I AM A HERO IN NAGASAKI

Reviewed 21 May 2022



'I am a hero in Nagasaki' is a spin-off of the ever beloved 'I am a Hero' comic. Set in Nagasaki, it follows a young man named Yamada and young woman named Aya at the start of the outbreak, and throughout the story, we set out to find out what a hero really is. And if a single failure determines your character.



So Yamada is a young man in his late teens who quit high school in his first year and is now an amateur photographer. he hangs on to the dream that he had with his childhood friend with whom he has a bittersweet relationship as a result of an incident that occurred in that first year. Aya by contrast is a popular high school girl with prodigal talent for physical activities. following the zombie outbreak she decides to become a hero as a a way of atoning for ending the life of a dear friend.



So, at the point when they meet up, we have two characters that are seemingly opposite but enjoy a mutually beneficial friendship. Even though Yamada continues to be pathetic, his faith in the idea of a hero is restored by Aya's actions. And Aya, for her part, gets to enjoy the role of hero, because protecting Yamada means that killing the zombies is a necessary act, and not just needlessly ending lives. Unfortunately this premise and the way that it is developed is just so completely and utterly boring.



Unlike the other spin-off, 'I am a Hero in Osaka', the narrative focus here is Yamada and how his past and present combine to restore his lost ideals. This is ok. it's not exactly exciting but it'll do. After all, I'm just here to see zombies get killed. As the story goes on, it's revealed to the reader that a bullying incident involving his friend is what made Yamada the man he is today. I'm not gonna go into much detail about the incident but just know that it couldn't have been more cliché if it tried. Normally this isn't a problem but with the amount of time and dialogue awarded to this uninteresting and frankly poorly executed storyline, it becomes a real problem. The longer it goes on, the more flaws you recognise. And for such a short comic, it goes on a lot longer than it should. Which is how it lends itself to the second problem...



The lack of action. Part of the reason why so much of this review is levied against the the plot, it's development etc is because that's really all there is to it. Which is a shame, considering that the comics' best moments are when we actually take time away from Yamado's thoughts to Aya killing zombies or even the antagonist just being a bad person. literally any scene involving those two is infinitely better, but the moments are far and few in between. And even then it's not like they're all great or even good. A lot of them tend to be just barely above mediocre.



At this point we may as well talk about the main antagonist, naked guy Naked guy isn't just naked, he's also ruthlessly evil and very inconsistent. He starts out as an eccentric character, playing off of Yamado's harsh realism. But as we see more and more of him it's clear that he's simply written to be the big bad and a lot of what he stands for is left severely undeveloped. Whole layers of his character are simply unexplored as we seemingly rush off for an ending.



And that's really all there is to it. A lot of ambiguous moralising that leads nowhere, fast. The art is probably what a lot of people would commend this title for, but it really isn't enough to make up for this absolutely horrible read. If intent on reading this, maybe set it aside for an afternoon or evening but be warned that your reward for reading this is merely frustration and disappointment.