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Monday, April 7, 2025 saw 49th annual Kodansha Manga Awards announce its nominees, which included mangaka Takeru Hokazono’s Kagurabachi and Satoru Nii’s Wind Breaker. In total, there are 16 different nominees across three separate categories, with the winners for each category set to be announced on Monday, May 12, 2025 in Japan.
Notably, the two standout nominees in Hokazono’s Kagurabachi and Nii’s Wind Breaker are both in the Best Shonen Manga category, meaning one of the two will go home empty handed. The other two categories listed are Best Shojo Manga, with five total entries, and Best General Manga, also with five total entries.
Kagurabachi and Wind Breaker clash in Best Shonen Category of 49th annual Kodansha Manga Awards
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Alongside Hokazono’s Kagurabachi and Nii’s Wind Breaker series in the Best Shonen Manga category are four additional works. These are Saka Mikami’s The Fragrant Flowers Bloom With Dignity, which was also nominated to the category in 2023 and 2024, ONE, Kyotaro Azuma, and BOSE’s Versus, Naoshi Arakawa’s Orion’s Board, and Yugo Kobayashi’s Fermat no Ryori. Hokazono’s manga from Shueisha is notably the only non-Kodansha published nominee.
The Best Shojo Manga nominees include Anashin’s How I Met My Soulmate, Midori Yuma and Mamenosuke Fujimaru’s The Ayakashi Hunter’s Tainted Bride, Coco Uzuki’s Fall in Love, You False Angels, Eiko Mutsuhana, Yugiri Aika, and Gin Shirakawa’s Re-Living My Life with a Boyfriend Who Doesn’t Remember Me, and Ammitsu’s Gazing at the Star Next Door. All are published by Kodansha save for Mutsuhana and co’s Re-Living My Life manga series.
Finally, the Best General Manga nominees include Kengo Hanazawa’s Under Ninja, Yama Wayama’s Onna no Sono no Hoshi, which was also nominated in 2023, Inuhiko Doronoda’s Spacewalking With You, Riku Oseto’s Nezumi no Hatsukoi, and Hitoshi Iwaaki’s Historie. All are published by Kodansha save for Wayama’s Onna no Sono no Hoshi manga series, published by Shodensha.
Nii’s Wind Breaker manga began serialization on Kodansha’s Magazine Pocket website in January 2021, where it is still ongoing with regular serialization today. The manga was adapted into a television anime series in April 2024, with the second season having recently premiered in April 2025. The manga volumes were also recently announced for an accelerated English release starting in July 2025 with the English release of the manga’s 10th compilation volume.
Hokazono’s Kagurabachi manga series began serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in September 2023, and has since become one of its most popular series overall. While the manga has yet to be officially announced for an anime, it’s rumored that Cygames Pictures has already begun producing one. Most notably, Shueisha executives were allegedly quoted as saying that Hokazono’s manga can “carry the next generation of Jump” in June 2024.
Related links
- Wind Breaker Season 2 complete release schedule
- Shueisha allegedly believes Kagurabachi can "carry the next generation of Jump"
- Kagurabachi anime reportedly greenlit under CyberAgent and Shochiku
