Industry leaders at TIFFCOM, the market for the Tokyo International Film Festival, said the new Japanese anime award planned for 2027 should highlight the people who make anime.
The session was moderated by Fujitsu Ryota, programming consultant of the festival’s animation department. Shimizu Akira, director of the Japan Animation Association (AJA), is the president and representative director of A-1 Pictures. He was joined by Saito Yuichiro, president of Studio Chizu, producer of “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time,” “Summer Wars” and “Wolf Children,” and Saito Masaya, chief executive of Toho’s animation department and planning group leader.
The name and outline of the award will be announced at the closing event of the Tokyo Anime Next festival, which organizes the session, on November 2. Tokyo Anime Next, co-hosted by AJA and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, will be held from October 30 to November 1. 2 in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district with various events at TIFFCOM.
A 2027 launch date has not yet been confirmed, and panelists emphasized that their views are not the award’s official views.
When asked about the timing of the launch, Shimizu said, “Creators should be highlighted and brought into the spotlight.”
Saito Masaya said that Toho helped work on the award concept and agreed that creators should be featured. He added that the award could give fans a more direct connection to the people behind the anime’s global popularity. He said the company wants to “help anime fans gain a broader reach and give them a broader perspective,” bringing them closer to different creative styles and approaches.
Saito Yuichiro, a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said the award is just one part of what the Academy does. “There are many different lines of business beyond the award,” he said. “The Academy Award in the United States is a domestic award, but now it has a global membership. They also provide education and try to create some sort of succession plan for the industry. That kind of philosophy is the backbone of the award.”
Ideally, financial support and education would also be among the building blocks of the new award, panelists said.
Saito Masaya said he hopes the award “can contribute to changing the way viewers enjoy anime.” He added that he wants fans to “notice a certain aspect and ask who is behind it.”
Shimizu said the need to show the value of Japanese animation was “one of the key statements”. “Japanese anime has a very unique workflow and processes, so who does what, who evaluates what, who presents them, and how they are embraced and valued by the audience,” he said.
The panel stated that some awards have already been deemed worthy of this uniqueness. In its 54th edition, the Annie Awards added best international anime production to the TV/media category.
“Japanese anime is an independent category,” Shimizu said, adding: “anime is different from Disney, different from Pixar.”
He said the new award should reflect these differences by highlighting the creators who work on every part of an anime production. “For the average person, the beauty of anime cannot be clearly expressed in words,” he said.
Saito Yuichiro said that the world has two important trends. “The first is the European Art History and the American-centered worldwide large-scale movements that emerged from that deep-rooted history and value system. The world consists of these two systems,” he said.
He asked whether Asia could create its own equivalent “aesthetic and value system” and whether an awards body could help bring an Asian voice to a system he felt was dominated by Europe and the United States.
“Borderlessness is very important, I hope that with these awards the boundaries between these parts of the world will be blurred,” he said.