アイアムアヒーロー, Vol. 17

I Am a Hero

by Kengo Hanazawa, 花沢健吾

東京・池袋、中田コロリ編!

売れない漫画家、鈴木英雄の日常に、ある日突然終止符が打たれる。噛みつかれると食人鬼のようになってしまう謎の奇病が発生。「ZQN」と呼ばれる感染者たちが街に溢れる。そんな中、英雄は女子高生・比呂美と出会うが、彼女は半感染状態に陥る。御殿場で出会った小田が感染後、死亡する中、東京・池袋では、大ヒット漫画家、中田コロリらが、高層ビルを基地として過ごしていた…

Genres: Manga, Horror, Comics, Seinen, Comics Manga, Zombies, Fiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published May 29, 2015

About the author

Kengo Hanazawa (花沢健吾 Hanazawa Kengo, born January 5, 1974) is a Japanese manga artist known for his seinen works. He won the Topic Award of the 2005 Sense of Gender Awards for Ressentiment and was nominated for the 3rd, 4th and 5th Manga Taisho for I Am a Hero.

Reviews

[Tawfek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this volume and i am really hoping that Kengo is not prolonging the inevitable with useless stories.
Each story not about Hideo and Hiromi has offered something so far right?
The Italian zombies showed us the Hives the zombies are making and semi confirmed that this is actually an alien invasion also it showed us how zombies communicate together and we had a look on the rogue zombie that saved the little girl.
The kurusu story offered insight on the kurusu band we have heard about over and over again and we found out that their leader is actually another rogue zombie.
But its not enough really...
I want him to use all these side stories for his finale i want them to be relevant i want him to meet korori and meet the little Italian girl and save her i want him to meet kurusu ezaki and i want him to meet and probably fight kazu now that would be epic and deserving of a five stars whenever he finally makes ends meet but will he?
we have to wait and see.
another thing i would like to talk about is uncut penis (the manga) Hideo was unlucky with his debut manga it didn't sell well but from what we have heard so far from people who really appreciate manga is that it was actually pretty good and as korori said a precious manga which is sad really because he already wrote something pretty good he shouldn't be trifling with stupid stories trying to make something that will appeal to the masses he should be doing what he was really good at people will come around eventually.

[Jon Ureña · Rating 4 out of 5]

Between three and a half and four stars, but I’m feeling magnanimous.

We last left our charming couple of a thirty five year old schizophrenic and a zombie high school girl as they cruised the coast towards Tokyo, but the author makes us focus on a completely new sub-group. This late in the game, in volume 17 of 22 (pretty sure the series has been completed), I don’t like having to divert my attention from the characters I care the most about. The author has been guiding every initially separated sub-group towards Tokyo, probably for a final confrontation of sorts, so I know that the new people we meet are going to be relevant, but it still annoys me.

We begin following a scavenging unit venturing into downtown Tokyo, I’m guessing one of the most dangerous places in Japan during this apocalypse. They are well equipped and seem to have been dealing with zambos for a while, due to their confidence. The leader of the unit is a perverted mangaka that keeps inserting comments about some occasion in which he groped someone, and also speaks with a thick speech impediment. Despite how much it should have clashed in tone after a heavy volume like the last one, the absurd contrast between these people fighting for their lives and this guy nonchalantly making such comments about stuff he should have been charged for ended up being entertaining. Along with this generally harmless predator we have another male scavenger, who despite respecting the pervert for his fighting and leading abilities, he keeps complaining about the inappropriate comments he’s forced to hear. Curiously, though, the third member of this unit is a girl in her maybe early twenties, who doesn’t react at all to the numerous stories about sexual assault. In fact, she doesn’t react to anything. I thought in the beginning that it was a way to develop her through contrasting expectations, but it was an elaborate setup for something else.

As they are coming back to base with some loot, they find out that they’ll have to deal with a bunch of zombols. The pervert, leading the unit, shows why the others respect him: he deliberately attracts the attention of the zambos so he can drive them up a building and then parkour off the roof onto an elevated highway. The zambos, dumb enough, just fall off the roof. The unit seems mostly nonplussed about this activity, which suggests that they’ve been dealing with these mortal threats for a good while now. However, a zambol lands on the highway close enough to the pervert. It’s an animated corpse dressed like a scavenger, with weapons still attached to his belt. The unit identifies it as a “combat-type” zombo: a competent scavenger who turned, and now is a major pain in the ass for the survivors. He pursues the unit, falls for the traps they set up, and in the end they manage to decapitate the zambo somehow (I already forgot). However, as they are happily sauntering away, the zamb stands up headless and reveals in its torso a new mutated face which keeps operating the infected body. The members of the unit are disturbed, but still fight the mutant in mortal hand-to-hand combat; any drop of blood from the zambol going into their mouths or some open wound, or just staining their eyes, could infect them in a couple of minutes. They dispatch the zombie competently. As the creature lies on the ground, the female scavenger, who doesn’t wear a mask, finishes it, and a drop of blood hits her cornea. She wipes it without any particular worry. The unit laments that they had to abandon their weapons for that stunt, and return back to their base in the mid to upper levels of a skyscraper.

The author isn’t dumb nor believes his audience to be, so he won’t pull off something as improbable as an already hardened scavenger failing to use a mask against these creatures, only to get infected and then not tell anyone as she’s coming back to base. This woman must be a spy of sorts for the alien invaders (because we learned that this conceptual problem must have been produced by intelligent extraterrestrial agents), or she’s just a lucid zombus trying to stay on the side of humanity. In any case, the rest of her unit clearly doesn’t have a clue.

We see that the zambos, following probably some alien directive, have taken the mutant, combat-type zambo’s head, they have decapitated a random zombie and put the previous fella’s head on that newly open neck. Shortly after, the new zomb reanimates.

When they get back to base, which they have to access through extensible mechanical stairs similar to the ones firefighters use, we get to learn the dynamics of this hardened group of survivors, pretty much the only kind of community that can survive for a long time in this new world. The pervert, who leads the unit, gets chewed out by his superior (who looks suspiciously like Freddie Mercury) for abandoning his weapons. The superior orders him to come back and retrieve them as soon as possible. During lunch we see that there is resentment between the people who risk their lives to venture out and get supplies, and the children and the very old people who can’t do much. One of the soldiers, who by his own admission had been unemployed for around ten years before the apocalypse hit, harasses a kid and two old people because he now understands that whoever doesn’t break his back shouldn’t get to eat.

We keep following the pervert and his sidekick as they transport goods up and down the many flights of stairs, because the elevators don’t work or they won’t use them. There’s a helicopter on the roof, guarded by two masked, armed and attractive women who seem to be bodyguards and/or consorts to the local leader. When the pervert, his sidekick and the infected female scavenger get to approach these women as they are taking a break, the pervert offers one of them money in exchange for her used, moist, probably delicious smelling stockings. The woman, without particularly caring, tells him to fuck off. This was a curiously misleading setup for something else that happens later.

In the middle of it we learn that the sidekick and other guys are attempting to enact a coup d’état against the local leader, who is imposing himself as the prophet of a new religion. The sidekick approaches the pervert again hoping that he’ll support the rebellion and then lead them, but the other guy says that he only cares about things going back to normal so he can do stuff like drawing manga and groping women on the train.

Later on, as these guys are pissing, for which they keep going to the bathrooms despite them having to piss into bottles and then empty them on the zombies many stories below, the guy pissing next to them turns out to be the leader of this group. He’s a dude maybe in his early thirties, with his hair dyed blonde and who constantly wears a raincoat. Not only his general look but his facial features pretty much guarantee that the author modeled this guy after fellow author Inio Asano (creator of “Oyasumi Punpun”, "Solanin", "A Girl on the Shore", and some other stuff), probably my overall favorite mangaka. I heard he was a personal friend of the author of this series. Still pretty weird, though. An Inio Asano manga is also featured in the live action movie of this series, although it is passed as belonging to a fictional author.

In any case, this alter ego of Inio Asano asks the pervert again to agree to create a manga of his teachings; as mentioned, Asano attempts to erect himself as the prophet of a new religion, although he’s very clear about it being a ploy to keep power for himself and probably his future descendants, now that people don’t seem to be sustaining the previous religions, and the very few remaining humans could use a savior. And he is this group’s savior in a practical sense: the helicopter belongs to him, and he seems to be the only one able to fly it. Given that the zambios don’t fly, this man is now one of the most powerful people on Earth. Curiously he refers to himself as a prophet of despair, a tag that applies perfectly to the author of the depressing, heartbreaking “Oyasumi Punpun”. Must be fun to put fictionalized versions of your friends in your stories, and to read yourself in a friend’s story as an active character. Must be nice to have friends.

Later on, the zumbofied female scavenger approaches the leader’s two bodyguards and offers one of them food in exchange for her used stockings. The bodyguard isn’t bothered by a woman asking for them and doesn’t particularly care what she would be using them for, so she agrees. Alone, the zambo scavenger reveals that one of her legs is a mass of infected flesh, and she intends to use the stockings to hide the evidence. We cut to a memorable flashback of this young woman’s origin story. She was a student (maybe high school, maybe college) who had lost a leg in an accident of some sort and was resting in a hospital room, feeling despondent because of the mutilation and stuff. But then the zombo apocalypse hit. Her doctor, now infected, burst into the room, grabbed her arm, checked her pulse, and then bit her. She was more confused than anything. Given that she was already infected, the other zambos left her alone as they ravaged through the many patients and staff. This now zembafied woman, feeling like crap, laid down in bed and hallucinated/rested her way through the initial feverish state of the infection. She came out of it with a new mutated leg where the lost one used to be, and her mind intact. One thing is being a survivor who can handle a helicopter, and another is being infected but lucid: you get superpowers, the zombies don’t give a shit about you, and you feel superior over the puny regular human survivors. No wonder she’s unfazed by everything.

Later on, the local commander orders the pervert and the rest of his unit to retrieve the weapons they abandoned. However, shortly after they leave, seeing that the pervert’s unit is taking the long route, he forces a couple of his own men to venture out and retrieve the weapons themselves: the pervert will lose standing and maybe die along the way. Cutting back to the pervert’s unit, as they are scouting the area they see a bunch of discarded mangas. The pervert, caring little about anything not involving sexually assaulting females, or about manga in general, browses through the pile and recovers a copy of the manga the protagonist of this series, Suzuki Hideo, created ages ago. He gets nostalgic over it; as the pervert had published his stuff around the same time, and he knew the protagonist personally, he remembers him as a lost hero of sorts. This guy must be the weird mangaka that was hanging around back in volume one when the protagonist was pitching his new series. In any case, they see that someone has tagged one of the houses, which means that there’s a new group of survivors around, and suddenly they meet the pigtailed, gas masked student from Kurusu’s group, who asks them for help. It looks like an ambush.

The last shot is of the protagonist and our dear zambo high school girl. The high schooler is riding a bike with the protagonist on the back; neither knows how to drive cars, and the girl has more endurance due to being zambofied. In any case we are going back to our main people. No matter what they have to face, in fiction it’s always a pleasure to hang out with characters you like; a particularly needed joy during this shitty week with my mother in the hospital, on top of the general despair about my own health and work related troubles.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The storyline in this volume is exactly the kind of reason that made me stop watching "The Walking Dead" series. First, I see no future in story development. It's the end of the world as they know it. Doomed lives. The end. Second, there will always be change of place and time as excuse by author to create more characters, to prolong the series. This trick already bores me. However, I still like the detail of the drawings. So I will continue following this series.

[Ignacio Senao f · Rating 2 out of 5]

Se ha estancado y pierde el tiempo con historias paralelas de usar y tirar.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un po' noiosetto questo volume

[Sascha Vennemann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nach dem starken letzten Band startet die Story wieder einmal mit neuen Figuren in einem neuen Setting, das allerdings einem anderen bereits erzählen Story-Strang sehr ähnelt. Bis auf die religiöse Komponente kann Band 17 daher kaum etwas Neues bieten, wobei die Actionpanels und die optische Aufbereitung des neuen Spielortes wiederum toll gelungen sind. Trotzdem ein eher mittelprächtiger Band.

[Vittorio Rainone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nuova deviazione dal percorso del protagonista iniziale della serie, ma questo volume segna una deviazione solo apparente, ed è chiaro nelle ultime pagine che quello rappresentato qui è l'ennesimo insediamento umano in cui il Nostro e le sue amiche si imbatteranno. Insediamento in questione: una organizzazione gerarchica che si basa su due gruppi, uno di supporto per i vettovagliamenti, l'altro per la sicurezza interna, più altolocato, ma meno mobile e pronto all'azione contro gli ZQN. Una situazione instabile che si regge solo grazie al pericolo esterno. Il protagonista del numero è un fumettista con una certa tendenza a comportarsi da maniaco nei confronti delle ragazze: al solito Hanazawa cerca di dipingere un mondo mediocre che lotta per arrivare a scelte adulte. Una catena di piccole rivalse che costellano gli insediamenti umani, e che si riescono davvero a superare solo quando si hanno di fronte gli ZQN. Storia interessante, anche se forse i rivoli in cui si perde, e le costanti e nuove scoperte senza spiegazione dell'universo degli zombie, iniziano a stancare, senza l'apparenza di un filo comune che li faccia tendere al prospetto di una risoluzione. Comunque un fumetto che si fa ancora leggere con piacere.

[Juan Carlos malik · Rating 3 out of 5]

¿Para qué leer I AM HERO 17?

1. Para conocer otra particularidad extraña muy rara de los ZQN, que hasta ahora no conocíamos, y te va a dejar sorprendido.
2. Hay una frase que puede significar mucho en la trama o sera una pista del final, ya necesito el siguiente tomo.
3. Continua la acción y la pela contra la supervivencia.
4. Conocemos otra dupla de personajes, que se van a encontrar con nuestros protagonistas.
5. Para continuar descubriendo como una historia de muertos vivientes puede ser muy original.

Lo malo:
1. La historia de este tomo es muy lenta.
2. Los momentos cumbres están casi al final.

[Jesus Flores · Rating 3 out of 5]

This books is about the new people on last pages of previous one. A group in a building where the leader is trying to form a religión around him, with división in clases and hint of a power struggle.
Not really that interesting, no new info here, except for the zombie head change.

On the last page we see the main protagonist riding a bike. So that means next book will hopefully retunr to the main plot

3stars

[Paulina ෂ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Los enfoques dentro de las escenas y el dinamismo tanto en las acciones como en los personajes hacen que me vaya para atrás ¡son geniales y muy bien elaboradas! en verdad transmiten la intensidad de la escena.
Ahora bien, que he flipao con el contenido ... ¡uno de los "héroes", con sus crocs bien puestos, logra escapar de un zqn de batalla! (A mí no me engañas Kengo, nadie puede hacer tantas acrobacias cuando usa crocs xd). Pero ya en serio, me gustó bastante que los personajes hicieran uso de los objetos cotidianos como armas, ya que no todos poseen este tipo de materiales (caso contrario de Hideo).
Con lo que sí se me fue la cabeza (no pun intended) fue con el trasplante hecho por los zombies ¿qué demonios es lo que está pasando? ¿qué se traen con la secta? ¡¡¡¿¿¿y también resulta que si eres de los híbridos (cuasi-infectados) te puedes regenerar???!!! ¿qué explicación hay detrás de esto?
Por último, después de un tomo sin ver a nuestros protagonistas, al parecer los tres grupos, los cuales nos han dado a conocer, se reunirán ¡¡muero por saber qué es lo que va a pasar!! sobre todo porque si no mal recuerdo, cada grupo tiene a su zombie "especial".

No sé qué es lo que Hanazawa haya tenido que hacer para crearse este pedazo de historia, pero que bueno que lo ha hecho.

[Hisham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this earlier on but his weird interactions with women even underage is disgusting, I understand he's not the smartest but it's only been 12 days and he already moved on from his girlfriend that he killed and has sex with another woman who then dies and hours later he tries to get it on with a minor as a 35 year old I don't know if there's like some character development later I doubt it but even if there is this is still weird AF I really wanted to like this the reviews were all calling at great but I can't with how pathetic the MC is. I do give them credit for explaining why he barely has any schizophrenic hallucinations

[47Time · Rating 2 out of 5]

Remember the last time when the story shifted completely to characters other than Hideo? Stellar reviews on that one! And this volume sucks just about exactly as much. There's dissension in the ranks here as well, so extra points for originality. Korori, a former mangaka (I seem to remember another character being a mangaka), is one of the most experienced leaders there, but his superiors seem to want to weaken his position in the organization. He must be very careful about challenging them.

[Natilin Alpaca Saurio · Rating 4 out of 5]

DIOS MIO ESE FINAL, YA ME PARECIA QUE SE ESTABAN ABRIENDO MUCHOS FRENTES... Me olvidé de sacar las mayúsculas, bue.
Me gustaria saber un poco más de esta nueva organización, principalmente porqué aparece el EH OH(es que es igual no me jodas hahahajahha).
Me gusta mucho como el autor puede plasmar en muy pocas viñetas la personalidad de cada personaje, además que cada diseño es diferente(mas o menos) sin llegar a ser excéntrico o algo así. Esto obviamente es gracias al magnifico dibujo.

[Gustavo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este manga es uno de mis favoritos, tiene relaciones humanas muy realistas, de los mejores zombies que he visto y una historia excelente.

Me leí desde el #13 hasta el final hace unas semanas, reseña de todo el final en el tomo #22 (acá).

[Keely · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this volume rather boring. It added some new character who I don’t even know the names of and next to no background. I understand that it’s interesting to see how other people are doing in this situation, but I just find myself not caring about the characters.

[Amlan Chakraborty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really didn't enjoy reading this volume. This felt like a filler, than anything else. Would have given it a single star rating, but for the final chapter, which subtly promised interesting things yet to come. Or maybe I am reading way too much into a zombie manga.

[Juan Pablo · Rating 3 out of 5]

¡¡¡finalmente!!!

[Doremili · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un poco más pesado que los anteriores y no continúa explicando lo anterior.

[Shin Donghae · Rating 4 out of 5]

ada lagi alur cerita baru.
semakin ruwet.

[Biondy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Muncul lagi kelompok baru. Ndak mudeng saya sama ceritanya.

[Bernardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

excelente trama, cambios, giros, cuando parece que se va a agotar la temática surge algo excelente

[Seno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ceritanya fokus ke grup lain dan banyak tokoh-tokoh baru yang bermunculan. Ngomong-ngomong, aku suka sekali cover volume 17 kali ini. Salah satu cover favorit ku disepanjang komik I am a Hero tapi…..

Di cover-nya ada Hideo dan Hiromi tapi kok gak ada adegan itu di ceritanya? Malah mereka cuma muncul 1 halaman doang. Paling belakang pula. Grrrr!
Eh itu ada cewek yang mengalami hal yang sama dengan Hiromi dulu. Sudah digigit ZQN (zombie) tapi berhasil melewatinya dan tetap hidup. Hmmm penasaran kok bisa ya?
Korori ini ternyata temannya Hideo. Kayaknya di volume-volume awal gak pernah nyinggung nama Korori ya? *ubek-ubek volume sebelumnya*

[Camilo Guerra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Al principio no me gustaba mucho cuando nos ibamos de Hideo, para ver las historias de la invasión( ya, es Invasión, no infección) pero estas empezarón a dar mas y mas juego, permitiendonos conocer mucho mas del sentido de la enfermedad, de los tipos de zombies, de ataques y giros argumentales, por eso, ahora los acepto bienvenido, auque en este tomo...se siente una falta de fuerza, que traian lso pasados, y si bien, ese Freddy Mercury y Ino Asano me sorprendierón, no fue nada del otro mundo.

[Rici · Rating 4 out of 5]

Und wieder sehen wir andere Charaktere, und wie es denen bei der Zombieapokalypse ergeht. Weiterhin, wie kann man mit normaler Hausschuhen (so sehen sie aus) so rennen? Das möchte ich selbst auch können. Weiterhin erkennt man wieder, das dieses Zombie Virus wieder mehr macht hat als wie wir erahnen können; schließlich scheint es das menschliche Gewebe dazu animieren, dass es über eine Prothese wächst?