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SILENT MANGA AUDITION®

A message from SMAC! Editor-in-chief, Shuichi “Mocchi” Mochida

Shuichi “Mocchi” Mochida

Coamix Inc. Board of Directors Chairman, The SILENT MANGA AUDITION® Committee. Chief Editor, SMAC! The WEB/MANGA Magazine

Congratulations to all the winners and participants of SMA15!

With 607 incredible entries from 69 countries and regions, the judges and myself were overwhelmed by the outstanding participation of everyone in this round.

This time, we decided to set the page limit to 17, there is a proper explanation for this. An artist has to be able to create an entertaining story between the pages provided. For non professionals, it is common when the more pages are given, the greater the risk of a story becomes too big and unfocused. Silent manga is not an exception.

The artist has to show the core moments that makes the story an entertaining experience for the reader. Once mastered the 17 pages, it becomes a much easier task for the artist to tackle anything longer. This is a method manga publishers and Coamix has applied for a period of time with emerging talents who aim for the professional mangaka debut.

SMA has picked two Grand Prix Runner-Ups for this round. We could really feel the drive and efforts of everyone! We definitely saw the seed of potential of many, so for the next time I would like to give some advice.

Most of the works focused on showing a story that gets to a “Moment of Crying, Smiling or Love”, without bringing depth to the story. Manga is entertainment; the artist has to entertain the reader by showing a drama interesting enough to make her/him turn the page.
I recommend reading manga to learn: to question the structure, the layouts, the dialogues, etc. I guarantee that you will improve.

We look forward to seeing everyone’s evolution until next time!

Shuuichi “Mocchi” Mochida

COMMENTS FROM JUDGES

GRAND PRIX RUNNER-UP

300,000 JPY

TITLE Blossom

CREATOR Enewald

COUNTRY Finland

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Comments

Tomizawa sensei :
“I really enjoyed this work and endorsed it. The younger sisters misunderstood good will of the elder… a suprisingly deep story from such a young artist.”

TITLE Childhood railway

CREATOR Nalu

COUNTRY Philippines

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Comments

Tsugihara sensei :
“From all the works, this one had the story with the most reading potential. Although it is short, the feelings of the two characters are portrayed differently in an entertaining way.”

EXCELLENCE AWARD

100,000 JPY

TITLE Letter To You

CREATOR monotone_ink

COUNTRY Australia

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Comments

Hojo sensei:
“The layout and composition are well done. I can see the potential of this artist. Though it is intentional excecution, the work should be more “complete”, not to look like name. ”

TITLE Wistful nap

CREATOR Marika Mangaka DZ

COUNTRY Algeria

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Comments

Tomizawa sensei:
“The artist has a great sense of cinematography just like a movie. I wish the characters had distinguishable faces so that the reader do not get confused with one another. ”

SMAC! Award

Comment from Enrico

“Even the most fearsome person can have the purest heart”, I think this is the message the artist wanted to deliver with this entry. I really enjoyed how the grandfather was portraited throughout the pages. However, a little more emphasis on certain scenes was needed to further move readers’ hearts. I’m looking forward to your next entry, Dzikawa!

Comment from Vivi

The art and story needed to be worked a little more, but this artist has a great undertanding of the flow, with good layout and paneling. If the story had more depth and the protagonist was more memorable, this story could have ranked very high.

Comment from Ken

Though this work is one of the simplest among the entries, the artist has cleary captured the moment of the emotion and has well directed panneling towards it. More practice in drawing should take the artist to the next phase.

For more amazing manga, check out the sma15 Nominees and Candidates!

View Nominees and Candidates!