Junji Ito’s Lovesickness: Junji Ito Story Collection manga won the award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia at the 2022 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards on Friday during San Diego Comic-Con International. The manga beat out an extremely competitive field of nominees that included Chainsaw Man, Kaiju No. 8, Spy x Family, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, and Robo Sapiens.
“I have a strong attachment to this work, and I still cherish it very much,” said Ito in a statement that was read during the event.
This is now the second year in a row in which Ito has taken home the Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia award. Lovesickness was only one of two manga out of the entire awards ceremony that was up for more than one category–the other being Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead. Lovesickness was serialized in Nemuki back in 1996 and then collected into one single volume the following year. US-based publisher VIZ Media later bought the license for the series and began distribution in April 2021.
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Ito’s history with the Eisner Awards runs deep. He won the Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia award last year for his manga Remina, which also brought home the award for Best Writer/Artist. In 2003, Ito’s hit series Uzumaki was a nominee in the category of “Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material”. And now almost two decades later, the series is receiving an anime adaptation.
Viz Media describes the Lovesickness manga as:
Ryusuke returns to the town he once lived in because rumors are swirling about girls killing themselves after encountering a bewitchingly handsome young man. Harboring his own secret from time spent in this town, Ryusuke attempts to capture the beautiful boy and close the case, but…
Source: San Diego Comic-Con Internation, Popverse Twitter
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