Japanese Literary Awards

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Dengeki Novel Grand Prize でんげきしょうせつたいしょう

Edition 23 (2016)

Light novelNewcomer literary award

Winners

8 people
Asato Asato grand prize

The Republic of San Magnolia claims that its war against the Legion, an army of autonomous weapons, has no casualties. Behind that fiction, young people exiled to the Eighty-Sixth Sector pilot manned machines and fight at the cost of their lives. Through the encounter between Shin, who leads the battlefield unit, and Lena, a girl directing it by remote communication, the novel confronts the realities of discrimination and war.

On a battlefield said to have no dead, the young people of the supposedly nonexistent Eighty-Sixth Sector are sent out to fight once more.

344 pages
discriminationwarhumanitysacrificeencounter and separation
Tetsuya Sano grand prize

Takuya Okada, a high-school student who has drifted through life since losing his sister, meets his hospitalized classmate Mamizu Watarase. As he helps fulfill the wishes of Mamizu, who has a condition that makes her glow in moonlight as her death approaches, Takuya's frozen time begins to move again.

A promise to a girl approaching the end helps a boy reclaim the time to live.

324 pages
life and deathlossadolescenceromancehope
周藤蓮 gold prize

Set in late eighteenth-century London, the novel follows Lazarus, a young gambler who unexpectedly wins a large sum, and Leela, an enslaved girl carrying deep emotional wounds. As the two awkwardly grow closer through everyday life, Lazarus is drawn into a high-stakes gamble that could ruin him in order to protect her.

A story of a gambler who refuses to rely on prayer and the wounded girl whose fate becomes entwined with his.

344 pages
gamblingeighteenth-century Londonslaveryredemptiontrustself-sacrifice
岩沢藍 silver prize

Shogo Kurosaki, a high-school student devoted to the girls' idol arcade game Kirapri, loses his local top-ranking spot to Chizuru Niijima, an elementary-school transfer student. Their conflict over the town's only machine leads them to discover each other's skill and unwavering commitment as they pursue a limited Christmas item.

A contest over a single arcade machine transforms the relationship between two players who take what they love seriously.

320 pages
passion for what one lovesrivalrya local arcadeyoutha Christmas event
Tendo Risa silver prize

Set at the Nichiyo Newspaper in the early Meiji era, this supernatural mystery follows the indolent reporter Kyuma Naito, who writes only about yokai, and Kasumi Inoue, a young woman who comes to confront him. Joined by the former actor En'en, they use strange incidents as clues to help people, while the bond among the three gradually changes.

An early-Meiji supernatural mystery that follows the truths behind ghost stories and the people they can save.

338 pages
Meiji erayokainewspaper reportermystery solvinghelping others
Yuki Shasendō Media Works Bunko Award

Naozaki, a university student facing the risk of repeating a year, is told to bring back Takaku Kareido, a brilliant student on leave who has immersed himself in watching films. A fire-related incident at a repertory cinema in Shimokitazawa draws Naozaki into mysteries hidden in films and the city alongside the movie-loving Kareido.

A coming-of-age mystery in which a film-loving young man and a university student on the brink of repeating a year pursue a puzzle surrounding a repertory cinema.

370 pages
filmrepertory cinemacoming of agemystery solvingShimokitazawa
藻野多摩夫 encouragement award

Two centuries after humanity began settling Mars in earnest, disasters and civil war have cut its cities apart. Eris, a young long-distance mail carrier, accepts a request to take Kuro, a man with a fully prosthetic body seeking a place to die, to the mailbox said to deliver letters anywhere on the summit of Olympus Mons. Crossing the red wilderness, the two confront their respective pasts.

On twilight Mars, a young mail carrier and a man seeking a place to die head for the mailbox closest to heaven.

328 pages
a journey across Marsmail and lettersloss and memoryhumans and prosthetic bodieslife and death
葦舟ナツ encouragement award

On a snowy day, Keita Kakehashi is asked three questions by Chigusa Ono, a woman he has never met, and soon begins living with her as her husband. Their dreamlike new life brings back his painful past with his reclusive older brother and mother, prompting him to reconsider love and the meaning of happiness.

A story of family memories and love that begins with a marriage between strangers.

354 pages
familysocial withdrawallonelinessmarriagelove