Hayao Miyazaki’s 40-year-old manga wins Eisner award
By Ryan General
July 24, 2023
Hayao Miyazaki’s beloved watercolor manga “Shuna’s Journey” has won an Eisner Award.
What happened: Originally released in Japan in 1983, the single-volume manga won the Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia accolade at the 2023 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. The prestigious recognition was announced during San Diego Comic-Con International on Friday.
Miyazaki‘s masterpiece faced stiff competition in its category, contending against Junji Ito’s “Black Paradox,” Tatsuki Fujimoto’s “Look Back,” Murasaki Yamada’s “Talk to My Back” and Masaaki Nakayama’s “PTSD Radio.”
About the book: “Shuna’s Journey,” which was released in the U.S. in November 2022, centers around a young prince from a small mountain village who embarks on a life-changing quest to find a mystical grain that holds the key to saving his people from a famine.
The U.S. edition was translated by Alex Dudok de Wit and published by First Second Books, an imprint of Macmillan.
Miyazaki’s latest film: “The Boy and the Heron,” the legendary director’s latest feature film, recently set a record with the biggest opening weekend of any Studio Ghibli production in Japan despite minimal marketing efforts. According to ComScore, the film made 1.83 billion yen (approximately $13 million) between July 14 and July 16.
Hall of Fame nomination: This year’s Eisner Awards also included nominations for the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame, with late manga creator Keiji Nakazawa — known for “Barefoot Gen” — among the 16 nominees.
Nakazawa, who was also previously nominated for the Hall of Fame in 2020, similarly did not secure induction this year. The newly inducted members of the Hall of Fame include Brian Bolland, Ann Nocenti, Tim Sale and Diana Schutz.
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