It’s true! 42.000 kids and teenagers have cast their votes in the annual Swedish Children’s Book Awards Bokjuryn, which compiles a list of newly released children and teenage literature titles in Swedish every year. The titles are then put up for voting, and this year, there were a total of 880 titles to choose from. Now listen to this – in the comics category, our manga, Kick Off 1, was voted as the best comic of 2008! HURRAY HURRAY HURRAY! So, on Tuesday the 19th, we went to Örebro for the celebrations and received flowers, diplomas and a round of applause from the kids and teenagers who attended. It was amazing!

This is the pretty diploma we received. Translation: Diploma for Yokaj Studio for Kick off 1, B. Wahlströms, comics category. “Kick off part 1 is about Krille. Krille is an ordinary guy who likes soccer, his friends and his dream girl Jenny. One day, Krille suddenly starts to hear voices in his head criticizing him all the time… Later he realizes that the voice belongs to a ghost. I like the comic because it’s funny and because you can relate to it.” Anna Gustafson, born 1997. The best books of year 2008 chosen by children and teenagers in Sweden.

We had to wake up really early on Tuesday morning. DoraJen had to get up at 5 AM!

The Bokjuryn party was held at Konserthuset in Örebro. 400 children and teenagers had been invited for this special occasion.

Nadia Jebril was invited as the “master of ceremonies”. Swedish readers might recognize her name. Nadia works on the radio show “Verkligheten” (”The Reality”, which broadcasts radio documentaries and lifestyle observations) among other things.

The venue started to get filled up with kids and teenagers of varying ages. Some were so small and barely as tall as three stacked apples, while others looked like they went to junior high school.

A happy and excited Kajfa. DoraJen and Soya seemed to enjoy themselves.

Yosh wanted to be on a picture too.

Nadia opened the ceremony and the musicians played fanfares!

A couple of skilled dancers performed the “Bokdansen” (”The Book Dance”), a playful dance which made a lot of children laugh.

Maria Jönsson won in the category 0-6 years with her book “Spyflugan Astrid flyger högt”.

There were interpreters for the deaf present on stage.

In the category 7-9 years old, “Häxdoktorn” by Martin Widmark and Christina Alvner won.

For every category there was also a winning school class, awarded with heaps of books. After this, the ceremony took a break for refreshments.

… and this is how packed the hall was where juice and buns were being handed out. We managed to get some too. Yummy!

A surprise awaited us after the break. Anders Jacobsson, one of the authors of the Sune books (a hugely popular book series in Sweden which has been going on for 20+ years) entered the stage and told, in a very entertaining manner, of how the characters in the books got their names and personalities. He made the children laugh so much that they applauded and stomped on the floor, even making it shake!

On the question of “How many tjejtjusare (=boys who unashamed flirt with girls) do we have here?” a couple of boys proudly raised their hands without any sign of embarassment. And on the following “How many killtjusare (=the opposite of tjejtjusare) do we have here?” as many, if not more, girls raised their hands in excitement.

“Vargbröder – Jagad av klanerna” (”Outcast” in its original title) by Michelle Paver won in the category 10-13 years old. Michelle could unfortunately not attend, but her Swedish editor came in her place and thanked everyone on her behalf.

Tomas Dömstedt won in the category 14-19 years old with his book “Bellas beslut”. And then…

… it was our turn to enter the stage! Kick Off 1 had gotten the most votes in the comcis category. We received a huge round of applause and felt the floor shake once again. Yosh and Kajfa held a speech of acceptance for all of our wonderful fans and readers, everyone who voted for us, our publisher and our families.

A happy and proud Yokaj Studio. It was an amazing feeling standing there. It’was really difficult to grasp the fact that we really won, considering the other works which had been nominated. Among them, Naruto, Bleach and Yotsuba& could be found. Isn’t this just amazing?!

And here are the school class winners in “our” category!

And finally the winner of the last category, factual books, was announced. The winning book “Arthur Spiderwicks fälthandbok över vÃ¥r sagolika omgivning” (”Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You” in its original title) was written by Holly Black and Tonny DiTerlizzi.

At the end of the ceremony it was time to give thanks to everyone involved with the project.

Nadia also got flowers for her contribution!

On the way out. Soya and DoraJen playing around.

The Studio had some pictures taken.

After the party it was time for autographs, but we barely had time to take any pictures. Here’s DoraJen signing for the last two girls.

It was sunny when we exited the venue, so we took the opportunity to walk around town. We found the beautiful Örebo Slott (”Örebro Castle”)!

Kajfa: “What’s that?”
Soya: “I dont know, looks like some kind of bird…”
DoraJen: “A weird airplane perhaps?”

Oh duh! It was just Yosh posing!

Kajfa: “Peekaboo! What’s up?”

And that was what time allowed us to do. We went home to Stockholm/Uppsala, equipped with our diplomas, the beautiful flowers and the best award you could ever receive. We will always remember this.

Thank you
We want to start by giving a BIG THANK YOU to all our wonderful fans and readers, you are THE BEST! Thank you so much for voting for us. We think a lot about you on those late nights when we work on Kick Off. Your encouraging and warming words give us the extra energy to work even harder. This is why we get this warm, fuzzy feeling in our stomachs, knowing that you also think about us and are there for us. We sincerely hope that we’ll continute to inspire each other! We look forward to seeing new, talented Swedish mangaka standing on the same stage as we did, receiving this wonderful price. Many hugs from us to you.

We also want to thank our publishers B. Wahlströms, for believing in us, and for giving us the opportunity to make Kick Off.

Furthermore, we want to thank our family and friends. It wouldn’t have been possible without your support.

And lastly, thank you Bokjuryn for the party and the nomination! Also, thank you Karin for helping us take pictures.

Thank you everyone! We will keep working hard and following our hearts.

We got more fanart from our wonderful fans and readers! Thank you all so much, you’re awesome! Naturally, we couldn’t help but wanting to share it with our blog readers. Click on the pictures to enlarge them (when possible). Kick Off 2 has gotten a couple of lovely reviews, which we’ve collected as links at the bottom of this entry. Check them out! Now, to the wonderful fan work!

Okay, we know, we know! This isn’t Kick Off fanart. But we thought it would be fun to put it up here anyway. Yokaj Studio at its best! Fia is the artist behind this fanart of us. Heehee. Aren’t we just so cute? To see more of Fia’s work, take a look at her DeviantArt page.

Valerei’s groovy spin of our character Anreas. Yummy! Check her DeviantArt page for more cool art!

A gift we got from Mel! She surprised with a picture of Jenny when the studio celebrated its 5th anniversary. Most of the folks in Sweden probably know Mel. She received a lot attention for her groovy entries in Mangatalangen (the Swedish equivalent to North America’s Rising Stars of Manga) and is also responsible for the mascot design of Ganzo for the Shojo Stars magazine. To see more of Mel, visit her website!

Rikkachan sent us her fanart of Meja and Chiko. So cute you’ll melt!

You just can’t get enough of Mel! This is how cool Meja and Chiko would’ve turned out if they were a part of Mel’s comics. Wow!

A hilarious Chiko, whom we met at PicaCon! Hm, we wonder why Chiko’s so full of rage… Well, only Traggey knows! Check out more of his art at his DeviantArt page.

Isa e-mailed us this picture of Andreas and Krille, which got us thinking for a bit here in the studio. (Translation: Krille: Hey Adde, isn’t it a bit ironic that your shirt says Life on it when you’re actually dead? Andreas: No comments…) Why has Krille never reacted to Andreas’ shirt? One of the big mysteries in the Kick Off universe indeed!

And lastly, we just couldn’t help but wanting to put up this Caramelldansen video which Traggey has dedicated to Jenny! Yay! Do pay a visit to Traggey’s Youtube channel and comment on his video.

Kick Off 2 reviews (in Swedish)
Kick Off! 2 av Yokaj Studio by Mangabibliotekarien (The Manga Librarian) Daniel Gustavsson
- librarian and writer for Arbetarbladet

Svensk manga om spöken, fotboll och kärlek
by Sara Larsson/Bulls Press
- Journalist on Bulls Press and NWT.se

Yokaj Studio: Kick Off! volym 2
by André Lindholm
- writer for Ikikata.se

More blog entries on fanart
Kick Off! fanart and reviews!
Kick Off! fanart part 2

Caramelldansen
Caramelldansen ‒ Kick Off! by Fia

Yesterday we visited a Swedish high school called IT-gymnasiet in Uppsala on a special mission. By this time of the year the students of last year has to do a big special project as part of their examination. We were invited to the school to act as guest judges of projects. During the day we were presented many creative and fun projects! While Kajfa was our representative judge, the rest of the studio was having a table sale as usual. At the end of the day Kajfa would choose and announce a project winner to receive a price for best graphical design.

This is what it looked like when DoraJen and Soya were displaying our table. Both teacheras and students showed interest and came by to say hello.

Later the students gathered in the lunch hallfor the award ceremony.

Kajfa on stage together with another guest judge, announcing the winners.

Some of the happy winners! Congratulations!

After the ceremony many of the students rushed home. But sume kept us company.

This is fantastic! Some students cruided around the corridors on waveboards PLAYING guitar. And it sounded nice too! School would be so much fun if it was more of this.

Summary
Visitng IT-gymnasiet made us want to study in high school again (just a little). The school, students and teachers were very nice and seemed to have a friendly relation to each other. We were also inspired by the creativity the students showed with their projects! We are very happy to having been invited and we hope both teachers and students appreciated our precense as well.

Thanks
to the school and our contact person Mathias for inviting us. We would also like to thank all the students who came by and talked to us!