“As always, thank you all so much for your continued support for the SILENT MANGA AUDITION®. I would like to personally thank all of you, for the many applications we have received during this milestone tenth round. My warmest congratulations go out to all of the award winners. Those participants who were unlucky this time, please feel free to take a look at the winning entries and use them as a reference when creating your manga for future rounds.

For this round, we chose the traditional Shonen manga themes of “Effort”, “Friendship”, and “Victory”, and received as many as 379 entries from 55 countries and territories around the world. Though the number of entries was lower than usual due to SMA10 running alongside EX4, the overall quality of work we received was noticeably higher than previous rounds, something that both the SMAC! and Comic Zenon editorial teams, as well as the panel of judges were extremely pleased about.

The high level of artistic talent of the works was much discussed during the final round of judging, with the judges unanimously agreeing that the meticulous attention to detail was as superior as that of domestic Japanese newcomers. To that extent, a high level of storytelling, character design, and heartwarming direction pertaining to the themes was desired, hence the high level of judging across the board.

In addition, entrants who regularly enter the competition and continue to present consistently improving work, had their efforts thoroughly appraised as we look forward to enjoying their future potential. Each entry we receive is carefully read, so even if you weren’t fortunate enough to be selected as a winner this time, we’d be thrilled if you would give it another attempt for the next round.

Currently, the SMAC! and Comic Zenon editorial teams are working hard on a number of plans to give selected creators from the Masterclass and this current pool of winners, the opportunity to make a full manga debut here in Japan. With the help of both editorial teams, we will strive to create stories and characters that Japanese manga readers will love in order to give members of the SILENT MANGA AUDITION® community a full Japanese debut. I very much look forward to your continued support.”

Shuichi Mochida
SILENT MANGA AUDITION®