The nominees for the 2012 Cartoon Grand Prize were announced on January 16th. Nominations were made by the selection committee, which is largely made up of bookstore staff who use their unique perspective to pick out the most outstanding works of the year. The competition bears similarities to the Honya Taisho, which began in 2004 and is also judged by bookstore workers. The Cartoon Grand Prize began in 2008, making this the fifth competition to date.
Past winners like "Chihayafuru" (by Yuki Suetsugu) and "Thermae Romae" (by Mari Yamazaki) have been adapted into TV anime, making the competition an authority of sorts on manga trends.

Out of the 216 submissions, 15 titles were chosen during the first selection round, and announced as the 2012 Cartoon Grand Prize nominees. This is the highest amount of nominees ever, with 13 titles being nominated last year.
Since eliminating all titles with the same amount of votes would decrease the nominees to less than ten titles, a decision was made to keep all of them in the running.

The nominated titles are as follows: "I am a hero" by Kengo Hanazawa, "Aku no Hana (Flower of Evil)" by Shuzo Oshimi, "Silver Spoon" by Hiromu Arakawa, "Gurazeni" by Yuji Moritaka and Keiji Adachi, "Getenro" by Masakazu Ishiguro, "Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso" by Naoshi Arakawa, "Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinchu" by Haruko Kumota, "Dai Tokyo Toy Box" by Ume, "The Takasugi family's obento" by Nozomi Yanahara, "Tonari no Seki-kun" by Takuma Morishige, "Drifters" by Kouta Hirano, "Vacation at 25 pm. Haruko Ichikawa's Collection II" by Haruko Ichikawa, "Nobunaga Concerto" by Ayumi Ishii, "Daily Rock" by Katsumasa Enokiya, and "Hoozuki no Reitetsu" by Natsumi Eguchi.

"Full Metal Alchemist" author, Hiromu Arakawa's latest series, "Silver Spoon", is viewed as one of the main contenders for the award, together with "I am a Hero" and "Drifters", which have been nominated in the past. The winner of the competition will be announced on March 23rd.
"Yushi Makari"

• Cartoon Grand Award
• http://www.mangataisho.com/