Sweeten your zombie apocalypse with just a hint of high school girl drama.
Creative Staff:
Story/Art: Kengo Hanazawa
Translation: Kumar Sivasubramanian
English Adaptation: Philip R. Simon
Lettering: Steve Dutro
What They Say:
The strangest zombie-survival series continues! Having avoided being eaten by his zombie girlfriend and torn apart by his infected co-workers, Hideo Suzuki continues to head away from civilization and the bloodthirsty hordes taking over metropolitan areas in Japan. In a “suicide forest” that winds up being just as dangerous as the city, Hideo finds a young girl who needs help—and who could also help him more than he realizes! Collecting two of the original Japanese volumes into each Dark Horse edition, this value-prices excursion into the world’s weirdest zombie apocalypse is not to be missed! Also the basis for the recent international hit film!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The first omnibus for I Am A Hero was strange in that it establishes the main character’s constant state of neurosis only to have it take a backseat come the second half of the volume when the zombie outbreak begins to take shape. To classify those two points as mutually exclusive from each other would be untrue, so to go full-on zombie-apocalypse mode come that volume’s end not only makes the story indistinguishable from any other zombie story out there (of which there is a TON), but it also removes the sole factor that made the first half interesting in the first place: Hideo’s overactive imagination and neurotic way of thinking in general.
Thankfully, this second omnibus is completely aware of such and slowly brings back in what made the first omnibus unique to begin with. Though it’s a rather slow, meandering process in getting there.
Still in the city as it goes to hell thanks to the zombie virus outbreak, Hideo mindlessly makes his way through the carnage happening around him. Due to how over-worked he’s become as a manga assistant and his general state of mind, however, he is still under the belief that said apocalypse couldn’t be happening. While this concept works on the short-term, akin to those classic black-and-white cartoons where the baby crawls its way through a busy construction site without a scratch, to stretch this out for multiple chapters is excruciating. Gags like being self-conscious about carrying a gun on the subway as a zombie attacks a neighboring person, or paying for the taxi fee when the driver has crashed his car don’t land as well as they could if only because the buildup to that point was unnecessary.
It is only once Hideo escapes into the wilderness of the forest that the story begins to gather its bearings, shifting focus from the outbreak as a whole to Hideo’s frame of mind. Without anyone to travel with and cut off from civilization, his questioning of the zombie outbreak feels more deserved, as his imagination slowly gets the better of him the longer he stays isolated in the forest in the middle of the night. The story’s occasional slow beats finally work for the better, as full-page spreads of Hideo alone in the forest better bring home just how lonely he’s become not just in the literal sense, but from the perspective of his own mind as well.
This sets up Hiromi’s introduction perfectly. A student that’s part of a school trip, Hiromi is a high school girl living out high school girl problems, in particular the simple fact that her peers are constantly insincere not only with her, but with each other. Flashbacks of her school life and interactions with her classmates during the start of the trip only better demonstrate this point, Hiromi merely tolerating the petty attitudes surrounding her.
Finally running into Hideo in the forest, Hiromi pairs up with him, Hiromi realizing that Hideo’s mindless babbling about zombies holds more water than she initially thought. The dynamic between the two isn’t a perfect pairing of polar opposites you’d expect from a thirty-something and teenager, but their dynamic does work in that together, the two have more of an idea for what their next move should be, feeling less aimless than most zombie-survival stories. And now having finally acknowledged the danger their world has become, we finally see the first use of Hideo’s hunting rifle in the story—a well-deserved setup that receives a surprising amount of attention once it’s mentioned.
With that much attention to detail, I Am A Hero omnibus 2 leaves off an a far more positive note than its last volume, better establishing how realistic its world and its people can be when handled properly.
In Summary:
While the first omnibus of I Am A Hero left off on a sour note, settling into some very standard zombie tropes and distancing itself from what made its earlier chapters more charming and unique, omnibus 2 begins to find a groove between the two. Hiromi as Hideo’s travel partner and means of better grounding Hideo’s sometimes frustratingly wishy-washy behavior keeps the story from treading water, and while the two aren’t enough of polar opposites to serve as each other’s foil, I do have confidence that the duo will provide some solid interactions come future installments.
Content Grade: B-
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Manga
Release Date: October 25, 2016
MSRP: $19.99