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Yuki Suetsugu's Chihayafuru Wins 2nd Manga Taisho Award

Artist Yuki Suetsugu received this year's Manga Taisho (Cartoon Grand Prize) for her Chihayafuru work in a March 24 ceremony in Tokyo. The manga follows a girl named Chihaya as she enters the competitive world of Japanese card-playing (karuta), thanks to Arata, a taciturn transfer student. The story begins when Arata enters Chihaya's sixth-grade class and continues through high school. The manga has been running in Kodansha's Be Love magazine since last year, and the fourth compiled volume ships this month.

Unlike many other manga prizes which are chosen by the editors of the manga publishers themselves, the Manga Taisho nominating committee is dominated by the bookstore staffers who are in charge of their respective stores' manga sections. The awards are also limited to works published last year with eight or less volumes to promote relatively newer works. The committee nominated 10 works this year.

Last year, Shinichi Ishizuka won the first ever Manga Taisho for his Gaku - Minna no Yama work, and he appeared at Tuesday's ceremony to present Suetsugu's award. Suetsugu drew the picture to the left to offer her thanks for the award. Tokyopop published Suetsugu's Flower of Eden manga until 2005, when a controversy forced the title's cancellation in Japan and North America.

Manga Taisho 2009 Final Results

Chihayafuru
Yuki Suetsugu
102 points


Uchū Kyōdai
Chūya Koyama
94 points

March comes in like a lion
Chika Umino
65 points

Shinya Shokudō
Yarō Abe
47 points

Seishun Shōnen Magazine 1978–1983
Makoto Kobayashi
46 points

Saint Young Men
Hikaru Nakamura
45 points

Tomehane! Suzuri Kōkō Shodōbu
Katsutoshi Kawai
43 points

Mama ha Tenparist
Akiko Higashimura
36 points

Toriko
Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro
25 points

Yondemasuyo, Azazel-san.
Yasuhisa Kubo
15 points


Source: Comic Natalie