The Japanese federal government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs revealed the winners of the 74th “Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Fine Arts Recommendation Awards” on Wednesday. Manga developers Takehiko Inoue (Slam Dunk) and Yumi Tamura (7SEEDS, Don’t Call It Mystery) won in the Media Arts classification, and animator Atsushi Wada (Ikimono-san anime shorts) won the Newcomer Award in the very same classification.
The awards event will be kept in Tokyo on March 12.
The Cabinet Minister Award winners in 12 classifications will each get a certificate and 1.2 million yen (about US$ 7,994), and the Newcomer Award winners will each get a certificate and 800,000 yen (about US$ 5,329).
© I.T.PLANNING, INC. © 2022 THE FIRST SLAM DUNK Film Partners
Inoue was among the very first winners in the Media Arts classification, when it was initially presented in 2009.
The First Slam Dunk, the brand-new anime movie of Inoue’s Slam Dunk basketball manga, opened in Japan in December 2022 and ranked at # 1 in its opening weekend. GKIDS launched the movie in the United States and Canada with both an English dub and with Japanese audio and English subtitles on July 28, 2023.
The movie is now the 13th highest-earning movie of all-time in Japan after exceeding Hayao Miyazaki’s 2008 anime movie Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, which has 15.5 billion yen (around US$ 105.8 million) in domestic revenues. The First Slam Dunk is likewise now the seventh highest-earning anime movie in Japan.
Inoue (REAL, Vagabond) personally directed the movie at Toei Animation and composed the script.
© Yumi Tamura, Shogakukan
Yumi Tamura’s continuous Do not state secret (Mystery to Iu Nakare) was manga very first released as a one-shot manga in Shogakukan’s Monthly Flowers in November 2016, and later on released as a serialization in the publication a year later on in November 2017. Kodansha granted the manga in its 44th yearly Manga Awards in April 2020. The manga was likewise chosen for the 13th Manga Taisho Awards in January 2020. The manga motivated a live-action series and a live-action movie.
Tamura released the 35-volume 7SEEDS series in 2001 in Bessatsu Shōjo Comic publication, before ultimately moving it to Monthly Flowers. The manga ended in July 2017. The manga won the Shōjo Category of the 52nd Annual Shogakukan Manga Awards in 2007. The manga influenced 2 anime series that premiered on Netflix in June 2019 and June 2020.
Tamura’s 27-volume Basara manga ran in Bessatsu Shōjo Comic from 1990-1998. Viz Media released the manga in English in 2003-2008. The manga influenced the 13-episode Legend of Basara tv anime series in 1998. Viz Media likewise released Tamura’s two-volume Chicago manga in 2002-2003, and her one-volume Wild Com manga in 2004.
Tamura’s Tomoe ga Yuku! manga motivated an initial video anime (OVA) series in 1991-1992.
© Jun Wada, New Dire/ Toei Animation
Atsushi Wada’s Ikimono-san series of anime shorts began streaming on YouTube in July 2023.