Welcome to the first One-Shot Roulette! This column will be recommending a series of one-shot manga centered around a theme.
Samejimma Yaeko
“Ieva” – (41 pages)
Many people are familiar with manga but what is a one-shot? A one-shot refers to comics that are self-contained in one issue or chapter; they are often self-published.
Without the need to worry about things such as future plot points, marketability, or the sudden forced cancelation of their series, artists are instead able to enjoy working in a low-stakes environment where they can explore ideas, experiment with themes, or just manifest the story that their brain cooked up, while readers get to go through the grab-bag of one-shots!
Stories vary from short sweet four page romance to stunning eighty page narratives exploring a dystopian society manipulated by hope. At times the story is a standard well-executed narrative, other times it takes a horror concept and warps it into a heartwarming comedy, before flinging itself past the point it started at only to end happily after all.
The term “one-shot roulette” is often used to describe the experience of blindly reading one-shots. Similar to the varieties of stories, reactions to them are just as varied, maybe it’ll be similar to the poor despair captured in this conversation between two Reddit users.
USER 1: “I knew it, the roulette was too kind recently.”
USER 2: “Sometimes you get cute dinosaur angels, sometimes it’s this.”
You may get to read a cute story about dinosaurs and think, “greatest one-shot roulette pull of all time,” like another Reddit user, IC2Flier.
You’re never really certain as to what you’re going to get or where the narrative might go. The only thing you can be sure of is that you never know what you’ll get out of the One-Shot Roulette!
TATSUKI
“The Smell of Happiness” – (10 pages)
This week’s theme will be on the pets in our lives and the experiences we share with them!
DISCLAIMER: To preserve the experience of the column, tags and disclaimers have not been included for individual one-shots. Stories may contain suggestive or sensitive content. Discretion is advised.
Although these warnings have been removed, an emotional-stress level will be provided to give a general idea as to how straight-forward or intense the content of the stories are. It is more of an indicator of the amount and intensity of emotions.
One-shots are given points based on the story:
0: The story you see is what you’re going to get. A regular story with familiar beats.
1: The story contains a twist that’s less expected.
2: The story was made to play with your emotions.
To ease into the column, the stories this week sit on a nice middle ground with an emotional stress of 7 out of 12.
This edition’s theme will be on the pets in our lives and the experiences we share with them. Featured is “Ieva” authored by Samejimma Yaeko, but feel free to spin the roulette wheel for a true roulette experience!
Receiving an honorable mention in “Weekly Shounen Sunday” (a magazine which publishes on Wednesday), “Ieva” is unique even amongst one-shots.
Yaeko’s simple art style and shading work together to create a fairytale environment that works well to compliment the lens of our young protagonist. With its light-hearted humor and storybook charm readers are invited into how a child processes the loss of their pet as well as the human condition.
“Ieva” – Samejimma Yaeko (41 pages) – A cloaked figure has stolen Ieva’s precious pet rabbit! In order for Ieva to save her rabbit, she must follow him to a mysterious land past the dark trees!
“A Certain Scientist’s Observation Logs” – Oosaki Takahito (8 pages) – “…A strange creature popped out…Didn’t seem to want to attack or run away… I will continue to observe him for a while longer.”
“The Smell of Happiness” – TATSUKI (10 pages) – A dog’s happy journey through 1940’s London.
“The Life of a Black Cat” – Tatsunoko (4 pages) – A cat looks back on its life and family.
“The Cat That Lived for a Hundred Years” – Kita Ito (19 pages) – Do immortal cats dream of love and treats? (From the BOX! Kira Ito’s Short Stories Collection.)
“Pesu on my Head” – Yukimoto Shuuji (12 pages) – Oh Pesu, oh Pesu, where art thou dear Pesu?
Whether you have a cat, dog, or some strange alien creature, I hope these stories could resonate with your experiences! I’m going to go cuddle my cat, and I hope to catch you next time on the One-Shot Manga Roulette.