A Single Match


A Single Match is a Japanese short story gekiga manga collection written and illustrated by. Suzuki originally wrote the stories during the 1970s for Seirindo's alternative manga magazine Garo, which collected them in 1985. Drawn and Quarterly published the manga in North America on January 4, 2011.

Plot

;"Color of Rain"
;"Highway Town"
;"A Single Match"
;"Tale of Remembrance"
;"World Colored Pants"
;"Evening Primrose"
;"Town of Song"
;"Crystal Thoughts"
;"Mountain Town"
;"Fruit of the Sea"
;"City of Dreams"

Release

The stories in the manga were written by Suzuki during the 1970s for Seirindo's alternative manga magazine Garo, which collected them in 1985. Drawn and Quarterly published the manga in North America on January 4, 2011. The manga had also been previously published in In France under the title Le Kimono Rouge by Seuil.

Reception

Chris Mautner of The Comics Journal observed that the manga is "enigmatic and elliptical enough to frustrate and confound even an attentive reader", noting its blurring of perception, fragmented narratives, and its poetic ambitions. Mautner lamented that there wasn't more background material and concluded that the manga will likely require multiple readings, although the award for doing so might not be obvious. Noel Murray of The A.V. Club noted the dreamlike quality of the manga's art and how it tries to explore reveries, concluding that it is a striking "sketch of the woes and wonders of everyday life that makes room for those moments when we zone out." Hillary Brown of Paste called the manga "irritatingly vague", finding a cultural barrier to understanding it like its background noises, concluding that the manga is too unsatisfying to make up for its weak narrative. Richard Pachter of The Miami Herald called Suzuki "terrific and challenging", saying that the manga is fitting of gekiga, calling the art "rich and vibrant" and noting the manga's aspects of "whimsy and fantasy".
The manga was nominated for a 2012 Harvey Award in the "Best American Edition of Foreign Material" category.