Catching up on a manga series like One Piece or Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is fun, but many long-running series start out as one-shots. This makes short manga an important part of the manga business. Still, one-shots and short comics are great ways to introduce readers to complex, engaging stories without making them spend a lot of time on them.
Fans of all kinds of stories can enjoy short manga series with interesting art styles, characters, and plots that have less than six volumes. Even though there are many short comics and one-shots that are worth reading in one sitting, these are some of the hardest to stop reading.
10. Solanin
Meiko has been out of college for two years. She works in an office and pays rent for herself and her boyfriend because his part-time job as an artist doesn’t pay enough. But Meiko thinks that life has more to offer, so she quits and starts looking for a new job. Meanwhile, her boyfriend Taneda focuses on his love of music to make the most of their new situation.
Solanin by Inio Asano is a two-volume book that tells a true story about becoming an adult and trying to balance work and life. Their story doesn’t shy away from the worst parts of life, but it also doesn’t forget how important happiness and friendship are.
9. The Gods Lie
The Gods Lie by Kaori Ozaki is about a sixth-grader named Natsuru Nanao, who isn’t popular but is friendly, and his unusual friendship with a peer who is raising her younger brother and herself in a run-down house because their parents don’t live with them. During the summer break, Nanao doesn’t go to soccer practice. Instead, he goes to see his new friend Rio Suzumura and experiences a young love full of affection and dark secrets.
Nanao tries to make good memories with Rio, and their situations make the one-volume comic easy to read and interesting.
8. Paradise Kiss
In Paradise Kiss by Ai Yazawa, the main character is Yukari Hayasaka, a normal high school student who tries to live up to her mother’s standards until she meets a group of fashion designers from an art school nearby. Yukari is inspired by their excitement, so she chooses to become a model and agrees to appear at their next show.
Yukari’s life is already hard because of her first job as a model, schoolwork, and fights with her mother. On top of that, she wants the attention and love of one of the designers. Paradise Kiss has five books, but Yukari’s journey to becoming a model is interesting from its unusual start to its sad end because of the drama, romance, and beautiful designs.
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7. Go For It, Nakamura!
Nakamura is a quiet gay high school student who loves his pet octopus and his friend Aiki Hirose. But Nakamura worries that no matter how hard he tries, he won’t be able to talk to the girl he likes. Friendship, let alone a romance, seems far away for Nakamura and Hirose, but Nakamura tries his best to bring them closer together because of how he feels.
Go For It, Nakamura! and its sequel by Syundei are fun boys’ love comics that are well worth the time it takes to read them. Nakamura’s love life seems like it will go on until he figures out what he feels.
6. All You Need Is Kill
The manga All You Need Is Kill is based on a light novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. It tells the story of a soldier named Keiji Kiriya who fights against aliens who want to take over Earth. Soon after killing his first stranger, Kiriya dies. But he comes back to life, starting a circle of death and rebirth that makes him and the leader of the U.S. Special Forces better fighters.
Memory, friendship, and resolve are at the heart of Keiji’s story, so readers can figure out what’s going on by the time the two-volume comic series is over.
5. Clover
Sue is a young girl who is known as a “Four-Leaf Clover” because she can quickly and skillfully use technology. After being locked up for most of her life to keep people from taking advantage of her powers, she gets a visit from an ex-soldier named Kazuhiko.
Even though Kazuhiko has been told to take Sue to an abandoned amusement park, he cares about her after he defends her and learns her story. Clover is an unfinished work of art, but the CLAMP series has four books that do a good job of showing the story’s interesting setting, characters, and ideas.
4. Uzumaki
Uzumaki is one of the scariest and most interesting comic stories by Junji Ito. In three books, it tells the story of a town that’s haunted by spirals and a couple who always seem to end up as the next spiral’s victims even when they don’t want to.
Kirie and Shuichi aren’t sure what’s going on, but they decide to look into it while trying to deal with their growing fear. But as loops take over their lives, Kirie and her boyfriend have to deal with how the scary pattern affects their safety and security in town, in their houses, and in their minds.
3. Dororo
A boy named Hyakkimaru was born without limbs and facial features because his father made deals with demons. He fights with prosthetics to earn his body parts back. Hyakkimaru meets a young thief named Dororo as he travels, and the two of them become each other’s homes.
Even though Dororo got a new version that added to the story, the original manga by manga master Osamu Tezuka is only four volumes long, making it one of the most important short manga series ever.
2. Tropic of the Sea
Yosuke’s family guards mermaid eggs at the local shrine in exchange for clean water and calm waves. But when Yosuke’s town starts building on the land, his father chooses to use the egg to bring in tourists and businessmen who don’t know or care about how valuable it is.
Yosuke is determined to do what his ancestors told him to do, so he tries his best to find the egg, make a mermaid feel better, and save his seaside city. Tropic of the Sea is Satoshi Kon’s first full-length book from before he became one of the most famous anime movie makers of all time.
Even though the one-shot is about a different topic than Kon’s cartoon work, it is an interesting read that shows how Kon’s interests changed as his career went on.
1. Shuna’s Journey
Hayao Miyazaki’s work with Studio Ghibli is known all over the world. But when he’s not making some of the most famous and loved anime movies with the animation studio he helped start, Miyazaki uses his skills as a storyteller to write short comic stories like Shuna’s Journey.
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In Shuna’s Journey, a prince tries to save his people from famine by finding golden seeds that grow in a dangerous, faraway place. Shuna saves people from being locked up and eaten by cannibals on his trips, but he stays focused on the job at hand. Even though Studio Ghibli hasn’t turned the one-shot novel into a movie, Miyazaki’s other works are just as interesting as his movies.
