Kumamoto International Manga Festival Award Ceremony & Tsukasa Hojo Talk Show

Thank you very much to everyone who came to the "Kumamoto International Manga Festival" held at Tsuruya Department Store in Kumamoto on April 4th and 15th. On the 16th (Sun), a talk show between Tsukasa Hojo and Nobuhiko Horie was held as part of the silent manga award ceremony, which was attended by many fans and students.At the opening, the motion comic of the final episode of "City Hunter" will be specially screened to excite the venue.From there, he looked back on Tsukasa Hojo's past works from the point of view of a manga artist and editor, and talked about the manufacturing site. The highlight is the making video of the writing of this key visual shot with a fixed-point camera for several days.You can hear a sigh from the venue as Tsukasa Hojo's brush strokes are carefully drawn. "Mr. Hojo gets better every time he puts in a pen," Horie praised the video he saw for the first time.   Next, the Silent Manga Award Ceremony was held.At this year's "Kumamoto International Manga Festival," we are looking for silent manga and illustrations with the theme of "bringing smiles to Kumamoto from all over the world."In just two months of submissions, we received 2 silent manga from 39 countries and regions and 209 illustrations from 59 countries.Award-winning workYou can see from here. Winners from Vietnam, Russia, Italy and Indonesia visited Japan and talked about the joy of receiving the award with a smile.The winner of the Grand Prix was "Cat Mela" by Zabania & Natrin from Vietnam.President Kuga of Tsuruya Department Store also took the stage as a presenter. In addition, the Sojo University Award, which was sponsored this time, was awarded to Mr. Da Hosoi from Italy, "Always Next Door". Ryuji Tsugihara, who served as a judge, said, "This time, they did their best to research Kumamoto and drew it with the desire to please the people of Kumamoto. Actually, that is the most important thing when drawing manga. I think that this theme has given the artists strength."Another judge, Tsukasa Hojo, commented, "There has never been a more difficult judging than this. The award-winning works are only a small part, and there are many foreign artists from all over the world who have drawn with Kumamoto in mind. Kumamoto. It was full of good works full of feelings for everyone,” he praised.   Congratulations to all the award winners!In addition, a live-action short movie made specially for the Kumamoto International Manga Festival will be unveiled for the first time at the venue.This is based on two previous award-winning works.Screened in the order of motion comics and then live-action movies, I experienced firsthand how a silent manga can be turned into wonderful visual content by leading visual and music creators and actors.bothhereWe are open to the public!Surprisingly, Kenshiro Kato, who appeared in "Let's make a smile", which became a hot topic for the first time the brothers co-starred, will be on stage with director Hiroshi Mashima as a surprise guest!I was with my older brother, Seishiro Kato, so I said, "I was nervous, but it was reassuring."The adorable expression makes the atmosphere of the venue peaceful. Yuto Uchiyama, the director of another live-action film, Thirty and a Half minutes, also appeared, saying, "It's experimental in a sense to tell the story with just facial expressions, and the actors are also excited while filming." All the staff do not need words = I feel the potential of silent manga that can be spread all over the world.”Regarding the intention behind making the live-action movie, Horie said, ``Osamu Tezuka, who wanted to make a movie, drew the storyboards of the movie on manuscript paper. Manga can be drawn by anyone in the world with "one pen, one paper".Manga is good at turning 30 into 30.The director, the actors, and the music make 0 into 1 or 1.And impress everyone.I wanted to show everyone that silent manga would develop like this." We apologize to all the visitors who could not be guided inside the venue.I would appreciate it if you could convey the atmosphere of the day even a little.The Kumamoto International Manga Festival ended with great popularity, but some of the award-winning works are still on display in the departure lobby on the 2nd floor of Aso Kumamoto Airport.If you were not able to come to this exhibition, please take a look!