News
45th Annual Kodansha Manga Awards' Winners Announced
posted on by Alex Mateo
Japanese publisher Kodansha announced the winners on Thursday for its 45th annual Manga Awards.
Best Shōnen Manga
Blue Lock
Muneyuki Kaneshiro, Yūsuke Nomura
Magazine: Weekly Shōnen Magazine (Kodansha)
Summary: After a disastrous defeat at the 2018 World Cup, Japan's team struggles to regroup. But what's missing? An absolute Ace Striker, who can guide them to the win. The Football Association is hell-bent on creating a striker who hungers for goals and thirsts for victory, and who can be the decisive instrument in turning around a losing match...and to do so, they've gathered 300 of Japan's best and brightest youth players. Who will emerge to lead the team...and will they be able to out-muscle and out-ego everyone who stands in their way? (Via Kodansha Comics)
Other nominees for Best Shōnen Manga included Fire Force, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime.
Best Shōjo Manga
A Condition Called Love
Megumi Morino
Magazine: Dessert (Kodansha)
Summary: Hotaru is a 16-year-old high school first-year who has always been ambivalent about love, preferring instead to have a lively life with her family and friends. So when she sees her schoolmate, Hananoi-kun, sitting in the snow after a messy, public breakup, she thinks nothing of offering to share her umbrella. But when he asks her out in the middle of her classroom the next day, she can't help but feel that her life is about to change in a big way … (Via Kodansha Comics)
Other nominees for Best Shōjo Manga included Defying Kurosaki-kun, Honey Lemon Soda, and A Sign of Affection.
Best General Manga
Yuria Sensei no Akai Ito (Miss Yuria's Red Thread of Fate)
Kiwa Irie
Magazine: Be Love (Kodansha)
Summary: The manga follows 50-year-old Irie, a ballet dancer who got into the art through her sister long ago. Now she lives a simple but happy life teaching handicrafts and living together with a writer husband. When her husband has a medical emergency due to a haemorrhage, she rushes to the hospital, only to find a mysterious young man by her husband's side. When Irie's husband does not wake up, the young man confesses that he is the lover of Irie's husband.
Other nominees for Best General Manga included I Want to Hold Aono-kun So Badly I Could Die, Sweat and Soap, Hakozume: Kōban Joshi no Gyakushū (Hakozome: A Police Box Woman's Counterattack), and Futari Solo Camp (Solo Camping With Just the Two of Us).
In past years, Kodansha gave out a "Best Children's Manga" award as well, but starting in 2015 Kodansha has integrated the nominees for that category into the Best Shōnen Manga and Best Shōjo Manga categories instead.
Last year, Ken Wakui's Tokyo Revengers won the Best Shonen Manga award. Robico's Our Precious Conversations won the Best Shōjo Manga award. Tsubasa Yamaguchi's The Blue Period. won the Best General Manga award.
Sources: Kodansha, Comic Natalie
