No creator starts out perfect. Even if they're more talented than all of their peers, it takes time to train that talent and hone it into something capable of putting out something great. Legendary manga creators like Akira Toriyama, Hiromu Arakawa, and even Hayao Miyazaki all published other work before they managed to reach that legendary status.
In some cases, these were brief shorts that were made to sell publishers on a potential serialization. In other cases, they managed to get a series published, but couldn't keep it on the stands long enough to finish telling the story. Have a look into what some of the most well-known creators got up to long before they published their smash hit series.
11 Wonder Island – Akira Toriyama
One of the first manga ever published by Akira Toriyama, Wonder Island is a pair of one-shot manga that premiered in 1978 and 1979. The very first one featured a World War II pilot who crashed on Wonder Island in 1944 and spent 35 years trying to go back home. The plot features him dealing with all the people of the island in an attempt to go back home – from trying to learn hang gliding to being transformed into a chicken.
10 Chocolate Christmas – Naoko Takeuchi
Before Naoko Takeuchi got to do Sailor Moon, she worked on Chocolate Christmas. A series of romance manga, the first part of the story is about a girl who falls in love with a DJ and spends the next year trying to find them. The second half is a love-square about a group of high school students. Chocolate Christmas only lasted five chapters and was published from 1987 to 1988.
9 Tende Shouwaru Cupid – Togashi Yoshihiro
One of the Yu Yu Hakusho creator’s earliest creations. Wicked Cupid is a story about a yakuza family whose souls become valuable to the demon world.
But the latest member of the yakuza family, Ryuji, winds up with a completely pure soul! This leads to a demon named Maria deciding to become cupid for him, turning him into the perv he has to be for things to balance out. This book surprisingly ran for thirty-two chapters from 1989 to 1990.
8 Zombiepowder – Tite Kubo
Before creating Bleach, Kubo got Zombiepowder into Weekly Shonen Jump for about 30 chapters, running from 1999 until 2000. The series followed Gamma Akutabi and John Shepherd, as both of them were looking for mystical items known as the 12 Rings of the Dead. The two of them worked together to track down the Rings, working alongside some of Gamma’s friends along the way to defeat enemies looking for the Rings themselves.
7 B. Ichi – Atsushi Okubo
A couple of years before creating Soul Eater, Atsushi Okubo created B. Ichi. In this world, there are special humans who have the ability to access more of their brain power than most humans, which grants them special powers.
However, having these powers also forces them to follow specific rules – the main character is forced to do something good every day. Deciding to go on a journey to find his childhood friend, the main thrust of the series is if can he maintain his powers while also finding his friend.
6 Stray Dog – Hiromu Arakawa
A one shot from before Hiromu Arakawa could release the masterpiece that is Fullmetal Alchemist, Stray Dog had a fairly straightforward concept: Fultac is a robber wanted with a two million dollar bounty. Kilika is a “military dog,” a young girl with the intelligence of a human and the strength of a dog. The two of them begin working together after Fultac takes her in and agrees to become her master. Unfortunately this story never got any expansion, but Arakawa winds up working on multiple classics afterwards.
5 A.I. Love You – Ken Akamatsu
Ken Akamatsu is a legendary creator known for no less than three major manga series over the course of his career, but before he was working on any of those stories, he did work on A.I. Love You, which is basically just Weird Science as a manga. It follows Hitoshi Kobe, a young man who’s not popular in school, but a great computer programmer. After inventing a life-like A.I., his computer is hit by lightning and leads to his 30th A.I. program coming to life. This book ran for three years and nine volumes before finishing.
4 Puss In Boots – Hayao Miyazaki
One of his earliest works, Hayao Miyazaki created a serialization of the novel Puss in Boots in a newspaper for a feature film. The storyline ran about twelve chapters in the late sixties. It saw the magic cat Pero work with a young boy named Pierre while they fought against an ogre to save the princess.
3 Eiichiro Oda – Romance Dawn
Before One Piece, Eiichiro Oda published a manga called Romance Dawn. This was One Piece before they figured out what One Piece wanted to be. It started out with Luffy still, but there were other changes that were made between this and One Piece that made them differ from one another. Oda is obviously still pretty fond of Romance Dawn, which is why the first volume of One Piece carries that name.
2 Magician – Hiro Mashima
Magician was the one-shot manga published by Hiro Mashima before he created Rave, his first major hit manga series. The story followed a young boy named Aoi, who had a passion for doing magic tricks. Aoi runs a magician club where he’ll recruit anyone – even people outside of his school. But when one of his members is kidnapped, Aoi winds up going after them and showing off his true power.
1 Chameleon Jail – Takehiko Inoue
Chameleon Jail was one of Slam Dunk creator Takehiko Inoue’s first storylines. Set in a world where “Risk Hunters” are professionals who deal with all types of missions that other people don’t have the skill for, it followed a character that was one of the best and most talented – Chameleon Jail. This feels like a manga that would’ve been more successful in the 2000s, but people who love Slam Dunk wouldn’t have gotten it if Chameleon Jail took off.