Modern Evaluation of Works Shared in Real Time

The 25th Award-winning Works showed remarkable diversity and balance befitting the title of “Media Arts.”
The judging process was truly fulfilling for me as well,
having opportunities to see so many international and
diverse animation expressions.
The Grand Prize winner, The Fourth Wall, is a beautifully perfected work that makes viewers “experience”
“something interesting even though how it’s made is
a total mystery.” As I mentioned earlier, entries had a
wider variation and more variety in the ways of expression, but most of the top-prize winners had one thing in
common: the creators’ attention is directed toward the
viewers, instead of showing off their drawing or technical skills.
Meanwhile, I also found some issues in the course of
the judging process. One such issue is the dilemma of
evaluating only the submitted movie versions of works,
such as Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie:
Mugen Train and Revue Starlight The Movie. These
works originally started as manga or TV series, and
every context to create the movie version artfully led
to moving people and becoming a great hit. From the
standpoint of publicity for having a box office record, I
wondered if the Social Impact Award (newly established
the year before last) might be more appropriate. But PUI
PUI MOLCAR, which went viral on its own without any
context and is still fresh in people’s memories, got an
advantage in this respect.
The above-mentioned works such as Demon Slayer
-Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train surely provide excellent viewing experience to fans, so the result
might have been different if it was possible for all jury
members to have the real-time experience of all the
steps from the beginning of the original work to the release of the movie, and if such an experience could be
included in the scope of the judgment. In this modern
age where real-time sharing is highly appreciated, one
of the challenges for various competitions will be the
pursuit of an evaluation system that goes with the
movement happening at the moment.