Thank you everybody for taking the time to submit nominations for these awards. It took some work to sort through all of them, but it was also a lot of fun to know that so many people took the time to contribute to a community-run event like this.
I thought I would take the opportunity to share the final nominees with you now that I have done the tally and have the final list put together. The final nominees are the ones that received the most nominations from you, the community. I capped the number of nominees in each category at 5. In cases where there were multiple nominees that were tied at the cutoff, then I did my best to act as a kind of jury to decide which were included and which didn’t make it.
Just a reminder that voting opens up next week. So start thinking about your votes now! We will be using STAR voting to determine winners. So, that means you will be able to give each nominee a score from 0-5 (giving the same score means no preference). For more on STAR voting, see wikipedia.
Without further ado, here are the nominees. Note that the order I list them within each category has been randomized.
2024 Manga of the Year
- RuriDragon
- The Demon King’s Daughter Is Too Kind!! / Maou no Musume wa Yasashi Sugiru!!
- Kagurabachi
- DAN DA DAN
- Love Bullet
Best Comedy
- The Gals Who Always Say Insane Things: My Daily Life at a Private Paranormal High School / Shiretto Sugee Koto Itteru Gal. - Shiritsu Paranomaru Koukou no Nichijou
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You
- The Eminence in Shadow / Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!
- Turns Out My Dick Was a Cute Girl / Ore no Kokan wa Bishoujo Datta no ka
- IseGure: After Constantly Being Used as a Foil for OP Isekai Protagonists, The Elite Knight Has Finally Had It / IseGure - Isekai Cheat Musou Ore TUEEE-kei Ikiri Tenseisha ni Kamaseinu ni sare Tsuzuketa Elite Kishi, Chou Gureru
Best Action
- Chained Soldier / Mato Seihei no Slave
- I Got a New Skill Every Time I Was Exiled, and After 100 Different Worlds, I Was Unmatched / Tsuihousareru Tabi ni Skill o Te ni Ireta Ore ga, 100 no Isekai de 2-shuume Musou
- Chainsaw Man
- Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint
- Kagurabachi
Best Fantasy
- Witch Hat Atelier
- Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End / Sousou no Frieren
- Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf! / Nihon e Youkoso Elf-san
- Speedrunner Cannot Return from the Game World / RTA Sousha wa Game Sekai kara Kaerenai
- Made in Abyss
Best Romance
- Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro! / Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You
- The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses / Suki na Ko ga Megane wo Wasureta
- The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity / Kaoru Hana wa Rin to Saku
- Journey Home After School / Houkago Kitaku Biyori
Best Slice of Life
- RuriDragon
- The Demon King’s Daughter Is Too Kind!! / Maou no Musume wa Yasashi Sugiru!!
- Gal Can’t Be Kind to Otaku!? / Otaku ni Yasashii Gal wa Inai!?
- SPY×FAMILY
- Tsumiki Ogami & the Strange Everyday Life / Ogami Tsumiki to Kinichijou
Best Drama
- Villains Are Destined to Die
- Love Bullet
- The Apothecary Diaries / Kusuriya no Hitorigoto
- Vinland Saga
- Tales Of Akane / Akane-banashi
Best Suspense
- Miyu-chan Will Always Be Your Friend / Miyu-chan wa Zutto Tomodachi
- Oshi no Ko
- The Summer Hikaru Died / Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu
- Mieruko-chan
- MAD
Best Artwork
- Mieruko-chan
- One Punch Man
- Akebi-chan’s Sailor Uniform / Akebi-chan no Sailor Fuku
- Fate/type Redline
- Witch Hat Atelier
Best Character
- Ruri Aoki from RuriDragon
- Frieren from Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End / Sousou no Frieren
- Cid Kagenou from The Eminence in Shadow / Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!
- Maomao from The Apothecary Diaries
- Urumin (Moegi Urushibara) from The Useless Idol and Her Only Fan in the World / Damedol to Sekai ni Hitori Dake no Fan
Best Duo: Romantic or Otherwise
- Nazuna Nanakusa & Kou Yamori from Call of the Night / Yofukashi no Uta
- Hakari Hanazono & Karane Inda from The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You
- Hayase Nagatoro & Naoto Hachiouji from Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro! / Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san
- Chinatsu Kano & Taiki Inomata from Blue Box / Ao no Hako
- Mirai Misato & Shouko Taira from The Gals Who Always Say Insane Things: My Daily Life at a Private Paranormal High School / Shiretto Sugee Koto Itteru Gal. - Shiritsu Paranomaru Koukou no Nichijou
Did not expect my Best Artwork nominee to be here (Fate/Type Redline), since I’ve never seen anyone else talk about it. Same with Best Drama (Villains Are Destined To Die).
This must’ve been quite the list to sort through, considering the sheer amount of manga available. At least with anime, they’re divided up in seasons and so doesn’t really build up outside of that year, but with manga they keep publishing for years and so it builds up. Were the nominee counts spread thin and you had to do a toss up or were most of them pretty clear cut?
Nominee counts were a lot more spread thin for manga. Several categories had 3-4 that were clearly in front and then a long tail of nominations. I sometimes filled out the nominees with my own pick as a bit of a juror’s prerogative (I didn’t formally fill out the nomination form), or I would try my best to judge the nominees. Things I took into consideration were series that are posted/talked about in this community, mangadex ratings, MAL reviews, and reading the first couple chapters of a ton of manga/manhwa to make the final calls. Specifically for the art category, instead of reading the first couple chapters, I picked several random chapters.
On the one hand, I am exhausted, but on the other hand, I have so many interesting series to get caught up on now. Part of me hopes that people seeing these nominated series that aren’t posted about regularly in the community will motivate them to create posts since there is at least some audience out there that is also reading them. For instance, your nominations of Fate/type Redline and Villains Are Destined to Die were not isolated (not necessarily the same category), so somebody out there is also reading them.
Yeah I can imagine. Thanks for the hard work!
Seems like it! Villains Are Destined To Die would be hard for me to post about since I follow the volume releases, but I could consider doing so Fate/Type Redline (though I’m pretty slow on catching up on those chapters)