Kyoto International Creators Award 2023 Comic Contest

What is Kyoto International Creators Award?

Kyoto International Creators Award is an international competition for aspiring creators and manga artists, who want to make their professional debut through Kyoto.

The theme for the manga is anything you want. Please submit your best manga!

Past winners are successfully working in the industry!

2021 貳號

2020 Gene

Gene is serializing "wei guang de zhao huan shi" (Summoner of Faint Light) in Ever Glory Publishing (Taiwan)

2019 YingFu

The "Ouryo Kishi" is being serialized in "Monthly Shonen" by Tongli Publishing (Taiwan).

2018 Hsun

The 2018 Grand Prize work "She and He" is serialized on Jump + (Shueisha / Japan)

©隱藏關卡THL/Jōshō/Tongli Publishing Co., Ltd.

2017 Jōshō

2016 nyaroro

©ANTENNA牛魚／Shogakukan

2015 ANTENNA牛魚

There are 3 sections to the Kyoto International Creators Award!

Story Manga Section

Draw a manga on any theme.
It is also possible to enter with the Name (rough sketch) if the drawing would not be finished by the deadline!

Drawing Section

Ink and finish a Name of a manga (2 pages) and submit it!
You can draw and submit either page if you find it difficult to finish all 2 pages!
Using the name as a base, express your originality with character designs or additional drawing lines.

psd mdp jpg

Panel Layout Section

Read a story below
and create a rough manga sketch (Name) with layout panels based on the story!
Any changes or additions to character names and genders, settings, lines and plots are welcome.
You can also just create a Name of the scenes you like!

[Protagonist / Yohji]
The second son of a priest of a small temple in the mountains of Kyoto.
He has an honest and shy personality and considers Nagi to be his best friend.

[Oni Demon / Nagi]
A gentle demon that has been sealed inside a hokora, a small shrine, for a thousand years.
His remaining magic is low and he is now very weak.

Behind a small temple in the mountains of Kyoto was a small shrine that was strictly forbidden to approach.
Yohji, the 7-year-old second son of a temple priest, broke a promise to his parents and approached the shrine. The shrine glowed, and from inside it emerged Nagi, an Oni demon.
Nagi was never an evil demon. A thousand years ago, Nagi was admired by the people for protecting their village with his mighty power. However, the village was invaded by a crowd from a distant village with a fierce grudge against demons. With the villagers taken hostage, Nagi played the villain and was sealed in the small shrine.
Yohji grew fond of Nagi's kindness and often visited him without his parents' knowledge.
“Nagi, why didn’t you fight back against those villagers? You were strong enough to defeat the Onmyouji sorcerers? You didn't do anything wrong, did you?”
“Of course I could have defeated them. But if I had defeated the sorcerers, there would have been another vengeance. I didn’t want that. Promise me, Yohji. Even if your enemies have hurt you, you won’t take revenge on them. There has to be a solution other than conflict.”
“Yeah, I get it.”
After Yohji turned sixteen, a man who called himself the Onmyouji sorcerer visited the temple. He said he felt the presence of demons in the temple. Panicked, Yohji tried to hide the shrine, but the sorcerer discovered it, and Nagi appeared. Nagi learned that the sorcerer was trying to exorcise him, so he dared not to resist and chose to be expelled, and spoke to the crying Yohji.
“I have lived two thousand years. The nine years I spent with you were so pleasant. Don't forget what we promised before. Thank you.”
Nagi used his remaining magical powers to erase the memories of Yohji’s panicked parents and the sorcerer’s memories about himself, and disappeared while smiling at Yohji.
A few years later, Yohji was studying ethnology at university, so that he could fulfil his promise to Nagi: to find a solution other than conflict. And to prove that demons or ghosts are not evil.

Prize

Story Manga Section

Grand Prize (1 winner):

50,000 JPY + invitation to the award ceremony

Excellence Award (1 winner):

30,000 JPY + invitation to the award ceremony

Finalist (1 winner):

10,000 JPY

Special Jury Award
(for one or more works that did not win a prize, but have a distinctive art that caught the jury's eye)

10,000 JPY + invitation to the award ceremony

Drawing Section

Finalist (1 winner):

10,000 JPY

Panel Layout Section

Finalist (1 winner):

10,000 JPY

It's taking place at DoGA!
CG anime contest

The winners will be invited to Kyoto for the awards ceremony! (Residents of Japan only)

The results will be announced on this page in October, and the winners of the Grand Prize, the Excellence Award and the Special Jury Award will be invited to the awards ceremony to be held in Kyoto City in November!

The round-trip transportation expenses and accommodation fees (for one person per prize) will be taken care of by the organizer!

Instead of an invitation for the Kyoto International Manga Anime Fair, we would like to send traditional crafts of Kyoto if someone living overseas wins the prize.

Your shortcut to a professional debut!

【For the winners】

The secretariat of the Kyoto International Manga Contest will recommend the prize-winning works of "Kyoto International Creators Award 2023 Comic Contest" to all editorial departments participating in the "Manga Business Trip Editorial Department" by KYO-MAF, planned to take place in early November. You might get an offer from a successful editor!

【Other options besides winning!? 】
Introducing the Illustration Scouting System!

About 30(tentative) manga editors will participate in the Manga Business Trip Editorial Department at KYO-MAF. If an artwork catches their eyes, and they want to offer a job to the artist, they can do that through MediBang. Even if you don't win, you might receive an individual job offer!

Special Review!

Judge

Manga editor, Shonen Jump+ editorial staff

Shihei Rin

Shihei Rin joined Shueisha in 2006.
He is currently in charge of editing “SPY × FAMILY”, “Chainsaw Man”, “HEART GEAR”, “Dandadan”, “Beat & Motion”, and “Kindergarten WARS”.
Works he has released in the past include "Blue Exorcist", “Kono Oto Tomare! Sounds of Life”, “Fire Punch”, “Kemono Jihen”, “Left-handed Ellen”, “Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku”, “Kakko Kawaii Sengen!”, “Look Back” and many others.

Judge

Department Manager, Indie Project Management Department, Content Production division, LINE Digital Frontier Corp.

Shunichi Kobayashi

Shunichi Kobayashi worked for 12 years as an assistant on weekly/monthly serialized comics.
After teaching at a technical college, he joined LINE Digital Frontier in 2019.
He is currently in charge of editing “Senpai is an Otokonoko”, “Nito and Tazuka’s Daily Life”, “Yurini Hasamaru Otokowa Shinebaii!?”, “Commushou Isekaie Iku” and many others.

Judge

Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Kansai Division, MAG Garden Corporation

Ryosuke Goto

Since joining the company in 2014, Ryosuke Goto has been involved in the reissue of the Monthly Comic Garden and the launch of MAGBOX, a collaborative label with Manga Box.
He is currently involved in MAGKAN, a web comic magazine run by MAG Garden Kansai Division (Umeda, Osaka), and is working to discover and nurture newcomers in regional areas.
He also teaches at the Character Creative Arts Department of Osaka University of Art from 2022.

Enter in 4 easy step

1Draw a manga
2Check the box next to the banner

Required!
3Submit the participant formSubmit to ART street

Required!
4Submit to ART street

Submit

Users outside of Japan can use MediBang translation

1Submit manga
2MediBang translates
3Judging commences

*Limited to English, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional).

Submission Details

Entry Period: May 31, 2023 (Wed) - August 31, 2023 (Thu) 5PM *JST

Entry Format: Applicable to all sections
・MDP, JPG, PNG (File size: less than 30MB)
・No page order specified (right-to-left, left-to-right, top-to-bottom, any order is acceptable)
・Acceptable languages are Japanese, English, Spanish and Chinese (Simplified / Traditional).
Story Manga Section
・No page limit (recommended between 16 and 45 pages)
・Entries must be original manga works.
・Free choice of manga themes
・No genre restrictions
Drawing Section
・The number of pages is in principle two (a one-page entry is acceptable).
Panel Layout Section
・No specification of the number of pages

Qualification Requirements: Aspiring Manga creators who want to make a debut in Japan, or professional Manga creators who are not publishing their Manga in commercial magazines at the moment.

Please Note: ・Entries must be an original work where the applicant has the copyrights. You may not enter works that have been published in a commercial magazine or an app (both Japanese and International), won awards in a competition in Japan including new artist awards, or currently participating in a competition. You may submit works that you have already posted on an art website, social media, etc.
・Depictions that infringe upon the rights (image rights, copyrights, etc.) of a third party are prohibited.
・Anyone can enter the contest, regardless of whether they are a pro or just draw as a hobby.
・Secondary creation work is not possible.
・Various parts of the prize-winning works (such as the title, pen name, part or all of the work, etc.) may be used as necessary by the organizer for free and without compensation for purposes such as announcing the results of the contest, printed materials, and use on the homepage in order to publicize and record the project.
・Entrants should keep the original file before the results announced.
・The rights of the work submitted for the prize belong to the entrant, however each editorial department may contact the entrant through the organizer for magazine publication.
・The prize may be revoked if we discover that an entry condition was not fulfilled prior to the completion of the judging.
・You can submit any artwork that is drawn by any paint tool in analog and digital.
・After the entry period has ended, you may receive a notification from info-contests@medibang.com to the email address registered in your MediBang account. If you do not reply within the reply deadline, your work may be excluded. Check your email and email settings. You can check your registered email address here.
*This does not mean everyone will receive an email from info-contests@medibang.com after the entry period.
*We will not answer questions on info-contests@medibang.com.
・Works that are submitted to the contest will be posted for free and without compensation on the website managed by the city of Kyoto and MediBang, Inc., social networking services/sites, catalogs, etc., for purposes such as contest promotion, advertising, announcing the results, etc.
・At the award ceremony, photos of the winners will be taken. Please note that those photos may be posted on websites and social media managed by the city of Kyoto and MediBang Inc.

How to Enter: 【Try to enter the contest from from this page】
1.Register or log-in ART street.
2.Click "enter" at the bottom of this page.
3. Select a file format, and upload your manga.
4. Change settings for "Age restrictions" "Details" "Cover and Pages" etc.
5. Check the banner Kyoto International Creators Award 2023 Comic Contest under "Participate in the contest"
6. It will take you to the entry form. Please fill it in.
7. Click "Publish to ART street".

【Try to use artwork been already submitted to ART street】
1.Select "manga" from "Your submissions"
2.Choose the submission and press "Details"
3.Add "Kyoto International Creators Award 2023 Comic Contest" banner from "Apply for a Contest"
4. It will take you to the entry form. Please fill it in.
5. Click "Publish to ART street".

【Enter from MediBang Paint】
1. Search for "Kyoto International Creators Award 2023 Comic Contest" under "Contest" or "Apply for a Contest"
2. Click "Yes" when the message ”This contest cannot be entered from the app" appears.
3. Select a file format, and upload your manga.
4. Change settings for "Age restrictions" "Details" "Cover and Pages" etc.
5. Check the banner Kyoto International Creators Award 2023 Comic Contest under "Participate in the contest"
6. It will take you to the questions. Please fill it in.
7. Click "Publish to ART street".

Prize: Story Manga Section

Grand Prize (1 winner): 50,000 JPY + invitation to the award ceremony
Excellence Award (1 winner): 30,000 JPY + invitation to the award ceremony
Finalist (1 winners): 10,000 JPY
Special Jury Award (for one or more works that did not win a prize, but have a distinctive art that caught the jury's eye): 10,000 JPY + invitation to the award ceremony

Drawing Section
Finalist (1 winners): 10,000 JPY

Panel Layout Section
Finalist (1 winners): 10,000 JPY

*The winning works will be introduced to all exhibiting editorial departments at the “Manga On-site Editorial Department” in early November.
*Invitations to the award ceremony are open to residents of Japan only.

How to Claim the Prize: Prize money will be credited to your Medibang account you applied with. To receive the prize money, you need to register a PayPal account or your bank account information. (The transfer fee is borne by the winner.)

Attention!: By entering in this contest, you are agreeing to the Entry Terms , so be sure to read the full text. In addition, about the entered illustration/s, PLEASE NOTE that after the contest recruitment period is over, except for the addition of tags, it can not be edited or deleted.

Please register and enter the contest!