Interest
Dennō Coil Director Mitsuo Iso Appointed Judge for 16th Shogakukan Light Novel Award
posted on by Kim Morrissy
GAGAGA Bunko announced on its Twitter account on Wednesday that anime director Mitsuo Iso has been appointed a guest judge for the 16th Shogakukan Light Novel Award. The annual light novel writing competition gives cash prizes and a guaranteed publishing deal to winning submissions.
On the contest's website, Iso commented on his appointment as follows:
What does it mean to read a novel? To write a novel? I don't know the answer myself, and I don't think that you need to know the answer. I certainly don't know what it means to write or read something deserving of an award. All I have is the simple desire to create and read something that interests me. I want to ask people who still don't know yet who they want to be: What do you think is interesting? Who wrote it? Where did you find it? Don't worry about genres or trying to surmise the popular trends. Grapple with this impulse that you may not understand well and write the story that comes out of it. Oh, and keep this a secret, but I'm not a big fan of romcoms.
The contest is accepting submissions through web or post until September 30, 2021. Previous winners of the award include Wataru Watari's My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected and Yūki Yaku's Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki.
Mitsu Iso is the original creator, director, and screenwriter of the Den-noh Coil anime. He won the Excellence Award in Animation at the 2007 Japan Media Arts Festival for the series. He has worked as a key animator for such anime series and films as: Ninja Robots, GeGeGe no Kitarō, Ocean Waves, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Napping Princess, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure OAV, Perfect Blue, Porco Rosso, FLCL, Only Yesterday, and RahXephon. He also served as a key animator for the anime segment in the live-action film Kill Bill film. He is currently directing and scripting the Chikyūgai Shōnen Shōjo (Extraterrestrial Children) original anime.
Sources: GAGAGA Bunko website, Twitter account via @sakyuuga
