News

12th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Winners Announced

The Asahi Shimbun paper announced the winners for the 12th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize on Saturday. Masayuki Ishikawa won the 2-million-yen (about US$20,000) Manga Grand Prize for his Moyashimon medical comedy manga. The manga follows a college student who discovers that he can see and communicate with the germs all around him — germs that appear as super-deformed characters. This was the third year in a row that Moyashimon has been nominated. Fumi Yoshinaga's Ohoku was also nominated for three years running, but has yet to receive the award. The second-place finisher this year was Umimachi Diary 1: Semishigure no Yamugoro.

Toranosuke Shimada earned the New Artist Prize for Träumerei. Yumiko Ōshima won the Short Work Prize for Gou-Gou Datte Neko De Aru (Cher Gou-Gou…mon petit chat, mon petit ami). The judges also honored Osaka Prefecture's International Institute for Children's Literature with a Special Prize. Each of these prize winners will receive 1 million yen (US$10,000).

The awards commemorate the contributions of the manga pioneer Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy/Mighty Atom, Kimba the White Lion/Jungle Emperor, Phoenix, Black Jack) by recognizing the manga that best follow his tradition. Both general readers and experts participate in the nomination of manga that were published from January to December of the previous year. The expert judging panel this year includes novelist Hiroshi Aramata (Alexander: The Movie, Doomed Megalopolis) and manga creator Moto Hagio (They Were Eleven, A,A').

Grand Prize

New Artist Prize

Short Award Prize

Special Prize

Source: animeanime.jp