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Makoto Shinkai Honored at Kodansha's Noda Publishing Culture Award
posted on by Kim Morrissy
Anime film director Makoto Shinkai accepted a prize at Kodansha's inaugural Noda Publishing Culture Award ceremony on Tuesday for his contributions to the publishing world. The novelization he penned of his latest film Weathering With You topped Oricon's overall bunko (smaller A6-sized books) ranking chart with 511,159 copies. It is the second time Shinkai has topped that chart, after his your name. novel accomplished the feat three years ago.
Manga publishers Ribon and Nakayoshi, which are both celebrating their 65th anniversaries, also received awards, along with acclaimed novelist Keigo Higashino and magazine models Mai Shiraishi and Erika Ikuta, both of whom are members of the idol group Nogizaka46.
Shinkai commented on his win: "This was a big year for films. We made your. name and Weathering With You, but in the overwhelming face of Disney and Hollywood, I've been wondering what kind of works we should create and what we can accomplish."
When asked if there was something that happened in publishing this year that left a deep impression on him, he said, "Through writing novelizations, I've come to realize that novels bring young people in Japan to the theater. There were many kids from elementary school to their teens telling me that they chose to write about my novelizations for their book report or that they came to know about the film through the book. I'm normally quite distant from [the world of publishing], but I was surprised, and then moved when I discovered that children are reading my books and getting introduced to the movies that way." He concluded by saying that he'll continue to work hard to make works that can reach a lot of people.
Source: Comic Natalie
