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Shoji Kawamori, Kia Asamiya, Naoyuki Kato Nominated for Seiun Sci-Fi Awards

The 59th Japan Science Fiction Convention (Nihon SF Taikai) revealed the list of nominees for the 51st Seiun Awards on Thursday.

The nominees in the Japanese Novel category are:

• Tenmei no Shirube (Signposts to the Stars) by Issui Ogawa (The Lord of the Sands of Time, The Next Continent)
• Hitoyo no Nagai Yume (Long Dream of One Night/Human World) by Katsuie Shibata (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Isekai)
• Yadokari no Hoshi (The Hermitage) by Dempow Torishima (Sisyphean)
• Tokyo no Ko (Tokyo Nipper) by Taiyo Fujii (Orbital Cloud)
• Saki wo Yukumonotachi (The Ones Who Go Ahead) by Chohei Kanbayashi (Yukikaze)
• Hello World by Mado Nozaki (Babylon)
• Daizetsumetsu Kyoryu Time Wars (Great Extinction Dinosaur Time Wars) by Gengen Kusano (Last and First Idol)

The story in the nominated Hello World novel is the original concept behind the Hello World anime film, and Nozaki wrote both the novel and the film's screenplay. (The film has a separate, later novelization by Shuka Matsuda.) Ogawa also received a nomination in the Japanese short story category for “Twin Star Cyclone Runaway."

The artists Yūko Shiraishi, Katsuyuki Hoshino, Studio Nue's Shōji Kawamori (Macross), Masato Hisa (Ninja Batman (manga), Shion, Kia Asamiya (Silent Möbius), Akihiro Yamada (The Twelve Kingdoms), Jun Kawana, Studio Nue's Naoyuki Katō (The Legend of the Galactic Heroes), HR-FM, and Hiroshi Sagae (artist, sculptor on Godzilla, Ultraman, Super Sentai works) received nominations in the Art category. Last year, Kato won the category for the eighth time since 1979.

The Nihon SF Tanjō: Kūsō to Kagaku no Sakka-tachi (The Birth of Japanese Science-Fiction: The Writers of Imagination and Science) book by Space Battleship Yamato writer Aritsune Toyota, and the Anime no SF Kōshō-ka ga Kaku Mirai no Katachi 21.5-Seiki Boku-tachi wa Dō Ikiru ka? (The Shape of the Future Depicted by Anime Science-Fiction Researchers: How Will We Live in the Mid-21st Century?) book by Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin science-fiction consultant Yūya Takashima received nominations in the Nonfiction category.

The nominees in the open "Free" category include the first image of a black hole, the 2008-2019 annual science-fiction anthology Best Japanese SF (Nenkan Nihon SF Kessakusen), Google's published report of quantum computing supremacy, the "Syd Mead: Progressions TYO 2019" exhibition (pictured left) in Tokyo before Mead's retirement and passing, the venerable SF Magazine which has been running since 1959, and Monthly Model Graphix magazine's July 2019 cover feature "Studio Nue no SF Design-Ron" (Studio Nue's Science-Fiction Designs: An Analysis, pictured above right).

Locus magazine posted the nominees in the Best Translated Novel, Best Translated Short Story, and Best Japanese Short Story categories.

The awards this year are again separated into nine categories: Japanese Novel, Japanese Short Story, Translated Novel, Translated Short Story, Media, Comic, Art, Nonfiction, and a "Free" category. Each category has between 6-11 nominees. The nominees were chosen among works that were released between January 1 and December 31, 2019.

The attendees of "F-CON" in Fukushima, the 59th Japan Science Fiction Convention, will vote on the winners. The staff will announce the winners at the convention, which takes place from March 13-14, 2021. The event was originally scheduled to take place on August 22-23, but the organizers delayed the event until next year due to the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

"Seiun Shō" literally translates to "nebula awards," but the Japan SF Con's Seiun Awards are more akin to the Hugo Awards, in that the attendees of each respective convention vote on the winners. There is another set of awards, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Japan's Nihon SF Taishō honors, that are the rough Japanese equivalent of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's Nebula Awards. Like the Hugo Awards, the Seiun Awards honor all forms of speculative fiction — including but not limited to science fiction — and related materials.

Previous winners of the Seiun Awards include Kemono Friends, And Yet the Town Moves, Shin Godzilla, Kochikame, Girls und Panzer, Knights of Sidonia, The World of Narue, Bodacious Space Pirates, Range Murata, Masamune Shirow, Makoto Shinkai, Fullmetal Alchemist, Gundam: The Origin, 20th Century Boys, Summer Wars, Card Captor Sakura, Madoka Magica, Pacific Rim, Space Battleship Yamato 2199, Moyashimon, and more.

Last year, the SSSS.GRIDMAN anime won the Media category, and Tsukumizu's Girls' Last Tour manga won the Comic category.

Sources: Japan Science Fiction Convention, Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)