Japanese Literary Awards

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Overlap Bunko Grand Award オーバーラップぶんこたいしょう

Edition 11 (2023)

Light novelNewcomer literary award

Winners

4 people
澤松那函 さわまつ なふね gold prize

A young "breaker" who repairs and dismantles artificial fairies confronts a series of unexplained incidents and the past that shaped his bond with them. The novel is strongest when it treats the fairies as emotional beings rather than simple tools.

He stays beside the one he must break, and that contradiction becomes the novel's emotional core.

384 pages
fantasyartificial lifebonded partnersloss and renewal
河鍋鹿島 かわなべ かしま gold prize

An action fantasy built around the relationship between the girls called Soldier Maids, who can fight the anomalous "Houses," and a rookie death soldier. Its appeal comes from the changing trust between partners that emerges through each mission.

They both have reasons to fight and secrets to hide, which makes their distance from each other compelling.

320 pages
actionbuddy storyotherworldly threatsecrets
浦田阿多留 うらた あたる silver prize

A high school boy who became a vampire king in another world returns to the modern day and is pulled back into the hidden side of his world while trying to live normally. The novel is less about dominating enemies than about the tension between ordinary life and renewed conflict.

He would rather be ordinary than all-powerful, and that wish is what drives the story forward.

320 pages
modern fantasyvampiresreturn from another worldschool life
片沼ほとり かたぬま ほとり silver prize

A meta-comedy set in a school where everything is decided through games, following a boy who tries to stage the story from the shadows. Its charm lies in the clever mind games and the narrator's twisted wish to stay out of the spotlight.

He wants the hero to shine, yet he ends up standing in the center himself, and that mismatch is the fun of it.

320 pages
school settingstrategymeta comedyheroic roles