{ "id": "ept5erq7vf", "slug": "i-am-a-hero-2016-film", "title": "I Am a Hero (アイアムアヒーロー) (2016 film)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror", "label": "Horror films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.zombie-films", "label": "Zombie films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.zombie-films" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror", "label": "Asia (other) · 2001 to 2020: Horror films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror", "path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001", "label": "Asia (other) · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror", "label": "Horror films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror" } ] } ], "excerpt": "I Am a Hero (アイアムアヒーロー) is a 2016 Japanese zombie film directed by Shinsuke Sato, adapted from Kengo Hanazawa's manga, starring Yo Oizumi, Kasumi Arimura, and Masami Nagasawa; it earned 1.6 billion yen and five fantastic-festival awards.", "snippet": "I Am a Hero (アイアムアヒーロー) is a 2016 Japanese zombie film directed by Shinsuke Sato, adapted from Kengo Hanazawa's manga, starring Yo Oizumi, Kasumi Arimura, and Masami Nagasawa; it earned 1.6 billion yen and five fantastic-festival awards.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.zombie-films", "markdown": "# I Am a Hero (アイアムアヒーロー) (2016 film)\n\n**[I Am a Hero](https://www.edgepedia.org/i-am-a-hero)** (アイアムアヒーロー) is a 2016 Japanese zombie horror film directed by Shinsuke Sato, adapted from Kengo Hanazawa's manga of the same name, in which a timid manga assistant fights to survive an epidemic that turns people into zombie-like creatures called ZQN (ゾキュン). It was released in Japan by Toho on April 23, 2016, runs 127 minutes, and received an R-15+ rating for its graphic zombie violence.[1](https://eiga.com/movie/80485/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Release | April 23, 2016, distributed by Toho; 127 minutes; R-15+[1](https://eiga.com/movie/80485/) |\n| Director / screenplay | Shinsuke Sato; screenplay by Akiko Nogi, based on the manga by Kengo Hanazawa[2](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/6309) |\n| Lead cast | Yo Oizumi as Hideo Suzuki, Kasumi Arimura as Hiromi Hayakari, Masami Nagasawa as Yabu[2](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/6309) |\n| Box office | 16.2 (hundred million yen), ranked 21st among 2016 Japanese releases[3](https://www.eiren.org/toukei/img/eiren_kosyu/data_2016.pdf) |\n| Festival awards | Five awards across the Sitges, Porto, and Brussels fantastic film festivals, plus an SXSW Midnighters audience award[4](https://avex-pictures.co.jp/lineup/73469/) • [5](https://cgworld.jp/feature/201605-cgw213-iamahero.html) |\n| Source manga | Kengo Hanazawa's series, over 6 million copies in circulation, serialized in Weekly Big Comic Spirits[4](https://avex-pictures.co.jp/lineup/73469/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot and characters\n\nThe story follows Hideo Suzuki (鈴木英雄), a 35-year-old unsuccessful manga artist working as an assistant to a more successful peer. His one distinguishing skill is a sporting shotgun license maintained through years of clay pigeon shooting. As a mysterious new virus spreads across Japan, his girlfriend Tekko becomes infected and turns into a zombie, and Hideo flees his workplace with his shotgun, sharing a taxi by chance with the high school student Hiromi and escaping from Tokyo toward Yamanashi.[6](https://www.wowow.co.jp/detail/109342)\n\nThe infected humans are called **ZQN** (ゾキュン), zombie-like creatures that attack the uninfected. Hiromi, played by [Kasumi Arimura](https://www.edgepedia.org/kasumi-arimura), has been bitten by a toothless infant ZQN, leaving her in a half-ZQN state: human enough to communicate, infected enough to share the creatures' instincts. [Masami Nagasawa](https://www.edgepedia.org/masami-nagasawa) plays Yabu (藪), a former nurse the pair meets at a survivor refuge in an outlet mall who acts with clear purpose and sees Hiromi's half-ZQN blood as potentially containing an antibody.[7](https://iamahero-movie.com/cast)\n\n## Production\n\nDirector Shinsuke Sato, born in Hiroshima Prefecture in 1970, had already made his name with live-action manga adaptations including the GANTZ films and the [Library Wars](https://www.edgepedia.org/library-wars) series, and he brought the same team to this film: screenplay by Akiko Nogi, cinematography by Taro Kawazu, music by Nima Fakhrara, and special makeup supervised by Kakusei Fujiwara.[8](https://db.nipponconnection.com/ja/film/228/i-am-a-hero) • [6](https://www.wowow.co.jp/detail/109342) The film was produced by Toho with a consortium of partners including avex pictures, [Shogakukan](https://www.edgepedia.org/shogakukan), Dentsu, WOWOW, and Hakuhodo DY Media Partners.[9](https://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=84605)\n\n**Large-scale overseas filming.** The production spent its budget on location work in Korea and collaborated with Korean staff on the large-scale special effects and special makeup, an approach reviewers credited with giving the zombie action a scale unusual for Japanese genre cinema.[5](https://cgworld.jp/feature/201605-cgw213-iamahero.html) • [10](https://www.cinematoday.jp/movie/T0019246/review) The special effects team included special effects director Makoto Kamiya and CG director Jun Doi.[5](https://cgworld.jp/feature/201605-cgw213-iamahero.html)\n\n## Reception and awards\n\nBefore its Japanese release the film screened at several international fantastic film festivals. At the 48th Sitges-Catalonia International Film Festival it won the competition section's audience award and the award for best special effects; at the 36th Porto International Film Festival it took the audience award and the Oriental Express special award; and at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival it won the Golden Raven, the top prize of the international competition. Counting these, the film took five awards across the three festivals commonly counted among the world's major fantastic film festivals.[4](https://avex-pictures.co.jp/lineup/73469/) • [5](https://cgworld.jp/feature/201605-cgw213-iamahero.html) It also won the Midnighters section audience award at SXSW in March 2016.[5](https://cgworld.jp/feature/201605-cgw213-iamahero.html)\n\n**Box office.** The film earned over 1.6 billion yen, ranking 21st among Japanese films released in 2016 according to the Eiren distribution tally.[3](https://www.eiren.org/toukei/img/eiren_kosyu/data_2016.pdf) • [4](https://avex-pictures.co.jp/lineup/73469/)\n\nJapanese critics received the film as a breakthrough for a genre long considered a weak point of domestic cinema. Reviewers for Cinema Today praised its unflinching gore, its shopping-mall siege sequences as homage to [George A. Romero](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-a-romero), and the casting of Oizumi as the hapless hero, with one writer calling it a masterpiece that would remain in world zombie film history.[10](https://www.cinematoday.jp/movie/T0019246/review) The film critic Tetsuaki Matsue, writing for Real Sound, highlighted the film's long single take early on, in which Hideo senses something wrong outside and the ZQN multiply until the world has flipped over, and argued that by following the newer virus-infection rule of zombie cinema established by works such as [Resident Evil](https://www.edgepedia.org/resident-evil) and 28 Days Later, the film avoided the parodic register that had constrained earlier Japanese zombie films.[11](https://realsound.jp/movie/2016/05/post-1667.html)\n\n## Legacy\n\nThe film established Sato as a leading director of live-action manga adaptations and became a reference point for Japanese zombie cinema. The underlying manga ran to 22 volumes and 265 chapters in its electronic complete edition.[12](https://media.vivion.jp/public/uploads/20221028_iamahero_pressfax.pdf) In later years the title circulated internationally on streaming platforms including [Crunchyroll](https://www.edgepedia.org/crunchyroll), and it was among the Japanese properties pitched to North American producers for potential series or remake adaptation.[13](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/i-am-a-hero) • [14](https://www.vipo.or.jp/u/report_R03.pdf)\n\n## References\n\n1. [アイアムアヒーロー 作品情報, 映画.com](https://eiga.com/movie/80485/)\n2. [JFDB - アイアムアヒーロー, Japanese Film Database](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/6309)\n3. [2016年（平成28年）興行収入10億円以上番組, Eiren](https://www.eiren.org/toukei/img/eiren_kosyu/data_2016.pdf)\n4. [アイアムアヒーロー, エイベックス・ピクチャーズ](https://avex-pictures.co.jp/lineup/73469/)\n5. [韓国スタッフとの協働体制による大規模な特撮＆特殊メイク、映画『アイアムアヒーロー』, CGWORLD](https://cgworld.jp/feature/201605-cgw213-iamahero.html)\n6. [アイアムアヒーロー | 映画 | WOWOWオンライン](https://www.wowow.co.jp/detail/109342)\n7. [Cast & Characters — I Am a Hero](https://iamahero-movie.com/cast)\n8. [Nippon Connection - アイアムアヒーロー](https://db.nipponconnection.com/ja/film/228/i-am-a-hero)\n9. [アイアムアヒーロー - 作品情報, KINENOTE](https://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=84605)\n10. [アイアムアヒーロー (2015)：映画短評, シネマトゥデイ](https://www.cinematoday.jp/movie/T0019246/review)\n11. [松江哲明の『アイアムアヒーロー』評, Real Sound](https://realsound.jp/movie/2016/05/post-1667.html)\n12. [『アイアムアヒーロー』とは, vivion press materials](https://media.vivion.jp/public/uploads/20221028_iamahero_pressfax.pdf)\n13. [I Am a Hero streaming: where to watch movie online?, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/i-am-a-hero)\n14. [令和３年度事業報告, 映像産業振興機構](https://www.vipo.or.jp/u/report_R03.pdf)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Zombie films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/i-am-a-hero-2016-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/i-am-a-hero-2016-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"I Am a Hero (アイアムアヒーロー) (2016 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/i-am-a-hero-2016-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[I Am a Hero (アイアムアヒーロー) (2016 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/i-am-a-hero-2016-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/i-am-a-hero-2016-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/i-am-a-hero-2016-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"I Am a Hero (アイアムアヒーロー) (2016 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/i-am-a-hero-2016-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "I Am a Hero is a 2016 Japanese zombie film directed by Shinsuke Sato, adapted from Kengo Hanazawa's manga, starring Yo Oizumi, Kasumi Arimura, and Masami Nagasawa; it earned 1.6 billion yen and five fantastic-festival awards." }