A common issue I hear when discussing the topic of manga with people is the sheer length of most series. To be fair, when thinking of how many volumes there are in many popular series such as Naruto (72), One Piece (93-), Fairy Tail (63) or Detective Conan (96-), it is no wonder that many people can find the prospect of reading and (heaven forbid) collecting manga to be intimidating.
However, I would point out the myriad of manga that consist of only a single volume. As with any industry, releasing continuous content in a franchise typically has diminishing returns. Not many people will buy volume 56 of a series without owning the previous 55 and you are always likely to lose a few readers with the release of each volume.
One-Shots are also a logical way for a mangaka to begin their career with very little economic risk. Even established mangaka produce One-Shots when they wish to be more experimental or have an idea that might not work as a long running series. For the reader, One-Shots can be a satisfying experience since the whole story is contained in a single volume.
One of my favourite manga is Pink, a One-Shot manga by Kyoko Okazaki. Featuring an atypical but nonetheless appealing artstyle, it is set during the Japanese economic bubble and follows Yumi who works as an office worker during the day and as a prostitute at night. This allows her to live a materialistic lifestyle, not uncommon at the time but also to feed her pet crocodile.
This extravagance is very chilling, reminding us of how we can attempt to use materialism to cover up our emotional issues and desires. A theme such as this might be problematic in a long running series as it could drain the reader or even lose its way but a One-Shot is perfect for this, allowing us to absorb this theme without confusion. For further details, check out my review.
Another manga showcasing the strengths of the One-Shot format is Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths by Shigeru Mizuki. A semi-autobiographical work, it is set during World War II on New Guinea. Depicting the Japanese side in the conflict where soldiers were instructed to die rather than be captured or return from a losing battle, it reveals the harsh disregard for life that the Japanese soldiers were subjected to, by their commanding officers.
If this work, featuring harsh themes, was a long running manga series, it would likely degrade the message of harshness that the manga depicts by necessitating that the main characters survive. Instead, in this short work, we are treated to the realistic nature of how soldiers would die from disease, conflict and environmental threats and the indifference shown by the higher ups.
It is important to be aware that, rather than degrading your manga experience as so many people seemingly believe, One-Shots can instead enhance it. By depicting stories and themes that could not work or would be difficult to tell in long running series, they act as an affordable and time efficient exploration of the manga medium, whether by already devoted manga fans or manga neophytes.
You can purchase Pink and Onwards Towards Our Noble Deaths at BookDepository.com
I love one-shots, there’s little risk of me regretting purchasing a single volume that I might not end up liking, and I often find myself blind-buying one-shot manga because it’s more economic as you mentioned. I’m also currently in the process of swapping out my long running series for omnibus volumes (just sold my entire collection of Berserk) because I find investing in good quality omnibus volumes to be more, well…economic!
Blind-buying one-shots is a very interesting way to consume manga. It kinda reminds me of people who listen to the full albums of music artists. You’ll come across some songs you don’t like but you’ll also come across plenty of things you like that you may not have tried before.
Exactly, i’m like that with music as well. If I really like a song by a band then i’ll buy the album that that song is on, and then often find that there are other songs on the album that may have not been released as singles that I like even more than the actual song that bought the album for in the first place!