A very well-done psychological horror story so far. There's lots of gruesome zombie violence, of course, but just as unsettling are the sometimes chapters at a time when the main character is dealing with his own personal demons. The art is clean, realistic, and quite detailed, and the pacing is ace. Copious two-page spreads used to great effect. I'm just waiting for Hideo to finally use that shotgun he's toting around!

WARNING: A number of the comments below this one should be in SPOILER tag, as they spoil the ending for you. This comment does not contain spoilers.

This is a mixture of NHK and Kiseijuu. It's truly an epic read. The manga starts really slow and picks up I around volume 5-6. Towards the end it becomes hard to put down. This is nothing like the movie, which is purely a Zombie flick.

The manga is about the journey of Heido as the world around him collapses due to unknown viral infection that is transmitted through the blood/saliva of the infected. In other words, usual Zombie like infection. We follow the main protagonist, an Otaku; though intelligent in some ways, when it comes to social skills and common sense he seems to be somewhat lacking. As well as being socially inept, shy, emotionally detached, he suffers from episodes of visual delusions. He also has strong desire to abide to the written law rather than the spirit of it, no matter how impractical it is in the current world. We follow him as he and his companion(s) try and survive in this zombie infected world.


Positive aspects:
The best aspects of the Manga are the internal emotions, lack of emotions, social interaction, relationships between humans and recalling of past events (flashbacks). I may have attacked the way the author deals with early reactions of government (below), but the way he portrays Heido, is fantastic. Heido suffers from emotional disconnection, which is truly captured in the last few volumes. He tends to run away from real world and his own emotions when things get to hard. But he tries to change himself and he does succeed sometimes.

Heido has an unhealthy obsession with being a hero as though it is a profession. Outside the DC/Marvel world "heroes" do not exits. People can be heroic and there is plenty of that in the manga. There were so many heroic acts by many (forgotten) individuals.

Other "side" characters also have a childish obsession with "heroes", either wanting to be one or seeing another as one. The biggest contrast is between Korori, who does not see himself as one but has a person whom he idolises as a "hero", and Hedio which wants to be become one. While both men are seen as "heroes" by others; the way they see themselves is not similar and by extension their emotional maturity, and the acceptance of one's fault and personality is also different. This in a black humour sort of way, is shown in the last few volumes. I cannot find the right words for it, but as you read the manga you may understand.

One thing I have to say but you will not understand unless you read it,I am glad Korori Had he, I believe the manga would have ended differently.

Negative aspects:
Though I said the Manga's Hideo is less stupid in some ways, he is still a total retard. In fact most of the Japanese population seem to be retarded. Even after several days the people still seem to behave in a blissful unaware fashion. And why in God's name do they not notice infected people, with veins all over their face and stuff. They just continue as normal and only react when several people get taken out and the SHTF. The first guy having his face bit does not garner reaction, it has to be a few before people react. Even the police, who one would think would be the most informed and react the fastest are absolutely useless. Slow is an understatement for their inability to respond in a timely fashion. Also no one seem to convey what is going on to others, they just shout in pain and talk about random daily stuff. Why didn't anyone try explain to those around him their ideas of what is going on, instead of vague statements like I was attacked by crazy people. Even after 3 days and city after city falling, the media pretend nothing much is happening. This much worse than being an incompetent government, they are in cahoot with the virus. A totally unrealistic reaction from the government and the SDF.

Another gripe I have is when Hideo's group are stocking up for food, they only get enough for one or two days, when one would think they should get as much as they can. They leave cash if they have any for the stuff they take, and avoided breaking into vending machines because its against the law in zombie apocalypse. On top of that they are afraid of the law catching up with them because they killed infected people in self-defence. It's OK to kill someone who is trying to kill you, that is the case in every nation on earth. If it was just him, I can say it is a quirk, but he is with a group seem to have the same follies. So there are lot of small things like this, that rub me the wrong way.

The story line has a tendency to time jump and we seem to miss highly interesting sections, like what happened in Chapter 54 in the car. Can't say much without spoilers. These parts skipped were heading in a great direction and would have been interesting to see how things went down. It kinda leaves you guessing.

Final note; some people have complained about the ending, I disagree. The ending is masterful. It's bitter, but also very sweet. Heido truly changed, and all shown in just the latter half of the last chapter. It is satisfying.

... Last updated on September 20th, 2018, 9:25am

I am a Hero started as one of the best modern manga, managing to carve its own personality in an overcrowded genre with great characters, an interesting twist on the zombie formula and a well written story. It was so good that it became a huge commercial success, and with it came one of the downfalls of such manga: filler. It made so much money that the author was forced to stretch the story way beyond his possibilities, first opening way too many sidestories and then just plainly releasing entire volumes with nothing happening at all. Some of the later volumes have several pages of copy-pasted close-ups of character faces and meaningless text dumps.

The pace picks up towards the end with the author finally moving the story forward and interesting events unfold, with an original take on the origin of the zombies. But then the manga is abruptly brought to a terrible "end", if it can even be called that way. Nothing is resolved, the multiple sidestories are ignored; we don't even get to see what happens to one of the main characters!. It's the worst and most rushed ending I've had the displeasure to read.

The only possible explanation for this non-ending is that Hanazawa simply got burnt out and just wanted to be done with I am a Hero, completely destroying what once was a great story in the process. A real shame, but probably the Japanese manga industry is partly to blame.

Avoid this if you don't want to feel terribly disapointed after a very promising start.

... Last updated on May 5th, 2019, 5:52pm

It starts off as a slow slice-of-life... then BAM, the end of volume 1 happens. It just goes uphill from there; I really like how it shows the development of chaos and how it deals with Hideo's mental health. Very realistic and very disturbing.

Perhaps my only beef with it is its slow plot development. However, that is easily offset by the awesome character development. Definitely can't wait for more.

The ending is not very good... For the manga to be such a rollercoaster, the last chapter doesn't do it justice. I am disappointed. It would be a perfect 10/10 if not for the ending.

Unlike the normal Biological Zombie Apocalypse you see nowaday, this setting is bio-mythical plague. It infect by bio means, but there's a mythical component to it.
It's a rare thing in this genre.

It takes to the middle of volume 2 to get going, though~

... Last updated on May 4th, 2015, 10:53am

Hell this is one good manga, the beginning was very psychological, I thought it was one of those society-describing manga, but the sudden turn at the end of Volume 1 completely changed my mind, and everything made sense. It's very psychological and very addictive, a very well-thought and very well-paced horror manga, with deep characters, great, realistic art, it's a page turner.

I definitely want to see what will happen next.

... Last updated on November 19th, 2010, 3:24pm

I don't understand. Why did the author end the manga where it was? There was basically no conclusion and very little explanation for what went on. It was an incredibly random and disappointing ending. I wish I never read the last volume. This was such a depressing manga to read in the sense that first several volumes were so good, but everything went downhill afterwards.

Don't get me wrong, I thing this is the best quality of a story you can get from a zombie apocalypse. The only thing is that the author commits too much in details in each episode, making it a slow story. Anyways; you should give it a chance if you'd like to read a masterpiece.

This is happening a lot, a bad ending ruining the whole series to the ground... Frankly I'm so frustrated and tired of reading endings like this one, that I'm gonna be quick with this.
Every story as a whole has to have a introduction, development and a conclusion/ending. Each as to be near the same level as the others for the sake consistency, but here we have = 9 - 10 - 4(don't even know how to rate the shitty ending). Without spoiling the ending is pretty much a disappointment along this lines: You are enjoying the story and when it gets awesome Hideo(main character) trips while walking, falls to the ground, breaks his neck and dies, end of story. Now imagine reading 22 volumes and meet a conclusion along something like that. Apocalypse no Toride was the same damn thing...

... Last updated on March 4th, 2017, 7:50pm