The winners of the Osamu Tezuka Cultural awards are out and the winners will definitely take us a trip back in time.
The Grand Prize was shared by two titles. First one (and the only one I’ve seen… at least in drama) is Jin by Murakami Motoka, a story of a surgeon who falls into a time slip and changes history by introducing his knowledge of medicine during the Bakumatsu period. I was only introduced to the drama a few weeks back but I’m happy to hear that this series has a strong manga enough to win the prize.
The other title is Takemitsu Samurai, drawn by Matsumoto Taiyou and written by Eifuku Issei. It’s a historical manga who has a mysterious ronin for a protagonist. Unfortunately, I can’t say much about it beyond it being printed in Big Comic Spirits. I’m only assuming that it’s one of those critically acclaimed yet unpopular titles (doesn’t even have a wiki page. :<)
The New Artist award was won by Full Metal Alchemist. And the Short Story award was won by Yamashina Keisuke.
I think this year’s award winners are quite a lovely set and I think their stories are definitely worth a read. I find it amazing though that Jin won this year. It’s like a nice homage to Osamu Tezuka. In a way, Jin is like the Black Jack of Edo. Sort of…
An awarding ceremony will be held on May 27 and the winners will be awarded 1 million yen and a bronze statue of Atom. Congratulations to all of the winners and hopefully we’ll have another lovely set of manga to read by next year!