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7th Animax Award-Winning Script Announced

Sony's Animax anime channel held a ceremony at Tokyo's Imperial Hotel on Thursday to announce the winning entries in its 7th Animax Awards, an animation scriptwriting competition. The Grand-Prize winning entry, the "Shoka" (Calligrapher) script from 24-year-old Kenji Saidō (third from left in the front row of the photograph) will be animated by Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell, Jin-Roh) for a 2009 premiere on Animax. The ceremony also honored 24-year-old Satoru Katsura (third from right in the front row) with a special award for writing "Kamigami no Doll" (Doll of the Gods). The competition accepted 1,235 entries this year — the highest number of domestic entries in its seven-year history. This year's judges included Eagle, The Silent Service, and Zipang manga creator Kaiji Kawaguchi (third from right in the back row); the live-action Detroit Metal City film's screenwriter Mika Ohmori (second from right in the back row), and the live-action Densha Otoko film's screenwriter Arisa Kaneko (first from right in the back row).

The Animax channel will televise the awards ceremony in Japan on November 9 along with the completed anime for the 5th Animax Award winner, Akari Tsukino's "Yumedamaya Kidan," and the 6th Animax Award winner, Hayato Takamaga's "Takane no Jitensha (Takane's Bike)." The 2nd Animax Award winner, Yuuko Kawabe, eventually co-wrote the Ergo Proxy and Mahō Shōjo Tai Arusu: The Adventure anime. The 4th Animax Award winner, Ikuko Yoshinari, recently created a manga for Shueisha's Ribon shōjo magazine. The six winning scripts before this year were animated by Toei Animation, Sunrise, TMS Entertainment, Production I.G, and Sony's own A-1 Pictures Inc.

Source: Saishin Anime Jōhō