25th
Award-winning WorksEntertainment Division

I have been a member of the jury for the Entertainment
Division since the 23rd Japan Media Arts Festival,
and I was honored to be the Head of the Jury in
this third year. Ever since the COVID-19 outbreak
in 2020, we have been living with the ever-mutating
novel coronavirus.
The Spanish flu pandemic took place 100 years ago.
Although COVID-19 vaccines have been implemented
at remarkable speed, our globalized world with information technology is confused in a different manner
than 100 years ago. Last year, I felt encouraged that the
number of entries increased precisely because of this
situation. Nevertheless, this year’s entries totaled 3,537,
a decrease from last year’s 3,693.
The Entertainment Division had a total of 489 entries,
compared to 626 last time. Every category showed a
decrease: from 130 to 79 in the game category, from
287 to 247 in the video / sound work category, from 69
to 60 in the multimedia production category, from 90 to
61 in the product category, and from 50 to 42 in the web
site / application category. This is particularly prominent in categories that require collaborative production.
Sharing tasks is possible remotely, but my routine game
production makes me keenly aware of the significance
and importance of sharing the same mindset and working cooperatively in a physical space.
However, this situation in turn has brought about
more opportunities to encounter a wide range of works,
from past masterpieces to current popular works, as
well as many independent works. At the same time, the
value of realistic live entertainment is being rediscovered and much sought-after. Staying home also led to
an expansion of the player base of games, which is my
field of expertise, from single-player games to games
for enjoying communicating with others. Regardless of
the situation, or rather, because of the situation, people
yearn for “a trip to a different world.” This is perhaps the
essence of entertainment.
The Excellence Award winner, Cyberpunk 2077, is
a cutting-edge work, realistically depicting the expansion and enhancement of physical ability through 3D
technology. There are two major pioneer role-playing
games: Ultima (1981), which portrays the world from an
overhead view, and Wizardry (1981), a first-person RPG
that emphasizes adventure. The mainstream in Japan
is third-person RPGs that combine these characteristics. Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, first-person
RPG—an orthodox evolution from Western ones. With
technology and inequality at its core, it indeed presents
the trend of the current time.
The Grand Prize winner was Naoki Urasawa presents
Manben neo -Yoshikazu Yasuhiko-. This documentary
TV program covers manga artists at their work sites
closely, focusing on their techniques. This episode featuring YASUHIKO Yoshikazu totally astonished me with
his spectacular drawing techniques. For my generation
who grew up with manga and animation, his techniques
and expressions acquired through his long creative career appeared to be a modern version of KATSUSHIKA
Hokusai, who was a Japanese artist and ukiyo-e painter
and printmaker of the Edo period. Here, I mentioned
two types of entertainment, digital and analog. As time
goes by, new technologies prompt platform and industry development and nurture creators. The Japan Media
Arts Festival is also seeing an increasingly greater number of entries that transcend categories in each division,
blurring the boundaries in a positive sense.
The breath of new-age cross-genre entertainment
works can be found worldwide. At the same time, conceptual works that return to the origins of genres will be
refined as well. Globalization and information technology have made our world more standardized. Amid the
pandemic, people seem to be exploring the importance
of looking back at the past, and securing a firm foothold
in their country, region, and identity.
History has been made in this way and people recollected it, corrected their course, and nurtured culture.
I believe that creators from around the world will continue to produce diverse works and generate many
cultural waves.

My impression of the last year was that there were
many entries with a quick response to the COVID-19
pandemic. For the Entertainment Division judging this
year, my personal focus was on finding trends different from the previous year. Interestingly, the entries that
placed a particular focus on the pandemic were not
highly rated as expected. The pandemic has become
a new normal, and we started to ask what can be done
with the premise.
In terms of “normal,” works such as Giant 3D Cat,
viewers:1, and HATACHI NO HANA, indicate that a
society on social media has also become our normal,
forming a (legitimate) environment around the works. I
am looking forward to seeing the future development of
works that go beyond cheap populism (e.g., “going viral”) and that are connected with information platforms,
just like Project Guideline, for example.
What kind of experience should be offered by a
work, while keeping technology as a premise? Looking back based on this question, I think there is a
common approach among Cyberpunk 2077, Dislocation, YAKUSHIMA TREASURE ANOTHER LIVE from
YAKUSHIMA, and the Grand Prize winner, Naoki
Urasawa presents Manben neo -Yoshikazu Yasuhiko-.
What they offer is an increase in the number of perspectives, or a departure from the idea of perspective.
Virtually numerous cameras can be used, and the
visual experience can be multilateral. That said, we already knew that such a group of works is technically
possible. Nevertheless, the question is what to present? It appears to me that this year’s highly rated works
are those that refine the idea and direction, have been
matured, and brought to fruition with an ideology.
Personally, I remember there were bountiful entries
in the game category last year, with many attractive
works from Japan and abroad. I expect to see more and
more coming up with amazing user experiences in the
future of this field.

Unlike last year, when the theme was the lifestyle
transformation amid the COVID-19 pandemic, I was
impressed that this year’s entries showed a glimpse of
determination (almost an obsession) to “create something interesting by all possible means,” even though we
live in a world where the pandemic-related abnormalities
have become the norm. Through the judging process, I
have become convinced that creativity is about struggling; projects driven by hardship indeed appeal to many
people. The Grand Prize winner, Naoki Urasawa presents Manben neo -Yoshikazu Yasuhiko-, is a long-lived
program. I think the award is attributed to the incredible
episode with the genius YASUHIKO Yoshikazu, which
shed light anew on the purpose and the excellence of
the program. Shooting in small spaces is typical low-key
production in the time of the pandemic, yet this program
demonstrates overwhelming creativity, proving a great
potential for future TV programs. I think the Grand Prize
is indeed the fruit of an obsession to “create something
interesting by all possible means.”
I hope many people see other works, including
cutting-edge creative works such as Giant 3D Cat
and YAKUSHIMA TREASURE ANOTHER LIVE from
YAKUSHIMA; INDUSTRIAL JP ASMR with an overpoweringly beautiful output consisting of sound collected
from factories throughout Japan; and viewers:1 with a
simple storyline but surprising development and careful
artwork. Personally, I was more fascinated by and saw
future potential in projects that struggle to find a cloud’s
silver lining, rather than those depending on new technologies and devices. In this regard, the talent of the
13-year-old creator of VR Sandbox is dazzling, and I
am excited about his future. No matter what the world
may look like, I truly hope for the future that we will see
epoch-making works derived from the obsession to
“create something interesting by all possible means.”

This year, there seemed to be fewer real-time webcast
and game entries than last year, possibly because people are more settled down about staying indoors. For
the judging process this time, the jury were able to examine each candidate more carefully since the entries
were already narrowed down.
During my two years of judging, a question has been
troubling me: am I qualified to judge a wide variety of
genres? The best practice when a qualified person is
unavailable would be “evaluation by a team of various
experts,” and in fact this is how the entries are judged.
However, there is another hardship: how far do I push
my own opinion in such a situation?
I remember the Grand Prize winner, Naoki Urasawa
presents Manben neo -Yoshikazu Yasuhiko-, was chosen with unanimity. I watched the broadcast and was
amazed by his unfaltering brush strokes reflecting his
accumulated life experiences, and was encouraged by
his energetic creative efforts at his age. This TV program documents and conveys the techniques and work
of various manga artists. I personally hope that this extremely important program will continue in the future.
I will skip discussion of Dislocation, a video work
about refugees and immigrants, and Project Guideline,
a product for supporting visually impaired runners,
since I already wrote the Reason for Award elsewhere.
Here I would like to note my recent desire to personally
hold discussions with many people when judging and
producing works.
If propaganda is skillfully concealed beneath artistic
problem presentation or sugar-coated entertainment,
are we able to detect such works? How and in what way
is it different from a message or a criticism?
I think we must cool our thoughts and critically reconsider and learn about freedom of expression, about
expressions that might harm others or the oppressed,
and about technology or media uses and expressions
that drive changes in our cognition and behavior.

I had always felt that the Japan Media Arts Festival was
a competition in a different world, distant from an analog
person like me. Being unexpectedly invited to join the
jury for the Entertainment Division this year, I decided
to participate to be a representative of ordinary citizens.
Considering the diversity of the entries, including films,
TV programs, multimedia production, advertisements,
products, games, and applications, I was at first doubtful of evaluating them all together.
However, in the context of entertainment, opportunities to encounter a truly moving and valuable piece
are not so abundant for us who are always surrounded
by a large amount of information and entertainment.
Although the encounter with the entries for judging
was a special occasion, I tried to evaluate them based
on whether or not the entries had the ability to simply
touch people’s hearts or to change people’s awareness
or worldview.
The jurying process took quite a long time, partially
because it was my first time, but it was very fruitful to
listen to and hold discussions with other jury members from different fields about each work on site. In
a pandemic-struck, uncertain era with many people
feeling lost, entertainment is no exception to suffering
various limitations. Despite such a situation, a variety
of solutions were found in the entries, such as ones
to overcome or take advantage of adversity, and to
achieve sharp expressions imperturbable in any situation. Precisely because of the current situation, I hope
for entertainment to brightly illuminate our minds. I
believe we selected works that may encourage the afflicted world, including myself.