My Top 5 One-Shots in the Manga is US Issue

Written by Rei Caldombra 9/12/25 Video: TBD

Hello everyone, Rei Caldombra here to talk about the special issue of Young Magazine, Manga is US. This issue features 16 one-shot manga that are up to vote to be serialized in English. I really wanted to promote this (not sponsored) as it a really cool and fun event. And for free no less. I always want to celebrate more manga magazines being available outside of Japan as well, so I hope their expansion will be successful. I am not super familiar with Young Magazine but know of them for having manga that tackles more mature and diverse topics. You can read the one-shot manga chapters individually for free on Young Magazine’s website https://young-magazine-usa.com or the entire issue through Azuki’s website/app. If you “buy” it for free in Azuki before December 31st you can keep it permanently. You can also get the issue for free by visiting a Kinokuniya bookstore (as far as I know as of writing they are still giving it away). I hope I can get a physical copy in time. It’s awesome how much they’ve made this as accessible as possible. It gives the impression that they really do want to expand into the US and hear from those readers. The 5 that win will be serialized in English on Kmanga (for the people following my Omori chapter reviews, that’s where you can read it). 

These are my top 5 and the ones I am giving my votes to, but don’t take the order that seriously. I highly encourage you to read them for yourself and vote how you want, rather than just voting based on what someone you follow said.  There will be some spoilers obviously, but I will not go through each one detail by detail like a walkthrough. Just my general thoughts. Let’s get into it!

1. Is My Love Strange? - Hikari Azuma

A high school teen. A virgin. And someone who’s never fallen in love with a human boy.

Moko is a high school girl who has never fallen in love with another human. She wants to, but that special connection she feels is love was only felt towards stuffed animals. That is, until a student who comes to school wearing a stuffed rabbit suit who says they don’t like being a human boy enters her class.

I vibe so hard with this manga. I love series that promote alternative lifestyles, I have always found that interesting and also connects with my own values of diversity and embracing uniqueness. This manga looks to be diving heavily into love, sexuality, identity and self-acceptance. All of these concepts are ones that I enjoy and/or connect with. I love stories about characters trying to figure out who they are and what they want from life. These types of stories tend to feel very personal, whether it be through the author putting themselves on the page or just them evoking feelings very well, and I get that feeling from this one. You can really feel the tenderness of this story of two people who have struggled with being different. Especially with the panel I put below, this almost made me tear up. While each one’s specific identity is one a lot of people may not directly relate to, that isn’t required for you to emotionally connect with these characters and help you think about your own identity. I like these stories embracing and tackling these complicated emotions and states of being in a way that can be emotional and comforting. One way this manga contrasts heavily from the others is in the art style. While most of these 16 one-shots have striking, dark and highly detailed art, this one is the opposite. I think this style fits very well with the story it is trying to tell. I love detailed art, don’t get me wrong. But it is important to recognize how simplicity can also be very appealing and compelling. I really like this cute sketchy style that meshes with the focus on stuffed animals. It gives the youthful vibe and makes me think this could’ve been made by one of the main characters. I don’t expect it to win, but it would be my pick. If this one doesn’t win, I really hope it can come to fruition one day. I want to see more of the journey of self-discovery and love between these two kids and how they can fit together in a world that doesn’t seem to fit them.

“Thank you for finding a way to live how you are.”

2. The Graveyard Shift - Yoshimi Sato

The Graveyard Shift. Horror x Comedy?! Why are all these vengeful ghosts time traveling to the near future?

After 1000 years, the vengeful spirit of a Japanese warrior is released back into the mortal realm. Said vengeful spirit, Hachiro Moroshige Ondo, shocked by how different the modern world is, meets with a female robot named Alma 13 who is a former soldier.

I thought this one was very funny. The art is also fantastic. I love the shading; it makes everything pop and works great with the high level of detail. Hachiro looks striking in every panel. I love his design and the way he is drawn. I also love this mix of historical Japanese spirituality and futuristic military technology. We have two soldiers from completely different backgrounds, and one who is a soul and one who seems to not have one. I would love to see more of this world, the concept of past spirits haunting a futuristic world is very clever. This intruiges me way more than if it took place in the present day. The contrast between the setting of both the main characters, the art, and the comedy works super well for me. I’m also intrigued by both of them from a character standpoint. Hachiro is very much an asshole and overall bad person who wants to torture women and reap souls. But in his conversation with Alma 13 you get glimpses of other qualities, such as recognizing the strength of others (whether it be physically or of character), and his assurance that he is strong and capable shows obvious cracks. I think it would be fun to get into his backstory and dive into how he is overcompensating so strongly with bravado. Such as if it is entirely because he got destroyed by the female warrior of the past, or if it goes further back than that. This boisterous personality meshes well with Alma 13, who has that more low-key and matter of fact personality you typically see with robots while having some genuine desire for change and ability to have banter with Hachiro. Which gives us more to work with than many robot characters. The main thematic topic discussed in this one is the nature of what a soul is. I see a lot of potential for how this could be explored further in funny and interesting ways. This one catches my interest because of the comedy working for me mixed with the premise being genuinely intriguing in my eyes. I feel it has to chops to not exclusively be focused on comedy and stay interesting for me. This one-shot was a ton of fun and I’d love to see more of these two’s journey as soul-seeking frenemies.

Hachiro (the ghost) being scared by a human head speaking.

3. Pregnant - Story by Denchi Matsumoto and Art by Keita Nishijima

The heights of joy that childbirth should bring turn to hell in an instant! A shocking horror tale where the mother-to-be comes to kill her husband!

Hideo is a police officer who is in the most joyous part of his life- his child is close to being born. But all that joy crumbles to dust as his child calls out to him and tells him to choose between becoming a murderer or losing his wife. Will he comply, or will a mysterious organization come kill his child first?

With this one I’m intrigued by the moral dilemma that this story presents. I’m interested in seeing how this story frames fatherhood and other concepts around family and humanity. “What would you be willing to do to protect your family?” is a question that comes up often in discourse around topics of morality like self-defense, selfishness and laws. Despite the obvious fantastical elements of demons, the choices he is presented with in this story could have good potential for real world parallels. I see the potential in this one to be a story that appeals to me. This is also another one-shot in this group that has absolutely stellar art. I have full confidence that this art will portray the intensity of the story very well. This type of show usually isn’t one for me, being very dark, gory and depressing without a silver lining. But that is not always the case, like with series such as Death Note and Attack on Titan. I’m having more trouble putting into words why I like this one compared to the others on this list, but I just like it and want to see more. I get an itch for this type of thing every so often and maybe I’ve just got that itch now.

Bang!

4. Boys Run the Riot -In Transition- - Keito Gaku

A tale about a transgender high school taking on the challenge of a fashion brand.

Ryou Watari is a transgender man (female to male) navigating the struggles of that part of himself while pursuing his goals in fashion. He appears to have built a great circle of supportive friends and made great strides towards his goals, but not everyone close to him is as supportive.

This is the single one-shot in this group that is a sequel. Full disclosure- I have not read the original Boys Run the Riot. But based on the one shot for the sequel I am putting it on the to read list. This appeals to me similarly to Is My Love Strange?, in that I enjoy character exploration and positive portrayals of diversity. With the primary topic of Ryou navigating his trans identity and the difficulties it brings. The author states that they are a transgender man in the profile, and you definitely see that in the writing that this comes from personal experience and the place of wanting to educate and show the life of people in this community. You also see it in the character designs, which are really great. The anime + manga sphere has a tendency in my opinion to have very samey designs or unique designs coming from fantastical elements, so it is nice to see diverse designs in a down to earth and realistic way. Even outside of the conceptual diversity angle, it is just genuinely more interesting to see varied designs. In series like Demon Girl Next Door I have commented on how it’s nice to see characters with more outfits that make them seem more like living people with closets. I will not act as if I am constantly indulging in heavy queer focused media like this series, but I consider myself an ally and do my best to incorporate it in my media lexicon. This is not obvious to some, so I want to state it outright- you do not need to be LGBTQ+ to enjoy queer media. You also do not need to be afraid of it “turning you trans” or some other bigoted crap. With how things are right now (especially in the United States), I am glad to see media like this being promoted in this campaign that is targeted at the US. And please don’t assume that there is nothing for you just because you aren’t of a specific demographic being focused on or marketed to in media. We’re talking about manga here, think about all the series you’ve enjoyed where you’re not in the demographic category (shonen, josei, etc.).  I am not trans and as far as I am aware at the time I am straight and cisgender. But I still found something in this story that really hit me. The part of the chapter about self-loathing really connected with me, as someone who has struggled heavily with it and still does. I can see myself in this character and sympathies with parts of his struggles. While wanting to see how the other aspects of his person intersect with that. I believe it’s very important to have series that help people process who they are, and these are the types of series that appeal to me a lot. Another strong opinion of mine is that good series with a focus on a skill/hobby/career etc. should be able to appeal to people who have no interest in that topic. I could genuinely not care any less about fashion, no exaggeration. But what I do enjoy is seeing characters strive towards human goals and seeing how these topics are important to them. A similar case is one of my favorite anime, March Comes in Like a Lion. This one-shot clearly shows that this series has plenty more life in it, so I would be happy to see if continue and would read it once I read the original.

One aside to end this on- Maybe I don’t need to put this but I tend to overthink and get anxious about speaking my mind on topics like this so here we are trying to be as direct as possible. I am sorry if I come across as preachy in this one, or if I sound like I am just using this series as an opportunity to fake appeal to the LGBTQ+ community or be that annoying tryhard cishet ally. I genuinely do enjoy series with diverse perspectives and want to encourage more cishet people to try queer media. I genuinely want any LGBTQ+ people seeing this to know I support you and welcome you here. As I said before, in the United States especially things are very scary right now, so I wanted to be clear in my support and this felt like a good opportunity. On that topic- a message to other potential readers out there. If any of these opinions truly set you off in a way you can’t handle, I encourage you to get your content elsewhere for both our sakes and work on accepting people different from you.

Watari asking himself “Why am I like this? Why is this me?”

5. The Journey of a Dark Elf with Fading Powers - Daisuke Itabashi

The world’s greatest mage lost her powers one day, but still found hope in her life.

Amira used to be the strongest mage in all the land, but 200 years ago she lost all her powers. This story is about how she can still enjoy life by focusing on what she can do.

Here we have another case of beautiful art, with this one I love all the animals and environmental shots we get. This is a feast for the eyes that appeals much more to me than incredible gore or action panels like some of the other series in these one-shots have. And I am a fan of the character designs as well. Amira seems to have a fun personality. The themes and vibes the manga appears to be going for are very much up my alley. I like that this seems to be a fantasy without isekai elements, and that the world looks to be interesting and intended to be explored. I like that there is a history to delve into, and that we are approaching a character who has had to deal with losing something important to them and needing to live on. I see how it has a lot of potential, but I have to admit that I am not as sold on it as other people are. The very obvious comparison to make here is Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. I love that series and I can see how this series is about a powerful elf with an appreciation for magic learning to get more out of life than just that can scratch the same itch. But the difference here that makes me apprehensive is that she seems to have already coped with the loss of her abilities. To me, seeing the journey of learning to cope with her weakness in the first person sounds more interesting than her having already done that. Whereas in Frieren I don’t think the story would work if we started from the original journey. If it does go for the similar flashback heavy approach of Frieren it could work similarly to how it does there if the emotional beats and messages work. But I just feel like I would’ve rather seen her struggle to live her life without magic than already seeing her be self-sufficient. But I still recognize the good potential of this story, like how she can help others to become less reliant on magic and probably help this society be less magic elitist than it sounds like it is. So perhaps the focus will be on her being a teacher, with her story of growth coming from when she is teaching others. Which I could see working. With good writing I could see myself being won over but could also see myself losing interest depending on how it plays out. Due to its potential, I will definitely check it out if it wins. But I am not as sold on it as others in this series.

A dark elf whose magic power has all faded away

Some shorter mentions for ones that stuck out to me as ones I could see myself enjoying and would consider checking out if they won. Protocol Ryugu has some very cool concepts but definitely went over my head. To Dusk and Twilight is definitely the type of series I can enjoy, with the closest comparison I can think of right now being Call of the Night. But the thing is that both assassins and vampires are not high on my lists when it comes to occupations or fetishes (with this manga I could see it leaning more into the fetishy angle considering how much they bring up her being a high school girl). I can certainly enjoy series with them (for vampires I’ve got Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Call of the Night, and the Monogatari series for example) and like interesting portrayals of them, but I never go out of my way for these archetypes. They both also feel very saturated right now (with assassins we have had Spy X Family, Buddy Daddies, and Sakamoto Days just to name a few), so my interest in them is especially low. Still You also intrigued me a bit too, as it looks like it could be a solid romance around navigating complicated feelings. But there was also nothing that especially stood out to me as interesting or unique. If it wins I may check it out as I like romance and it being BL is not a barrier to me (check out my review on Twilight Out of Focus if you’re interested). You may have noticed that I didn’t pick any of the multiple action heavy manga here. Action is just very low on my priority list, simple as that. I don’t hate action, I am just not fed on it enough as the main appeal. Also in this issue is the one shot Me and Bob Dylan (this is a true one-shot that isn’t in the voting), which I thought was a touching story about how media can influence our lives and our connections.

And that brings us to the end. Please go read all of them for yourself and vote! You can vote once every day. As of writing this there have been ~74,000 votes! I hope at least one in my top 5 can make it, but please vote for what you like the most. Feel free to share your favorites or any thoughts you have on these! Thanks for reading!

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