One of Haikasoru’s authors, Housuke Nojiri (Usurper of the Sun, Seiun winner for best novel in 2002, coming from Haikasoru on 9/14) is the 2009 Seiun Award winner for best short story!

The winning work is the comical「南極点のピアピア動画」(“Nankyokuten no Pia Pia Douga” ) or “Pia Pia Douga at the South Pole.” Pia Pia Douga is based on Nico Nico Douga, a real-life video sharing website in Japan which allows users to make comments directly on the videos. (btw, douga = video) The short story appeared in April and May issue of SF Magazine in 2008.

Here’s a synopsis —
Shoichi, a graduate student, is aiming for outer space to try to get his girlfriend back. But how? His lab fellows, the Pia Pia Douga community, and a “vocaloid” are fully supporting him to create a spacecraft from scratch. It’s a love story and a full-scale hard SF featuring a super-detailed nuts-and-bolts engineering. Ah, I almost forget, in the beginning, a comet collided with the Moon…

“Is that really a short story?” you ask.
Yes, it is. And that is Japanese SF!

野尻先生、星雲賞受賞おめでとうございます！　Congratulations, Mr. Nojiri!