Unlike the Shogakukan Award, the newer Manga Taisho Award is aimed towards shedding light on new works in the manga industry. This year, 11 manga’s were nominated by a committee of bookstore staffers with a criteria of manga titles having to have less than eight volumes released and released within 2012. This years possible winners are Assassination Classroom, Umimachi Diary, The Bride’s Stories, Sanzoku Diary, Ore Monogatari!!, Terra Formars, Hi Score Girl, Ballroom e Yōkoso, Ningen Karimen-chū, Bokura no Funka-sai, and Seven Little Sons of the Dragon.
A winner will be announced late March with an awards ceremony. Previous winning titles include Silver Spoon, Gaku – Minna no Yama, Chihayafuru, Thermae Romae, and March Comes in Like a Lion. For more information, check out ANN.
