11th
Award-winning WorksAnimation Division

From home and abroad, beyond the barrier of professionals and amateurs, or commercial work or independents, we received some 295 entries in short animation of all different genres including two-dimensional, stereoscopic, 3DCG, etc. The number of entries is increasing year by year with expanding possibilities of production environment. Plus I feel the quality is also improving. The 21 pieces of works which we chose after an agonizing effort from 295 entries are all outstanding in their respective originality. Since the contest was highly competitive, just two pieces of work were selected from short animation. However, I would like to note that AFTER SCHOOL MIDNIGHT, The Dandelion Sister, houkagoemerarudo, Mr. Cloud and Mr. Rain, and THE CLOCKWORK CITY were the works which made the screening process exciting up to the last moment of determining the award-winning works.

Although not all broadcast works were entered, the number of TV series animations was a fresh surprise to me. Basically two project types were dominant: "based on popular manga" and to a greater extent, perhaps because it is currently a trend, "based on Akihabara-tic media." This is not to lament that "there were few original works." There is no connection between good or bad and original or non-original. However, all three award-winning works happened to be original works. All of them are filled with their creators' passion with which they wanted to create and wanted to show such animations and made us imagine that they must be "pet projects." It was a pleasure for me to be a part of the screening session of such works. My only concern is that young field staff must have known "Akihabara-tic media" like the palm of their hands. Despite this, "something new of heterogeneity fusion" was not shown by the group of these works. It is kind of a waste to discard it as, "thought as much." Or has the Jury's sense become dense or old? On this point, I would like to observe the next entries and from then onward.

Evaluation of a visual work is influenced greatly by a viewer's knowledge, tastes, feelings, and other elements. However, in this annual Japan Media Arts Festival, even though it depends on that year's selection of jury members, I believe the right works are chosen from numerous genres every year. As for commercial works, tremendous resources are thrown into them so there is a chance to be a big hit with new hooks and visibility, but in this festival, contents of the work and its quality are given greater weight. Again this year, the screening was implemented taking various aspects, including artistic quality, entertainment value, novelty of content, enthusiasm of the author, potential, etc., into consideration. Judges had different points of view but I am sure we achieved good results. I would be happy if those who objected to our decisions and who did not have the chance to watch the works could watch the award-winning works one more time based on the results.