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'Fumiko's Confession' Wins YouTube Video Award in Japan

YouTube Japan has announced the winners of the YouTube Video Awards Japan 2009, the second annual viewer-judged competition from the Japanese arm of the streaming website. Hiroyasu Ishida's heavily watched "Fumiko no Kokuhaku" ("Fumiko's Confession") video won the 13-nominee Anime category.

Ishida, a 21-year-old student who is aspiring to be an animator, posted the 143-second anime short online in November. The short became an international hit and has now been played over half a million times. It also received media attention with a feature article in Kadokawa Shoten's Newtype magazine and an approving comment by director Mamoru Hosoda (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time).

Ishida independently directed, animated, edited, and recorded the work, although he received some assistance on the backgrounds (Yūko Iwase), 3D CG textures (Kazuhiro Murakami), in-between animation (Tatsurō Kawano), and 3D modeling (Yūsaku Nagata). Ishida is studying in the Animation department at Kyoto Seika University's famed Faculty of Manga.

Kousuke Sugimoto's "the TV show" anime short was nominated in the separate Music category, but Sour's "Hibi no Neiro" music video from directors Masashi Kawamura, Hal Kirkland, Magico Nakamura, and Masayoshi Nakamura won the category. All of the animated nominees can be viewed here.

"Fumiko no Kokuhaku (Fumiko's Confession)" short by Hiroyasu Ishida

Sour's "Hibi no Neiro" music video by directors Masashi Kawamura, Hal Kirkland, Magico Nakamura, Masayoshi Nakamura

Souce: animeanime.jp