VANCOUVER July 10, 2008 – There were many leaps forward announced today by the producers of the Elans – an awards show that has for the last two years honored video games and animation with big-name hosts such as William Shatner (1st year) and Seth MacFarlane (2nd year) – not the least of which being their addition of Visual Effects award categories to their next show taking place in Vancouver on Saturday, February 28, 2009.

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The Beat reports that winners of the 2007 Eagle Awards has been announced. The winner in the Manga Category is Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's Death Note.

Winners of the 32nd Kodansha Manga Award have been announced. Kodansha Manga Award is awarded annually to works published in the previous year by Kodansha. This year the winners are:

Children's manga category:
- Shugo Chara! (しゅごキャラ！) by PEACH-PIT [ Nakayoshi ]

Shounen manga category:
- Saikyo! Toritsu Aoizaka Koko Yakyubu (最強！ 都立あおい坂高校野球部) by Motoyuki Tanaka [ Weekly Shounen Sunday ]

Shoujo manga category:
- Kimi ni Todoke (君に届け) by Karuho Shiina [ Bessatsu Margaret ]

General manga category:
- Moyashimon (もやしもん) by Masayuki Ishikawa [ Evening ]

The winners of the 37th Japanese Cartoonists' Association Award (Nihon Mangaka Kyokai Awards) have been announced:

Grand Prize

- 20th Century Boys/21st Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa
- Hina-chan no Nichijo by Hiroko Minami

Award of Excellence

- Alfheim no Kishi by Seika Nakayama

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The winners of the 12th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Award (sponsored by Asahi Shimbun) have been announced:

Grand Prize:

• Moyashimon (Tales of Agriculture) by Masayuki Ishikawa

Shinsei (New Hope) Award:

• Träumerei by oranosuke Shimada

Short Manga Prize:

• Gou-Gou Datte Neko De Aru by Yumiko Oshima

Special Award:

• International Institute for Children's Literature

Source: Anime! Anime!

Voting for the first Anime Blog Awards is now closed, and the results of the nomination can be found on this page.

From Manly Manga and More... comes three manga-related news from Germany:

1. Tokyopop Germany has licensed four new manga (2 shounen and 2 shoujo): Love Trouble by Saki Hasemi & Kentaro Yabuki and Claymore by Norihiro Yagi, and Hell Girl by Miyuki Etoo and Nagatachou Strawberry by Mayu Sakai.

2. The result of Comic of the Year Award 2007, an award hosted by Comixene, Comics Info and comic.de, has been announced.

3. Heyne Manga has raised the price of several of their manga (such as Air Gear, Mamotte! Lollipop and Samurai Deeper Kyo), and that the publication of Gacha Gacha, Yagyu Ninpo Cho and Life has been put on hiatus indefinitely.

The nominees for the 2008 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards are up, and several manga can be found on the list:

Best Short Story
- Book by Yuichi Yokoyama
- Town of Evening Calm by Fumiyo Kouno

Best Continuing Series
- Naoki Urasawa's Monster by Naoki Urasawa

Best Publication for Kids
- Yotsuba&! by Kiyohiko Azuma

MangaBlog has the full list, and The Beat has a full report of the award.

U.S. manga publisher Viz Media has won 2 categories in this year's Diamond 2007 Gem Award: "Manga Publisher of the Year" and "Manga Trade Paperback of the Year" (for volume 14 of Naruto).

Source: Icarus Blog

ANN reports that the winner of the 2008 Manga Taisho (Manga Grand Prize) have been announced, and the winner is Gaku by Shinichi Ishitsuka:

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. The awards are also limited to works to published last year with eight or less volumes to promote relatively newer works.