Kadokawa focuses on manga artists from abroad with numerous submissions as part of the »Wordless World Manga Contest«. We summarize.
Promising submissions
Like the entire industry, the Kadokawa publishing giant has found in recent years that there has been a significant lack of Japanese mangaka. For this reason, the “Wordless World Manga Contest” was launched.
Because instead of “To fall into the hard competition for artists in Germany” If, according to Noboru Segawa, the head of the new department for foreign manga near Kadokawa, one “Discover emerging manga artists from abroad that are currently still an undeveloped area” – And that should have been a complete success with over 1,126 submissions from 104 countries.
The jurors were more than enthusiastic and distinguished a total of eight stories, with the title “My Hope in Bloom” from Canada received the gold price and prize money of $ 10,000. The works “Heartsteel” from India and “Dungeon Duo” from the USA received a silver award and $ 5,000 each.
Focus on global market
For completeness, we would also not like to leave the submissions awarded with bronze. These are “No Rain, No Rainbow” and “Mother” from Taiwan, “Pierrot Inside Me” from Algeria, “Hear No Evil” from Indoniesia and “The Don’s Final Quest” (origin unknown), which were each rewarded with $ 3,000.
In addition to the prize money, the authors of the eight winners will work with experienced editors in the future to debut under the label Kadokawa in Japan – but without any pressure to succeed, because the target group of these titles should rather be international fans.
This also corresponds to the basic plans of the company to focus more on the global market. In this context, branches in Europe, North America, China and Southeast Asia have already been founded.
Segawa concluded that he hoped that one of the excellent titles could develop into an international success and thus make a significant contribution to promoting a global manga culture. If you want to get an idea of ​​the winning works for yourself, you will find it free of charge on Comicwalker.
Via Oricon
© Aneko Yusagi, Seira Minami, KADOKAWA / The Rising of the Shield Hero Production Committee
