Written by: Kengo Hanazawa
Art by: Kengo Hanazawa
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
I Am A Hero is a zombie apocalypse story through and through. Now, now, don’t roll your eyes and groan in disdane quite yet, it is unlike any zombie apocalypse tale I have yet to see so far (and with the market as saturated as it is, that’s quite a feat). The story follows Hideo Suzuki, a 30-something manga artist assistant who’s down on his luck, with a job he dislikes, unfulfilled dreams and to say his relationship with his girlfriend ‘is on rocky shores’ would be like calling the Titanic a bit damp. Suzuki is also incredibly paranoid, believes in the supernatural, thinks he is a supporting character in his own life, fantasizes about conversations with his co-workers and see faces where there aren’t any in the night.
But you don’t want to know about that (yet), lets get the zombies out of the way first. The progression of the outbreak is very gradual, with the pacing of it nearly matching that of Shaun of The Dead, you hear one story on the news, maybe see an isolated attack in the far background and it gradually increases, with suspicious activity until you get the ‘I went to bed and I woke up at the end of the world’ sort of scene.
I do like that the manga does shows the transition into zombihood as being very slow, the person getting more and more aggressive and sick over time. Not only that but we get to see the effect that this has on the victim’s loved ones, which brings a new edge of mild horror to a worn out concept.
Let’s talk about the real central tenent of the story, Hideo Suzuki. I find it hard to not like this character, through the imagined conversations he has with people in his head you see passions and facets in his life that would otherwise not fit into the flow of the story such as the effect of Rock music on him during his teens. Hideo is presented as someone who strives to be someone who’s better, who’s more liked and more interesting to people who he measures himself against, but lacks the drive to do it due to years of set backs and failures. What you see is a character at the end of his rope, someone who’s just about holding on and it’s presented beautifully with both the highs of him mucking about with his girlfriend and the lows of him lamenting over his editor telling him his pseudonym is too hard to say.
By no means is Hideo a good person however, he does tend to be a bit misogynist and does things like go to singles mixers despite the fact he is in a relationship. For me though I think this all comes together to fleshen out his character into a believable person, someone you can picture existing in real life and can identify with different aspects of yourself. Aside from Hideo the book is filled with characters who, on the surface, appear to be qute throw away but as the story progresses turn out to be interesting and quirky, such as Hideo’s fellow manga writer Nakata.
We see a diverse range of interactions between characters from serious tones to awkward moments to rare goofy exchanges, and they are all done flawlessly. Not once did I catch myself thinking that lines were over-dramatic or underwhelming nor did I ever think that the drama was being put on too thickly. I think that Hideo’s tendency to bottle up problems, and how well that is written, is the main cause of this. Truly, the success of finding and hitting that sweet spot of matching tonality to scenario every time is deserving of some fine praise as I have dropped many an otherwise excellent manga for failing.
I am A Hero really stands out for me as it is actually just like a manga Hideo himself would write. Hideo is often told that his main characters don’t have much charisma or agency, that they often give up half way through with the world just happenning around them and that they would fit more of a side character role. Hideo and his girlfriend argue that that’s what makes them good characters and what allows readers to associate with them more than other series protagonists. If you were to take out the imaginary conversations Hideo has in his head, he would be a perfect side character and the fact that his girlfriend appears to be more of a main character in the first book than Hideo says allot. One could even argue that Hideo is actually an anti-hero in the first volume, having little to no agency most of tthe time and relying on others to make decisions for him.
In volume 2 the zombie outbreak starts full force, I won’t go into much detail for spoiler reasons but there are some amazingly touching scenes and Hideo’s inability to tell hallucination from reality adds an interesting dynamic to his realisation of the situations. The manga continues to deliver on great character centered story telling and isn’t watered down by the addition of zombies.
The art of the series is pretty exceptional, it puts me in mind of Hiroya Oku’s Gantz series, although thankfully with a fraction of a fraction of the gore which I always felt was gratuitous and got in the way. That’s not to say there isn’t gore in this manga, Zombie apocalypses and gore go hand in severed hand after all, it’s just that it’s reserved so that when it does happen, it means something. Aside from that, the Zombies are incredibly difficult to look at, with varying degrees of body horror being shown, all of them with sunken eyes and covered in pronounced varicose veins.
I Am A Hero has restored quite a bit of my faith in manga as a story-telling medium. If the first omnibus serves as any indicator of later volumes I would gladly put it up alongside Naoki Urasawa’s Monster in quality, although people will likely be turned off due to the slow pacing. With amazing character building and a solid set up to support it, I Am A Hero should definitely be on your list of series to check out.
