U.S. manga contest wants to find the next Naruto or One Piece

Eiichiro sold his first one-shot manga at the age of 17, launching a 26-year-long career in anime. One Piece. Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto had a similar trajectory from one-shot to serialization, while Noriaki Kubo’s one-shot work led him to eventually create the mega-successful Bleach. Hisashi Sasaki was the former Weekly Shonen Jump’s editor-in chief, and he always looked for new mangakas. Sasaki now turns his focus to the United States in order to help Western artists who are looking for their break.

VIZ Media launched a submission portal on Wednesday for American-based creators. Winning one-shots will live alongside comics from revered artists like Rumiko Takahashi and Junji Ito on VIZ’s digital manga service.

Sasaki is on board to both curate and guide selected submissions; the publishing company boasts that “creators whose submissions are selected will have the opportunity to work closely with the revered Japanese manga editor, making VIZ Media the only publisher in the U.S. to offer this experience domestically. Until now, manga-influenced creators who aspire to work with Japanese editors have had to travel to Tokyo for such an opportunity.”

“In Japan, a yomikiri or one-shot story has a proven track record for producing hit manga, and I’m thrilled to implement this method at VIZ for local writers in the U.S. I’m particularly excited to work with aspiring mangaka as Japanese pop culture continues to keep fans enthused and wanting more,” Sasaki said in a statement.

A representative from VIZ clarifies this isn’t a scheme to encourage user-generated material. Writers selected by Sasaki for publication will be paid, and VIZ’s intention is to truly discover major talent, with the aim to turn any promising one-shots into ongoing series where there are opportunities for physical printed copies, consumer product deals, and potential anime adaptations. VIZ is hoping that the same creative pipeline in Japan will work in the States.

VIZ has announced that the new “one-shot” platform is open to original, bite-sized manga stories from any genre. This includes horror, comedy and romance. One-shots can be submitted on VIZ’s website.