I am a hero vol 1 by Kengo Hanazawa

Hideo is dissatisfied with his life as a manga assistant. He used to have a running serial, called Uncut Penis, but it got cancelled after only a few issues. He has his share of eccentricities and probably several social anxieties. He thinks he can see evil spirits in his apartment and often talks to one of them. The only way to get rid of them is to form a prayer circle with wholesome manga and textbooks around him. Hideo's girlfriend will cook delicious food for him and be intimate with him. She gets bit by a little kid on the way home from work and no one thinks anything of it. When Hideo comes to her apartment the next day, he can’t believe she’s been turned into a creature. He’s pretty sure it’s because he had to pull an all nighter at the manga job, not that there are actually zombies trying to eat him. The whole building might be scary zombies, or they might be figments of his imagination.

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The beginning of this is very slow-burn storytelling. The entire first half is about him at his job and living his life, with little sprinklings of people being bitten as reported by the news or in some passing conversations. Hideo and his girlfriend are both very eccentric, and they're both susceptible to alcohol. She is a little crazy and aggressive when drunk, which might lean into why he doesn’t believe she’s a zombie when she turns. Hideo is also extremely unprepared for any sort of emergency like this, and he forgets until the very last page that he has a shotgun. This is definitely not a typical zombie manga, and Hideo is far from a typical protagonist. Some readers might identify with him because of his anxieties, but he doesn't have many redeeming qualities.

Dark Horse rates this for Older Teen, but I would venture that it is a little more adult than that. There is a lot of conversation about sex throughout the first half. One of Hideo's coworkers continues to creepily hit on a female coworker, and he's convinced that she's sleeping with the boss. When she becomes a zombie, she goes after other men's penises because she turns as she's performing fellacio on the boss. Hideo's girlfriend performs fellacio on him underneath the table, so you don't see anything, but it's clear what she's doing.

Sara's Rating: 6/10
Suitability Level: Adult

Publisher: Dark Horse
Publication Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 9781616559205 (Paperback)

​Tags: Rating: 6/10, Suitability: Adult, Manga, Horror