Next Manga Award 2025 Winners Announced: Ichi The Witch Takes Comics Category, Strikeout Pitch Wins Web Manga Award

The user voted manga award Next Manga Award 2025 has announced its winners. In the Comics category, Ichi The Witch secured first place, while the Web Manga category was topped by Strikeout Pitch.

Founded in 2014 by Da Vinci magazine and Niconico, this award is unique in being fully “user-participatory.” Readers nominate manga they believe will be the “next big hit,” and from those entries, the most popular titles are shortlisted. Final winners are then decided through user voting.

The award seeks to answer questions such as: “Which manga are about to break big?” and “What titles are trending online right now?” This year saw 9,432 submitted entries.

Ichi The Witch: A Magical Hunting Fantasy

Ichi The Witch, serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump, is a magical hunting fantasy. In a world where magic exists as living entities, hunters known as “witches” dedicate their lives to mastering it. On the remote frontier, a fierce battle unfolds between the magic of a terrifying king and the strongest witch, only for an out-of-place boy named Ichi to suddenly intervene. A mountain-dwelling hunter with no ties to witches or magic shakes the very foundation of the world’s norms.

The series is penned by Osamu Nishi, author of Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun, with artwork by Shiro Usazaki.

Strikeout Pitch: A High School Baseball Mystery

In June, whispers spread among high school baseball players in Kanagawa Prefecture about a mysterious man known as the “Baseball Club Hunter.” Appearing at night, he challenges players to a “three-pitch duel,” always hurling blistering fastballs and never once losing.

Kobori, captain of the Yokohama Souha High School baseball team, suspects the man is within his own school. Determined to recruit him for their dream of reaching Koshien, Kobori volunteers as bait. That night, the “Baseball Club Hunter” finally appears. Yet, the man hides a shocking secret... he actually cannot play baseball. With only three weeks left until the seniors’ final tournament, can three pitches truly change everything?

A gripping baseball story begins in the bottom of the ninth.

List of Award-winning works

Source : ORICON NEWS