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19th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Nominees Announced
posted on by Karen Ressler
The Asahi Shimbun paper announced the nine nominees for the 19th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize this week. The awards commemorate the contributions of the manga pioneer Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy/Mighty Atom, Kimba the White Lion/Jungle Emperor, Phoenix, Black Jack) by recognizing the manga that best follow his tradition.
Aisawa Riku
Yoiko Hoshi
Bungeishunju
Riku is a 14-year-old middle school student who can turn on fake tears like a faucet.
Aoi Honō
Kazuhiko Shimamoto
Shogakukan
Honō is a first-year student in a certain major university of the fine arts in Osaka. Full of passion and ambition, he vows to become a manga creator while also being interested in becoming an animator. The coming-of-age drama is based on Shimamoto's own college years in the early 1980s.
Assassination Classroom
Yūsei Matsui
Shueisha
The story begins after 70 percent of the moon is destroyed by a strange tentacled creature that can slink around at Mach 20 speeds. For some reason, this creature ends up teaching a middle school class at the beginning of the school year. The students have until graduation to assassinate the teacher, or it will destroy Earth as well.
Silver Spoon
Hiromu Arakawa
Shogakukan
The manga follows Yūgo Hachiken and his classmates at an agricultural high school in Hokkaido. Many of Hachiken's classmates are from farming families, but Hachiken is from the city and is not used to farm life.
A Silent Voice
Yoshitoki Ooima
Kodansha
Young boy Jōya Ishida has the motto of "Bright! Fun! Adventures!" He meets a deaf girl named Shōko Nishimiya. Their meeting changes the classroom, the school, and Jōya's entire life.
Goshiki no Fune (Five-color Boat)
Manga by Yasumi Tsuhara, Original Story by Yōko Kondō
Kadokawa
During a war they can't see, a family makes a living by running a freak show. They add a monster named Gudan, who can guess the future.
Chaser
Jōkura Kōji
Shogakukan
The story takes place in the first half of 1955, when a manga artist named Kōichi Umitoku is trying to challenge Osamu Tezuka, the God of Manga. He is the same age as Tezuka, and has three reasonably popular monthly serialized manga under his belt. He outwardly criticizes Tezuka's work as boring, but secretly collects Tezuka manga.
Naruto
Masashi Kishimoto
Shueisha
The long-running series about Naruto, a boy born the spirit of an evil nine-tailed fox imprisoned within him, and his quest to become Hokage, the strongest ninja in his village, ended in 2014 after 15 years.
Heisei Uro Oboe Zōshi
Hajime Toda
Asukashinsha
A (fictional) account from an Edo-era painter who visited the modern era and returned. The ukiyo-e he drew tell stories of mascot character, A*B48, the Sky Tree, and more.
This year's nominating committee — which includes novelist Atsuko Asano, manga creator Machiko Satonaka, university professor Shōhei Chūjō, manga editor Haruyuki Nakano, columnist Bourbon Kobayashi, manga commentator Shinbo Nobunaga, manga creator and researcher Tarō Minamoto, and manga researcher Tomoko Yamada — selected from among the works that were published from January to December of 2014.
The winners will be decided on March 25 and will be announced in Asahi Shimbun in early April.
Last year, 10 titles were nominated, and March comes in like a lion won the Grand Prize. Chūya Koyama's Space Brothers won the reader prize from among 20 nominees.
Update: Missing words added. Thanks, TsunaReborn!.
Source: Comic Natalie
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