News

No Grand Prizes Given for 4th Kyoto Animation Award

The official website of the anime studio Kyoto Animation (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Lucky Star, K-ON!) announced the results of the fourth Kyoto Animation Award program on April 5. However, the studio awarded no grand prizes in any category, and no honorable mentions in the scenario or manga categories.

The judges committee thanked creators for submitting their works but said they could select no winning works in those categories after reviewing the submissions. Kyoto Animation offered 1 million-yen (about US$10,000) grand prizes and 100,000-yen (US$1,000) honorable mention prizes in this year's awards.

Previous honorable mention recipients in the contest's history have been animated despite not winning the grand prize. The honorable mention works that have been animated or have plans to be animated are Chū-2 Byō Demo Koi ga Shitai!, Free! (originally known as High Speed!), and Kyōkai no Kanata. The scenario division of the contest returned this year, although it was not in last year's contest. Kyoto Animation's imprint also published O-Yashiki to Coppelia by 1st Kyoto Animation Award honorable mention recipient Mutsuki Ichinose, and later his novelization of Kyoto Animation's Tamako Market anime.

The results of this year's competition are as follows:

Novel Category

Grand Prize

Honorable Mention

Manzai Sen ka! by Aji Miyaku

Yatara Uro Uro Mettara Doki Doki by Kōji Dōgu

Manga Category

Grand Prize

Honorable Mention

Scenario Category

Grand Prize

Honorable Mention

Last year, there were no grand prize winners or honorable mention recipients. The year before, Kyoto Animation awarded four honorable mentions in the novel category, but awarded no grand prizes in any category and no honorable mentions in the manga and scenario categories. There were also no grand prize winners named in 2010.

Thanks to ultimatemegax for the news tip