Japanese publisher Kodansha announced the 12 nominees in three categories for its 44th annual Manga Awards on Thursday. Kodansha will announce the winner for each category on May 12.

Best Shōnen Manga

SPY×FAMILY

Tatsuya Endō

Magazine: Weekly Shonen Jump (Shueisha)

Summary: The master spy codenamed has spent his days on undercover missions, all for the dream of a better world. But one day, he receives a particularly difficult new order from command. For his mission, he must form a temporary family and start a new life?! A Spy/Action/Comedy about a one-of-a-kind family! (Via Shueisha)



That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime ( Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken )

Taiki Kawakami

Magazine: Shonen Sirius (Kodansha)

Summary: As players of Monster Hunter and Dungeons & Dragons know, the slime is not exactly the king of the fantasy monsters. So when a 37-year-old Tokyo salaryman dies and wakes up in a world of dragons and magic, he's a little disappointed to find he's become a blind, boneless slime monster. Mikami's middle age hasn't gone as he planned: He never found a girlfriend, he got stuck in a dead-end job, and he was abruptly stabbed to death in the street at 37. So when he wakes up in a new world straight out of a fantasy RPG, he's disappointed but not exactly surprised to find that he's not a knight or a wizard but a blind slime demon. But there are chances for even a slime to become a hero… (Via Kodansha Comics)



Tokyo Revengers

Ken Wakui

Magazine: Weekly Shōnen Magazine (Kodansha)

Summary: Watching the news, Takemichi Hanagaki learns that his girlfriend from way back in middle school, Hinata Tachibana, has died. The only girlfriend he ever had was just killed by a villainous group known as the Tokyo Manji Gang. He lives in a crappy apartment with thin walls, and his six-years-younger boss treats him like an idiot. Plus, he's a complete and total virgin … At the height of his rock-bottom life, he suddenly time-leaps twelve years back to his middle school days!! To save Hinata, and change the life he spent running away, hopeless part-timer Takemichi must aim for the top of Kanto's most sinister delinquent gang!! (Via Kodansha Comics)



Smile Down the Runway ( Runway de Waratte )

Kotoba Inoya

Magazine: Weekly Shōnen Magazine (Kodansha)

Summary: Chiyuki Fujito has a dream: to become a Paris Collection model. The problem is, she's too short to be a model, and everyone around her tells her so! But no matter what they say, she won't give up. Her classmate, a poor student named Ikuto Tsumura, also has a dream: to become a fashion designer. One day Chiyuki tells him that it's “”probably impossible”” for him, causing him to consider giving it up … ?! This is the story of two individuals wholeheartedly chasing after their dreams in spite of all the negativity that comes after them! (Via Kodansha Comics)



Best Shōjo Manga

Kageki Shōjo!!

Melody

(Theater Girls!!)Kumiko SaikiMagazine:(Hakusensha)Summary: The manga is set during Japan's Taisho period, and centers on the music school students and aspiring stage actors of the Kōge Theater Troupe, which consists only of unmarried women.

Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight ( Gozen 0-ji, Kiss Shi ni Kite yo )

Rin Mikimoto

Magazine: Bessatsu Friend (Kodansha)

Summary: At school, Hinana is an honors student, respected by all her classmates. She's totally above things as juvenile as crushes and dating. Secretly, though, she has but one wish: To have a fairy-tale romance. One day, a super-hot celebrity named Kaede shows up at Hinana's high school to shoot a movie, and it becomes difficult to keep up her act. By pure chance—or y'know, fate!—Kaede reveals his own ridiculous personality to Hinana, and her ordinary life turns breathtakingly romantic! Or just really, really … weird?! (Via Kodansha Comics)



A Condition Called Love ( Hananoi-kun to Koi no Yamai )

Megumi Morino

Magazine: Dessert (Kodansha)

Summary: Hotaru is a 16-year-old high school first-year who has always been ambivalent about love, preferring instead to have a lively life with her family and friends. So when she sees her schoolmate, Hananoi-kun, sitting in the snow after a messy, public breakup, she thinks nothing of offering to share her umbrella. But when he asks her out in the middle of her classroom the next day, she can't help but feel that her life is about to change in a big way … (Via Kodansha Comics)



Our Precious Conversations (Boku to Kimi no Taisetsu na Hanashi)

Robico

Magazine: Dessert (Kodansha)

Summary: Nozomi Aizawa has has kept her feelings for her schoolmate Azuma-kun a secret for quite a while, but the time has come for her to finally confess. His response, though, is far from ordinary! Led in circles by his hilarious tangents, these two awkward teenagers find themselves growing ever closer while muddling through misunderstandings and off-topic rants. When the airheaded stalker Aizawa-san finally connects with the petulant know-it-all Azuma-kun, the result is a romantic comedy worth talking about! (Via Kodansha Comics)







Best General Manga

Skip to Loafer (Skip and Loafer)

Misaki Takamatsu

Magazine: Afternoon (Kodansha)

Summary: The manga centers on Mitsumi Iwakura, a girl who studies hard and leaves her sleepy town to go to a high-performance school in Tokyo. However, because there are so few people in her hometown, she has little experience of talking to people her age, which has left her slightly airheaded and awkward. But it is exactly her straightforward personality that helps bring a little happiness to the lives of her classmates.



Witch Hat Atelier (Tongari Bōshi no Atelier)

Kamome Shirahama

Magazine: Morning two (Kodansha)

Summary: In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple dream: she wants to be a witch. But everybody knows magicians are born, not made, and Coco was not born with a gift for magic. Resigned to her un-magical life, Coco is about to give up on her dream to become a witch … until the day she meets Qifrey, a mysterious, traveling magician. After secretly seeing Qifrey perform magic in a way she's never seen before, Coco soon learns what everybody “knows” might not be the truth, and discovers that her magical dream may not be as far away as it may seem … (Via Kodansha Comics)



The Blue Period.

Tsubasa Yamaguchi

Magazine: Afternoon (Kodansha)

Summary: The story centers on Yatora Yaguchi, who feels hollow and impatient despite his excellent grades and place on top of the school student caste. But when he sees a picture that captures his heart one day, he throws himself into the beautiful yet harsh world of art. With his wealth of knowledge, he plans to enter art school.



Mystery to Iu Nakare ( Do not say mystery )

Yumi Tamura

Magazine: Monthly Flowers (Shogakukan)

Summary: The manga follows mystery-solving college student Totonō Kunō. At the beginning of the story, the police bring him in for questioning on suspicion of the murder of his classmate.



In past years, Kodansha gave out a "Best Children's Manga" award as well, but starting in 2015 Kodansha has integrated the nominees for that category into the Best Shōnen Manga and Best Shōjo Manga categories instead.

Last year, Negi Haruba's The Quintessential Quintuplets and Yoshitoki Ōima's To Your Eternity both won the Best Shonan Manga award. Rie Aruga's Perfect World won the Best Shōjo Manga award. Fumi Yoshinaga's What Did You Eat Yesterday? won the Best General Manga award.

Source: Press release