7 Commitment-Free Single-Volume Manga

Tropic of the Sea, by Satoshi Kon
Satoshi Kon is best known as the director of such groundbreaking anime as Paprika, but before he went into filmmaking, he made manga—even serving for a while as assistant to Katsuhiro Otomo, creator of Akira. Tropic of the Sea is an environmental fable about a sleepy seaside village facing modernization. The hook here is that the townspeople have a tradition of caring for a mermaid’s egg; no one is sure if the legend is true or not, and the story splits between the true believers, the unbelievers, and the outsiders who see the whole mermaid thing as a tourist attraction. Kon draws his story in a simple, realistic style that nonetheless allows for the possibility of magic, even in everyday life.

A Girl on the Shore, by Inio Asano
Two teenagers start a relationship that’s purely sexual, but their feelings for each other become deeper even as they continue to deny them: that short summary doesn’t begin to do justice to Inio Asano’s intense, atmospheric story of a girl and a boy floating through life, betrayed by those close to them and bearing the burden of their own misdeeds. Asano is skilled at creating an entire world—the windswept beach in winter, the claustrophobic hubbub of the classroom, the loneliness of a crowded room. Much of the story unfolds in silent sequences, as we see the characters simply thinking or reacting, but Asano avoids the trap of being elliptical for its own sake; beneath the tears and long looks there is a solid story. This book is intense and beautiful, but take the 18+ rating seriously, as it includes a great deal of very explicit sex. Asano is also the creator of the one-shot manga Solanin and Nijigahara Holograph, as well as the series Goodnight Punpun, any of them a good fit for readers raised on comics from the American indie scene.

Helter Skelter, by Kyoko Okazaki
Helter Skelter is drawn in a loose, hasty style reminiscent of fashion illustration; it’s appropriate, as it takes the extremes of the fashion industry as its subject matter. Liliko’s face is her fortune, literally—she’s a top model and has become accustomed to living in a certain way. But beauty is fleeting, and in order to keep herself looking good, she has to resort to multiple surgeries and treatments that ultimately cause her body to decay. When things start to fall apart—not just her body but her plan to marry a rich man—she does too, becoming increasingly abusive toward her long-suffering assistant and everyone else around her. Alongside this high drama, Okazaki weaves in a police procedural, as the local officials try to track down exactly what is going on at a beauty clinic. True to its name, Helter Skelter moves at an almost breathless pace, and it’s an entertaining story about ambition, depravity, and the dark underbelly of the fashion industry.

All My Darling Daughters, by Fumi Yoshinaga
Yukiko and her mother Mari are a family of two, so they have always had a close (if sometimes quarrelsome) relationship. Then, after a bout with cancer, Mari announces that she is going to live life on her own terms—and for starters, she has just married a younger man. Younger than Yukiko, in fact. Yoshinaga shows Yukiko adjusting to this new reality and, in four other stories set in Yukiko’s world, explores the dilemmas and relationships of others as well. Yoshinaga is a skilled storyteller who is currently best known for her series What Did You Eat Yesterday? and like that book, All My Darling Daughters features many scenes of people eating and talking together. She favors a smooth, deceptively simple style, often placing her figures against blank backgrounds, which gives her art a monumental feel and also makes her manga fairly easy reading for newcomers to the medium.

Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, by Shigeru Mizuki
Mizuki’s Eisner Award-winning manga is a bit of a challenge for new readers thanks to the way he contrasts cartoony characters with detailed, photo-referenced backgrounds, but once you get used to it, the story is as compelling as it is horrifying. Mizuki drew on his own experiences in the Japanese army during World War II for this depiction of the desperate conditions the soldiers lived in as well as the different ways they persevered. When an infantry unit survives an almost pointless suicide charge, their leaders far from the front instruct them to do it again—and not to dare come back alive. Mizuki shows the leaders of the unit wrestling with the decision to place honor above human life, and the depravity and coarseness of everyday life in the jungle.

Another, by Yukito Ayatsuji
There’s some sort of a curse on Class 3 of Yomiyama North Middle School: many years ago, a classmate was killed in an accident. The class was so traumatized that their reaction was just to deny reality and act as if she was still there. Years later, when they graduated…she was visible in the school picture. The setup of Another sounds like the sort of horror story you’d tell around a campfire, but it gets even creepier from there. Every few years, an extra student appears in the class, triggering a year of severe bad luck, with students and their families dying or suffering injuries in freak accidents. When out-of-towner Koichi Sakakibara transfers into the school, the class seems to be having one of those bad years—and they are determined to figure out who is to blame. Another is a ghost story with some serious mind games, and a single volume is the perfect way to read it, because you really won’t want to stop turning the pages. Ayatsuji has also written an Another novel, as well as Another Episode S/O, one more story set in the same world.

Sexy Voice and Robo, by Iou Kuroda
This fast-moving caper manga is long out of print, but still available on the Nook. Nico is a teenager with a side job working for a phone dating service, although her clients mostly seem to talk to her about other things. She’s not just earning some extra money, she’s honing her observational skills—she can identify her clients just from the sound of their voices, and has some keen insights into what their conversations reveal. It’s all part of her plan to be a spy someday. When an enigmatic old man starts hiring her for mysterious errands—get back a kidnapped boy, track down some stolen money—she puts her talents to good use. But since she’s only 14, she needs an adult with a car; enter Robo, one of her clients, a pleasant but rather clueless toy enthusiast (nothing racy here—we’re talking robots and model cars). Nico calls on Robo to help with her missions, always leading him on to think he’s going to meet a girl. Usually he doesn’t, although he does get lucky once. (Sort of.) Kuroda draws this manga in a loose, brushy, energetic style, with plenty of detail and contrast to create a truly dynamic look. The mix of mystery, action, and humor makes it a really good read.
What one-and-done manga do you enjoy?