San Diego Comic-Con occurred over the weekend, and that means that the winners of the 2023 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards were announced. In the category Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia, the award went to Shuna’s Journey by Hayao Miyazaki.

The other nominees were Black Paradox by Junji Ito, Look Back by Tatsuki Fujimoto, PTSD Radio by Masaaki Nakayama, and Talk to My Back by Murasaki Yamada.

Shuna’s Journey is published by First Second and was translated by Alex Dudok de Wit. (Click here to read Otaku USA’s interview with him about the translation process. You can also check out Otaku USA’s review of Shuna’s Journey here.) It is an older work by Miyazaki, but it only recently received its first English release.

2022’s winner of the same category was Lovesickness: Junji Ito Story Collection by Junji Ito.

First Second is an imprint of Macmillan, which gave this description for the plot of Shuna’s Journey:

From legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki comes Shuna’s Journey, a new manga classic about a prince on a quest for a golden grain that would save his land, never before published in English!

Shuna, the prince of a poor land, watches in despair as his people work themselves to death harvesting the little grain that grows there. And so, when a traveler presents him with a sample of seeds from a mysterious western land, he sets out to find the source of the golden grain, dreaming of a better life for his subjects.

It is not long before he meets a proud girl named Thea. After freeing her from captivity, he is pursued by her enemies, and while Thea escapes north, Shuna continues toward the west, finally reaching the Land of the God-Folk.

Will Shuna ever see Thea again? And will he make it back home from his quest for the golden grain?

Source: ANN

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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its 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.