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43rd Annual Kodansha Manga Awards' Winners Announced
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Japanese publisher Kodansha announced the winners on Friday for its 43rd annual Manga Awards.
Best Shōnen Manga
The Quintessential Quintuplets (Gotōbun no Hanayome)
Negi Haruba
Magazine: Weekly Shōnen Magazine (Kodansha)
Summary: One day, a poor high school second-year named Futaro Uesugi comes across a private tutoring gig with good pay. But his pupils are his classmates!! And they're quintuplets!! A-and they're all gorgeous girls, but they're also troublemakers who hate to study and are on the verge of flunking out! And his first task is simply gaining the sisters' trust?! Every day is a party! The curtain is rising on the Nakano quintuplets' quirky romantic comedy with five times the cute!! (Via Kodansha Comics)
To Your Eternity (Fumetsu no Anata e)
Yoshitoki Ōima
Magazine: Weekly Shōnen Magazine (Kodansha)
Summary: A new manga from the creator of the acclaimed A Silent Voice, featuring intimate, emotional drama and an epic story spanning time and space…
A lonely boy wandering the Arctic regions of North America meets a wolf, and the two become fast friends, depending on each other to survive the harsh environment. But the boy has a history, and the wolf is more than meets the eye as well… To Your Eternity is a totally unique and moving manga about death, life, reincarnation, and the nature of love. (Via Kodansha Comics)
Other nominees for Best Shōnen Manga included act-age and Ao-chan Can't Study!.
Best Shōjo Manga
Perfect World
Rie Aruga
Magazine: Kiss (Kodansha)
Summary: 26-year-old Tsugumi Kawana reunites with her first crush from high school, Itsuki Ayukawa, at a get-together between an architecture firm and the interior design company she works at. He sends her heart aflutter, until she realizes he's now disabled, and in a wheelchair. At first she feels she couldn't date a guy in a wheelchair, but then her feelings begin to change … (Via Kodansha Comics)
Other nominees for Best Shōjo Manga included: Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight, Nagi no Oitoma, and Our Precious Conversations.
Best General Manga
What Did You Eat Yesterday? (Kinō Nani Tabeta?)
Fumi Yoshinaga
Magazine: Morning (Kodansha)
Summary: A hard-working, middle-aged gay couple in Tokyo come to enjoy the finer moments of life through food. After long days at work, either in the law firm or the hair salon, Shiro and Kenji will always have down time together by the dinner table, where they can discuss their troubles, hash out their feelings, and enjoy delicately prepared home-cooked meals! (Via Vertical)
Other nominees for Best General Manga included: Shōwa Tennō Monogatari (Showa Emperor Tale), The Blue Period., and Watashi wa Dōka Shiteiru (There's Something Wrong With Us).
Kodansha also awarded two series with a Special Award commemorating 110 years since Kodansha's founding.
Special Award
Kosaku Shima series
Kenshi Hirokane
Magazine: Morning, Evening (Kodansha)
Summary: Since 1983, Hirokane has been depicting the corporate rise of a Japanese executive named Kōsaku Shima. With every change in job title the main character receives, the manga title also changes. The manga began under the name Kachō Shima Kōsaku (Section Chief Kōsaku Shima). Sequels include Division Chief Kosaku Shima, Managing Director Kosaku Shima, Executive Managing Director Kosaku Shima, Senmu Shima Kōsaku, President Kosaku Shima, and Chairman Kosaku Shima.
Hajime no Ippo
George Morikawa
Magazine: Weekly Shōnen Magazine (Kodansha)
Summary: Morikawa launched Hajime no Ippo in 1989, and the series is his only manga. The manga follows Makunouchi Ippo and his career in boxing.
The prizes awarded to each of the winning authors include a certificate, bronze statuette, and 1 million yen (about US$9,100). Ken Akamatsu, Tochi Ueyama, Oh! great, Atsushi Kase, Akiko Higashimura, Yūji Moritaka, and Waki Yamato formed the selection committee.
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, Paru Itagaki's BEASTARS manga won the Best Shōnen Manga award, Bakka Okita's Tōmei na Yurikago manga won the Best Shōjo Manga award, and Yuki Ozawa's Sanju Mariko and Saburō Megumi and Bin Kusamizu's Fragile: Byōrii Kishi Keiichirō no Shoken manga both won the Best General Manga award.
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