Story
A group of kids save a baby bird from imminent death, but will they be able to become a real family for it?
Genres: Dramedy
Rating: All Ages
Format: Webtoon Short Story
Number of Episodes: 3
Release date: July 2020
Alternative title:
運命に選ばれたヒナ Unmei ni Erabareta Hina
STAFF
Original Idea: Tatiana Tufanova
Directing: Tatiana Tufanova
Script Writing: Tatiana Tufanova, Expie, ROSEHIP
Dialogue: Tatiana Tufanova, ROSEHIP
Character Design: Tatiana Tufanova
Visual Development: Expie, Rina
Posters: ROSEHIP
Storyboarding & Pacing: Tatiana Tufanova
Sketching: Expie
Lining: Tatiana Tufanova
Flat Coloring: COOLYOKU, Rina
Coloring: Expie
Lettering & Editing: Tatiana Tufanova
Translation: Ayu
English Copy Editing: sae-midori
Logo Design: Tatiana Tufanova
Special Thanks: Syro, nam.on, weyowang
The Making of The One
The One is a remake of our 2016 short comedy, Bird Hoopla, a yonkoma for the Kitakyushu International Manga Competition. It had great potential to grow into a larger story, but that larger story wasn’t going to fit into a mere five pages of a four-panel comic. So after some time, we dusted off the project folder and reworked the story into a new format.
Early Concepts
The 2016 original yonkoma centers around three protagonists: the brothers Fëanor and Irmo, and their little sister Lucylin. In this version of the story, the siblings find a tit bird nest in a heap of old junk at the park. Caught up in her enthusiasm, Lucylin touches one of the chicks, which leads to her older brothers believing the mother bird will abandon the nest. While the siblings discuss how to save the poor hatchlings, mother bird arrives and furiously drives them away. Bruised and filthy, the three children return home dejected. But to everyone’s surprise, little Lucy cunningly reveals a bird chick from behind her back. And on that note, the original yonkoma ends.
⟵ Read from Right to Left: The original 2016 yonkoma in Japanese as it was presented for the Kitakyushu International Manga Competition. Drawn in collaboration with early team member, Semcool.
While working on the remake, we decided to change the story completely. Our first idea concentrated around a large colorful shopping mall where the siblings would go to hang out. Lucylin finds herself lost in the crowd, and thus begins the story of the three kids trying to reunite with one another. However, this idea would have required a tremendous amount of work beyond the initial scope of the short story – all those storefronts, shop windows, playrooms, you know…
Around the same time, we were also planning on entering Webtoon’s comic contest. Since we were still looking for a way to expand the story, we decided to switch things up a bit for the contest and adapt our original scenario into one about a cat. No, not our old friend the stray black cat as you might have imagined! Rather, a manekineko, a Japanese spirit of good luck who dwells in a tiny spirit shrine.
In this re-imagined version, the manekineko’s shrine had become old and decrepit, having been forgotten and neglected by people with the passing of time. Without devotees to bring offerings, the cat spirit was on the verge of disappearing from the Shinto kami pantheon. But through a chain of adventures, he would gain the faith of three familiar kids and be revived to his former glory.
But even with the new revisions, something was still missing. The story continued to change and evolve. We returned the bird chick once more, though this time as a swallow, and the manekineko morphed into the stray black cat. Then we realized the story had never been about a bird or a cat at all, but about a boy and his actions, and the bird itself became the trigger for his growth. What was once a tale of misadventures now became a story of a boy and his inner transformation. It quickly became clear this new type of story would allow us to explore the depth and complexities of human nature to its fullest. And sure enough, it proved to be a much more fascinating concept for us to work with right from the start. Much has changed since the earliest version, but its beginnings remain intact: the same autumn day, the same gingko trees, and the same city park with scrapped things. And with the newly found heart of the story, we now had a clear direction to aim towards.
Setting & Parents
The final story takes place in France, in a city based upon Toulouse. You won’t find any of the familiar street names of Toulouse mentioned in the webcomic though. But here’s a hint: the names are all paraphrased. Try to figure out which ones are which if you can!
The kids live with their mother in a small studio apartment in the city. A few preliminary cautions about their mother: she’s an office worker married to her job, and her parenting is as strict and precise as her work attitude. She’s a woman whose mind resides over her heart, but she does so to ensure she can provide for her children. Though fierce at times, she used to secretly dream of meeting a handsome prince who would whisk her away on his noble steed from the tedious grind of everyday life. And lo! One night at a student party she met him, Elrond (formerly Edgar), and found him to be the one and only Elven lord of her heart. But after years spent together, she realized her legendary prince with a thousand years of wisdom was actually just an average YouTuber with no real monetization of his channel. And the only thing he was ever good at giving her were empty promises. Refusing to raise “four kids” instead of three, the disillusioned consort expelled her useless spouse back to his elven forest.
The kids’ father currently works as blogger and an unsuccessful YouTuber. But he sincerely tries his best. He hopes someday to win back his wife’s heart and reunite with his family. He adores Tolkien, hence his choice of Elvish names for his children. Also, note the collection of Tolkien’s works on the bookshelf in Episode Two. They’re the parents’ shared favorites.
For this sketch, we created a parody logo of The Lord of the Rings — though now it’s The Master of the Jewels.
Kids Character Design
The kids’ designs haven’t changed much since their original 2016 debut. Only Fëanor saw the majority of a few overhauled outfit revisions. During the comic’s development, Tatiana Tufanova had joined a bomber jacket fan club, so of course Fëanor ended up wearing one too. And the fact that boys are so often huge dino fans when they’re young became a great reason to add all those fun patches to Fëanor’s clothing.
The kids themselves remind us of cute little red pandas, bumbling about and exploring their world with keen fascination. The gradient coloring on the kids’ hair is a mix of their parents’ red and almost white colors. We absolutely, definitely, under no circumstances, never ever regretted not keeping their hair a nice simple shade of solid red that’s easy to correct while working on the comic. Fixing all those gradients is quite a pain, you know?
Lucylin underwent a couple of changes too. She’s older now, and her dress pattern is simplified to make it easier to draw the billowing folds of her pinafore dress. Her original plush raccoon also became a bird-shaped bag. It has a name, by the way! It’s called Tsypa, meaning chick in Russian, and it became a fun mascot to draw. If you look closely throughout the webcomic, you’ll notice that Tsypa reacts to the events around it with all the passion of a world-class drama queen.
Early vs. Current Character Designs
Alternative outfits
Though the story itself is filled with many dramatic elements, we accented it with comedic dialogue and fun visuals, including a treasure trove of nods and references to things that were particularly popular throughout 2020. Yes, you read it right – Mermaid Crosswalking was indeed the hit game of summer 2020! With eyes sparkling like shoujo protagonists, Tatiana Tufanova and Expie packed as many easter eggs as they could into each panel of the comic while ROSEHIP worked like a mad demon to crank out all the fandom posters you see on the walls. It was a lot of fun working together to decorate all those scenes!
A Closer Look
The unique shape of Fëanor’s bangs grants him a +3 Combat Blessing. Fëanor dreams of keeping a pet manticore, but his mother would definitely be against it. That’s why he’s willing to settle for a battle unicorn.
Irmo can’t stand Lucylin’s favorite board game, Kitty Paw, because he thinks it’s crazy. Eating croissants for breakfast is out of the question. He’d rather eat eggs sunny-side up than eat croissants. A paradox? Who knows?
Lucylin is only five years old, so she doesn’t have her own smartphone yet. Instead, she constantly steals one of her brothers’ (while they’re distracted of course). She adores taking selflies and fills their phones’ storages to the max with them! Shhh, don’t tell anyone – it’ll be our little secret, okay? Before Irmo gets angry… again.
Fëanor, a ten year old Level 4 Human Druid acolyte of the Valar from the Middle Earth. As everyone knows, all predicaments are brought about by Fate, and it’s up to Fëanor the Brave to face these challenges! The young Druid’s valiant heart is worthy of having ballads sung about him, but sometimes the thirst for adventure clouds his judgment. At times like these, his less than knightly brother comes to his aid. Fëanor’s special skills include, “Working Hard on the Wrong Thing,” “Saving Everyone You Can,” and “Big Brother’s Care.”
The unique shape of Fëanor’s bangs grants him a +3 Combat Blessing. Fëanor dreams of keeping a pet manticore, but his mother would definitely be against it. That’s why he’s willing to settle for a battle unicorn.
Irmo can’t stand Lucylin’s favorite board game, Kitty Paw, because he thinks it’s crazy. Eating croissants for breakfast is out of the question. He’d rather eat eggs sunny-side up than eat croissants. A paradox? Who knows?
Lucylin, our little Social Media Queen. So small, so cute, and so very self-reliant. Fëanor calls her Lucy, while Irmo calls her Lin. We joke that when she gets a little older, she’ll claim the entire kids’ room for herself. She already has a bed and a personal desk while her brothers still have to share a single desk space between the two of them. Unfair, isn’t it?
Lucylin is only five years old, so she doesn’t have her own smartphone yet. Instead, she constantly steals one of her brothers’ (while they’re distracted of course). She adores taking selflies and fills their phones’ storages to the max with them! Shhh, don’t tell anyone – it’ll be our little secret, okay? Before Irmo gets angry… again.
A Story About Chance
The One is a story about chance. It’s a story about acknowledging and accepting responsibility, and about a single child being both a protagonist and an antagonist simultaneously.
The project draws a parallel between the act of caring for a young chick and the idea of what it means to be caring to others. Fëanor and Lucylin were earnest yet impulsive, and they eagerly jumped into the deep end of responsibility without accounting for the impact of their choice. In their eyes, they’d be able to successfully nurse the swallow chick back to health through sheer willpower without a single thought as to what caring for a baby bird really entailed. Irmo, on the other hand, represents the idea of skepticism brought about by adverse experiences with reality. He views his siblings as incompetent, and he highly doubts their actions will have any effect on the inevitable outcome in the end. From Irmo’s perspective, leaving well enough alone was always the best and safest option.
This is another subtle parallel woven into the story in regards to the children’s father. A kid at heart himself, he never realized the weight of the responsibility that fell upon him with the birth of his own children. As a result, all three of his kids experienced a sense of loss when he left, and Irmo especially felt the pain of a broken attachment. Irmo’s feelings of powerlessness are ultimately echoed in his own choice in the story, and his firm decision to embrace a lack of action actually causes the greatest effect upon others. He comes to realize that doing nothing to prevent mistakes is just as irresponsible as the misguided attempts of his siblings.
It’s always good to try new things or even start all over again if need be. And, of course, it’s not wrong to fully change the direction of where you’re headed. However, as we’ve learned from the three kids, it’s better not to leave things to chance if you’re already deeply involved. It’s also just as important to keep in touch with the reality of the situation, as things might change along the way. Just like Irmo, there’s always a lesson to be learned in being aware of how your actions, however little, might affect the people you care about the most.
Doc’s Visual Development
Afterword
Through our little story, we’d like to express our gratitude to both state-owned and privately-owned pet and animal rehabilitation centers for their invaluable work in helping to improve the lives of every patient. Dear readers, do consider supporting such centers if you have the means to, as they’re always in need of extra funds for pet food, medicine, and new care facilities.
The One may not be the first story we ever wrote, but it’s the first story we’ve completed together as a fully-fledged team. We experimented a lot with our creative process, and we tried various approaches to better our workflow every step of the way. Initially we planned to complete the entire story project in three weeks. But life said, “Whoa, guys, not so fast!” and in the end it took us a bit longer to bring each frame to perfection. But without a doubt, it was worth it. We’ve gained a lot of positive team experience, which means we’re excited to start creating even more new stories for your enjoyment!