The 61st Japan Science Fiction Convention (Nihon SF Taikai) revealed the winners of the 54th Seiun Awards on Saturday.
Uoto‘s Chi: On the Movements of the Earth (Chi -Chikyū no Undō ni Tsuite-) manga won the Best Comic award. The manga competed against Satoru Noda‘s Golden Kamuy manga, Riichirou Inagaki and Boichi‘s Dr. Stone manga, Taizan 5‘s Takopi’s Original Sin manga, Satoshi Mizukami‘s Planet With manga, and Gaku Miyao‘s Nidome no Jinsei: Animator manga.
Uoto launched the manga in Big Comic Spirits in September 2020, and ended it in April 2022. Shogakukan published the manga’s eighth and final compiled book volume in June 2022.
The manga won the Grand Prize for the 26th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize awards in April 2022. Uoto is the youngest ever to win the Grand Prize at 24 years old. The manga was nominated for the 68th Shogakukan Manga Awards in 2022. The manga ranked at #22 in Da Vinci’s “Book of the Year” manga list in 2022. Seven Seas will release the first omnibus volume physically and digitally in November. The company describes the story:
In the fifteenth century, claiming that the Earth revolves around the sun was a heresy that could get believers burned at the stake. Child prodigy Rafal is introduced to the truth about the universe by his mentor, and then must flee when the Inquisition comes to mete out “God’s justice.” With only a peculiar pendant to guide him, will Rafal discover his master’s research, and can he and other believers set the world alight?
The manga is getting an anime adaptation by Madhouse.
©2022「シン・ウルトラマン」製作委員会 ©円谷プロ
Additionally, Studio Khara‘s Shin Ultraman film won the Best Media award. The film competed against: the Lycoris Recoil anime series, the Taroman: Okamoto Tarō Shiki Tokusatsu Katsugeki live-action series, the Break of Dawn anime film, the The Orbital Children anime film series, the Summer Time Rendering anime series, the Suzume anime film, the Daikaijū no Atoshimatsu film, the Hoshi Shinichi no Fushigi na Fushigi na Tanpen Drama live-action series, and the DAICON FILM-ban Kaetekita Ultraman (Remaster-ban) series.
Shin Ultraman debuted in Japan in May 2022 and ranked at #1 in its first weekend.
Shin Godzilla director Shinji Higuchi and his Higuchi-Gumi team helmed the project, and Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno was in charge of planning and scripts. Kenshi Yonezu performed the film’s theme song “M87.”
Kenji Tsuruta (Spirit of Wonder, Manga Abenobashi Mahō Shōtengai – Abeno no Machi ni Inori o Komete, Wandering Island manga) won the Best Artist award, alongside Studio Nue co-founder Naoyuki Katō (The Guin Saga novel illustrator, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes mechanical designer). This is the 10th time Katō has won the Art category since 1979.
Other award winners this year include:
- Best Japanese Long Story: Satoshi Hase‘s Protocol of Humanity (author of Beatless novel)
- Best Japanese Short Story: Koichi Harukure’s “The Sagacious Stags” (“Hōchi no Kemono”)
- Best Translated Long Story: Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy (translated by Yasuko Kaji)
- Best Translated Short Story: Sarah Pinsker’s “Sooner Or Later Everything Falls Into The Sea” (translated by Idumi Ichida) and Liu Cixin‘s “The Wandering Earth” (translated by Nozomi Ohmori and Masako Furuichi)
- Best Non-Fiction: ARUKIKATA Editorial Team’s “ARUKIKATA MU ~guide to parallel world~”
No work won the “Non Category (Everything That Feels Sense of Wonder)” award this year.
The nominees were chosen among works that were released between January 1 and December 31, 2022. Those who registered for the 61st Japan Science Fiction Convention could vote online for the winners between April 13 and May 31.
“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, Astra Lost in Space, How Many Light-Years to Babylon?, Batman Ninja, and more.
Last year, “The Completion of Rebuild of Evangelion” won the open “Non Category (Everything That Feels Sense of Wonder)” category to honor the conclusion of the 15-year film series. Keisuke Makino‘s seven-volume Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut (Tsuki to Laika to Nosferatu) novel series won the “Best Japanese Long Story” award. The Godzilla Singular Point anime won the Best Media award. Takashi Shiina‘s Zettai Karen Children manga, which ended in 2021 after 63 volumes, won the Best Comic award.
