I am a Hero Omnibus Volume 1 (I Am a Hero, 1)

Product Information

Fanservice: Invoked by two men in a stolen Ferrari who offer Hiromi a ride if she takes off the pants under her dress because she needs to "show some ass". The manga ended in a deeply moving and intelligent way. From the beginning to end, the main character represents cultural HERO of the enlightened age, Robinson Crusoe on his (mental) island. The main character's end and beginning are the same, but with a very meaningful difference emerged in between: all the other people from the city are gone to the collective world of ZQN. In a way, all the other people already were like zombies to him. The collective mind will keep on as one, without sacrificing two-for-the-sake-of-one, in contrary to what the main character keeps on doing. The manga sets the deep question about the meaning of civilization and culture, of individual and collective mind. The return-to-nature ending is a way of ending civilization and culture, in the collective consciousness which could be seen as the perfection of collective life. In the end the civilized-cultural technical individual keeps on doing his mechanical tasks: farming land, making weapons and killing animals to please his hunger: to sacrifice nature to himself. He only communicates with lifeless monuments and treats them like living beings, as does the civilized man of letters who keeps to himself and his books. Mechanical person is a schitzophreniac, who has lost his touch with other people and nature, and keeps on sacrificing it. In the end he is a punished by ZQN by abandoning him to survive on his own, because he's not worth rescuing from himself. The main character represents pessimism against mechanico-individual human culture, while the ZQN-collective represents optimism for the collectivo-natural animalism. This doesn't mean the manga is purely opting for the ZQN, since there is also the third medial option of the islanders: close-to-nature small community living, rising children, creating art and fishing with simple tools. This represents another kind of island-living, as opposed to the robinsonal city-heroism. The Robinson-Hero of mechanico-technical enlightenment is shown to be cut off from nature and communal ties to his fellow humans: he pointedly keeps on living in his city-wasteland, because his city originally already was a wasteland in his schitzophrenical individualism. The real being of this robinsonal hero is and always will be city-wasteland, not an island: he is an island in himself, and so his city already always was wasteland as the place void of other people, a deserted city-man in his habitat with his fields, guns, lifeless monuments and technical ego. Technically Living Zombie: However, the infection gives them the unnatural resilience more often associated with traditional zombies, and increased strength to boot. After death, these zombies will generally become the undead type if they aren't killed in a way that destroys the brain stem ( damaging the upper part of the brain does not appear to be enough, from what happens with the jumper who takes out the Gotemba Outlet Mall survivors.

Book Ends: The series starts with a long-winded introduction detailing Hideo's daily routine before the Apocalypse. It ends with a long-winded epilogue detailing Hideo's new daily routine after the Apocalypse has ended.

Eating the Eye Candy: Mitani never misses the news. Not because he cares what's going on, he just likes to slobber over the anchor ladies. They are the first clues that something is extremely wrong. Mangaka: There's a lot of them, always discussing about the future of the industry, as well as the envy it shows within the editorials, or criticism, toward popular genres, and doujinshi. Bittersweet Ending: Humanity survives, but only just, and by the end a lot of the main characters are dead. Hideo's entire mission is revealed to have been doomed from the start, and he fails spectacularly at saving Hiromi, with her joining the hivemind and only allowing him to live because she believes that stranding him on his own in the ruins of Tokyo is a Fate Worse than Death. However, Hideo is able to adapt to his new environment and even thrive. In the epilogue, he finds that a ZQC tower has given birth to an ordinary human baby girl. The baby girl grows up to greatly resemble Hiromi, he names her Hiiro, and lives his life content raising her as her father.

Police Are Useless: Lampshaded for laughs as Suzuki obsessive compulsively keeps mentioning laws long after they have nobody to enforce them. Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted with Mi-chan and Tetsuko, but played relatively straight with Hiromi. Shotguns Are Just Better: Hideo's weapon of choice is a over-under double-barreled shotgun. Not that he has many options, considering how difficult it is to acquire a gun permit in Japan.Safe Zone Hope Spot: Played with relentlessly. There are several occasions where Hideo thinks he's finally found a safe place to stay for a while, only for it to turn out as anything but. Off with His Head!: Mitani gets decapitated by the landing gear of an airplane that's crashing down the street, seconds after experiencing Fingore. Covers Always Lie: Several of the covers feature scenes that don't happen in that volume. Particularly extreme with Volume 5, with a perfectly healthy Hiromi sitting in her underwear for no apparent reason on the cover. Throughout the entirety of the volume, she's not only fully dressed but also visibly infected and completely delirious. Chapter 181: Oda is bitten by a zombified baby. Knowing it is too late to be saved she grabs hold of it, sustaining even more injuries before...

What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Society is depicted at its most apathetic. And then there are the infectees who haven't completely lost their minds. Spit Take: Oda breaks the news of her pregnancy to Hideo, while he is eating noodle. Cue Hideo coughing and spitting (off screen), and a strand of noodle hangs out of his nostril when he's done. A Form You Are Comfortable With: The Hive Mind chooses to represent itself this way to those who end up enveloped within it, but still aware of their existence as individuals. For Hiromi, it looks like a Message Board. A uniquely weird Seinen series. Features realistic artwork that switches from funny faces to grotesque ones with outstanding impact. 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.Enemy Civil War: Some of the Infected kill both humans and other Infected. A minor character suspects that this may be because of a civil war among the aliens who started the disease.

Body Horror: After the person turns, the face and body get distorted and bloated, and the limbs can turn in unusual angles. And later on, we see zombies made of several bodies fused together. Cursed with Awesome: If the infection doesn't turn a person into a zombie, he/she is given Super-Strength, Healing Factor, while retaining most of their personality. Furo Scene: Chapter 164. The series still somehow manages to contrive giving Hiromi and Oda a chance to take a bath at a small hot spring. All the while Hideo is holding off an increasing number of zombies headed towards them. Sinä päivänä kun epidemia räjähtää käsiin, Hideolla on sattumalta mukanaan harrastushaulikkonsa. Japanissa kenelläkään ei ole aseita, joten zombeja vastaan taistellaan lähinnä veitsien ja pesäpallomailojen avulla. Tässä tilanteessa Hideon status nouseekin kohisten muiden silmissä, hän kun on ainoa, jolla on mahdollisuus ampua päälle rynnistäviä zombeja. Hideo on kuitenkin pelkuri, joka selviää hengissä lähinnä pakenemalla ja tuurilla. Mutta kun Hideon seuraan liittyy muita selviytyjiä, saa hän vihdoinkin syyn muuttua paremmaksi, rohkeammaksi ja urheammaksi ihmiseksi. Vasta kun yhteiskunta romahtaa, on hänellä mahdollisuus nousta oman elämänsä sankariksi.Blood-Splattered Innocents: Hiromi, soon after meeting Hideo. When a suicidal zombie decapitates itself, she ends up covered in its apparently partially coagulated blood. Itse juoni etenee suht loogisesti. Alkuun Hideon harhanäyt hämmentävät hieman, mutta kun jatkaa lukemista, pääsee kyllä nopeasti kärryille, mitä ”todellisessa” maailmassa tapahtuu. Välillä myös hypätään muiden kuin Hideon saappaisiin, mikä tuo mukavasti uusia näkökulmia zombie-epidemian leviämiseen. Kyseessä on kuitenkin kaikkialla maailmassa leviävä pandemia, joten on hyvä, että myös muiden maiden kokemuksia väläytellään. Matkan aikana kuvataan muutaman ihmisen yritystä pysytellä hengissä mahdottomassa tilanteessa. Ruokaa ja tarvikkeita on saatava, ja sitä varten on otettava riskejä. Tästä seuraa luonnollisesti se, että myös ihmisten kieroutuneimmat puolet nousevat esiin. Puhumattakaan loppupuolen visioista, jossa zombius kehittyy aivan uudenlaiseksi elämänmuodoksi. Välillä mietin, mitä tabuja Hanazawa oikein on nappaillut, niin häiriintynyttä kamaa sarjassa on mukana. Esimerkiksi pedofilia ja raiskaukset eivät tunnu enää missään sen jälkeen, kun hän on päässyt kunnolla vauhtiin. Takashi also maintains most of his mental faculties after being infected, and his interactions with another infected imply that they still maintain some self-awareness after turning, though he briefly succumbs to their violent behaviour once he realizes Kurusu killed a member of the group he had a crush on. He even goes on to become the leader of the group of survivors he was part of. It's also implied that Kurusu had actually been infected for quite some time before Takashi joined his group, which would explain most of his Psychopathic Manchild personality. Distant Finale :The last scene in the final chapter shows an older Hideo eking out a solitary existence in the ruins of Tokyo. Aloitettuani lukemaan tätä sarjaa en voinut lopettaa, ennen kuin olin päässyt viimeiseen sivuun asti. Tämä on ehdottomasti yksi kaikkien aikojen parhaista mangoista, joita olen koskaan lukenut. Se on myös onnistunein kuvaus siitä, miten zombie-pandemia leviää tuhoten lopulta lähes koko ihmiskunnan.