Thank-you-illustration from Mitsuharu Yanamoto
The winners of the Manga Taisho Awards 2017 were announced at an award ceremony on 28 March 2017 at Nippon Broadcast System Imagine Studio. The winner this year is Mitsuharu Yanamoto’s Hibiki: Shousetsuka ni Naru Houhou.
The heroine of the story is 15-year-old genius Hibiki Akui. With true literary talent, she joins the literature club at a school that is the hangout for delinquents. The story is about her journey to become an author. The manga is being serialized in Shogakukan’s Big Comic Superior and so far 5 volumes have been released.
The Manga Taisho Awards 2017 choose from series which were released in 2016 and are so far shorter than 8 volumes in length. A selection committee reads all the nominated works and ranks their top 3 manga. The series with the most points received the award. This year, thirteen titles were nominated. You can find the full list in the complete ranking below.
This will be the 10th year of the awards, which have stuck to their initial concept of awarding a manga that ‘one would want to recommend their friends’. The Manga Taisho Award winners in previous years were:
2008 Shinichi Ishizuka with Gaku: Minna no Yama
2009 Yuki Suetsugu with Chihayafuru
2010 Mari Yamazaki with Thermae Romae
2011 Chika Umino with 3 Gatsu no Lion (March Comes in Like a Lion)
2012 Hiromu Arakawa with Gin no Saji Silver Spoon (Silver Spoon)
2013 Akimi Yoshida with Umimachi Diary
2014 Kaoru Mori with Otoyomegatari (A Bride’s Story)
2015 Akiko Higashimura with Kakukaku Shikajika
2016 Satoru Noda with Golden Kamuy
Mitsuharu Yanamoto with Hibiki: Shousetsuka ni Naru Houhou（67pt）
2位 Nao Iwamoto with Kin no Kuni Mizu no Kuni（64pt）
3位 Ryoko Kui with Dungeon Meshi (Delicious in Dungeon)（63pt）
4位 Yugo Kobayashi/Naohiko Ueno with Aoashi（60pt）
5位 Hiroaki Samura with Nami yo Kiite Kure（48pt）
6位 Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu with Yakusoku no Neverland（43pt）
7位 Seita Horio with Golden Gold (42pt）
8位 Tatsuki Fujimoto with Fire Punch（37pt）
9位 Rensuke Oshikiri with High Score Girl（33pt）
10位 Soichiro Yamamoto with Karai Jouzu no Takagi-san（30pt）
11位 Hitomi Takano with Watashi no Shonen（20pt）
12位 Akiko Higashimura with Tokyo Tarareba Musume（18pt）
13位 Taku Kuwabara with Kutei Dragons（9pt）
The first season of the new year is just one month away from its finale. It was a great start with many amazing titles that made these past months worth the extra hours we put in front of our sets. Now, it is time for the cold wind to give way to the pink hues of the sakura tree and for the Winter 2018 season to give the anime baton to Spring 2018.
