Danica Davidson
February 11, 2022 
The Academy Awards may have snubbed anime again, but there’s still the Magademy Awards. Never heard of the Magademy Awards? That’s because it’s brand-new this year, and it gives a unique twist: the winners are all fictional characters from manga.
The idea came from BookLive, a manga ebook service. It asked fans to nominate different characters, and to be in the running, characters had to be in a digital tankobon edition manga published between the beginning of December 2020 and the end of November 2021. The digital qualification as opposed to print is probably because BookLive is all about ebooks.
After getting fans’ opinions on who should be nominated, BookLive has revealed what characters are running in four different categories. For the category Best Lead Female Character, the women running are Hayame Katsuragi (from Promise Cinderella), Yoi Takiguchi (from Uruwashi no Yoi no Tsuki), Frieren (from Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End), Mao Mao (from The Apothecary Diaries: The Palace Cloister Mystery-Solving Notebook of Mao Mao), and Yona (from Yona of the Dawn).
For the category of Best Lead Male Character, we have Eren Yeager (from Attack on Titan), Sakamichi Onoda (from Yowamushi Pedal), Totono Kuno (from Do Not Say Mystery), Mutta Nanba (from Space Brothers), and Bojji (from Ranking of Kings).
For the category Best Supporting Female Character, we have Yoko Sato (from The Fable), Yuatya (from Ashita, Watashi wa Dareka no Kanojo), and Shinobu Wakamiya (from Chihayafuru).
The final category is Best Supporting Male Character, and the nominees are Furuya Rei (from Detective Conan), Kage (from Ranking of Kings), Manjiro Sano (from Tokyo Revengers), and Levi Ackerman (from Attack on Titan).
The judges consist of bookstore workers, plus voice actor and comedian Kendo Kobayashi. We’ll learn the winners next month, on March 16. If you were voting, who would you vote for?
Source: SoraNews24
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin. She is also the author of its upcoming sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
