While the drawing and page composition was strong, I think this was a difficult theme for many entrants. It’s not easy to create a moment of surprise, as you need to very consciously plot out all stages of your story in order to execute the surprise. Surprise is central to the experience of reading manga, so if you go back to some of your favorite works, I think you will find great examples of how to create the element of surpise.
Creator: City Hunter, etc.
We received a great number of impressive submissions this round. I felt entrants made great leaps in terms of drawing and paneling, as we saw great improvements in those areas. However, I think a lot of entrants still need to work on their story-telling skills. I suggest studying your favorite manga to see how professionals build stories. Then, try to use those tools in your own works!
Co-Creator: Fist of the North Star, etc.
The drawings this year, as well, were impressive. Each year, we can tell that participants are polishing their skills and improving upon their previous submissions. However, a lot of the surprises felt predictable, and I felt that, overall, the submissions lacked truly shocking twists. If there is no payoff, there is no surprise, so I suggest that entrants go back and reexamine how to create buildup and payoff within a story.
Creator: Yoroshiku Mecha-Doc, etc.
“Biggest Surprise” is a really challenging theme. It’s an important aspect of manga creation, but it’s also quite difficult to create drama around the theme of “surprise”. Personally, I was expecting participants to struggle with this theme, so I was really impressed with the quality and the diversity of the stories we received!
Creator: Koroshi-ya Menkichi (Menkichi the Avenger), etc.
Every year, the drawing and paneling improves, and this year was no exception. That being said, overall, I felt that many entrants still struggled with story structure. I think many SMA entrants would benefit from reviewing the KI-SHO-TEN-KETSU manga structure. In particular, improving the development phase (or the SHO), would give your climax, or the moment of surprise, greater impact.
CEO, COAMIX Inc.
Author:
Keiji’s Kabuki Adventure,
etc.
(Former Chief Editor, Weekly Shonen Jump)
Monthly Comic ZENON Editorial Dept.
Although we felt that there was room for improvement in story structure, the drawings and the page composition made us want to keep on turning the pages! This year, many entrants excelled at drawing highly expressive faces, and there were many submissions that made us want to read more by that creator!
Publications: Record of Ragnarok, etc.
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300,000 JPY
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TITLE Heartfelt keepsake
CREATOR monami
COUNTRY India
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Nobuhiko HORIE:
Indian media has its own unique flavor, and sometimes it can be too culturally specific to translate well across borders. However, I didn’t feel that at all with “Heartfelt Keepsake”. This is a work that manga lovers all around the world can enjoy. The characters are designed very well, and the piece is drawn beautifully. However, we felt that this piece could be improved even further if the mother’s facial expressions were exaggerated a bit further.
TITLE After School
CREATOR Hariv
COUNTRY Vietnam
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Ryuji TSUGIHARA:
The drawings, composition, and paneling for this piece were all outstanding. The detail in each monster was astounding, especially their facial expressions. You have an extraordinary skill for designing and drawing ghosts, monsters, and otherworldly beings. However, it would be nice to see more detail in the expressions of the humans in this piece. In particular, I would have liked to see the girl’s expression in the last panel. Furthermore, the final, climactic scene was a bit difficult to understand. Try to keep your reader in mind and prioritize comprehensibility when creating your next story!
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100,000 JPY
To Be Published on the Manga App “MangaHot”
To Be Featured in Monthly Comic ZENON
TITLE Finally, the surprises are all arrived
CREATOR 瓜喵(Miao)
COUNTRY Taiwan
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Tsukasa HOJO:
This piece was beautifully drawn, and the paneling was very well-done, too. You did an excellent job of showing the passage of time through the frog’s growth, for example. However, overall, the story was a bit predictable, so it was difficult to feel intense surprise at how the story developed. Furthermore, I thought that a story about the main character’s growth would have fit the theme of hatching and caring for a tadpole more. Still, I was very impressed with your work! I hope you will branch out with your next work a little more and produce a piece that has your own, distinctive touch to it!
TITLE An Old Fairy Tale
CREATOR Volpe
COUNTRY Mexico
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Jun TOMIZAWA:
You have outstanding artistic talent! The shading in your piece is superb, and your shading skills made this piece stand out, even amongst a group of particularly talented artists. Your piece included several large drawings, and you had fewer panels than many of the other pieces, but the story flowed very well, and the larger panels allowed your drawing skills to shine through. When it comes to drawing, my only advice is to put a little more detail and thought into your characters’ faces, as they sometimes looked plain in comparison to their bodies and the backgrounds. As for the story, you choose a rather well-known fantasy creature, so although there was a twist at the end, it wasn’t as surprising as it could have been.
TITLE Morning Run
CREATOR Big_ol_Smiggy
COUNTRY Austria
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Ryuji TSUGIHARA:
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this piece! It was a very silly story about an ordinary, everyday experience, but it surprised me! The moment of surprise was very clear, and the final joke made me chuckle! You have a talent for paneling, and the structure of your manga helped to emphasize the surprise. Your drawings are already very strong, and the surprised expressions of the main character were well drawn. In order to improve, however, I would advise you to study the human form and facial proportions a bit more. Keep practicing! I’m looking forward to your next submission.
TITLE Little Lesson
CREATOR Yoikaha
COUNTRY Indonesia
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Jun TOMIZAWA:
I think bullying is a topic that nearly everyone can relate to, so it was very easy to empathize with your characters. Your panelling techniques were simple, yet effective. The large panel of the main character’s surprised expression towards the end was very well done! In terms of improvement, your characters’ faces are a bit similar to each other, which can be confusing for readers, so I recommend practicing a variety of different faces with different characteristics. That being said, your drawing and paneling skills are already top-notch, so a little improvement will go a long way!
TITLE Diving
CREATOR cyenn
COUNTRY Taiwan
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Jun TOMIZAWA:
Your drawings are absolutely gorgeous. You have an incredible talent. All of the scenes beneath the ocean were beautifully rendered, and I was amazed by the double-page spread of the giant octopus. While this was a very sweet story about the camaraderie between the human character and the octopi, I felt that it did not fully match the theme of the “biggest surprise”. The main character’s reaction to waking up on land was somewhat small and contained, and he did not seem particularly surprised to see the giant octopus. I hope you will work on creating, bigger, more exaggerated facial expressions in your next work. I’m very excited to see what you do next!
TITLE Find my present
CREATOR Yinfu
COUNTRY Taiwan
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Nobuhiko HORIE:
This was an excellent piece, with a very intriguing surprise. At first, I thought it was a very cute, sweet story, so the sad ending was completely unexpected. Your cute character designs added to the piece, and were very effective in misleading the reader. However, it took a couple of read-throughs to fully understand the ending. If your piece was just a little bit easier to understand, it would have been truly excellent. When creating your next work, I suggest asking friends and family to read it and check it for basic comprehensibility.
TITLE The Oni’s Garden
CREATOR Carlos Alvarez
COUNTRY Spain
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Ryuji TSUGIHARA:
Your drawing skills are admirable! In particular, I feel that you’re very skilled at drawing backgrounds and animals. The tiger is truly fearsome, and the contrast between the two drawings of the shrine are very well done. On the other hand, I think you could improve your character designs a bit. The demon, in particular, is less intimidating than the tiger, and I think your piece would benefit from a scarier design. The story is arranged in a way that is very easy to understand, and the main character’s feelings are very clear! However, there is a sense of panic that pervades this piece almost from the very beginning, the piece feel very fast-paced, which perhaps lessens the surprise.
TITLE Stray
CREATOR Jinyi
COUNTRY Australia
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Tetsuo HARA:
The ending was quite surprising. We’re used to seeing pieces with happy, sometimes saccharine endings, so we were shocked by the miserable, heartrending ending to this piece. I think you have a talent for creating clearly comprehensible stories with deep emotion. The next step is to improve your drawing skills! There are few backgrounds in this piece, so I would advise you to practice drawing backgrounds in greater detail. Some of the background characters also lacked detail, so we hope to see your characters drawn in greater detail in your next piece!
TITLE Love Letter
CREATOR Fy3.
COUNTRY Malaysia
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Tsukasa HOJO:
It’s clear that you love manga and have read a lot of it! You have a good sense for how to draw and panel a story in order for it to progress clearly. Both of your characters have a defined look, and it was very easy to follow the story. However, the way the story progressed felt predictable, and some of the situations in your manga felt pre-arranged and convenient. You already have a clear, clean art style and a good sense for panelling, so if you work incorporating a more surprising twist, your next story will be excellent!
TITLE Bà
CREATOR Agata Maliszewska & Dennis Tran
COUNTRY Poland & USA
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ZENON Editorial Dept:
Your art is really lovely! Your shading is gorgeous, and the character designs are very strong. We could easily recognize that all the different versions of ‘Ba’ were the same person, but they were also clearly defined from each other. Each page was paneled in a different way, so that we were never bored, and your double-page spread was beautifully done! The story was strong, but the ending was a bit cliched, so it didn’t surprise us as much as we hoped it would. You built up the story very well, and you also did a good job of introducing your characters, so I hope you will put a little more thought into how to create a twist that surprises and shocks the readers!
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10,000 JPY
TITLE REGRET
CREATOR seif eddine brinsi (besttalker)
COUNTRY Tunisia
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Nobuhiko HORIE:
You are very skilled at drawing faces and expressions. Overly exaggerated facial expressions are a staple of manga, so we enjoyed how you drew your characters. Your style is very well suited for comedy! However, you drawings are more akin to comics than to manga, so I suggest studying ways that manga characters are commonly drawn, and practicing to give your style a more manga-like feel.
TITLE Mighty Hero Stargazer
CREATOR Kshatriya
COUNTRY Indonesia
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Tsukasa HOJO:
Your drawing style is very charming! All of the children’s expressions were well done, and the paneling was simple and easy to follow. The story, itself, is something we have seen many times before. It’s well-executed, but we hope that, in your next piece, you will surprise us with something new and uniquely you!
TITLE One thread at a time, one mischievous no more
CREATOR King Shu
COUNTRY Malaysia
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Tetsuo HARA:
Your piece had a unique theme that we have not seen before, and the surprise was well executed! However, there was still much we did not know about your main character, which made it harder to sympathize with her. Why does she have to wear a wig? Why is she self-conscious about her baldness at first, but okay with her fiance wearing her wig later on? It would be easier to understand her reactions if we knew more about her!
TITLE NO! NO! NO! YES!
CREATOR C.M.Kevin Li
COUNTRY United Kingdom
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ZENON Editorial Dept:
Your drawings are extremely dynamic and energetic, which made reading this piece a ton of fun! The different effects you used, such as speed lines, helped make the story feel more fast-paced, and communicated the lively personality of your main character very well! We can tell that you are well-acquainted with gag manga! While the story was a lot of fun, the events were more or less a series of coincidences. We hope the events in your next manga will be more purposeful and character-driven!
TITLE Catryoshka
CREATOR Crabocalypse
COUNTRY Indonesia
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ZENON Editorial Dept:
Your drawings are excellent! You’ve clearly practiced drawing manga a great deal, since your style is perfect for manga. The cat toys you created were very cute, too! However, it was difficult to understand what exactly you wanted to communicate to the readers with this manga. What was the final message of this piece? Furthermore, we felt that it didn’t quite fit the theme of “biggest surprise”, as the story was quite small.
TITLE The Long Road
CREATOR fitzfactor
COUNTRY United States
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Tetsuo HARA:
You have a great talent for drawing backgrounds! All the scenery you included in this piece, from the night sky to the towering mountains, were beautifully done! You also used your double-page spreads creatively and effectively! However, it was difficult to discern the relationship between the two main characters, and we also weren’t quite sure what you wanted to communicate to your audience through those characters. You already have fantastic drawing and paneling skills, so we hope you’ll think a little bit more about how to effectively communicate your characters’ goals and relationships in your next piece! When in doubt, I suggest asking a family member or friend to read your manga!
SMA Editorial Dept. Award
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A message from SMA Chief Editor, Shuichi “Mocchi” Mochida
Shuichi “Mocchi” Mochida
Board Member, COAMIX Inc.
CEO, Kumamoto COAMIX Inc.
Chief Editor, SILENT MANGA AUDITION® Committee
I would like to extend my most sincere gratitude to each and every person who entered the 21st round of the SILENT MANGA AUDITION®. This round, we received a total of 783 entries by creators from a record-breaking 87 countries and regions! The three countries with the most submissions were the United States, Indonesia, and Brazil, in that order. We were pleased to see a significant increase in the number of works from Argentina, Mexico, and Germany, as well as to receive our first ever silent manga from La Réunion! While we received many remarkably well-drawn works, this time, we have elected to forgo the Grand Prix, and instead award two works the Grand Prix Runner-up prize. This round’s theme, “Biggest Surprise”, reflects one of the most important aspects of creating manga. ‘Surprise’ is one of the greatest driving forces of manga, as unexpected developments keep the readers engaged and move the story forward.
While entrants showed great talent in drawing, paneling, and layout, some works still lacked characters with distinct personalities, while others lacked the story structure necessary to make sure the reveal of the surprise was truly impactful. Still, this was a very challenging theme, so we applaud all of the creators who submitted works to SMA21.
The SMA judges evaluate entries based on how well they communicate a core emotion, and whether or not the story is structured in way that allows that emotion to resonate with readers. Creators who are skilled in drawing and illustration can create even more impressive works by developing their characters and thinking of some situations in which their characters’ personalities can shine through. We encourage every single person who is interested in submitting to SMA to study the manga of their favorite creators and learn how they create emotion in their works. Of course, we also encourage future entrants to look back on past SMA award winners!
The SILENT MANGA AUDITION® is an incredible opportunity for manga creators who aspire to debut in Japan. Those who receive the Grand Prix Runner-up or above have the opportunity to join the SMA MasterClass and work with professional manga editors. Past SMA winners have also been invited to work at the Artists Village Aso 096k in Kumamoto, Japan, to focus on becoming professional manga creators and debuting in Japan! Some have already debuted with their original one-shots, while others have worked on a webtoon!
We strive to do everything in our power to support aspiring creators who harbor a deep love of manga. From the bottom of our hearts, we hope to see all of you improve and submit even more stunning entries to SMA22! See you next time!
Shuichi “Mocchi” Mochida