Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Lookback, Hiromu Arakawa’s Daemons of the Shadow Realm Win Big at 1st Rakuten Kobo E-Book Awards

Image via Viz Media

 

Online retailer Rakuten held its first ever Kobo E-Book awards today, created to “empower e-reading” of manga and novels to help revitalize the publishing industry in Japan. Three categories were given out for manga series, including a category for one-shots, one for “best manga” and then a “featured manga” category along with the first-ever special award.

 

Here are the awards and the top three winners for each category:

 

 

One Complete Volume! Non-Serialized Manga Award

 

1. 1. Look Back by Tatsuki Fujimoto
2. 2. Jinsei Saidai no Shippai by Hiroko Nohara
3. 3. Kimi no Yoru ni Fureru by Mori Moyori

 

We Want to Bring This Series to the World! Best Manga

 

1. 1. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End written by Kanehito Yamada and illustrated by Tsukasa Abe 
2. 2. Sugaku Goruden by Tatsuhika Kuramaru
3. 3. Odoru Sennen Kazoku by Sho Kasugai

 

You Should Be Reading Now! Featured Manga

 

1. 1. Daemons of the Shadow Realm by Hiromu Arakawa
2. 2. Hikaeme ni Itte mo, Kore wa Ai by Fujimomo
3. 3. Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru: Tada no Inaka no Kenjutsu Shihan Datta noni, Taisei Shita Deshitachi ga Ore wo Hanattekurenai Ken written by Shigeru Sagasaki, illustrated by Kazuki Sato and original character designs by Tetsuhiro Nabeshima

 

Rakuten Kobo Special Award

 

Konya Sukiyaki Dayo by Natsuko Taniguchi

 

 

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Fujimoto’s Look Back one-shot took over the manga landscape when it was published, topping prestigious lists such as Takarajimasha’s Kono Manga ga Sugoi! in 2022, so adding another award is another cherry on top. Arakawa left a message saying that “by winning this award, it shows how popular e-books are” and that despite “drawing for the paper volumes” they have “been gradually changing the design of the pages to be easier to read in an e-book format.”

 

Source: Comic Natalie

 

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Daryl Harding is a Senior Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.