The 51st Angoulême International Comics Festival announced its winners on Saturday, with Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama’s Four Japanese in San Francisco 1904-1924 (The Four Immigrants Manga) securing the Heritage Selection category. Additionally, Shinya Komatsu’s Afternoon Yawns (Gogo no Akubi), volume 1, earned a Special Jury Award for the Youth Selection category.
Moto Hagio, a shōjo manga pioneer, received the “Fauve D’Honneur” award, while the Konishi Award 2024 went to Sentarō Kubota, Kenichi Sakemi, and Hideki Mori’s Bokkō manga.
Among the nominations for the Official Selection (Best Comic) award, Daniel Clowes’ Monica comic emerged as the winner. Other nominated works included:
– Blue Giant Explorer (volume 1) by Shinichi Ishizuka
– Chainsaw Man (volume 13) by Tatsuki Fujimoto
– EVOL (volume 3) by Atsushi Kaneko
– The Fable (volume 13) by Katsuhisa Minami
– Kujo the Implacable (Kujō no Taizai) (volume 3) by Shohei Manabe
– A Nice Life (Tanoshii Jinsei) by Hideyasu Moto
– In the Youth Selection category, Tokyo Aliens volume 5 by Naoe and Daemons of the Shadow Realm volume 1 by Hiromu Arakawa were also nominated.
In the Heritage Selection category, nominations included Moto Hagio’s The Poe Clan volume 1, Takao Saitō’s Confidences d’une prostituée (Shōfu Naomi Yawa), and Yoshiharu Tsuge’s Desire in the Rain (Works 1981-1985).
Hayao Miyazaki’s Shuna’s Journey manga received a nomination for the “Sélection Eco-Fauve Raja” award, which recognizes works dealing with ecological issues. However, the award went to Guillaume Singelin’s Frontier.
Asumiko Nakamura’s Utsubora volume 2 was nominated for the “Sélection Fauve Polar SCNF Voyageurs” award for crime and thriller works, but the award went to Keko and Carlos Portela’s Contrition.
The Angoulême Festival, taking place from January 24-28 in the Angoulême area of France, originated in 1974 as an event celebrating comics from countries worldwide. The festival featured Master Classes hosted by manga creators Moto Hagio, Hiroaki Samura, and Shin’ichi Sakamoto, along with exhibitions for Hagio and Samura.