News

Mari Yamazaki's Thermae Romae Wins Manga Taisho Award (Updated)

Artist Mari Yamazaki received this year's Manga Taisho (Cartoon Grand Prize) for her Thermae Romae work in a Wednesday ceremony in Tokyo. The gag manga deals with the two cultures in the world "that have loved baths the most: the Japanese and the Romans!" The manga has been running Enterbrain's Monthly Comic Beam magazine since 2008, and the first compiled book volume shipped in November.

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.

Shinichi Ishizuka won the first ever Manga Taisho for his Gaku - Minna no Yama work in 2008, and he appeared at the awards ceremony for the third year in a row. Yamazaki drew the picture to the left to offer her thanks for the award. The artist has been living in Lisbon, Portugal, so she had to appear live via the Skype video communications software. Her magazine's editor-in-chief, Katsuhiko Okumura, accepted the award on her behalf.

Manga Taisho 2010 Final Results

Thermae Romae
Mari Yamazaki
94 points


Uchū Kyōdai
Chūya Koyama
89 points


Bakuman.
Tsugumi Ohba, Takeshi Obata
60 points


I am a Hero
Kengo Hanazawa
55 points


Otoko no Isshō
Keiko Nishi
48 points


Mushi to Uta: Ichikawa Haruko Sakuhin-Shū
Haruko Ichikawa
47 points


Kuragehime
Akiko Higashimura
46 points


Moteki
Mitsurou Kubo
44 points


Kōkō Kyūji Zawa-san
Eriko Mishima
25 points


Aoi Honōo
Kazuhiko Shimamoto
23 points



Source: Comic Natalie

Update: Corrected the country of Lisbon. Thanks, il capitano.