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Animal Land, Ore Monogatari!! Win 37th Kodansha Manga Awards

The Japanese publisher Kodansha announced the results of its 37th Annual Manga Awards on Wednesday.

Best Children's Manga

Makoto Raiku
Dōbutsu no Kuni (Animal Land)
Serialized in Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine (Kodansha)
The series, which Kodansha Comics is publishing in North America, takes place in a world with no humans that abides by the law of the jungle. The tanuki Monoko suddenly stumbles across a human baby and decides to raise it as her own.

Best Shōnen Manga

Naoshi Arakawa
Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso (April is Your Lie)
Serialized in Monthly Shonen Magazine (Kodansha)
The youth story revolves around a male middle school student who is also a genius pianist with rare ability, and a female violinist. Together the two help each other to cultivate each other's talents.

Best Shōjo Manga

Story: Kazune Kawahara
Art: Aruko
Ore Monogatari!!
Serialized in Betsuma (Shueisha)
The romantic comedy manga revolves around the love triangle between the unattractive and stern-faced Takeo Gouda, his cool and attractive childhood friend Sunagawa, and the pure Yamato, whose specialty is making sweets.

Best General Manga

Story: Yūji Moritaka
Art: Keiji Adachi
Gurazeni
Serialized in Morning (Kodansha)
The sports manga focuses on a baseball team that operates as a highly-stratified society and where the player's performance determines his annual salary. The story follows an eight-year relief pitcher with an odd left-handed side-arm throw as he fights to survive under the team's strict system.
Akira Hiramoto
Kangoku Gakuen (Prison School)
Serialized in Young Magazine (Kodansha)
The comedy manga takes place at a prestigious all-girls high school with a student body of 1,000. The school decides to allow boys to attend, and five boys enter the school dreaming of a harem life, but end up instead forced to live almost as prisoners within the school.

The winners will be honored in a ceremony on July 2 at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. Each winner will receive 1 million yen (about US$10,100). Yuma Ando (Psychometrer), Miwa Ueda (Peach Girl), Tohru Fujisawa (GTO), Kousuke Fujishima (Oh My Goddess!), Takeshi Maekawa (Ironfist Chinmi), Akemi Matsunae (Renai Naika 25 Ji), and Norifusa Mita (Dragon Zakura) formed the seven-member judging committee.

Watashi ni xx Shinasai!, Mashiro no Oto, Un chocolatier de l'amour perdu, and Vinland Saga won last year's awards.

[Via Niigata Nippo, Comic Natalie]