Renowned Japanese publishing group Kadokawa’s Editor-in-Chief Noboru Segawa highly praised two winning Taiwanese manga at the group’s Kadokawa World Manga Contest.

Kadokawa, responsible for series including Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop, awarded Eli Lin (依萊) gold for “Cells Within the Body” and MurJi bronze for “Hitojuki” in the wordless manga category. 

Eli Lin’s work strongly conveyed its ability to draw the reader into the story solely through the power of visuals, Segawa stated, calling her manga an “excellent work worthy of gold.”

Segawa said he was impressed with MurJi’s characters’ “overwhelming cuteness,” but that the work still has significant room for growth in terms of presentation and expressive techniques. 

The organizers invited six winning teams from Taiwan, Vietnam, France, and Switzerland to Japan to receive their awards in the manga and wordless manga categories. The gold, silver, and bronze winners received prize money of US$10,000, US$5,000, and US$3,000, respectively.

Kadokawa Chief Global Officer Izumi Kei announced that the second Kadokawa World Manga Contest has opened for submissions, and invited creators from around the world to take part.

Submissions will be open from September 7 this year to February 28 next year, with winning entries expected to be announced around May 2027. The competition will follow the same format with two main categories: manga and wordless manga. Creators may submit their manga in Japanese, English, Spanish, French, or Mandarin in traditional characters.