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Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs Honors Gōshō Aoyama, Masahiro Sakurai, Kiyotaka Oshiyama, Katsura Hashino
posted on by Alex Mateo
Look Back anime film director, producer and animator Kiyotaka Oshiyama and Metaphor: ReFantazio/Persona games' director Katsura Hashino won newcomer awards.
The Art Encouragement Prizes are presented to people whose achievements have contributed outstandingly to fields in media
There will be an awards ceremony in Tokyo on March 11.
Aoyama launched the Detective Conan (Case Closed) manga in 1994. The manga has spawned a television anime that has been running since 1996, as well as an accompanying anime film series. Meitantei Conan: Sekigan no Flashback (Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback), the 28th film in the Detective Conan franchise, will open in Japan on April 18.
Shin Samurai-den YAIBA, the new television anime of Aoyama's Yaiba manga, will premiere on April 5 on YTV, NTV, and their affiliates throughout Japan at 5:30 p.m., right before Detective Conan's 6:00 p.m. timeslot to start the "Gōshō Aoyama Hour" block. Aoyama launched the series in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday in September 1988. The series concluded in December 1993 with a total of 24 compiled book volumes.The series inspired a 52-episode anime adaptation that ran from April 1993-April 1994.
In August 2022, Super Smash Bros. game director and Kirby creator Sakurai launched his YouTube channel about game development, titled "Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games" and styled after his Mr. Sakurai Presents video presentations.
Sakurai formed his own company Sora Ltd. in September 2005. Through his studio Project Sora, he created the Kid Icarus: Uprising game for Nintendo 3DS in March 2012. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate shipped for Nintendo Switch in December 2018. The game includes all previous playable characters and supports eight-player battles.
Oshiyama is the founder of Studio Durian. He made his directorial debut with the Flip Flappers anime, and he directed the "Look Back" anime film. He is the director and writer of the "Shishigari" (Lion Hunter) anime short. Oshiyama was also the devil animation director for DEVILMAN crybaby and the cyborg designer of Deca-Dence. He is a mechanical designer on the Make My Day anime film.
