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New “Original Work Development Project” Awards Taiwan’s Yinfu for his Work ‘Dolls.’

2017/10/15 Report

Sunday afternoon at KIFF saw Former Rissei Elementary School host an important new initiative for event organizers Yoshimoto Kogyo, with the announcement of the winner of the first “Original Work Development Project.”

Complimenting the well-established Creator’s Factory for budding filmmakers, the new project is aimed at finding the best young manga, novel and non-fiction writers, and is open to Japanese and foreign applicant’s.

The event itself proved one of the most popular at the festival, with many of the audience standing with all seats full. The interest in the event also attracted journalists from around the world, as well as local press.

The Grand Prix Winner for the “MediBang!” Manga Category was introduced by MediBang Marketing Director Masashi Doi, who said “we have been recruiting from abroad since we have a good base of overseas users. We had more than 450 entries and I think that is evidence that our partnership with Yoshimoto has successfully transmitted.”

The winner was announced as Dolls (Jingu) by Taiwan’s Yinfu. Selected from 463 submissions entered between April and July this year, Dolls tackles the issue of love between a parent and a child, and is centered a boy-shaped doll carved by a skilled wood craftsman, who had lost his only son.

“The people have been so kind and I am very honored!” said Yinfu, who nervously took to the stage with an interpreter. “I was so surprised.”

One of the jury members was video game character Tekken, who explained the decision to recognize Yinfu. “I really enjoyed the story, and the images were really professional. It is a complicated story that made me think a lot and the last scene was a fascinating way to end it, I thought it was amazing.”

Wondering if he had any help on the project, he asked Yinfu how he came to learn his skill. The 23-year-old explained that he had indeed worked on it by himself before college, then entered a course of manga.

Asked about his inspiration, Yinfu revealed his favorite manga to be Eiichiro Oda’s famous series, One Piece.

Masashi Doi also shared his praise. “I thought it was a magical work and I read it about 10 times,” he said. “And yet I have discovered new things every time, so I would like to read it again and again. He also has an excellent drawing skill and a good composing skill, which was a bit different from the other works, so I am enthusiastic about making an Amazon work for the world to see.”

Dolls, known as Jingu in Japan, will now be supported by Yoshimoto Creative Agency who will assist in its production, republication, visual adaptation and Amazon release.

Yusuke Tomoda, Head of Kindle Content at Amazon Japan, then took to the stage to announce the 2nd contest with Kindle Direct Publishing. The Novel Category will be open from October 16 through February 28, 2018, with a prize of 300,000 yen and consideration for publication and visual adaptation on Amazon Prime Video. Submissions can be made online at: https://www.amazon.co.jp/kindle-kdporiginalstory

Entries should be set in the real world, be entirely original and be between 10-50,000 characters long. All genres are accepted but works must be Japanese.

Storys.jp will run the Non-fiction category with an identical prize but is open to all, with submissions accepted October 16 through January 31, 2018. Submissions can be made online at: http://storys.jp/katarie

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