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Yui Hara's "Police Men" Short Wins AnimeJapan's Emerging Creator Awards
posted on by Ken Iikura-Gross
The AnimeJapan 2026 convention announced the winners of its Emerging Creator Awards 2026 in a ceremony on Saturday. "Police Men" by Kyoto Seika University's Yui Hara took the Grand Prix award, which includes a 1 million yen (about US$6,000) prize. "One with the City" ("Kono Machi to, Tomo ni") by HAL Nagoya's Raiki Murao earned the Crunchyroll award and the accompanying scholarship of 1 million yen.
In the technical categories with 300,000-yen (about US$2,000) prizes, Kyoto Seika University's Leow Yi Jing won the Best Technical Award for "Offbeat." Fellow Kyoto Seika University student Wang Xinyue won the Best Director Award for "Eiya no Requiem." The Best Character award went to HAL Tokyo's Kakeru Hane for "Magakoro Musubi: Gyutto Komeu Omi." Hal Osaka's Katsuki Yokoyama won the Best Design Award for "Natsu no Omokage."
Four works won the AnimeJapan Special Awards: Grand Prix winner "Police Men," Crunchyroll Award winner "One with the City," Best Design Award winner "Traces of Summer," and "Live in Red" by Tokyo Polytechnic University's Madoka Hadano.
The winning works will be available in 200 countries through Crunchyroll and in Japan through Niconico Douga and d Anime Store. The works are also available on the AnimeJapan YouTube channel.
AnimeJapan created the Emerging Creator Award in partnership with the Japanese government's Japan Creator Support Fund and with Crunchyroll sponsoring.
AnimeJapan 2026 took place at the Tokyo Big Sight venue between March 28 and 29. The event also showcased the “Manga We Want to See Animated” Rankings.
Sources: AnimeJapan2026
