#On the Movements of the Earth Manga Wins Best Comic at 54th Seiun Award

Uoto‘s Orb: On the Movements of the Earth manga has emerged as the winner of the 54th Seiun Award’s Best Comic category. 

The manga was one of the category’s reference nominees (nominees that are decided by the organisers, the Science Fiction Fan Groups’ Association of Nippon; voters are not restricted to these picks), together with Dr. Stone, Golden Kamuy, Nidome no Jinsei: Animator, Chi. -Chikyuu no Undou ni Tsuite-, Takopi no Genzai, and Planet With.

Orb: On the Movements of the Earth ran from 2020 to 2022 in Shogakukan’s Big Comic Spirits. It has been collected into eight tankoubon volumes. A Madhouse-produced anime adaptation was announced in June 2022, the month of the eigth tankoubon volume’s release.

Seven Seas Entertainment describes the plot as:

In fifteenth-century Europe, heretics are being burned at the stake. Rafal, a brilliant young man, is expected to enter university at an early age and study the era’s most important field, theology. But Rafal values Reason above all else, which leads him both to the shocking conclusion that the Earth orbits the Sun, and into the hands of the Inquisition!

A decade later, two members of the Watch Guild, the dour young Oczy and the cynical Gras, find a hidden stone chest that details the secrets of the universe Rafal left behind. Dare they try to change their own stars by selling the heretical texts, or would that only lead to the stake and the fire?

The Seiun Award is an annual speculative fiction award that dates back to 1970. Votes are cast by attendees of the Nihon SF Taikai convention (voting for the 54th Seiun Award took place from April 13 to May 31 of this year). The award generally recognizes works that were released in the previous year, but serialized works are also eligible upon completion.