Shohei Otani appointed as judge for Jump Sports Manga Award, critiqued by creators of Slam Dunk, Eyeshield 21, and Kuroko's Basketball

Shueisha announced on the 27th that it will be holding a new manga award for Weekly Shonen Jump, the Jump Sports Manga Award. The judges for the award will be Takehiko Inoue of SLAM DUNK, Riichi Inagaki, the original author of Eyeshield 21, Tadatoshi Fujimaki of Kuroko's Basketball, and Shohei Ohtani, a baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the MLB.

This will be the first time that a major leaguer will serve as a judge for the Weekly Shonen Jump manga award, and the judges will read and comment on all of the finalist works.

Shueisha explained the unusual reason for appointing an active athlete as a judge for the manga award, saying, “This is a new sports manga award that aims to spread the power of sports, which brings courage and smiles to many people. To that end, the editorial department of Weekly Shonen Jump asked that in addition to the three best sports manga artists, we also have the best athlete, Shohei Otani, join the panel. He graciously accepted, and he is now participating.”

The application period runs from today, May 27th, to October 31st. If you send your entry by mail, the postmark must be dated October 31st, and online submissions received up until 11:59pm on October 31st will be considered for review.

The prize money is 1 million yen for the winner, 500,000 yen for the semi-finalists, 300,000 yen for the honorable mentions, 50,000 yen for the finalists, and 10,000 yen for the promising submissions. Entrants can be professionals or amateurs, and no name is allowed for the manuscript. Only completed manuscripts must be drawn, starting from the left page, with a minimum of 15 pages and a maximum of 55 pages.

The announcement is scheduled to be made in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, to be released in late December 2024.

This information was announced on Jump's official YouTube channel, “Jump Channel,” today, the 27th, and online people have been expressing surprise, saying things like, “What, Otani is going to be judging?!”, “I was surprised to see Otani suddenly on the screen!” and “I bet Shohei Otani is happy to have his manga read.”