15th SMA Manga Competition Announced
Tokyo, Japan - October 2nd, 2020
The SILENT MANGA AUDITION® has launched its 15th manga competition, in a bid to locate, develop and debut the next stars of international manga into the Japanese manga market.
SILENT MANGA AUDITION® is MANGA without dialogue. MANGA which solely puts the emphasis on the character's emotions. By doing this, “MANGA” will become a common international word. Over 100 countries have joined the competition collectively submitting over 5000 works. From elementary school students to illustrators and even professional mangaka. Every type of creator can join the competition.
We want to see a short, dialogue-free manga in 5 to 17 pages that encompasses ONE of these key emotional elements. Let your imagination run wild with stories of any genre that utilizes crying, smiling or love as its core. As always, the legendary SMA judges will evaluate your artistic techniques, your ability to build drama with an effective climatic twist and your paneling/directorial techniques.
“Moments of CRYING, SMILING and LOVE" covers a wide and varied spectrum of emotions. These three fundamental elements are also the cornerstones of every Japanese manga published, ensuring the work contains one of the most important aspects of storytelling... RELATABILITY.
★ CRYING: We cry when we are upset and in pain; when we laugh and even when we're unbelievably happy! Crying is perhaps one our most versatile signs of unmasked emotion that shows our true selves. An honest and endless source of manga inspiration.
★ SMILING: If crying shows our honesty, then smiling is our mask! Yes, we smile when we are happy or amused, but smiling can be a sign of an altogether darker nature. Can you build a story around a smile of happiness, or a smile of menace?!
★ LOVE: Love is a universal human theme, complex and bulging with emotion. From the bronze age Fall of Troy and the tragedy of star-crossed lovers, to an endless list of romcom movies, love is the timeless emotion that has launched a thousand stories.
Deadline for entries is January 27th, 2020 (12:00 in YOUR timezone)
