Interest

Voting Begins for Yomiuri Shimbun's Sugoi Japan Awards

Voting has begun for the 2016 Sugoi Japan Awards, a project by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper to promote pop cultural works that fans feel are most deserving of foreign attention. Divided into four categories — anime, manga, light novels, and "entertainment novels" — the awards promote the works that have the "universality," "originality" and "potential" to be big international hits. The time frame is the last 3.5 years, except for anime, which is only from the past year. While the 92 works below were chosen by fans and "experts" in July, the top 10 in each category will be chosen by vote, which will last until January 3. The winners shall be announced on March 22.

The candidates are:

ANIME

• The IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls (January 2015)
• Aldnoah.Zero (July 2014)
• Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin (February 2015)
• Gekijō-ban Kyōkai no Kanata -I'll Be Here- Mirai-hen (Beyond the Boundary, April 2015)
• Kuroko's Basketball (January 2015)
• Blood Blockade Battlefront (April 2015)
• Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun (July 2014)
• Psycho-Pass (October 2014)
• Miss Hokusai (May 2015)
• Your Lie in April (October 2014)
• Knights of Sidonia (March 2015)
• Show By Rock!! (April 2015)
• Shirobako (October 2014) (pictured)
• "20min Walk From Nishi-Ogikubo Station, 2 Bedrooms, Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen, 2mos Deposit, No Pets Allowed" (December 2014)
• Ninja Slayer From Animation (April 2015)
• The Case of Hana & Alice (February 2015)
• Sound! Euphonium (April 2015)
• Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works (October 2014)
• My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU TOO! (April 2015)
• Yuki Yuna Is a Hero (October 2014)
• Yuri Kuma Arashi (January 2015)
• Expelled from Paradise (November 2014)
• Love Live! The School Idol Movie (June 2015)

MANGA

• Are Yo Hoshikuzu ("That's Stardust"), Sansuke Yamada (April 2014)
• 1-F: Fukushima Dai'ichi Genshiryoku Hatsudensho Rōdōki ("An Account of Working at Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant"), Kazuto Tatsuta (April 2014)
• Inuyashiki, Hiroya Oku (May 2014)
• Innocent, Shin'ichi Sakamoto (2013)
• Oshiete! Galko-chan ("Please Tell Me! Galko-chan"), Kenya Suzuki (November 2014)
• My Love Story!!, Kazune Kawahara (2012)
• Kasane, Daruma Matsuura (2013)
• Kōdai-ke no Hitobito ("People of the Kōdai House"), Kozueko Morimoto (2013)
• A Silent Voice, Yoshitoki Ōima (November 2013)
• Twittering Birds Never Fly, Kou Yoneda (2013)
• Zetsubō no Hantō ("Criminal Island of Despair"), Toshifumi Sakurai (2013)
• Tasogare Takako ("Twilight Takako"), Kiwa Irie (April 2014)
• Dungeon Meshi ("Dungeon Food"), Ryōko Kui (January 2015)
• Dead Dead Demon's Dededededestruction, Inio Asano (September 2014) (pictured)
• Tokyo Ghoul, Sui Ishida (2012)
• Tokyo Tarareba-jō, Akiko Higashimura (September 2014)
• Torikae Baya, Chiho Saitō (2013)
• Haikyu!!, Haruichi Furudate (2012)
• Hōseki no Kuni ("Jewel Country"), Haruko Ichikawa (2013)
• Boku dake ga Inai Machi ("The Street Without Only Me"), Kei Sanbe (2013)
• My Hero Academia, Kōhei Horikoshi (November 2014)
• Monster Musume, OKAYADO (2012)
• One-Punch Man, ONE (2012)

LIGHT NOVELS

• RPF Red Dragon, Makoto Sanda et al (2012)
• Amagi Brilliant Park, Shōji Gatoh (2013)
• Escape Speed, Nozomu Kuoka (2012)
• Overload, Kugane Maruyama (2012)
• Clockwork Planet, Yū Kamiya and Tsubaki Himana (2013)
• Kōkyū Rakuen Kyūjō: Harem League Baseball, Hiroshi Ishikawa (December 2013)
• Kono Koi to, Sono Mirai. ("This Love and That Future"), Bingo Morihashi (June 2014)
• Saenai Heroine no Sodate-kata (Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend), Fumiaki Maruto (2012)
• Shitayomi Danshi to Tōkō Joshi ("The Reading Boy and the Writing Girl"), Mizuki Nomura (July 2015)
• Shimoneta to Iu Gainen ga Sonzai Shinai Taikutsu na Sekai (SHIMONETA: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn’t Exist), Hirotaka Akagi (2012)
• Shūmatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii Desu ka? Sukutte Moratte Ii Desu ka? ("What are You Doing at the End? Are You Busy? Can You Save Me?"), Akira Kareno (November 2014)
• Zesshinkai no Solaris ("Solaris of the Abyssal Zone"), Rakiruchi (March 2014)
• Gun Gale Online, Keiichi Sigsawa (December 2014)
• Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Fujino Ōmori (2013)
• Chōsō ("Sky Burial"), Mitsunori Enami (2013)
• Durarara!! SH, Ryohgo Narita (April 2014)
• Nejimaki Seirei Senki: Tenkyō no Alderamin ("Alderamin on the Sky"), Bokuto Uno (2012)
• Nōshō Sakuretsu Girl ("Brain Fluid Explosion Girl"), Erika Yoshida (December 2013)
• Hai to Gensō no Grimgar ("Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash"), Ao Jūmonji (2013)
• Haruka Tōdo no Canaan ("The Faraway, Frozen Canaan"), Yūri Shibamura (November 2013) (pictured)
• Boku no Gakkō no Ansatsu-bu ("My School's Assassination Club"), Makoto Fukami (2012)
• Leo Attiel Den ("Tales of Leo Attiel"), Tomonori Sugihara (June 2015)
• World End Economica, Isuna Hasekura (December 2014)

ENTERTAINMENT NOVELS

• Alice Koroshi ("Killing Alice"), Yasumi Kobayashi (2013)
• Orbital Cloud, Taiyō Fujii (February 2014)
• Kaidantō ("Step Island"), Yutaka Kōno (September 2014)
• Kyōdan X ("Order of X"), Fuminori Nakamura (December 2014)
• Kōjin, Miyuki Miyabe (August 2014)
• Saraba! ("Farewell!"), Kanako Nishi (October 2014)
• Shisha no Teikoku ("The Empire of Corpses"), Project Itoh and Toh Enjoe (2012)
• Shiroiro no Machi no, Sono Hone no Taion no ("The Temperature of Those Bones on the White Street"), Sayaka Murata (2012)
• Dōkeshi no Chō ("The Clown's Butterfly"), Toh Enjoe (2012)
• Toshokan no Majo ("The Library Witch"), Daisuke Takada (2013)
• Nankyokuten no Piapia Dōga ("The Peer-to-Peer Video from the South Pole"), Hōsuke Nojiri (2012)
• Know, Mado Nozaki (2013) (pictured)
• Knox's Machine, Rintarō Norizuki (November 2013)
• Baku no Ori ("The Baku's Cage"), Shūsuke Michio (April 2014)
• Banjō no Yoru ("Night on a Board"), Yūsuke Miyauchi (2012)
• PK, Kōtarō Isaka (2012)
• Beatless, Satoshi Hase (2012)
• Hibana ("Fireworks"), Naoki Matayoshi (March 2015)
• Man-Gan ("Fulfilled Vow"), Honobu Yonezawa (March 2014)
• Micha Belyayev no Shison-tachi ("The Descendants of Micha Belyayev"), Minoru Niki (April 2014)
• Metamorphosis, Keisuke Hada (July 2014)
• Ryū ("Flow"), Akira Higashiyama (May 2015)
• Watashi no Koibito ("My Lover"), Takahiro Ueda (June 2015)

The winners of this year's Sugoi Japan Awards, which covered the past decade, were Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Attack on Titan, and My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU.

[Via Yaraon! and Sugoi Japan Award 2016 official site]