the outbreak. He is turned into the most powerful person in his periphery due to his possession of hunting shotgun (guns are rare in Japan) and the lack involvement of the government and the Japanese SDF. The plot mainly follows suzuki's escape into the less populated prefectures of tokyo while having people to join up on his journey. Though Suzuki is the main character, the plot later on branches out into other side characters and subplots later on.

This manga is quite the thriller. I can't stress enough how deep it delves into the sense of ambivalent paranoia that you the reader feels and the characters are subdued to. The key of survival and the interaction between survivors is a major plot driving point. Not to mention the manga is quite scary moments at times, where I was personally freaked the shit out of my seat. The psychological impact that this zombie plague has on the cast of characters is very underlying, in other words, the psychological impact deconstructs the meaning of human society as they try fight off the infected. There are a whole lot of themes in I am a Hero such as morality, fear of death, and facing reality, which leaves a lot for the reader to explore and interpret.

The art is drawn in pretty meticulous detail and at times the panels feels "episodic", only showing certain framed shots. What strikes me most about the art is it's feeling of motion, or rather lack of it. I mean this by the panels seeming to be very static, like stills of real life (This could probably be explained by how his art resembles photographs, very still snapshots but realistically captured). This boils over to how it affects action panels in the series. The action feels more like a photographer taking pictures of the scene rather a fluid continuity of motion as one may have seen in other manga's presentation of action sequences, for example shounen manga.

The affect of this becomes a contradiction to the eyes. The first contradiction being that the action appears to be lacking a sense of motion and that movement is static. One would typically expect, or subliminally expect, visual artistic cues like motion blur to guide the viewer's eyes and to indicate the direction of motion and the immensity of the associated kinetics. But functional drawing techniques such as motion blur or "speed lines" is entirely absent in the action sequences, leading to more probable confusion and ambiguity from the reader as to direction the motion, where it starts and stops, and it's rate of change. Therefore, much of action panels being played out in its own reality, which when observed, must necessarily represent great acceleration and momentum, in order to fit logically the frames of reference. A nod to this hypothesis could be if this series ever gets an animation or live action, I think it would be very interesting how it would turn out.

Though story pacing at the beginning might be not engaging, it really picks up in later volumes. I really recommend this if you like a different sort of riveting zombie horror manga.

2016 Update not really spoilerish but anyways
I bumped the score up to a 9 from an 8 which I believe to be the rating of the series from when I wrote the write and the point in the manga there. But currently, the this manga deserves a resounding 9, as it blew expectations in terms of where the plot is climaxing, unsuspecting turns, and overall newly found grandiose scope, which makes the manga go far beyond my initial impressions.

2018 Update regarding the ending, I think some people reviewing must really reflect on their interpretation of the ending with the whole manga in mind. As in my opinion, the ending, was very befitting so what series had built up and expressed thematically, to a tee.

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

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 with a dash of anger. End TL;DR.


Alright, I'm going to assume that I can let loose from here. I'll sync my thoughts as I type and try to keep this short.


After finishing a romance zombie manga, my interest with zombie manga rose a little. So, I ended up reading I Am a Hero's summary through recommendations. A little bit of blah blah here, I dislike reading or watching multiple stories at once because my memory will get mixed up and the feelings will jumble up annoyingly. I had already started reading another romance manga at this point but decided to start reading I Am a Hero anyway, especially since that shotgun on the cover picture probably means some good ol' F U zombie actions.



Art - 10/10:
I'm not a picker. The faces were drawn very differently comparing to the other manga/anime I've read/watched. I had a hard time getting used to it but the attention to the details of the many sceneries in this series more than make up for it. Plus, since we're getting a lot of gore here, it helps a lot for me to separate I Am a Hero from my other Happy, Feel Gooo..Great manga/anime. Actually, I'm just going to say it bluntly, the faces were drawn ugly but they are also very unique. Anyhow, it's not like everyone in real life are beautiful or handsome anyway. Take my 10 with no shame.


Character - 10/10:
Not a picker. I don't really pay attention as to whether the stories behind the characters contradict or make sense at all. They were all believable and it was interesting how their relationships progressed. No complaints, so no penalty from my default 10/10 score.


Story - 8/10:
Honestly, I think I could give this a 0 because I absolutely hate bad endings. Bad as in incomplete or illogical endings. As you may understand from my TL;DR, I Am a Hero felt incomplete to me. There were quite a few cues throughout the story that MAY have indicated that the author needed to cut this story short or worse. I'm going to be naive and believe that there is a FULL version of I Am a Hero and by judging the series' direction while mixing a bit of estima... imagination, I'm giving this an 8/10 for its high potential for a masterpiece ending. What's a masterpiece ending? It's any ending that leaves a gapping hole in my heart with a pint of satisfaction for finishing the series.


Enjoyment - 8/10:
Reading it was a bliss. Finishing it was a nut job. I'm going to imagine that I Am a Hero does not end where it ended.


Overall - 8/10:
Should be 9, right? No. I'm still salty from that sorry excuse of an ending. Actually, I should rate this at below 5/10. I seriously dislike it when a story terminates abruptly, especially when I'm so engaged to it. It's like a school excursion getting cancelled just as every arrived at the destination. "We're finally here. But we are leaving now."


Ol' me can't take this unbelievable turn of event. I'm going to believe I Am a Hero has not end. The next chapter will see the return of our gal, a more in-depth explanation of the final climax and a mention of one of our last heroes in the series - the quiet heroine.



PS. Sorry for screwing up the overall score that represents I Am a Hero. It doesn't really deserve an 8 and I truly am bad at rating. I still have hope for this and I gave my overall score based on what I hope. Sorry for that.
I hope we can find a manga/anime that can top this, and still have a befitting ending.

PS2. Sorry, I'm really out of time now. Please endure my grammar mistakes if applies.

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 is then later never elaborated on. So, don't expect the story or mystery to fulfill itself, because it won't. There are a few good chapters here and there showing theories and possible explanations (alien invasion? who knows!), but for the most part there are many, many unanswered questions in this manga. I'll be honest right now and say that there will be no explanation for why the zombie outbreak is happening, or how it started. It just happens one day, and people sort of deal with it.

But as an ending, I do think that it isn't as bad as most people tend to say. It is true that nothing in the grand scheme of things is resolved, but at the end of the day the story is about Suzuki, the main character, and how he maneuvers his life around this sudden outbreak. As so, the ending as closure to specifically Suzuki's story does make sense, but I'm still disappointed by all the unsolved mysteries.

Another small nitpick have is that towards the beginning of the manga, a lot of characters seem to underreact when faced with the zombie apocalypse. Near the beginning, a zombie comes in on a train and bites off half of a man's face and no one in the train seems to really care too much. For me, this felt pretty unnatural and it threw me a bit off, however it's not a big issue.

*Spoilers*
I was not a huge fan of the sex in the series. Suzuki eventually does it with the other two main girls, with one of them being 15 while he himself is 35. The manga does touch up on the regret and shame that he feels afterwards, but I wasn't exactly happy with that particular plot point (especially with the timing of the act, too).


Art: 10/10
The art is phenomenal. It is honestly probably some of the best art I've ever seen, period. Every drawing is filled to the brim with detail, and some of the panels are worth stopping and zooming in just to see all the details, especially if they are in color. The art quality also never drops throughout the entire series, which I find very, very impressive. I'd say that this is worth reading, just for the art.


Characters: 8/10
I loved nearly all the characters in the manga. Everyone isn't a perfectly good person in a realistic way, but at the same time, everything every character does feels natural. The author doesn't delve into most character's backstories, but all of the main characters has a strong sense of identity and personality within the story. However, some of the side characters can feel forgettable, especially those from factions that aren't part of the main story.

Enjoyment: 7/10
The most enjoyment I got out of this manga was probably just from looking at all the details in the art itself. However, the manga also has solid characters, and despite the lackluster ending, the story is solid. If you go in without high expectations, and are just expecting a solid zombie story with amazing art, then you should have a good time with this manga.

Overall: 7/10

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 their reviews.. HELL YEAH IT'S A MOTHERF***ING ZOMBIE OUTBREAK MANGA.

Ok now moving on ~

Read it if you're into:

A dystopian setting in an urban era/envrironment.
Realistic and detailed art.
Zombie or horror in general.

What I find distinctive about this manga's horror style is its "silence"

Let me try explaining this. Usually in horror manga, the scary visuals make you imagine some sort of noise to accompany it. Seeing a smiling ghost can create a creepy laughter in your head, or a man walking down the alleyway and being followed can create the sound of footsteps and heavy breathing.

In I Am A Hero, there's no sound to the visuals. (especially so in the beginning chapters) This is partly because of its abruptness of the scary scenes, there's usually no build-up to the creepiness, and that makes it even scarier.

Some of these drawings are serious nightmare material. I kid you not, do not even think of showing this to children or your 5 year old brother because this shit will ruin his childhood. And the fact that the plot is made even more believable because of its realism just creeps into your brain and makes you very uncomfortable: it COULD happen to you.

The title couldn't be more perfect as well. On the surface it is a zombie manga, but perhaps the title signifies it's truly Hideo Suzuki's (main character) story. The story of an ordinary guy suddenly pushed into a nightmare and forced to be a hero. Even amidst the incomprehensible terror, the helplessness, and the feeling of loneliness in a very scary world, you can still find the willpower and the bravery to say,

"I am a hero".

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 survival. I will also say that its really similar to Apocalypse no Toride's story but its completly different to the other parts(art,chars). So if you liked that manga you will like this one too.

Art: The art is incredibly! Its detailed clean and realistic. The faces are full of details and expressions. Honestly i havent seen better drwaings for faces than this. I have seen a lot of opinions about the faces, other say that its ugly but realistic at the same time. I believe its a hit or miss, i really like it but a lot of people hate it.

Character: The characters are really interesting and the develop and change during the journey. He does a really good job to show a lot of different kind of people and how they react to the apocalypse. I would focus tho on the main character, he is pure gold. He is a normal guy that gets to be in extreme situations. His reactions and character is hilarious and will make you laugh all the time. But he will get serious when the situation is dangerous.

Enjoyment: I really enjoyed reading this, it has the right amount of comedy,action and dialog. It wont tire you with extremly long dialogs or non-stop action sequences.

Overall: I believe this is a great manga for people that like the zombie genre but even for all those that want an apocalypse manga or a manga that focuses in the connections between people in extreme situations. I suggest to everyone to read this manga and i am sure that when you finish it you gonna be a fan of Hanazawa Kengo

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 like that, then this is not for you. However, if you do like gore, it's everywhere in this. The zombie deaths are great, and while some may say that the story moves too slowly, (it isn't overly action-packed) every chapter is needed, either in developing the characters or developing the knowledge of the outbreak.
In summary, this is a great manga if you want to scare yourself and gain a full understanding of the outbreak. If you want more action/fan service, go read Highschool of the Dead.

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 a few chapters ( 34 now ) so i can t tell anymore without telling spoilers.

Art 7
Its a realistic manga with a realistic art its not everyone pair of shoes.Even if I m not such a great fan of realistic art i liked it.Note , don t read it late at night the monsters freaked me out they are really well made.

Character 7
The main character is kind of freaky and strange in my opinion. Personally I don t think the main character is sane , he talks to himself.There aren t any side characters that make a impression on me.

Enjoyment 8
I really enjoyed the manga and i recommend it to all horror and zombie lovers out there.

I've started reading this series because photorealism mixed with surrealistic themes was intriguing and it all started at the pinnacle of zombie apocalypse love which was around 2009.

So the core story is pretty basic, an unlikely hero survives first days of zombie apocalypse outbreak in Tokyo and travels around deciding what to do next. On his path Hideo Suzuki uses his shotgun to kill some walking dead and while fighting his inner demons, pushes onwards as the survival instinct kicks in.

Been reading it since day one. Since the beginning it seemed interesting but along the, sometimes, tediously slow pacing, odd action shifting from one city or even continent to another, to wrap up a story which in the end looks like it tries to deliver some deep message, but in the end it's all about violence and sex. After few chapters characters, even with most odd quirks, seem flat, amount of deus ex and other tropes break the tension and amount of literally copied and pasted images or poorly drawn characters over photos filtered to look like drawings, while covered with sudden walls of text just annoy too much.

Series got it highs and lows and latter grow progressively as the series lean towards end.

All in all, it fails somewhere. Loses its charm and looks like author had too much fun trying to do very long series which, at some point had been flagged to either end soon or end axed thus leaving reader with very lazy, "feel good" ending which doesn't really feel that great.
Still, if you liked series like High School of the Dead or The Walking Dead but wanted more realistic approach this might be what you were looking.

No spoiler

It's a real JOY ride to read it.
But it is also kinda lacking.
It self centered theme in it, is really good, and it is much a continuation of it self over and over. The biggest disappointment for ME, was that the whole setup was not developed further on. But for what it is, it is good, parts of it is 10/10, self centered theme is perfect, but then there are part that seems like the author wanted to do something else, and it just a bit of a mess, you can easily skip 100 chap. and make it feel better.

If you want to update yourself for your inner imagination of things, it's perfect material, a gem. But for more, (regarding the ending) there is not more.
It a good journey to read, true art.

This review contains spoilers, as I find myself unable to explain what I dislike about this manga without diving into spoilers. You have been warned.

Now, to go on a tangent before starting the actual review:

Something that has always bothered me about the seinen demographic and its fans is that it takes very little to appeal and make said fans assume something is amazing strictly by virtue of having adult characters. This takes on many forms; for example, seinen fans can assume that a show with complex themes is instantly fantastic because of those themes, while ignoring the fact it has no real hook to make the audience care or be interested in the main characters.

What is a noteworthy trend is that many seinen praised as some of the greatest anime and manga ever often have uninteresting, dull and apathetic main characters who never genuinely grow out of that role. And mind you, I can understand the apathy that'd come with working day in and day out for years on end and all the disillusionment from that kicking in and replacing any hope someone had when younger, but the problem comes when even that is filled in a false sense of the manga being just gorier than what it would've been as a shonen. After all, maturity does not magically change if you swap age demographics.

Where am I going with this? I am a Hero is guilty of everything I just said, even well before its infamously poor ending that negates whatever themes it was attempting to go for previously.

The story is a seemingly straightforward zombie apocalypse where things have gone straight to hell, and everything that everyone knows is collapsing completely. The manga does an alright job (but doesn't linger, which your mileage may vary on) showing the main character reacting in complete shock to the trauma of losing virtually everyone he knows. The atmosphere is excellently presented, and there's always a curious feeling of wanting to know what'll happen next, and for once in such a manga the fact the main character is competent at fighting off zombies is justified by him actually knowing how to use a rifle properly, as opposed to most thrillers of this type wherein the main character simply whips that out of nowhere and adapts to it in minutes.

Where the story falls flat is in its themes and presentation. In the former case, it's unclear what exactly kind of point there is to the story at all; in most zombie-related stories, there's often a message that even though humanity has died off, people will nonetheless try to live past everything and prevail. While traces of that do exist here (represented by the various resistance groups that pop up throughout the plot), this quickly gets thrown aside in favor of a discussion about collectivism represented by the zombies creating a literal hivemind, and individualism as represented by humanity.

The problems with such a conflict are readily apparent; across the course of the manga, human beings have bonded together to fight zombies. More importantly, there's very little foreshadowing towards this beyond zombies being able to communicate with each other earlier. Speaking of humanity, this brings us to another problem about the plot; humanity, outside of the three main characters, are hilariously incompetent to the point where it breaks immersion completely.

The aforementioned resistance groups have various problems that lead to them either disintegrating or becoming ineffective; while the manga deserves credit for attempting to show how radically morals would change in such a setting, it also fails to take into consideration the fact that human beings don't interact with danger the same way and often, people who face crises would become more clingy even to complete strangers because they don't want to lose more.

This is clearly shown in the lack of camaraderie and friendship in the other resistance groups outside of the main leads in the story, who are borderline unlikable, extremely unrealistic and come off as plot devices that our main characters visit and proceed to move past. One particularly grating example is a group of internet trolls that form a resistance group onto themselves, and despite having fairly strict rules in order to figure out who is and isn't a zombie by suspicion, for some reason fail to notice obvious symptoms and coincidently fall prey to that plot convenience so that the group would collapse and their psychotic leader would proceed to become an antagonist in the series.

More importantly, the various subplots in the plot never really stop being introduced, even a dozen chapters towards the finale. This makes the plot disjointed, chaotic and unfocused in how it juggles all these subplots, and I'd be lying if I didn't say that in the last third of the manga I legitimately lost whatever coherency the plot had altogether.

This brings us to the other major problem that plagues this manga; the characters. If you can call them that, the characters are one note and almost strictly defined by how they react to events in the story, with extremely basic personality traits, virtually no quirks to speak of beyond the main character's excitement that the world is crashing and burning around him and how he wants to be a hero, and plagued by the extremely questionable presentation of certain aspects involving the manga in general.

The main trio are largely defined by their relationship to the main character and have very little agency of their own; they stand out as fairly unlikable people who hardly have any likable personality traits, and whatever bonding occurs between them feels as though it were written forcibly rather than flows naturally in the dialogue between them. This makes it difficult to empathize or care for them, and the manga does a poor job trying to make you pity them (one for being chewed out at work and being paranoid about being cheated on, one for being bullied and one for being treated like a sexual outlet with a resistance group) by giving them extremely forced backstories. And in the case of the main character himself, it only makes him more difficult to sympathize with due to his mistrust of his wife and monologues making it hard to pity or like the kind of malicious person he is, even before any of this started occurring.

Outside of the main trio, the side characters don't receive development worth mentioning beyond being cannon fodder for zombies; some turn to zombies, others kill themselves, others yet start infighting with other people and all of them are idiots that seems to act in stupid and irrational ways when the plot demands that a resistance group be wiped out. This is often played for irony, and gets tiresome very quickly when the reader catches on to that pattern of a character mentioning something happening, something happening to them involving that subject matters and dying because of it. One time this stood out to me in a particularly forced way was when a female character gets pregnant, and while thinking of her pregnancy ironically gets bitter by a zombified child, which the manga portraying it as some poetic and tragic death.

Beyond the cast, themes and story, the artwork is absolutely gorgeous and is bar none the main reason to ever read this manga. Details are beautifully drawn, gore is splendidly portrayed and the backgrounds are utterly beautiful. Characters are drawn distinctly from one another and expressions are dynamic and interesting to look at, which is a shame because it is wasted on a cast of dull plot devices.

This brings us to my own personal enjoyment. In sharp contrast to the content of this review thus far and despite all my various problems with it, I actually did find some enjoyment in the mindless gore that the manga had to offer, and honestly enjoyed the beginning of the zombie outbreak when everything slid straight to hell. The issue is that there aren't many moments throughout the story proper that ever manage to replicate the same degree of tension as that initial feeling, which is a shame since it means that parts of the manga meander along what feels like filler within the plot, where things that are plot-significant are happening but could've easily been portrayed in a handful of chapters instead of 50, since virtually no character progression is occurring for the overwhelming majority of this manga. The zombies themselves are fairly dull beyond them repeating nitpicks of their day to day lives when alive, and them having some sentient hivemind did not make them any more interesting to me as a reader, as that is a subject that has been done much better elsewhere.

And perhaps a nitpick of mine that may not be for everyone is the emphasis on rather disgusting sex jokes that come off as forced black humor rather than anything a genuinely witty person would come up with. Examples of this are abundant, but two that stick out are early in the manga when a woman who is notorious among the manga magazine the main character works in for getting around gets zombified, and I kid you not, she starts repeating AH AH AH in imitation of the orgasms she had in life. A separate occasion has a zombified man quite literally fapping until he rips his dick out, and while I'm certainly fine with sexual humor and dark humor, it slides into straight up feeling ridiculous and breaking immersion in the story completely in favor of some cheap, immature sex joke.

While I did enjoy this manga enough to read it all the way to the end, I couldn't help but feel like this is a story that could've easily been shorter, more character-driven and focused. I genuinely believe this is not the mature story that a seinen tag'd imply it to be, and neither do I believe that even before its finale was it worth all the high praise due to all the various problems that plague the plot beforehand. The setting deserves points for attempting to portray a more intimate day to day take on humans surviving day to day for food and shelter, but ultimately I cannot call this anything other than abysmal due to its unlikable, uninteresting and underdeveloped main cast. The plot is unfocused and fails to resolve most of its subplots, while the themes are unfocused and unresolved.

Ultimately, my opinion is that this was an utterly abysmal read. And I want to make it clear that this is strictly my opinion alone; I do not begrudge anyone for enjoying or liking this, and most certainly am open for discussion involving this should anyone desire for it.

Thank you very much for reading this review.

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.

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.

WARNING TO ANYBODY WHO IS INTERESTED IN THIS MANGA, BE PREPARED FOR THE LAZIEST, MOST INSULTING COP-OUT OF AN ENDING POSSIBLE

This review is spoiler free. it is also my first review, as I just have to put this warning out here since all the top reviews are praising this manga.

When I started reading this manga, I had fairly high expectations going off what I'd heard from people and the other reviews here. Little did I know, the other reviews were written before the manga was completed. I didn't even realize that the manga was completed myself until I got to the end. if that last chapter hadn't been uploaded and I was under the impression that the manga still had many more chapters to go, I would have easily given this a 9, or maybe even a 10. I loved this manga.

Unfortunately, it was just too good to be true.

This manga was exactly what I was looking for. It had very real characters who you could empathize with, a compelling story that always had you wondering what was around the corner, and the author even took a very interesting turn regarding the origin and motive of the zombie virus that I was eager to learn more about. I couldn't stop reading, and before I knew it, I had reached the 'end'. If you can even call that an 'ending'.

I'm just going to say first off that I don't know the circumstances behind this ending, whether the publisher decided to axe the manga, or they forced the writer to reach an ending as quickly as possible at the expense of a real conclusion. Perhaps the author decided that he did not care about his work anymore, and tried his hardest to sabotage all that he had built. Disregarding the reasoning, the truth is in the paper: THIS ENDING ANSWERS NOTHING, GOES NOWHERE, AND SATISFIES NO ONE.

Right after the final climax (i had no idea that it was the final climax, mind you), suddenly the threat is completely gone JUST BECAUSE, the hero decides "oh well!" and just goes off. All of the questions that you had, all of the big mysteries that were just starting to reach clarity, all the amazing events and concepts that the author was building up to reach some spectacular culmination... gets completely tossed out the window as if it never mattered in the first place. The ending reads like a slap in the face, as if the author is laughing at the foolish reader who wasted their time reading all 264 chapters just to get trolled.

You become attached to these characters and intrigued by the plot, all for nothing.

One of the most ironic parts of this manga is found in one character's lines. One of the characters introduced towards the end of the story is a fan of the MC's manga (the MC is an author of an obscure, unpopular manga before the zombie apocalypse). In reference to the MC, the aforementioned character comments on how "it's so sad for an author to be forced to end his manga in a way that he wouldn't have wanted".

Are you serious? it's almost as if the author knew that his manga was going to have a garbage ending. I CANNOT possibly believe that this author thought this was a good or even satisfactory ending.

To conclude, I want to remind you that this really was a great story before the sudden end. While I won't tell you not to read it, Just remember this warning and expect to have almost no questions answered.

Thanks for reading!

SOME SPOILERS: I wanted to read a horror manga for the first time so I started researching around, I came across this manga. I was hooked for the entire story. But, what I didn't like was the ending, to be honest, when I got to the ending, I didn't even know it was the ending, I kept trying to figure out where the next chapters were when I realized that WAS the ending, it was probably one of the most inconclusive endings I've ever read. I had so many more questions about the things that happened, ahem.. Hiromi and her relationship with Hideo being covered, promises that were made that were never brought back up again (boat man), or what happened to Kurusu. But a pot full of gold with a rock in it does not ruin the gold. The art in this manga is magnificently grim and fits the tone perfectly when it needs to, the characters are likable down to the very last side character, and its got more twists than I can count, the Evangeleon like creatures make it different from just your average "zombie eats your brains because hungry," type zombie story. Overall I think it's definitely worth the read even with the sour ending.

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.

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.