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I Am A Hero Live-Action Film Reveals Stills, Drama Prequel

The staff of the live-action film of Kengo Hanazawa's best-selling zombie manga I am a Hero unveiled 10 new production stills from the film last Wednesday (see gallery below). In addition, the film's website revealed a live-action drama that will serve as a prequel to the film. The prequel is titled I am a Hero: Hajimari no Hi (I am a Hero: The Day it Began), and it will premiere on Docomo's dTV streaming service on April 9, 14 days before the film's opening.

Shogakukan additionally announced on Monday that it is delaying the release of the manga's 19th volume to March 15. The volume was originally slated to ship on Monday. Shogakukan stated that there were errors in the book's printing data discovered during the production process.

TOHO previously streamed a trailer for the I am a Hero live-action film in December. The film will open in Japan on April 23.

The film premiered at the 48th Sitges Film Festival in Catalonia, Spain last October, and it won the Grand Audience Award and Award for Best Special Effects.

Shinsuke Satō (Gantz, Library War, Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror, Princess Blade) directed the "A-grade survival panic horror" movie. Akiko Nogi (Library War, Sayonara, Robinson Crusoe) wrote the screenplay, and VFX and makeup expert Makoto Kamiya (Gantz, Cutie Honey, Resident Evil: Degeneration, Resident Evil: Damnation) was in charge of special effects. Principal photography began in early June 2014.

In the original manga, Hideo Suzuki (played by Yō Ōizumi in the live-action film) is an aspiring manga creator who once struggled with discontent with his assistant artist job and his relationship with his girlfriend — until people started turning into undead "ZQN" creatures overnight. After he is attacked by his ZQN virus-infected girlfriend "Tekko," Hideo flees the overrun Tokyo metropolis with the shotgun he happens to own as a hobby. He travels with Hiromi (played by Kasumi Arimura), a high school girl whom he meets by chance, and they face the desperate situation with the help of a nurse named Yabu (played by Masami Nagasawa) at a shopping mall.

Hanazawa launched the manga in Shogakukan's Big Comic Spirits magazine in 2009, and its compiled book volumes have over 4 million copies in print. Dark Horse Comics will release the manga in North America starting in April. Yuuki Honda (Tokyo Yamimushi) launched an Osaka-based spinoff manga last June, which ended last December.

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Source: Comic Natalie (link 2) via Hachima Kikō