The studio Kyoto Animation announced on Thursday that it is suspending the Kyoto Animation Awards for now. The studio had already canceled the 11th Kyoto Animation Awards last November, after the fire that killed 36 at its Studio 1 building earlier that July. Since then, it has been holding internal discussions about whether to bring the awards back. The staff made the decision to keep the awards suspended after considering all factors.
The studio added it will not accept any submissions for the awards, including manuscripts, ideas, and other materials sent to the studio. It emphasized that it bears no responsibility to examine, evaluate, or adopt such submissions, and thus will dispose any submitted proposals and other materials unopened.
Kyoto Animation announced the award program in 2009 and offered 300,000-yen (about US$3,600 at the time) grand prizes and 100,000-yen honorable mention prizes in novel, manga, and scenario (script treatment) categories. The awards added the “Animation DO Special Award” in 2015. In the first year, the rules noted that popular winning entries were to have had a chance at being animated by Kyoto Animation, but the rules for the second year did not mention this possibility.
The only work that has won a grand prize at the awards was the Violet Evergarden novel in 2014. The Violet Evergarden anime series debuted in January 2018, and an original video anime (OVA) premiered in April 2018. Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memories Doll (Violet Evergarden Gaiden: Eien to Jidō Shuki Ningyō; seen left), a side story to the Violet Evergarden anime, opened in Japan on September 6, 2019. A brand-new film will then open on September 18 after delays.
Submissions in the Kyoto Animation Awards have also inspired the Free! – Iwatobi Swim Club, High Speed! -Free! Starting Days-, Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!, Beyond the Boundary, and Myriad Colors Phantom World anime. Kyoto Animation‘s KA Esuma Bunko imprint announced in July 2018 that it will produce an anime of Yūki’s Nijūseiki Denki Mokuroku novel.
Source: Kyoto Animation