A new Japanese entertainment award will launch in 2027. The Japan Animation Awards, organized chiefly by the Association of Japanese Animations, is meant to honor animators and the others who make the work, not only the titles they adapt.
The association's chair, Kazuko Ishikawa, described the aim as carrying "the history and culture Japanese anime has built" into the future while valuing the people behind it. Ishikawa is also president of Nippon Animation.
The award ceremony is set for Nov. 21, 2027, at SGC HALL ARIAKE in Tokyo, one of the larger venues in the capital. The specific categories have not been announced, but organizers said the awards will center on creators.
A festival finale, and a stage for singers
The announcement came on the final day of TOKYO ANIME NEXT, held in Ikebukuro from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2 with screenings, creator talks and workshops for children. An orchestra played as scenes from Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan and Detective Conan ran on screen.
Nami Nakagawa and Higuchi Ai sang themes from Demon Slayer and Attack on Titan, and Mai Kuraki performed "Secret of my heart," the Detective Conan theme. Kuraki and other performers appeared at the main event before the new award was announced.
Replacing the Tokyo Anime Award Festival
Akira Shimizu, a board member of the animation association and president of the studio A-1 Pictures, explained at a symposium on Oct. 30 how the award came about. The symposium, "Toward the Start of a New Anime Award in 2027," was held at TIFFCOM, the market tied to the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival.
The plan grew out of talks to renew the Tokyo Anime Award Festival, known as TAAF, which was held again this March. Studio executives kept raising the idea of an award that puts more of a spotlight on creators, Shimizu said, and that creators should be honored on a celebratory stage.
TAAF and its predecessor, the Tokyo International Anime Fair, had long given individual prizes to directors, screenwriters and character designers alongside awards for works. A special achievement category, added in 2006, recognized creators and voice actors from the industry's early years.
When TAAF's end raised the prospect that those prizes would go too, support from the Tokyo metropolitan government helped the new award take shape, according to the account given at the symposium. The city runs Anime Tokyo Station in Ikebukuro, which holds exhibitions on animation.
“The Tokyo metropolitan government will keep strongly supporting anime and the people who make it.”Yuriko Koike, Tokyo governor, in a video message to the Nov. 2 announcement
What the industry wants the prize to change
Masaya Saito, head of Toho's animation division and leader of its planning group, said at the symposium that he hopes the award changes how audiences see anime. "I want an award that conveys to viewers that there is value in each individual piece of creative work," he said.
Ishikawa told the announcement that the industry employs people who draw a single frame, create movement, mix color, make sound, write stories, give characters voice, deliver the finished work and widen its possibilities. The award, she said, is for "the people moving the world on the other side of the work."