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12 Titles Nominated for 1st Ever Manga Taisho Awards (Updated)
posted on by Egan Loo
12 works have been nominated for the first ever Manga Taisho awards in Japan on January 21. (The official English name of the awards is the "Cartoon Grand Prize.") The nominating committee is composed mainly of bookstore staffers who are in charge of their respective stores' manga. Any manga title that was released in 2007 and has eight volumes or less was eligible. The volume cap is intentionally added so that the prize winners would be relatively new works that have not already earned their popularity through sheer longevity.
The nominating committee members each chose five works during the first 18 days of 2008, and the top 10 vote-getters were officially nominated. Since several titles had the same number of nominating votes, this years' pool of nominees expanded to 12 titles. The second round of voting will determine the three winners of Manga Taisho 2008. The awards ceremony will be held at the end of March.
Manga Taisho 2008 Nominees
 Umimachi Diary 1: Semishigure no Yamugoro Akimi Yoshida |
 Ohoku Fumi Yoshinaga |
 Gaku Shinichi Ishizuka |
 Kinō Nani Tabeta? Fumi Yoshinaga |
 Kimi ni Todoke Karuho Shiina |
 Imperial Guards Daisuke Satō, Yū Itō |
 Tomehane! Suzuri Kōkō Shodōbu Katsutoshi Kawai |
 Natsume Yūjin-Chō Yuki Midorikawa |
 Himawari—Kenichi Legend Akiko Higashimura |
 Flower of Life Fumi Yoshinaga (Released in North America by Digital Manga Publishing) |
 Moyashimon [Tales of Agriculture] Masayuki Ishikawa |
 Yotsuba&! Kiyohiko Azuma (Released in North America by ADV Manga) |
Source: animeanime.jp
Update: Removed Juné Manga from Flower of Life's description. Thanks, yuu-chan.
