News

Japanese Science Fiction Con Award Nominees Announced

The Japanese SF Fan Group announced the nominees for the 2007 Seiun Awards. Members of the Japanese National Science Fiction Convention will vote on these awards, which are the Japanese equivalent of the international Hugo Awards.

Vying for the Best Media Award are Japanese-Academy-Award-winning The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Zegapain, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Paprika, and Everyone But Japan Sinks (a live-action parody of the Japan Sinks thriller). Yasutaka Tsutsui happens to be the original story creator of every media nominee except Zegapain and Haruhi. Death Note, Bunsô Renkin, Karakuri Circus, Yôsei-koku no Kishi, and Yokohama Shopping Log are competing in the comic category.

This year, the Japanese city of Yokohama will host both the Hugo Awards and the Seiun Awards, since the World Science Fiction Convention selected this city to host the 65th Worldcon. The combined Nippon 2007 event will welcome back expatriate Yoshitaka Amano (Vampire Hunter D, Final Fantasy games) as an Artist Guest of Honor. Amano won the Seiun Award for Best Artist every year between 1983 and 1986, and is up for this year's award as well.

Anime has garnered considerable success in the Best Media category by winning in 1975 (Space Battleship Yamato), 1985 (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, 1988 (Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise), 1989 (My Neighbor Totoro), 1990 (Aim for the Top! Gunbuster), 1993 (Mama's a Fourth Grader), 1999 (Martian Successor Nadesico the Motion Picture: Prince of Darkness), 2000 (Cowboy Bebop), 2003 (Voices of a Distant Star), and 2005 (Planetes). To Terra (1978), Dômu (1984), Appleseed (1986), Urusei Yatsura (1987), Mermaid Forest (1989), Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1995), Card Captor Sakura (2001), Planetes (2002), From Far Away (2004), and Onmyôji (2006) have all won the Best Comic Award.