The 2019 Seiun Award nominees were announced April 7. The award has nine categories. Below are the categories for translated works, and a few other categories of international interest.

The awards will be presented July 27 at the 57th national Japan SF Convention.

FOREIGN NOVEL

• Mecha Samurai Empire by Peter Tieryas. Translated by Naoya Nakahara
• Artemis by Andy Weir. Translated by Kazuko Onoda
• We Are Legion by Dennis E. Taylor. Translated by Hiroshi Kaneko
• Provenance by Ann Leckie. Translated by Hideko Akao
• Walking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel. Translated by Chiori Sada
• Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty. Translated by Takeshi Mogi
• Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Translated by Masamichi Higurashi

FOREIGN SHORT STORY

• “The Circle” by Liu Cixin. Translated by Naoya Nakahara
• “The Martian Obelisk” by Linda Nagata. Translated by Naoya Nakahara
• “Liar’s House” by Lucius Shepard. Translated by Masayuki Uchida
• “Monster in the Midest” by Julio Toro San Martin. Translated by Yoshio Nomura
• “P?evychování” by Jan Barda. Translated by Kiyomi Hirano
• “Between Nine and Eleven” by Adam Roberts. Translated by Masayuki Uchida
• “Cybertank vs. Megazillus” by Timothy J Gawne. Translated by Akinobu

MEDIA DIVISION

• SSSS.Gridman – Official site
• Ready Player One – Official site
• Working Cells – Official site
• Beatless – Official site
• Hisone and Masotan — Official site
• Planet With – Official site
• Penguin Highway – Official site
• Baahubali – King’s Triumph Complete Edition – Official site
• Pacific Rim Uprising – [linked site doesn’t load for me]

ART CATEGORY

• Redjuice — Principal site
• Yuko Shiraishi — Principal site
• Iwago gravity
• Hisahito — Principal site
• Katsuyuki Hoshino
• Jun Kawana — Principal site
• Keiji Hida — Principal site
• Suzuki Yasushi — Principal site
• Takedasana — Principal site

Editor’s Note: I have followed the translations shown in the Wikipedia article for the first two categories.

The 2018 Seiun Award winners were announced July 21 by Duracon, the 57th Japanese national SF convention. The award has nine categories. Below are the categories for translated works, and a few other categories of international interest.

FOREIGN NOVEL

• Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. Translated by Chiori Sada

FOREIGN SHORT STORY

• “Folding Beijing” by Jingfang Hao. Translated by Mayumi Otani

MEDIA DIVISION

• Kemono Friends

ART CATEGORY

• Noriko Nagano – Personal site

FREE CATEGORY

• “Superhuman rock” birth 50 anniversary tribute project – Young King’s Hours 2 – July issue Anthology “superhuman rock hero” publication,

Editor’s Note: I have followed the translations shown in the Wikipedia article for the first three categories. Note some translator names lack diacritical marks over some letters because WordPress turns them into question marks. The “Free Category” relies on Google Translate (beware!)

The 2018 Seiun Award nominees were announced April 15 by Duracon, the 57th Japanese national SF convention. The award has nine categories. Below are the categories for translated works, and a few other categories of international interest.

The awards will be presented July 21 in Minakami, Japan.

FOREIGN NOVEL

• Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. Translated by Chiori Sada
• The Adjacent by Christopher Priest. Translated by Yoshimichi Furusawa and Yoko Miki
• A Borrowed Man by Gene Wolfe. Translated by Akinobu Sakai
• My Real Children by Jo Walton. Translated by Takeshi Mogi
• Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. Translated by Yutaka Oshima
• The History of Soviet Fantastika by Roman Arbitman and Rustam Katz. Translated by Hiraoki Umemura
• Jack Vance Treasury 3: Space Opera by Jack Vance. Translated by Hisashi Asakura and Ro Shiraishi

FOREIGN SHORT STORY

• “The New Guys Always Work Overtime” by David Erik Nelson. Translated by Jun Suzuki
• “Folding Beijing” by Jingfang Hao. Translated by Mayumi ?tani
• “An Advanced Reader’s Picture Book of Comparative Cognition” by Ken Liu. Translated by Izumi Ichida
• “Healing Benjamin” by Dennis Danvers. Translated by Makoto Yamagishi
• “Travel Diary” by Alfred Bester. Translated by Akinobu Sakai
• “Knotting Grass, Holding Ring” by Ken Liu. Translated by Yoshimichi Furusawa

MEDIA DIVISION

• Arrival
• Blade Runner 2049
• ID-0
• Kado: The Right Answer
• Re:Creators
• Kubo and the Two Strings
• Passengers
• Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
• Kemono Friends

ART CATEGORY

• Yasumi Suzuki — Personal site
• Katsuyuki Hoshino  — Personal site
• Jun Kawana — Personal site
• HR-FM — Personal site
• Shioishi Yuko – Personal site
• Noriko Nagano – Personal site
• Quick Water Spiral – Personal site
• Torojima Legend — Personal site

FREE CATEGORY

• 1 I / 2017 U 1 Parrot Amua — Celestial body with the highest orbital eccentricity, the first interstellar small celestial body in observation history.
• “Superhuman rock” birth 50 anniversary tribute project – Young King’s Hours 2 – July issue Anthology “superhuman rock hero” publication,
• Cassini explorer Saturn’s atmosphere entrance – Launch on October 15, 1997, September 15, 2017 rushed into the atmosphere of Saturn and operation was terminated. Over the course of 20 years we have observed planets (mainly Saturn) and Saturn’s satellites. Discovering the possibility that there is a large underground ocean of liquid water in Saturn’s satellite Enceladus, “Saturn discovers the satellites of the new Saturn” and “Discover the appearance of a vortex like the hurricane at Saturn’s North Pole” “It is a satellite that has repeated many new discoveries and challenges such as” traveling between Saturn and the ring for the first time as a human explorer “and praising this achievement, I would like it to receive the award of the Nebula Award Free Section.
• Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition released – All RPG founder Dungeons & Dragons, the first time in nine years a new system version released.
• Tivanian – The “Chiba Era” was born in the earth history. First geological age name in Japan.
• National Association “Rem Collection” – Against the fact that over the years we have completed the difficult business of communicating the whole picture of REM work to Japanese readers through direct translation from Polish
• Nozomu Omori, Sannou Kinoshita edition “Annual Japanese SF Masterpiece Selection” – For the valuable work of editing an annual SF masterpiece for 10 years
• NHK E TEL “100 min de masterpiece Stanislaw Remororasu Assuming Understanding” – To one that was introduced as one of the masterpieces at the NHK program. Minami role: Yuji Numano

Editor’s Note: I have followed the translations shown in the Wikipedia article for the first three categories. Note some translator names lack diacritical marks over some letters because WordPress turns them into question marks. Thanks to Count Zero for the “Kado: The Right Answer” translation. The “Free Category” relies on Google Translate (beware!)

[Hat tip to Locus Online.]

The nominees for the 2017 Seiun Award were announced April 11 by the 56th Japan Science Fiction Convention. The members of “Donburacon” will vote on the winners, which will be announced in July.

The award has nine categories. Here are the categories for translated works, and a few other categories of international interest.

FOREIGN NOVEL

• United States of Japan, Peter Tieryas, translated by Naoya Nakahara
• Jack Vance Treasury 1 (Magnus Ridolph), Jack Vance, translated by Hisashi Asakura and Akinobu Sakai
• The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu, translated by Yoshimichi Furusawa
• Roderick, John Sladek, translated by Kiichiro Yanashita
• The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, Claire North, translated by Hiromi Amagai
• Imperial Radch trilogy, Anne Leckie, translated by Hideko Akao
• Enchanted Night, Steven Millhauser, translated by Motoyuki Shibata

FOREIGN SHORT STORY

• “Seventh Sight”, Greg Egan, translated by Makoto Yamagishi
• “The Day the World Turned Upside Down”, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, translated by Jun Suzuki
• “Backward, Turn Backward”, James Tiptree, Jr., translated by Kazuko Onoda
• “The Guiding Nose of Ulfant Banderoz”, Dan Simmons, translated by Akinobu Sakai
• “The Deathbird”, Harlan Ellison, translated by Norio It?
• “Simulacrum”, Ken Liu, translated by Yoshimichi Furusawa

MEDIA CATEGORY

• Shin Godzilla film (Official site)
• your name. anime film (Official site)
• Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress television anime (Official site)
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story film (Official site)
• Concrete Revolutio television anime (Official site)
• Zegapain ADP anime film (Official site)
• Look Who’s Back film (Official site)
• Kuromukuro television anime (Official site)

COMIC CATEGORY

• Osamu Akimoto’s Kochira Katsushika-ku Kamearikouen-mae Hashutsujo (all 200 volumes)
• Tsubana’s Dainana Jyoshikai Houkou (all 10 volumes)
• Satoshi Mizukami’s Spirit Circle (all 6 volumes)
• Yumiko Shirai’s Wombs (all 5 volumes)
• Kei Sanbe’s Erased (all 9 volumes)
• Izumi Takemoto’s Natsu ni Sekirannun Made

FREE CATEGORY

• The movement launched by Zegapain ADP and tie-ins
• The Pokémon Go craze
• The official naming of the chemical element Nihonium
• The world’s first detection of gravitational waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
• The visual book Gear Another Day Go-iro no Rinbu
• SF writer and musician Hiroyuki Nanba’s “Nanba Hiroyuki Kenban Seikatsu 40 Sh?nen Kinen Live ~Issh? Kenmei~” event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the musician’s activities.

Editor’s Note: I have followed the translations by Petréa Mitchell in the Foreign Novel and Foreign Short Story categories, and those of the Anime News Network in the other categories.

The 55th Japan Science Fiction Convention (Nihon SF Taikai) has posted the 2016 Seiun Awards nominees (linked site is in Japanese).

The winners will be determined by a vote of attendees at “Iseshimacon” in Toba and announced on July 9.

Reported here are the Best Translated Novel, Best Translated Short Story, and Best Dramatic Presentation. Interpretations of Japanese titles and translators’ names come from the Wikipedia or Google Translate.

The items in the Free Space category are rendered in English by Google Translate, more successfully in some cases than others.

Brief descriptions of nominees in the categories composed of Japanese language works are available in this post at Anime News Network.

BEST TRANSLATED NOVEL

• Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Tr. Hideko Akao
• Zendegi by Greg Egan, Tr. Makoto Yamagishi
• Ack-Ack Macaque by Gareth L. Powell, Tr. Kazuyo Misumi
• The Water Knife by Paola Bacigalupi, Tr. Naoya Nakahara
• The Violent Century by Ravi Tidoha, Tr. Takeshi Mogi
• Vulcan’s Hammer by Philip K. Dick, Tr. Tatsuo Sato

BEST TRANSLATED SHORT STORY

• “Good Hunting” – Ken Liu, Tr. Yoshimichi Furusawa
• “The Road of Needles” – Caitlyn R. Kiernan, Tr. Jun Suzuki
• “White Sin, Now” – Tanith Lee, Tr. Izumi Ichida
• “Mask” – Stanislaw Lem, Tr. Koichi Kuyama
• “Relays and Roses” – Gene Wolfe, Tr. Takao Miyawaki
• “Alfred’s Ark” – Jack Vance, Tr. Toru Nakamura
• “Beautiful Boys” – Theodora Goss, Tr. Jun Suzuki

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION

• Mad Max: Fury Road, Director: George Miller
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Director: J.J. Abrams
• Chappie, Director: Neill Blomkamp
• The Futurological Congress, Director: Ari Folman (http://www.thecongress-movie.jp/)
• “Wish Upon the Pleiades” (http://sbr-gx.jp/)
• The Empire of Corpses (http://project-itoh.com/#/empire/top/)
• Girls und Panzer (theater version) (http://girls-und-panzer.jp/)
• Psycho-Pass (movie) (http://psycho-pass.com/)

FREE SPACE

• First flight domestic airliner MRJ – Japan’s first jetliner (http://www.flythemrj.com/j/)
• Matsuko and Matsuko Nippon TV series broadcast — For that we have the experiment of the uncanny valley by using the TV (http://www.ntv.co.jp/matsuko-matsuko/)
• Eh out Sand + — Innovative sand play games using projection mapping (http://edel-sand.sega.jp/)
• New Horizons Pluto probe — Pluto exploration of mankind’s first trans-Neptunian objects (https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html )
• Rhodan Series 500 Volume publication achieved – Because when not listed in the candidate even after up to (http://www.hayakawa-online.co.jp/new/2015-07-06-120057.html)

Update 03/30/2016: Followed Petréa Mitchell’s recommendations for the names of several translators.