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World Maker, Toho Announce Winner for Short Film Contest

World Maker, the storyboarding app service for Shueisha's Shonen Jump+ imprint, announced on Wednesday that Kitarō's "Kao no Nai Machi" (Faceless Town) storyboard won the grand prize for it and TOHO's short film contest.

The story centers on a "natural woman" named Yui Fujisaki who is told by her boyfriend that she should have her face changed to his ex-girlfriend's. Determined, she heads to a counseling room to have her face changed.

Kitarō will receive a 500,000-yen (about US$3,300) cash prize and their storyboards will be turned into a live-action short film by TOHO. Jordan Vogt-Roberts (Kong: Skull Island, planned live-action Hollywood Gundam film) judged the submissions alongside the editorial staff of Shonen Jump+.

Kafu Hazure's "Stunt Double" won the runner-up "Best Storyboard" prize. Akihiro Kusaka's "Inochi no Jugyō" (Life Classroom) won the Jordan Vogt-Roberts prize, while Yō Shiono's "Tōmei no Shōmei" (Invisible Proof) won the TOHO prize, and Miya's "global warming" won the Shueisha prize.

The World Maker app launched on July 12. The app lets users ("even those who can't draw") create thumbnail layouts for manga or storyboards for animation, live-action shows, movies, and commercials. To create a manga's draft thumbnails in the service, the user drafts the page layouts (or use the provided templates), adjusts and drops in the provided characters and other graphic elements, enters dialogue, adds effects, and then releases the final results.

The staff claims that the app can also machine-translate the thumbnails and storyboards into 17 languages including English, Chinese, Korean, and French. Users can then share the results online for others to follow and comment. According to the staff, over 20,000 users have created about 37,000 works in the three months since the app's launch.

World Maker also held the "World Maker Manga Contest" for thumbnails created with the app. The contest accepted applications from August 1 to October 1. The grand prize winner will have their manga drawn by Taishi Tsutsui (We Never Learn) for release on Shonen Jump+, and will also receive a 500,000 yen (about US$3,300) cash prize. Okari's "Gaming PC Mitai ni Hikaru Tako" (The Squid that Shines Like a Gaming PC) storyboard won the contest.

Similarly, World Maker is also holding a short anime film contest with Netflix, which is accepting applications from November 8 to January 8. The grand prize winner will receive a 500,000-yen (about US$3,300) cash prize and their storyboards will be turned into an anime by Netflix.

Sources: World Maker official blog, Comic Natalie