7th
Award-winning WorksEntertainment Division

When entertainment is broadly defined as something "to delight people" or "to entertain people," it can be said that the Web, similar to games, is a medium that inherently involves much entertainment. However, as the purposes of the Web are many and varied, its entertainment is also varied in orientation. While in some cases, the Web contents contain some kind of entertainment, there are other cases where the interface of a site features entertainment. In some other cases, entertainment is achieved via a network, the greatest feature of the Web. Thus, the Web has a variety of orientations, and it was really difficult to evaluate such diverse works on one evaluation-axis. On the contrary, it can be said that it was nice to receive such a variety of Web works, but unfortunately, it is also true that quality of each work fell short of that of entertainment works submitted to other genres. One of the reasons could be that we received the Web works in two divisions of Art and Entertainment this year. We hope that we will receive a larger number of Web works as entertainment of high quality and with varied orientations.

We received over 80 applications in the Game section, most of which were from game companies. The screening process was rather tough, as we had to make fair evaluations on individual works among high quality games by these companies representing Japan. The Grand Prize FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES had excellent quality on every screening index of image, music, and interactivity, and is a well-balanced, good game that is "fun to touch."
The work Eye Toy: Play that won the Prize for Excellence contained a new attempt that a player can participate in the game by projecting his/her own picture taken with a camera into the game. On the other hand, SHIBAIMICHI specifically focused on how well one could act out a character in a drama using MIC device, which worked out successfully. Each and every one of the games that had made it to the final screening was so unique, and suggested the diversification of "play" in the future.
Though few in number, we received some works from students. While some of them had successfully created a unique atmosphere, it couldn't be helped that many of them looked somewhat inferior to those created by companies in terms of quality. However, as much as they were not commercial products, their ideas were unrestricted, and there were several very interesting works. We hope that more students and independent artists will submit more works with really unique ideas next year.

As this category encompasses a wide range of genres, there were a large number of variations in concepts, expression techniques, and actual forms. It was an unprecedented attempt to include in one category everything from animated images, images that move as 3D forms, media and services, books, posters, toys and character goods. Considering its wide coverage and versatility, this category is a field typical of the Entertainment Division. In the screening process, works were evaluated comprehensively based not only on the factors of novelty, challenging spirit, and quality, but also on various other factors. As this is part of the Entertainment Division, we tried to properly evaluate and recognize those works that well displayed the "spirit of play" and fully conveyed and reflected the feelings that the artist had enjoyed the process of creation. Other important evaluation factors included the method and details of presentation, and understandability. "Ski Jumping Pair Official DVD," a work representative of this Division, was an excellent piece in terms of concept originality, challenging spirit, and quality, but among others, it excelled predominantly at the "spirit of play." This was the only work where all of jury members burst into laughter in the screening meeting. While this category received many large-scale projects created by investing a large amount of money, this particular work proved that a brilliant idea and effort could produce a work that intrigues and captivates the audience.

Entertainment Division is a new division that encompasses a wide variety of genres including games, Web, VFX, characters, play systems, and so on. Therefore, the screening results for this year will have a great impact on the future characterization and direction of this division. In the beginning, we did not have the slightest idea about which works in which genre would survive. However, as soon as we started reviewing the works, games proved predominant. In particular, those voluminous works produced by leading game manufacturers were tough to beat. These games were produced under the manufacturers' pride of representing game contents of current Japan as well as the pressure that they've got to create something entertaining and enjoyable, and as might have been expected, they were the highlight of this year.
To tell the truth, it could not be helped that works in other genres of this division did not look as good as these games. For Web arts, there were not many works with great originality, such as those found in the Art Division, and left the impression that something was missing. With VFX (special visual effects), the competition was rather painful as the works had to be evaluated in the midst of Hollywood works of dominant quality being released one after another. We, therefore, focused our evaluations not on the scale or technological level of the works, but on the author's brilliant ideas and sense of entertainment contents. Although they missed winning a prize this time, there were also some commercials that stood out in originality, which raised our expectations for their future development. For play systems, the absolute number of submitted works was small, but Pokemotion, where the audience is free to manipulate popular characters, received great recognition for its enjoyable nature and high workmanship.
Looking back on the whole screening process in the entertainment division of this year, we believe we were able to make evaluations while striking a balance between two main aspects of prizes, namely "properly evaluate works of predominant quality that symbolize the current time" and "highlight the noteworthy works that contain great future potential." On the other hand, we found many issues to be solved in the future, such as whether or not the current divisions are an adequate way to divide media arts.