Viz Media’s One-Shots program aims to make manga for everyone

Although manga is fundamentally similar to what the West considers comics to be, it, along with anime, has often been stigmatized by Western audiences as an implicitly Japanese medium. Whenever someone makes the faux pas of referring to western media inspired by anime Avatar: The Last Airbender, Castlevaniaor Teen Titans As an anime, they are met with an onslaught of virtual finger-wagging. Sure, they undoubtedly pass the mood test of walking, talking and looking like anime, but their spawn points are not from the East, which for many negates their qualifications as anime.

The same argument has been made against creators whose work feels as provocative and enigmatic as manga. Be it Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Chibi Scott Pilgrim Graphic novels, Aleš Kot and Tradd Moore Akira-like The new world Comic or Steampunk by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda Final Fantasylike series, monster, Creators, professional or non-professional, have clearly taken inspiration from manga and created series that feel like manga in virtually every way.

But for whatever reason, Western productions can only aesthetically consist of anime and manga, and are content with industry giants like DC Comics and Marvel creating special editions or variants and presenting the visual style as a gimmick rather than a full-fledged form of storytelling . Until Viz Media launched the Viz Originals One-Shots program.

In June, Hisashi Sasaki, editor-in-chief at Viz Media, introduced the Viz Originals One-Shots program. This initiative offers manga-inspired creators from around the world the opportunity to submit their stories to the leading manga publisher and potentially have them developed into a series. For the uninitiated, a one-shot is a self-contained manga series that is usually 50 pages long and can function as a standalone story (à la Tatsuki Fujimoto). Review) or act as a mangaka’s pitch for the start of a new series. Established creators like bleaching‘s Tite Kubo, One pieceis Eiichiro Oda and Jujutsu Kaisen‘s Gege Akutami submitted one-shots for their respective series, which resulted in them being serialized.

Since launching its One Shots program, Viz Media has promoted its initiative through social media blasts and on platforms such as X/Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr to increase visibility of the stories competing for selection and the creators behind them . At the time of writing, Viz Originals One-Shots has 13 manga series on its app and website, ranging from shonen to horror to shojo. For further insight into the program, we spoke to Sasaki to learn what inspired him to initiate the program, what trends he’s noticed in submissions, and his ambitions to break down the gatekeeping barriers, which have prevented manga from being generally accessible in the past.

Isaiah Colbert, io9: What sparked the idea of ​​starting the Viz Originals One-Shots program?

Hisashi Sasaki: When I compared the Japanese manga industry to that of the United States, I noticed that there is hardly a middle level for artists in the United States. There are many talented and motivated amateurs and only a handful of professionals. In Japan, there is a large middle class between amateurs and professionals, essentially a large pool of talent that acts as a “professional reserve force.” From this pool, truly talented artists have the opportunity to hone their craft and develop into professional mangaka. The entire industry, including publishers, is able to support this middle class by providing them work as assistants to already established mangakas. In Japan, there is an established path for artists to develop into professional mangaka – first by publishing a one-shot in a magazine, and if they gain enough popularity, they gain the recognition they need to begin serializing their to start work.

This is the main reason I wanted to start this program: I want to help create a similar career path here so that the many aspiring and talented mangaka in the United States can get their own chance to become a professional mangaka.

io9: How many applications has Viz received so far?

Sasaki: Since we began accepting one-shot submissions in November 2023, we have received over a thousand applications. We typically receive around a hundred submissions each month.

io9: From which countries did you receive the most applications?

Sasaki: Eighty percent of submissions come from North America, but we also receive submissions from all over the world, from countries like France, the UK, Australia and so on.

io9: What kind of pattern did you notice in the one-shot stories you received? Were they primarily shonen series or did they contain entries for other manga subgenres?

Sasaki: In terms of genre, shonen is the most common, but we also get a lot of shojo and horror stories. Unlike the Japanese mangakas I’ve worked with, I feel like the creators here are more focused on building a world than telling stories about the characters in that world. I think manga is particularly suited to telling character-driven stories, and I hope to see that in more submissions in the future!

After a whole year, RESENTER is back and officially part of the @VIZmedia Family. Through VIZ’s one-shot program, RESENTER has the chance to become a serialized manga if the readership is strong enough! So please check this out! Read now for FREE on the VIZ Manga app and website. pic.twitter.com/EziTCNyyV2

— Queen of Horror Manga now on VIZ (@gigimurakami) October 2, 2024

io9: Viz Media’s One-Shots program has led to an influx of series created by emerging mangaka of color and diverse cultures of Japanese descent. Is there any hope that the program will expand Viz Media’s reach by telling stories based on the experiences of creators from different cultures that are often reduced to stereotypes?

Sasaki: Yes, that was a big reason why I wanted to work with English-speaking mangaka and produce original manga in English in the first place. The goal is to help expand the manga market as a whole by publishing stories that reflect the unique cultural backgrounds of different countries – stories that Japanese creators may not be able to tell in the same way. In this way, I hope we can make manga accessible to a wider group, both creators and readers, that we may not have been able to reach before.

io9: What review process allows a submitted One-Shot to be included in Viz Media’s Original One-Shot catalog?

Sasaki: First, the One-Shot program team reviews all submissions. If a story is a good fit for you, one of our editors will reach out to the creator with feedback and ask them to make some revisions. This back and forth usually happens a few times. Once both the author and editor feel it is ready, the revised manuscript goes to the entire team at our monthly editorial meeting. If the team agrees they are ready to move forward, they are given the green light to publish.

io9: What determines whether a Viz Originals one-shot manga is expanded into a full series?

Sasaki: This question is not easy to answer because many factors play a role. In addition to total views and completion rates, we also take many other aspects into account, such as: E.g. how invested the mangaka is in continuing the character’s story, whether the character can even support serialization, etc. Publishing a one-shot is already difficult, but a complete series is a challenge on a whole other level.

io9: Viz Media, via Shonen Jump, has a reputation for canceling newer series as often as they are announced. Some examples are Hunters Guild: Red Hood And Tenmoku Cinema. What are the characteristics of a manga that cause them to stop serialization, and what advice would you give potential mangaka to avoid cancellation of their series?

Sasaki: The truth is that Viz doesn’t decide which Shonen Jump series gets canceled. It is solely the decision of Shonen Jump’s editorial team in Japan. As a former editor-in-chief of Shonen Jump, I’m very familiar with the process myself. Only the editorial team can make the decision to start or end a series, and even the president of Shueisha has no influence on this decision.

But with the one-shot program, Viz makes the decisions, and the goal is to start a new ongoing series from one of the stories published on the platform. Of course, I would love for every series to be a success and run for a long time, but I know from experience that that’s not always realistic, both in Japan and here in the US. So I don’t really have any specific advice on this matter. I think ultimately manga is meant to entertain not only the audience but also the mangaka. If the creator doesn’t like what he does, the readers won’t like it either. The audience that mangaka should think about is ultimately themselves and what they need to even continue to enjoy working on the story.

Now that Drifting Into Summer has been out for a week, I can officially introduce myself to the pink and black yuri club.
Come get your grumpy x Sunshine swim team girls ✨💖#driftingintosummer pic.twitter.com/HP7lJrp1F9

— Tikklil~ new manga on Viz! (@tikklil) November 13, 2024

io9: There’s been a noticeable influx of sorcery manga lately, with manga series like Jujutsu Kaisen It leaves a gap in Shonen Jump’s weekly series. Is there a desire for the one-shots program to fill this gap, or is there a desire for the program to lead to an expanded series in other subgenres such as Seinen or Shojo?

Sasaki: As I said before, I firmly believe that mangaka can only create what they enjoy. I don’t think a mangaka can really make an entertaining story if they’re just trying to write something because the genre is popular or there’s little competition and they don’t really enjoy it. I also don’t suggest genres or character types that I don’t think might suit a particular creator. Instead, I want to encourage as many YouTubers as possible to try different genres of one-shots to reach a wider audience.

io9: What are your hopes and wishes for the Viz Originals One-Shots program for the company and access to manga creation as a whole?

Sasaki: I believe that if we can create a system that brings together and promotes talented mangaka, we will definitely have a successful streak in the future. There’s no telling how long this will last, so I hope everyone keeps an eye on this program and these inspiring creators until a hit is born.

Want more io9 news? Find out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe in film and television, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.