12 Great Short Manga To Read During a Quiet Weekend
Manga can be a little daunting for newcomers or people with little time thanks to 100+ chapters counts. However, you don’t have to invest a large amount of time to experience a great story!
Here are short, complete manga series you can read during your weekend.
1. Your Lie in April (Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso)
Genre: Drama / Music / Romance
Mangaka: Naoshi Arakawa
Chapters: 44
Quick pitch: Kousei Arima is a young musical prodigy. His mom meticulously taught him to play the piano, which allowed him to dominate music competitions. After her sudden death, Kousei the will to play music and disappeared from the stage. His monotonous life changes upon meeting Kaori Miyazono, a violinist known for her free-willed performances.
2. Ghost in the Shell
Genre: Action / Psychological / Science Fiction
Mangaka: Masamune Shirow
Chapters: 24
Quick Pitch: In the future, cybernetic implants have become a normal part of life and robots roam among society, with consciousness being connected to a data stream. Yet, this new technological advancement has given way to cyber-terrorism and hackers that can control a person’s mind. Major Motoko Kusanagi and the Public Security Section 9 combat cyber-terrorism, but a hacker called The Puppeteer challenges Kusanagi’s view of the world.
3. Sankarea
Genre: Comedy / Ecchi / Horror / Romance / Supernatural
Mangaka: Mitsuru Hattori
Chapters: 59
Quick Pitch: Chihiro has a zombie fetish. There is something about a stumbling, blood thirsty corpse that turns him on. Rea is the daughter a school director and wants to escape her horrible life. The two meet in an abandoned building, and quickly Chihiro’s wildest dreams come true in possibly the worst way.
4. Franken Fran
Genre: Comedy / Horror / Psychological / Supernatural
Mangaka: Katsuhisa Kigitsu
Chapters: 71
Quick Pitch: Fran was created by Dr. Naomitsu Madaraki and has taken over the lab while he is away. Fran must take care the various work that crosses her path, which includes resurrecting the dead or performing “cosmetic” surgery.
5. Planetes
Genre: Drama / Psychological / Science Fiction / Slice of Life
Mangaka: Makoto Yukimura
Chapters: 27
Quick Pitch: Yuri is haunted by a space flight accident that killed his beloved wife. In a cruel twist of fate, Yuri finds himself on the Toy Box vessel to clean space junk from space flights.
6. Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka
Genre: Action / Mystery / Psychological / Science Fiction
Mangaka: Naoki Urasawa / Osamu Tezuka
Chapters: 65
Quick Pitch: Detective Gesicht is working to uncover the killer behind a string of human and robot deaths. The case becomes murky when the evidence points to a robotic killer, which hasn’t happened for 8 years.
7. Voynich Hotel
Genre: Comedy / Ecchi / Horror
Mangaka: Sayman Dowman
Chapters: 68
Quick Pitch: Voynich Hotel is a run down resort that is owned by a former luchador, maintained by two mysterious maids, and is served by a homicidal chef. Kuzuki, a Japanese tourist, tries to hide from his past by checking in. However, the odd occupants and staff are more abnormal than anything he’s ever had to deal with.
8. A Silent Voice (Koe no Katachi)
Genre: Drama
Mangaka: Yoshitoki Ooima
Chapters: 64
Quick Pitch: Shouya Ishida is a boy who is always getting into trouble. When a deaf transfer student named Shouko Nishimiya is introduced to Ishida’s class, he deems her as the perfect target for bullying. Ishida bullies Nishimiya to kill boredom and doesn’t think about the effects of his actions until he starts to become ostracized by his own classmates.
9. Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer (Hoshi no Samidare)
Genre: Adventure / Comedy / Fantasy
Mangaka: Satoshi Mizukami
Chapters: 10 (finished)
Quick pitch: Earth is in peril, which causes the lizard knight Sir Noi Crezant to search for a hero. Noi enlists the aid of student Amamiya Yuuhi and Princess Samidare to prevent Earth from being destroyed by the Biscuit Hammer, but the duo isn’t exactly heroic.
10. Another
Genre: Drama / Mystery / Horror
Mangaka: Yukito Ayatsuji (Story) / Hiro Kiyohara (Art)
Chapters: 20
Quick Pitch: In the spring of 1998, Koichi transfers into Class 3-3 at Yomiyama North Middle School. There is a strange atmosphere in the class and he slowly learns the strange rules that he must follow. Even more distressing is his classmate Mei, who seems to be ignored by everyone. As he tries to get closer to her, Koichi slowly learns about the dark secret of Class 3-3.
11. Doubt
Genre: Horror / Mystery / Psychological Thriller
Mangaka: Yoshiki Tonogai
Chapters: 21
Quick pitch: Yuu Aikawa spends his free time playing a cellphone game called “Rabbit Doubt” with his friends. In the game, players are a group of rabbits, but there is a wolf among them. The group must discover the wolf before it kills them one-by-one.
One day, Yuu is attacked by a man wearing a rabbit mask. Yuu wakes up to discover that he and his friends are trapped in an abandoned psychiatric hospital and are being forced to play a real-life version of “Rabbit Doubt.”
12. Blame!
Genre: Action / Drama / Horror / Psychological / Science Fiction
Mangaka: Tsutomu Nihei
Chapters: 66
Quick Pitch: A girl named Zuru is on a mission to find food for her village. After accidentally triggering a Safeguard pack, she meets Killy the Wanderer. Killy is on a quest to find the Net Terminal Genes, which is the key to restoring humanity’s place in the Net-based world.
What are your favorite short manga series?
