Spy X Family Wins The 52nd Japan Cartoonists Association Awards

The 52nd Japan Cartoonist Association (JCA) Award winners were announced on April 10 2023. Tetsuya Endo’s Spy X Family secured the Grand Prize in the Comic division.

The associations comment on Spy X Family saying, ” This valuable work is like a precious light that will be passed down to children, people, and the world, along with the fun story of a peaceful and harmonious family and how to protect and create peace.”

Shizuko Niahida’s Barrier Waiting for Women in Satirical Manga won the Grand Prize in the Cartoon division and Hiromi Matsuo’s Magazine Rondo won the Diverse Genre division.

Shizuko’s manga was praised for culminating of the author’s long-standing efforts to tackle gender issues head-on. they also commented, “With its high-quality humour and superb drawing skills, it gives men a lot of awareness.”

Each grand prize includes a gold plaque, a medal and 500,000 Yen (~ 3,700 USD) in prize money.

In addition, Akihito Tsukushi’s Made in Abyss manga received Manga Kingdom  Tottori Award.  The Manga Kingdom Tosa Award was given to Osamu Takeuchi for his self-published manga called Vilange.

Tottori and Tosa award winners receive a silver plaque, a medal and 200,000 Yen (~ 1,600 USD).

The MEXT award was awarded to the late Yuki Hijiri for Locke the Superman. Mext winner gets a gold plaque, a medal and 200,000 Yen in prize money.

The JCA has been presenting the Japan Cartoonists Association Awards since 1972. This year Machio Satonaka served as Head of the committee. Other committee members included: Yoshihiro Ikegawa, Jun Ishiko, Naomi Kimura, Riki Kusaka, Yukio Shinohara, Kazuhiko Shimamoto, George Piroshki, Noriko Nagano, Akiko Nemoto, and Masato Hara.

In past, there were only two divisions, the Comic division and the Cartoonist division. Every year they were more and more manga which did not fit these two categories. Observing this, the association added the Diverse Genre division.

Source: Comic Natalie, JCA’s Website