News: Chi Manga and Shin Ultraman Film Receive Seiun Awards

The winners of the 54th Seiun Awards were announced on Saturday during the 61st Japan Science Fiction Convention (Nihon SF Taikai). Uoto’s manga “Chi: On the Movements of the Earth” won the Best Comic award. Other nominated manga included Satoru Noda’s “Golden Kamuy,” Riichirou Inagaki and Boichi’s “Dr. Stone,” Taizan 5’s “Takopi’s Original Sin,” Satoshi Mizukami’s “Planet With,” and Gaku Miyao’s “Nidome no Jinsei: Animator.”

“Chi: On the Movements of the Earth” was serialized in Big Comic Spirits from September 2020 to April 2022. It won the Grand Prize in the 26th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize and was nominated for the 68th Shogakukan Manga Awards. The manga ranked 22nd in Da Vinci’s “Book of the Year” manga list in 2022. Seven Seas will release the first omnibus volume in November, and an anime adaptation by Madhouse is also in the works.

The film “Shin Ultraman” from Studio Khara won the Best Media award. Other nominees in this category included various anime series and films such as “Lycoris Recoil,” “Taroman: Okamoto Tarō Shiki Tokusatsu Katsugeki,” “Break of Dawn,” “The Orbital Children,” “Summer Time Rendering,” “Suzume,” “Daikaijū no Atoshimatsu,” “Hoshi Shinichi no Fushigi na Fushigi na Tanpen Drama,” and “DAICON FILM-ban Kaetekita Ultraman (Remaster-ban).” “Shin Ultraman” debuted in Japan in May 2022, ranking first in its opening weekend.

The Best Artist award went to Kenji Tsuruta and Studio Nue co-founder Naoyuki Katō. Other award winners included Satoshi Hase’s “Protocol of Humanity” for Best Japanese Long Story, Koichi Harukure’s “The Sagacious Stags” for Best Japanese Short Story, Yasuko Kaji’s translation of Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation Trilogy” for Best Translated Long Story, and translations by Idumi Ichida, Nozomi Ohmori, Masako Furuichi for Best Translated Short Story.

The nominees were chosen from works released between January 1 and December 31, 2022, and winners were determined through online voting by registered attendees of the convention. The Seiun Awards celebrate various forms of speculative fiction and related materials, similar to the Hugo Awards in the United States. Notable previous winners include “Kemono Friends,” “Shin Godzilla,” “Knights of Sidonia,” “The World of Narue,” and “Fullmetal Alchemist.”

Source: Japan Science Fiction Convention, Comic Natalie