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The Boy and the Beast, Masakazu Hashimoto Win Japan Movie Critics Awards
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The 25th Japan Movie Critics Awards announced its list of winners at a ceremony on Wednesday and Thursday. The winners honored films from the 2015 calendar year. Studio Chizu and Mamoru Hosoda's The Boy and The Beast (Bakemono no Ko) won the Best Animation of the Year Award, and Yōkai Watch: Tanjō no Himitsu da Nyan! won Best Family Animation of the Year.
Additionally, Masakazu Hashimoto won the Best Animation Directors Award for directing Eiga Crayon Shin-chan: Ora no Hikkoshi Monogatari ~Saboten Daishūgeki. Animator Kazuhide Tomonaga, producer Kenji Uchida, and composer Michiaki Watanabe won the Animation Lifetime Achievement Award.
Manga creator Gō Nagai (Devilman, Mazinger Z) won the Diamond grand prize. The prize is awarded to individuals who have made great efforts to support and win fame for Japanese movies internationally.
Both Mai Fuchigami and Inori Minase won the Best Rookie Voice Actor award, highlighting Fuchigami's work in the Girls und Panzer film as protagonist Miho Nishizumi, and Minase's work in The Anthem of the Heart (Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterun Da.) as protagonist Jun Naruse. Etsuko Kozakura and Ryūsei Nakao won the Best Voice Actor awards, highlighting Kozakura's work in Yōkai Watch: Tanjō no Himitsu da Nyan! as Jibanyan, and Nakao's work in Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' as Frieza.
The Girls und Panzer anime film won the "Sanctuary" award for revitalizing a particular region in Japan. Both the film and the original television anime are set in a fictional version of Ōarai, Ibaraki, and features many of the town's distinct landmarks and traditions.
Previous winners of Best Animation of the Year include: Expelled from Paradise, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Wolf Children, and the Detective Conan series. Previous winners of the Best Animation Directors Awards include Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Isao Takahata and Hideaki Anno. Previous Animation Lifetime Achievement Award winners include: producer Michihiko Umezawa, producer Shuji Abe, editor Toshihiko Kojima, sound engineer Katsumi Itō, Studio Pierrot founder Yūji Nunokawa, color design artist Michiyo Yasuda, editor Masashi Furukawa, and Toei Animation.
Japan started hosting the awards in 1992 after seeing many other countries host similar awards. Before 2010 the awards did not include animation-specific categories. Frequent Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi won the Best Movie Music Artist Award in 2009.
Source: Animate Times (Haruka Ishibashi)
