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 26 (2019)

Light novelNewcomer literary award

Winners

7 people
Nigatsu Kō grand prize

Yasumi Utatane and Yūhi Yūgure are rookie voice actors at the same high school who host a radio show as a friendly idol-voice-actor duo. Off the air, however, they are a gyaru and a gloomy wallflower who do little but argue. As they continue working together, these opposites must face each other as performers in this coming-of-age entertainment novel.

Behind the public image of a friendly voice-actor duo lies the private reality of two incompatible classmates, setting their after-school and professional story in motion.

344 pages
voice actinghigh school lifefriendshipwork and private selvesmiscommunication
逆井卓馬 gold prize

A science-minded young man loses consciousness after eating raw pork liver and is reborn as a pig in another world. Cared for by Jess, a girl who can read minds, he confronts the mystery of the harsh fate that threatens her in this fantasy blending romance and investigation.

A pig with no magic or special powers sets out to save a girl through wit, ingenuity, and a keen sense of smell.

296 pages
otherworld reincarnationromancemysteryself-sacrificeadventure
Kobayashi Kotei silver prize

Kagari Shitenji, a girl with the blood of a fox spirit, has been persecuted by both demons and humans and has come to hate the world itself. Answering her wish, Saiki Kozu, the strongest holy immortal who sealed himself away a thousand years ago, awakens, and the two set out to change their devastated world.

Human prayers can rewrite the laws of heaven.

360 pages
demonsprayerchanging the worldpersecutionJapanese-inspired fantasy
陸道烈夏 silver prize

Fuu is a lonely girl living in what is said to be the last human country, a settlement in a desert ruled by monstrous beings. Learning through an old radio found at a junk shop, she meets Kazakura, an artificial girl, and confronts the great lie sustaining their world.

With knowledge, courage, and their feelings for a dear friend, the girls set out beyond their closed world.

344 pages
dystopiafriendship between girlsknowledge and learningsurvivalthe truth of the world
Misaki Ichijo Media Works Bunko Award

Toru Kamiya, a high school student who sees his life as colorless and transparent, begins a conditional relationship with Maori Hino after a false confession. As he faces Maori's condition of losing each day's memories whenever she sleeps, the two build irreplaceable memories within their limited time together in this coming-of-age love story.

With a girl who loses her memories day by day, he builds a love that lasts only one day at a time.

320 pages
memoryyouthromancelosscompassion
酒場御行 encouragement award

Two years after the Mori-Iron War, former sniper Casket serves in the army unit that returns fallen soldiers' belongings and final messages to their families. As he meets the people left behind, he recalls those he lost in battle and moves closer to a truth hidden in his own past.

A former sniper delivering the belongings and last messages of the fallen confronts the memories of war.

320 pages
memories of warlossbereaved familiesguiltrenewal
池田明季哉 encouragement award

Yoshi, a university student studying abroad in Bristol, England, discovers graffiti in the window of his part-time workplace and joins Boudiccia, an older student knowledgeable about art, to find its creator. As he confronts her past as the once-renowned graffiti writer known as the Bristol Ghost, the two face a conspiracy that threatens the city's culture in this coming-of-age novel.

Graffiti: a fleeting magic of images that vividly overwrites even his and her feelings.

328 pages
graffitiartstudy abroadyouthsetback and renewal