Science Fiction Awards Watch reports that the winners of the 2008 Seiun Awards, the Japanese version of the Hugo Awards, have been announced. Daicon 7, the 47th Nippon SF convention, was the host of this year’s awards ceremony. Winners include:
Japanes Novel: Toshokan Sensou (Library Wars) by Hiro Arikawa (published by Ascii MediaWorks)
Japanese Story: “Chinmoku no Furaibai” (“Silent Fly-by”) by Housuke Nojiri (Chinmoku no Furaibai, Hayakawa Publishing)
Foreign Novel: Brightness Falls from the Air by James Tiptree, Jr. (translated by Hisashi Asakura, Hayakawa Publishing)
Foreign Story: “Weather” by Alastair Reynolds (translated by Naoya Nakahara, Galactic North and Other Stories)
Media: Denno Coil, Coil a Circle of Children directed by Mitsuo Iso (anime)
Comic: 20th Century Boys/21st Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki (Shogakukan)
Art: Naoyuki Katoh
Nonfiction: Hoshi Shin-ichi 1001 Wa wo Tsukutta Hito (Shin-ichi Hoshi: The Man Who Wrote 1001 Stories) by Haduki Saisyo (Shincho-sha)
SF-Related Activity: Hatsune Miku for the voice-synthesizing software Vocaloid 2 (Crypton Future Media)
Special Award: Kouichiroh Noda (Masahiro Noda)
The foreign novel and foreign story awards are usually reiterated at the Hugo Awards ceremony at WorldCon, but since the Japanese national sf convention this year followed WorldCon (which was in Denver at the beginning of August), this is the first announcement of the awards.