The 5 manga one-shots of the year 2016!

This year, I took to the game to develop a top 5 of the best one-shot manga published in 2016!

After a selection of the most anticipated titles of this beginning of the year 2017, I propose today an overview of the best one-shots of last year!

5/ Fairy Tail Zero

Author : Hiro Mashima

Seller : Pika

Release date : 19/10/2016

Number of volumes: one-shot

Price : 6,95 €

Synopsis :

The story follows in the footsteps of Fairy Tail founder Mavis Vermillion shortly before the guild was born. Year x679, Mavis lives in the Red Lizard guild for the sole purpose of paying off the debt left to her by her late parents. Abused by the members, she never stops dreaming of learning magic and discovering the world in order to meet the real fairies. However, one night the guild is attacked.

If Pika has made Fairy Tail fans enjoy many spin-offs of the series, we feel a different quality in Fairy Tail Zero. Already by the graphic side, since the one-shot is made by Hiro Mashima himself, but especially by the content of the volume. Here, even if the fan service is present, it is much less than in other titles, but in addition to that the scenario brings us a real added value to the main story. At the dawn of the titanic confrontation against the empire of Arbaless, we return here to the origins of the famous guild formed by Mavis and its relationship with magic and the dark mage Zeleph.

4/ Marie-Antoinette – the youth of a queen

Author : Fuyumi Soryo

Publisher : Glénat

Release date : 21/09/2016

Number of volumes: one-shot

Price : 9,15 €

Synopsis :

Marie-Antoinette is one of the most fictional historical figures. Sophia Coppola, Chantal Thomas or Riyoko Ikeda… Many creators have given birth to a character in line with their ideals. However, when Fuyumi Soryo tackles the myth, it is not to reproduce yet another icon abused by the too partial vision of Stephan Zweig, but to restore in historical reality a young girl devoid of any artifice. With the precision that we already know him about Cesare and thanks to the support of the Palace of Versailles, it is no longer a simple manga, but a virtual dive into the heart of the court in the eighteenth century that the author offers you. Whether you are a fan of historical frescoes, a manga reader or simply curious about novelty, do not miss this creation! 

Particularly good in historical accounts, we find Fuyumi Soryo in a one-shot dedicated to a great lady of the eighteenth century, Marie-Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI. The focus here is on the departure of the Austrian Archduchess from her homeland, to join her future husband. Abandoning one's name, one's kingdom, one's family, friends, one's habits for the good of one's people is not easy, especially for a 14-year-old woman! Marie-Antoinette is promised to a man she does not know and will have to go live in Versailles, under customs that go beyond her… 

3/ Springald

Author : Kazuhiro Fujita

Seller : Ki-oon

Release date : 22/09/2016

Number of volumes: one-shot

Price: 8,65 €

Synopsis :

London, 1837. A monster with huge legs, a burning mouth and sharp claws appears at night to tear the clothes of innocent girls before fleeing by jumping from roof to roof, leaving behind only the echo of a sharp laugh with accents of madness… His nickname: Spring-heeled jack!
The criminal disappears on his own after six months… before making headlines again three years later. But this time, for murder! What looked like a farce took a macabre turn: the victims, all women, were found disemboweled… Inspector James Rockenfield, known for his brutal investigative methods, vowed to get his hands on the elusive Jack. Alas, the investigation becomes more difficult when the clues lead him to the gates of the mansion of one of the wealthiest nobles in the country… 

The first title in Ki-oon's Black Museum collection, Kazuhiro Fujita wishes to tell us stories about British urban legends. Here, we are interested in Jack Heels-à-Spring who sowed panic among young ladies in London during the nineteenth century: a man with a gravelly humor, armed in a unique way, making him as wacky as elusive. And if his misdeeds remain good-natured when he disappears 6 months later, his appearances take a much more tragic turn 3 years later, when he returns to the front of the stage…

2/ Snegurochka

Author : Hiroaki Samura

Publisher : Sakka – Casterman

Release date : 17/02/2016

Number of volumes: one-shot

Price : 12,95 €

Synopsis :

USSR, 1933.
Under Stalin's totalitarian rule, the country experienced brutal upheavals. On the shores of a Karelian lake, Belka, a young girl in a wheelchair, and her servant settle in a dacha that once belonged to a family of aristocrats. As the past of these two strange characters is revealed, history and history intertwine. What if a terrible threat weighs on the powers that be? What if the young Soviet Union had not finished with the ghosts of Imperial Russia murdered a few years earlier?

At the dawn of the Second World War, Belka, a pretty young woman in a wheelchair and Shchenok her servant move into a country house that belonged to a family of aristocrats. But they will soon be arrested by the OGPU (State Police of the Soviet Union). Placed under surveillance in this country house, we follow them in their daily lives. A touching story by their relationship of mutual dependence. Sublimated by the drawings of Hiroaki Samura, we gradually discover the secret past of our two protagonists, as well as their link with this house, which hides many mysteries …

1/ The factory ship

Author : Go Fujio (art) Takiji Kobayashi (script)

Seller : Akata

Release date : 08/09/2016

Number of volumes: one-shot

Price : 7,95 €

Synopsis :

In the 20s, in Japan… The industrialization of the country is raging, while in Russia, the Revolution has just ended. At the port of Hakodate, it is effervescence: the factory ship is preparing to go to sea, to catch crabs that will be sold at a high price. But the sinner-workers do not yet suspect the fate that awaits them… Exploited, beaten and robbed by Asakawa, the ship's steward who thinks only of the profits of the company he represents, they will live a real daily hell. However, when the boat escapes sinking, thanks to the help of a Russian trawler, tempers begin to heat up. A young student, influenced by Dostoevsky's novels, decides to lead a rebellion movement… The strike is open!

If the Akata label used to regularly unveil gekiga-type works under the bosom of Delcourt editions, it shows us here the desire to publish unique titles in France. Thefactory is a real manga punch, which has been desired to arrive in our countries, after almost 3 years of negotiations with Japan. Here, we go back to the early twentieth century when industrialization is in full effervescence. The Hakko Maru is a factory ship like so many others, with hundreds of workers hired to fish for crabs and fish. But the exhausting working conditions will quickly make them disillusioned, and the revolt will arrive soon enough…

For more transparency, I give you the list of one-shots I read, published this year in France!

• Kiriko
• Marie-Antoinette, the youth of a queen
• Without going to school, I became a mangaka
• The factory ship
• The island of time
• Burning Hell
• Seven short stories
• Noragami – wandering stories
• Snegurochka
• Pride and prejudice
• Fairy Tail zero
• Final Fantasy type 0 – the warrior with the ice sword
• In love with my teacher
• Springald
• Terra Formars Rain Hard
• Dragon's Crown
• Sword Art Online – Calibur
• Moon Shadow
• The daydreams of a solitary gourmet
• Rumic World – 1 or W
• Tokyo Killers
• The Order of Avalon
• The bride of the fox spirit

And you, what are the one-shots that made you vibrate in 2016?