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Bandana Comic, Shōsetsu ni Narō Team Up for New Manga Contest With Theme of Robots, Mechs

Echoes, Bandai, and Bandai Namco Filmworks' vertical-scrolling manga label and service Bandana Comic and the Japanese novel website Shōsetsuka ni Narō launched a new "Bandana Comic Tate Scroll Manga Gensaku Taisho: Mecha, Robot-hen" (Bandana Comic Vertical-Scrolling Manga Original Work Prize: Mecha, Robot Edition) contest on Friday.

Echoes, Bandai, and Bandai Namco Filmworks established a new joint business venture for a vertical-scrolling manga label and service named Bandana Comic in February 2023. The service launched last month.

This is the first contest for the new service. The contest is looking for works that are innovative and novel. Judges include Naohiro Ogata (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury executive producer), Ken Ōkawara (Ghost in the Shell Arise chief producer), Yoshitaka Kawaguchi (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion producer), Osamu Serita (Birdie Wing -Golf Girls' Story- promotion), Noriaki Tanaka (Love Live! Superstar!! executive producer), Osamu Taniguchi (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin producer), Hideyuki Murata (RWBY: Ice Queendom producer), and Atsushi Yukawa (Girls und Panzer der Film chief producer).

The contest is open to both pros and amateurs, and the work's genre does not matter, as long as the main story features mechs and/or robots.

Winners will receive 500,000 yen (about US$3,200) and their work turned into a serialized manga. Runners up will receive 200,000 yen (about US$1,300) and their work turned into a one-shot. Jury Award winners will receive 50,000 yen (about US$320). The deadline to submit works is August 30 and the winners will be announced in late November.

Sources: Bandana Comic, Comic Natalie

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Disclosure: Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. (Sunrise) is a non-controlling, minority shareholder in Anime News Network Inc.