I Am a Hero Omnibus vol. 10

This has been a penultimate-y year for volumes, it feels like.  “Black Science,” “Paper Girls,” “The Wicked + The Divine,” “Curse Words,” “Prison School,” “East of West,” and “Happiness” are all series that have seen their next-to-last volume released this year.  You can now add “I Am A Hero” to that list and it’s one of the better ones, even after vol. 9’s ill-advised sexual hook-up.  Speaking of the quasi-happy couple, Hideo and Hiromi are now safely at sea thanks to the mercy of the fisherman who picked them up.  They want to head to Tokyo to see what has become of Hiromi’s mom, and the fisherman is okay with taking them. He just wants Hiromi to go down below deck and see if his ZQN-infected son can be saved.

That turns out to be the catalyst for arguably the most dramatic twist in the volume.  We get a new perspective on one of the most shocking scenes in the series and then on the ZQNs as a whole.  Mangaka Kengo Hanazawa finds a compelling way to render their communal mind which leads to some striking visuals high above the city, and the unexpected return of a character we haven’t seen since the first omnibus.  Meanwhile, Hideo has a final chat with his mental illness and prepares to save the girl he… Loves? Cares for? Stuck it in? Whatever the case may be, he’s set up to either make like the title of this series or die trying.

A sizeable portion of this volume is also given over to Korori, his crew and the other inhabitants of the office building as things go straight to hell for them.  The Kurusu Bakufu has arrived and they’re taking the absolute minimum number of prisoners. This leads to some of the most intense action of the series as the ZQNs storm the building, its defenders try to fight them off, and Korori and friends try to get in and get to the helicopter at the top.  It’s thrilling stuff that serves to send us into the final volume with the series firing on all cylinders (hopefully with at least one going right into Asada’s stupid head).