, also known as Animax Awards, is a Japanese

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

scriptwriting competition organized by the Japanese anime

satellite television Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...

network, Animax, a subsidiary of

Sony Pictures Entertainment Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, ac ...

History and broadcasts

Held annually since 2002, the competition awards the best original anime scripts submitted across Japan, judged by a panel of noted manga artists, animators and anime creators, which has included Ryōsuke Takahashi and Kaiji Kawaguchi among others, and which subsequently gets animated into an anime by a noted Japanese animation studio for broadcast on Animax's networks the following year. Winners of the Animax Award have gone on to forge successful careers in the anime and manga industry, with the second award winner, Yūko Kawabe going on to co-write '' Ergo Proxy'' and '' Tweeny Witches'', among others, while the fourth winner, Ikuko Yoshinari, went on to publish a shōjo manga for ''

Ribon is a monthly Japanese manga magazine published by Shueisha on the third of each month. First issued in August 1955, its rivals are ''Nakayoshi'' and '' Ciao''. Its target audience is girls roughly 8–14 years old. It is one of the best-s ...

''. The first four award-winning screenplays were animated by each of Animax's co-founders, the studios Sunrise,

Toei Animation () is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including ''Sally the Witch,'' ''GeGeGe no Kitarō,'' ''Mazinger Z'', ''Galaxy Express 999'', ''Cutie Honey'', ''Dr. Slump'', ' ...

, and

Tokyo Movie Shinsha , formerly known as the , also known as or , is a Japanese animation studio established on October 22, 1946. TMS is one of the oldest and most famous anime studios in Japan, best known for numerous anime franchises such as ''Lupin the Third'', ...

, while the fifth and seventh were animated by

Production I.G is a Japanese animation studio and production enterprise, founded on December 15, 1987, by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, Japan. The letters I and G derive from the names of the company founders: producer Mitsuhisa Ish ...

and the sixth animated by Sony's A-1 Pictures. In 2007, the awards were made open to Animax's viewers across its networks worldwide, under the name Animax Awards, with one of the winning scripts going on to be animated into the anime movie '' LaMB''. The seventh iteration of the award, in 2008, was won by Kenji Saidō, for his entry ''Shoka'' (lit. "Calligraphy"), and will be animated by Production I.G and to be broadcast on Animax's networks in 2009. The seventh iteration of the competition received a record of 1,235 entries, the largest in the competition's seven-year history, and its judging panel included manga artist Kaiji Kawaguchi, ''

Detroit Metal City is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kiminori Wakasugi. It was serialized in Hakusensha's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Young Animal'' from September 2005 to April 2010, with its chapters collected in ten ''tankōbon'' volume ...

'' film screenwriter Mika Ōmori and ''

Densha Otoko is a Japanese movie, television series, manga, novel, and other media, all based on the purportedly true story of a 23-year-old ''otaku'' who intervened when a drunk man started to harass several women on a train. The ''otaku'' ultimate ...

'' film screenwriter

Arisa Kaneko Rosalba Pippa (born 20 August 1982), better known by her stage name Arisa, is an Italian singer and actress. Early life Arisa was born in Genoa, Italy. A week after her birth, her family moved back to their original hometown, Pignola, a villag ...

. The award ceremony for the seventh iteration was also broadcast in Japan on November 9, 2008.

Winners

Super Kuma-san

—the first winner of the annual Animax Taishō in 2002. * Original concept/story: * Director: Yukio Kaizawa * Character design: Daisuke Yoshida * Cast:

Taiki Matsuno Taiki Matsuno ( ja, 松野太紀, Matsuno Taiki, born October 16, 1967) is a Japanese actor and voice actor from Shinagawa, Tokyo. He is attached to Aoni Production. His real name, as well as his former stage name, is Tatsuya Matsuno ( ja, 松� ...

, others. * Production:

Azusa, Otetsudai Shimasu!

—the second winner of the annual Animax Taishō in 2003. * Original concept/story: * Director:

Hajime Kamegaki is the Japanese word meaning . In the Japanese traditional martial arts such as karate, judo, aikido, Kūdō and kendo, it is a verbal command to "begin". Hajime is also a common Japanese given name for males. In the Amami Islands, Hajime (元) ...

* Original character design:

Rie Nakajima Rie is a Japanese ( ja, 利恵, りえ, リエ) and Dutch feminine given name. It is also an uncommon masculine short form of Henri and a surname. Notable people with the name include: Japanese given name Rie can be written using different kanji ...

* Cast: Mamiko Noto, others. * Production:

(TMS Entertainment)

Hotori ~ Tada Saiwai wo Koinegau

—the third winner of the annual Animax Taishō in 2004. * Original concept/story: * Director: Takeshi Annō * Character design: Shin'ichi Yamashita * Creative producer: Ryōsuke Takahashi * Cast:

Ryōko Shiraishi is a Japanese voice actress and singer from Kashiba, Nara. She is affiliated with Aoni Production. Possessing a husky voice, Shiraishi voices young to teenage men as well as young girls and teenage women. However, in a break from tradition, one ...

, others. * Production: Sunrise

Lily to Kaeru to (Ototo)

—the fourth winner of the annual Animax Taishō in 2005. A

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

adaptation was serialized in

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

's ''

'' shōjo magazine. * Original concept/story: * Director: Yuriko Kado * Character design: Kozue Komatsu * Cast:

Chinami Nishimura is a Japanese voice actress from Chiba Prefecture, and affiliated with 81 Produce. Her major roles include Fake Yuna and Miki Shiratori in ''Galaxy Fraulein Yuna'', Neko Musume in '' GeGeGe no Kitaro'', Junsa (Officer Jenny) in ''Pokémon'', ...

, others * Production:

Yumedamaya Kidan

—the fifth winner of the annual Animax Taishō in 2006. Animated by

Production I.G. is a Japanese animation studio and production enterprise, founded on December 15, 1987, by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, Japan. The letters I and G derive from the names of the company founders: producer Mitsuhisa Ish ...

, the script was the first winner not to be animated by one of Animax's co-founding studios. * Original concept/story: * Director: Itsurō Kawasaki * Original character design:

Yōsuke Takahashi is a Japanese horror manga artist who is known for his works ''Mugen Shinshi'' and '' Gakkō no Kaidan''. He graduated from Komazawa University. He made his professional manga debut in 1977, and has had stories published in the manga antholo ...

* Character design: Shōko Nakamura * Cast: Yūka Iguchi * Production:

Takane no Jitensha

—the sixth winner of the annual Animax Taishō in 2007. This was the first Animax Taishō to be open to an international audience as it was made available to Animax's broadcast networks worldwide. It was animated by A-1 Pictures, which was also established by one of

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

's subsidiaries, Aniplex. The supervising animation director and character designer was

Sachiko Kamimura is a Japanese animator. She is noted for her work with Sunrise, where she was the supervising animator and character designer for the ''City Hunter'' series and several others, mentoring future several Sunrise character designers and animators, ...

and featured Maaya Sakamoto as the title character. * Original concept/story: * Director: Naru Ikeda * Character design:

* Cast: Maaya Sakamoto, others. * Production: A-1 Pictures

References

External links

Animax's official website
*

*

** ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120104231556/http://www.animaxawards.com/ Animax's ''Lily to Kaeru to (Ototo)'' website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Animax Taisho 2002 establishments in Japan Animax Anime awards Awards established in 2002 Japanese literary awards ja:アニマックス大賞