I Am A Hero

Traveller

Has anyone been reading this?

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/i_am_a_hero/

The main character is a 35-year old manga assistant, who suffers from hallucinations and psychological issues. It starts as a weird slice-of-life type of story of his daily life with his girlfriend, ambitions etc. but then takes a very strange turn with

! zombie apocalypse breakout. I mean, it's hinted in the news reports in the background, but the one image where
! his girlfriend has turned into a zombie and breaks through the door is a huge WTF - moment.

I recently caught up with the latest chapter and now am eagerly waiting for more. It's from the same guy (Kengo Hanazawa) who did Ressentiment, a manga that I also read a while back.

Silverblade

Ah! I do remember this one when it was just beginning its publishing. However, at that time no scanlations were made, so I forgot about this manga. Although, I have heard it became really good and had good sales.

With 20+ chapters released, this is a must read.

Pochipochi

I wouldn't say I Am A Hero is incredible, or the epitome of my tastes or anything, but it is basically a lot of things I really look for and enjoy in manga and what makes the seinen demographic so appealing to begin with.

I was enjoying it from the getgo, but its "crazy" twist you mentioned basically ensnared it on my interests for at least a good while just to see where everything winds up.

Most impressive was the horror angle is actually pretty well done.

stephen

Ahh, someone translated this? Good stuff. Hanazawa's on some good shit.

No Maam

So wat did the guy do with his significant other after that whole incident ?

Traveller

@No:

So wat did the guy do with his significant other after that whole incident ?

He just left her there after

! cutting her head off

I guess, since he was on his way to turn himself in.

I hope he brings out shotgun skills in the next volume.

Traveller

Volume 3 just got uploaded into Mangafox. A big thanks to everyone involved, can't wait to read how the story continues from here.

THE SEA

I am rather fond of this manga.

Jacko

I've read all 34 chapters and its really good. I would like to know on which drugs the mangaka is.

! zombies that run fast are the worst

Tony Tony Chopper

Looks great. About to read.

Gokuyuske

This is really enjoyable so far. Thanks for posting it.

! I love the clues that get dropped about what is going to happen

dirt monkey AL

DAMN IT

Why'd you make me read this when there's only three volumes out, and now months to wait for the next volume to come out (since they seem to only be doing entire volumes)?

BigLuffy559

Volume 4 is out.

! That was kind of a crazy volume. Those zombies are pretty scarey. They reminded me of Silent Hill a little bit. Hideo got bit by Hayakari in the same place that his girlfriend bit him. I bet he is eventually going to get bit for real, but die in a heroic way.
! The zombies not being completely mindless is kind of different from what I am used to. It kind of makes things more disturbing when they actually have to be killed. Hideo is obviously still haunted by having to "kill" his girlfriend and wondering "are they dead or not?" probably makes things that much harder.

Aohige_AP

I enjoyed Ressentiment, but dropped this long ago.
I don't like having nightmares.

Bucephalus

Been waiting anxiously for Volume 4 since December of last year.
Great volume. The girl really balances out Hideo's character, and it's pretty great to see how flawed Hideo himself is.

I can't help but wonder where the series will go. It seems like everything and anything is fucked to high hell. At a certain point they've got to stop running and find some sort of safe haven, which I'm sure exists somewhere.

Hope that someone starts to scan this shit regularly though… six months is too fucking long to wait for a new volume.

BigLuffy559

I definitely enjoyed having a character for Hideo to play off of. I liked all that psychological stuff that was going on in his head when he was alone too, but having another human to interact with is nice. I just hope she doesn't die really quick.

Traveller

Now I gotta catch up on both Ressentiment and this one. There goes my afternoon!

[edit] Read the final chapters of Ressentiment. I loved the identity of "Ehara", although the ending was a bit anti-climatic.

[editx2] I like Andymori, 9mm, and Asian Kung-Fu Generation too!

! also loved the reaction of the hanged zombie had for his family picture.

projectelf

I just read the entire thing. It's kinda different from the usual zombie apocalypse thing, but definitely interesting. But the first few pages with those heads from nowhere were seriously scary as shit.

Bucephalus

Something I didn't really get is the scene with those assholes in the car. Did they stop again (making it easy for the zombies to devour them)? Or were they just gradually accelerating away at such a speed that the zombies could catch up? I sure as hell hope they weren't driving away a decent speed because you're pretty much fucked when you have zombies capable of moving faster than a moving car.

Also I doubt the girl will die in the foreseeable future. I feel like the end of the series will either be 1) the zombie disease just spontaneously disappears, leaving Hideo and the rest to pick up the pieces, 2) Hideo and his companions help find a cure (though this one's pretty dopey and overused), or 3) Hideo sacrifices himself in the last few chapters in order to save a lot of people. But I'm sure it'll be something different. Kengo's a pretty unique author, as seen alone in his approach of a zombie apocalypse.

Glowstuff

Interesting, just started reading yesterday.

Is that an accurate description of some of the things mangaka go through? If so, Kubo must be one of the ones using manga as a stepping stone…

Traveller

Couple new volumes got released. I'll spoiler just in case.

! It looks like Japan is going through some tough times. It's still surprising to me that people are that thick to react to this kind of outbreak and refuse to realize what's going on. I really liked the chapter with the 2ch comments narrating the events, though.
! And it was quite sad what became of Hiromi. Although she seems to be not fully infected, but some sort of hybrid with some? most? of her intellect intact.

I edited my post accordingly.

Silverblade

I am a Hero is released by Illuminati Manga and/or by Gantz Waiting Room.

Mangareader doesn't release anything. They just greedily aggregate manga translated and edited by other people and slap their watermarks in the corner.

Wait, they do horribly translated and sloppily edited releases of One Piece, Naruto and Bleach. I guess I should rephrase that.

Mangareader doesn't release anything of value. They just greedily aggregate manga translated and edited by other people and slap their watermarks in the corner.

But thanks for the notice. Will read this sweet thing in the evening.

Bucephalus

This series is really great.

I'm really interested in seeing what's going to happen to the girl. The second I saw her zombified in the car, my heart dropped twenty stories; I couldn't believe something so horrifying could happen. But she's still sentient in some sense. Interesting.

also it is really lol that no one gives a shit that is the zombie apocalypse. A woman got her head devoured in front of a crowd and people are like "haha cute! is that a monkey??"

IceBorg

This post is deleted!

Rogues' Gallery

@Bucephalus:

also it is really lol that no one gives a shit that is the zombie apocalypse. A woman got her head devoured in front of a crowd and people are like "haha cute! is that a monkey??"

Just started reading, finished all current chapters in one go last night. Must say that Hiromi is my favotite character so far.

The general public is so full of ridiculous Lulz it outweighs the zombie horror and borders on satire.

Traveller

Volumes 7 and 8 are released!

! And shit just got real. What a great rescue! I wonder where they're gonna go from here on.

IrishLuigi

It really frustrates me how the people in the manga are so inept at understanding the zombies.

I'm like 'THEY ARE FUCKING ZOMBIES, MAN!' most of the time whilst reading.

Do the Japanese actually not know much about zombies?

Traveller

Oh, and that athlete zombie freaked me out. It was great how they were like "Lol, that guy almost jumped this far" and then he did. I loved when he began the motions of asking the audience for applause.

Bucephalus

What a horribly sad ending.

I love this series jesus christ. I was wondering where Iura was, and when he showed up on that roof… wow...

I love how this series can make an apocalypse sickeningly hilarious and then expose its dark, utterly depressing moments within only one chapter.

I wonder what's going to happen with the Doctor girl; her hand is scraped pretty fucking bad and she was getting nose bleeds...

Rogues' Gallery

Luxor

So that Murai guy just leaves his bacon? >.>

Bucephalus

So I guess we're completely caught up to the Japanese volume release now… sort of sucks because it means no more huge bundles of chapters, but maybe this means that we'll be getting a regular release? Would be awesome if someone picked this up and scanlated it weekly (or is this monthly?).

By the way, for anyone loving this series: Hanazawa is the shit. I encourage everyone to read Ressentiment. It's really nothing like I Am A Hero, but it's utterly fantastic and deeply depressing (but in a good way).
Boys on the Run is quite good too.

pyromonki

@Luxor:

So that Murai guy just leaves his bacon? >.>

I found his death rather strange since he apparently landed in water? But what he did was honorable, he didn't want to come back empty handed I guess.

But oh man, that olympian Athlete had me dying in laughter. I can't believe those dumb kids acknowledged what he could do, and still let him go.

After shooting a marathon through this series, I have to say that I'm really impressed by it all. The subtle hints, the character development, the humor is all top notch.

The story was actually pretty believable up until that mass group of people meeting at the Mountain. There's no way they couldn't have noticed those people getting their faces ripped off.

I'm also pretty surprised at the way the zombies are handled. For example, how Hideo's girlfriend bit the door hard so she wouldn't infect him, and how she fought off the other zombie so he could run. It's a refreshing pace as opposed to zombies just being completely brainless.

Tsukishima

@pyromonki:

It's a refreshing pace as opposed to zombies just being completely brainless.

Clearly the zombies in this manga are one of his greatest strength, the fact they still keep a part of their consciousness truly add to the overall creepiness of the manga. I found them even more frightening than your regular zombie, plus it leads to some interresting development, those two zombies lovers that ate each others while kissing in the taxis, this Olympian athlete… Priceless!

Takaho

Volume 9 has been uploaded onto Batoto.

! Here there be nightmare fuel.
! When they zoomed in on the calendar, I thought it was a food delivery…little did I know. Goodness.
! That final scene actually, where he doesn't tell Oda about the pregnant woman reminded me a lot of 28 Days Later where the main character kills a rage infected child, then leaves and says everything was fine.
! Fantastic volume all the same.

Traveller

I know it sounds very silly, but if there would be a zombie breakout, this is pretty much I'd imagined it would go down. With people watching on youtube, disbelief, general disarray of things… Maybe I should pick up clay pigeon shooting just in case?

About the new volume:

! I love how they gave a high-five after finding a working vending maching and money from the car.

By the way, is there any way to buy this anywhere? Has it been released in the US? A website I know mostly deals with VIZ stuff. I'd love to have at least one volume in my bookshelf, just as a form of appreciation since this is probably one of the best mangas I have read and eagerly wait continuation.

Takaho

Unfortunately I haven't seen any sign of it being available in English which sucks really. I'd love to have it on my bookshelf too.

BigLuffy559

! Not my favorite volume, but I liked the interaction between Hideo and Tsugumi. And that guy, Kazu, seemed to be on a research trip for Hideo's manga serialization. Kind of interesting to get a glimpse at the rest of the world. Seems like it will be a worldwide thing.

pyromonki

@BigLuffy559:

! Not my favorite volume, but I liked the interaction between Hideo and Tsugumi. And that guy, Kazu, seemed to be on a research trip for Hideo's manga serialization. Kind of interesting to get a glimpse at the rest of the world. Seems like it will be a worldwide thing.

I found it strange that

! Kazu only got scratched and turned zombie, but Hiromi didn't….

BigLuffy559

@pyromonki:

I found it strange that

! Kazu only got scratched and turned zombie, but Hiromi didn't….

! Isn't the way Hiromi got infected because the baby scratched the back of neck? Or did she get bitten? I don't remember. I guess there are multiple ways to spread the virus. Biting is probably just the easiest and most common way, since it is almost sure to break the skin and swap bodily fluids that contain the virus(or whatever is causing this).
! Plus, Hiromi seems to have a partial immunity seeing as she isn't full blown zombie yet.

pyromonki

@BigLuffy559:

! Isn't the way Hiromi got infected because the baby scratched the back of neck? Or did she get bitten? I don't remember. I guess there are multiple ways to spread the virus. Biting is probably just the easiest and most common way, since it is almost sure to break the skin and swap bodily fluids that contain the virus(or whatever is causing this).
! Plus, Hiromi seems to have a partial immunity seeing as she isn't full blown zombie yet.

! Yes that's right. Hiromi got scratched, and got infected, so she partially turned.
! Kazu got scratched and he went crazy…. what was the point of that anyway?

BigLuffy559

@pyromonki:

! Yes that's right. Hiromi got scratched, and got infected, so she partially turned.
! Kazu got scratched and he went crazy…. what was the point of that anyway?

! I guess the author wanted to show that the epidemic was outside of Japan as well. It also showed that Kazu had a connection to Hideo, so maybe that will become important in the future.

Cruithne

I wonder how long it's gonna take for someone to actually bite Hideo. It's pretty obvious it's immune since he got bit, and it didn't break the skin (and the author's made a point of having him look at it a bunch of times).

Also, this has got to be the most engrossing manga I've read in a long time.

Traveller

Volume 10 is translated!

http://www.batoto.net/comic/_/comics/i-am-a-hero-r907

! I liked the switch of focus a lot. So it's basically message board nameless heroes against zombfaqs, then? I guess I gotta get me a crossbow instead of slitting my wrists, when the invasion begins… and I wonder if removing that nail will change her behaviour?

DartG

! Its nice to see some new characters again. Leave it to 2ch shut ins to be badass in a zombie apocalypse. Oda seems a tad bit weird, almost childlike, but quickly changes her attitude when need be. I guess we're going to see another base type arc?

Chicken

! Kurusu is a fun character. Though that is a given when you are a slightly unhinged, underwear-clad zombie slayer.
! Ganbare, "little sister" guy!

Bucephalus

that whole NEET part was quite possibly the best thing I've ever read in a manga

this is an amazing series

hope that 2ch gang becomes part of the main cast because they're fucking great

Hiroy

What's fun about this series is that I can pick it up at any volume and follow what's going on, while enjoying it. I love the whole chatroom approach so far.
edit: Noooo! the volume ended! More!

Bucephalus

i think its really sort of interesting how accurate that part was

because in the event of a zombie apocalypse, it is pretty likely people would be holed up on 2ch or 4chan

pyromonki

I think the best part was when some other guy came in using that "I love my sister" username.