Hiromu Arakawa's "Silver Spoon" Wins 2012's "Manga Taisho" Award

03.27.2012 15:33

This year’s "Manga Taisho" (Cartoon Grand Prize) results were announced at a ceremony in Tokyo on the 23rd of March. Hiromu Arakawa’s "Silver Spoon", which is serialized in Shogakukan's "Weekly Shonen Sunday", took the prize. The runners-up include Ume's "Giga Tokyo Toy Box" and Ayumi Ishii’'s "Nobunaga Concerto".

The "Manga Taisho" Award is a yearly event held by a special committee formed by the managers of bookstores’ manga sectors. The idea is that these prizes are to be given to newer, less popular titles that haven’t been established as much on the market as Bleach, Naruto or One Piece.

The selection procedure is divided into 2 steps. In the first step, items that have eight or fewer volumes published in the previous year are selected. In the second step, the selection committee reads all finalists and is tasked with ranking their top three. Points were awarded based on these decisions (3 for 1st, 2 for 2nd, and 1 for 3rd).

Shinichi Ishizuka won the first ever "Manga Taisho" for his “Gaku - Minna no Yama” work in 2008, and Yuki Suetsugu, Mari Yamazaki and Chica Umino won the next awards for their “Chihayafuru”, “Thermae Romae” and “3 Gatsu no Lion”, respectively.

Manga Taisho 2012 Final Results:

“Silver Spoon” by Hiromu Arakawa (76 points)

“Giga Tokyo Toy Box” by Ume (61 points)

“Nobunaga Concerto” by Ayumi Ishii (57 points)

“Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu” by (49 points)

“25-ji no Bakansu” by Haruko Ichikawa (46 points)

“Drifters” by Kouta Hirano (43 points)

“Gurazeni” by Yuji Moritaka and Keiji Adachi (41 points)

“I Am a Hero” by Kengo Hanazawa (40 points) 

“Getenrou” by Masakazu Ishiguro (37 points)

“Takasugi-san-chi no O-Bentou” by Nozomi Yanahara (37 points)

“Hibi Rock” by Katsumasa Enokiya (32 points)

“Flowers of Evil” by Shuzo Oshimi (28 points)

“Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso” by Naoshi Arakawa (27 points)

“Hoozuki no Reitetsu” by Natsumi Eguchi (24 points)

“Tonari no Seki-kun” by Takuma Morishige (12 points)