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Embassy of Japan’s “Manga Jiman” 2016 Competition Winners Revealed

By John Freeman on December 14, 2016

A panel from “God’s Island” by Shangomola Edunjobi, one of the winners of Manga Jiman 2016

The winning entries for this year’s Manga Jiman and Yonkoma Manga competitions, run by the Embassy of Japan in London have just been announced.

The winers of the competition, now in its tenth year, are listed below. The position of each entrant will be announced at an invitation-only awards ceremony in February 2017 at the Embassy of Japan.

The competition had two categories; Yonkoma Manga, a comic strip of for panels on one page, for entrants aged between 11 and 13 (see details below) and Manga Jiman, a short story told across six to eight pages for anyone aged 14 or over.

The theme for the 2016 Manga Jiman Competition was “Sights of Japan”, but that did not necessarily mean stories had to be located in Japan (or in any specific location for that matter). There was plenty of scope for a broad range of stories.

The winners are

• “Views of Japan” by Ami Clark – a winner for several years

• “God’s Island” by Shangomola Edunjobi

Shangomola is an aspiring British graphic novelist from the UK with African and Caribbean roots, and a love for all comic book forms. Find Oshe Comics on Facebook

• “Ordinary Life Limits” by Ewan Gallagher

• “Coming to Life” by Huy Hoang

• Speed and Flight” by Keith Jenkins

• “Dreams of the Past, Hope for the Future” by Adeline Kwok, who won the Youth Prize in the 2014 competition for her story “A Tale of Two Seasons”, which all of the judges singled out as remarkably skilful for someone so young

• “Views of Sakura” by Pamela Lokhun – also one of last year’s winners

• “The Travels of Sushi” by Katharine Marshall

• “Silk” by Elizabeth Reed

• “Scroll” by Ira Tang

• “Foodventure” by Dalila Trovoada – also one of last year’s winners

• “Click” by Aamir Zaheer

All of the winning entries will be displayed at a special exhibition open to the general public at the Embassy of Japan in January 2017 and the Embassy has thanks everyone who entered.

• 10th Manga Jiman: The Winners runs at the Embassy of Japan until 31st March 2016. The Embassy of Japan, at 101-104 Piccadilly, London W1J 7JT is open weekdays 09.30 – 17.30, closed weekends. Admission is free, but photo ID is necessary to gain entry to the Embassy.

• Keep up to date with the competition and related events on Facebook at MangaJiman and Twitter @mangajiman

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.