[Hosted by creative platform 'Nola'. One of Japan's largest creative contests] 34 winning works for the '1st Nola Original Work Award' have been decided!
The 1st Nola Original Work Award, hosted by the creative platform 'Nola', has announced its 34 winners, with commercialization efforts now underway.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: March 31, 2026 at 22:00
- 🔍 Collected: April 1, 2026 at 13:39 (15h 39m after Published)
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 17, 2026 at 02:16 (372h 37m after Collected)
indent Inc. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Yuki Kamagata; hereinafter 'indent'), which provides the creative platform 'Nola' (Note 1) connecting over 650,000 writers with companies, has announced the 34 winning works out of 3,712 submissions for the '1st Nola Original Work Award' (https://contest.nola-novel.com/gensaku-award-2025/), a creative contest featuring one of the largest numbers of participating labels in Japan.
What is the 'Nola Original Work Award'?
The 'Nola Original Work Award' was held as a creative contest with the participation of one of the largest numbers of editorial departments in Japan, aiming to connect the 'original works' created by writers to commercialization in novels, manga, webtoons, and videos. Utilizing the 'Editorial Board' function on the novel posting site 'Nola Novel,' where domestic and international editorial departments post and recruit works with an eye toward commercial debut, over 40 editorial departments recruited works under their own themes and directly judged the submissions daily.
About the winning works of the '1st Nola Original Work Award'
In this first edition, we received a total of 3,712 submissions during the posting period from September 1, 2025, to January 12, 2026. We received works across a wide range of genres and themes, from love stories to fantasy and human dramas. From these, 34 works were selected as winners: 4 Grand Prizes, 19 Excellence Awards, and 11 Honorable Mentions. For the Grand Prize and Excellence Award works, we will now begin full-scale efforts toward commercialization in collaboration with each editorial department.
List of Grand Prize Winners (Title / Author)
- End of RPG / Maki Kawazuda (Editorial Dept: Nola Books Glanz)
- The Death Investigation Record of the Princess Who Loved Insects / Rufuran Tsukimachi (Editorial Dept: Digikata Editorial Dept / Spirale COMIC)
- Nagaya Cafe in Tokyo's Downtown: Connecting Healing and Thoughts with Rice Balls and Stuffed Animals / Karin Takeda (Editorial Dept: Kotonoha Bunko)
- The Library's Magic Begins Quietly / Hareharu (Editorial Dept: Saga Forest/Brave Bunko Editorial Dept)
indent will continue to strengthen support for domestic and international editorial departments working to create new hit IPs, in addition to our original label initiatives, under the key message of 'Maximizing the potential of the content industry and producing works that fascinate the world.'
What is the 'Nola Original Work Award'?
The 'Nola Original Work Award' was held as a creative contest with the participation of one of the largest numbers of editorial departments in Japan, aiming to connect the 'original works' created by writers to commercialization in novels, manga, webtoons, and videos. Utilizing the 'Editorial Board' function on the novel posting site 'Nola Novel,' where domestic and international editorial departments post and recruit works with an eye toward commercial debut, over 40 editorial departments recruited works under their own themes and directly judged the submissions daily.
About the winning works of the '1st Nola Original Work Award'
In this first edition, we received a total of 3,712 submissions during the posting period from September 1, 2025, to January 12, 2026. We received works across a wide range of genres and themes, from love stories to fantasy and human dramas. From these, 34 works were selected as winners: 4 Grand Prizes, 19 Excellence Awards, and 11 Honorable Mentions. For the Grand Prize and Excellence Award works, we will now begin full-scale efforts toward commercialization in collaboration with each editorial department.
List of Grand Prize Winners (Title / Author)
- End of RPG / Maki Kawazuda (Editorial Dept: Nola Books Glanz)
- The Death Investigation Record of the Princess Who Loved Insects / Rufuran Tsukimachi (Editorial Dept: Digikata Editorial Dept / Spirale COMIC)
- Nagaya Cafe in Tokyo's Downtown: Connecting Healing and Thoughts with Rice Balls and Stuffed Animals / Karin Takeda (Editorial Dept: Kotonoha Bunko)
- The Library's Magic Begins Quietly / Hareharu (Editorial Dept: Saga Forest/Brave Bunko Editorial Dept)
indent will continue to strengthen support for domestic and international editorial departments working to create new hit IPs, in addition to our original label initiatives, under the key message of 'Maximizing the potential of the content industry and producing works that fascinate the world.'
FAQ
What is the Nola Original Work Award?
It is one of Japan's largest contests involving editorial departments, aimed at commercializing original works into novels, manga, webtoons, and videos.
What happens to the winning works?
Winning and excellent works will enter into full-scale commercialization efforts in collaboration with the participating editorial departments.
What kind of service is Nola?
It is a creative platform used by 650,000 writers, featuring tools for plot management and writing support.