At the Animation Jury of the Japan Media Arts Festival, the judges gathered to discuss which animation should receive the award.
"All the other awards seem straightforward, but for the TV animation category, should we give the Excellence Award to Death Note?"
"I don't think so. The male lead in this anime is an antagonist. Giving it the Excellence Award could send the wrong message."
"True. Besides, neither the Tokyo Anime Awards nor the Kobe Animation Awards gave this anime any awards. Our festival's prestige is higher; giving it the Excellence Award would feel inappropriate."
"I actually think it deserves the Excellence Award. However, the Supervising Director, Lin Zhiyan, is too young. Death Note is his first anime. Who knows if his next work will reach the same heights? I worry that winning the Excellence Award might make him lose his drive."
"Exactly. He's only 24, which is very young. The Tokyo Anime Awards and Kobe Animation Awards probably didn't give it awards with that in mind too."
"So, we won't give the Excellence Award to Death Note in the TV animation category? But I don't see any other outstanding TV anime this year."
"In that case, let's give the extra TV animation Excellence Award to a theatrical anime film. For example, Kon Satoshi's Millennium Actress. It can't compete for the Grand Prize against Miyazaki's Spirited Away, but it's definitely worthy of an Excellence Award."
"I agree."
The three major animation awards in Japan are the Tokyo Anime Awards, the Kobe Animation Awards, and the Animation Division of the Japan Media Arts Festival. Among these, the Japan Media Arts Festival Animation Award carries the most prestige.
Since its inception, this award has annually presented one Grand Prize and three to four Excellence Awards.
The Grand Prize is typically awarded to theatrical anime films, though outstanding short animations can also win. For example, both the 1998 and 1999 Grand Prizes went to short animations.
As for the Excellence Awards, they conventionally include at least one television animation. However, long-running, manga-based TV series are excluded; only quarterly or half-year series are eligible.
In 2001, if we exclude long-running, manga-based anime, the most outstanding television animation was Death Note.
If Death Note were a manga-based animation, as it is in another timeline, it would likely not be considered for an Excellence Award. Even if the animation itself were exceptional, its excellence would stem from the manga's foundation. In such cases, the award should rightfully go to the manga, not the animation.
At the time, Death Note was an original TV animation. Since no other animation released that year was considered superior, it had a real chance of winning. However, for various reasons, the jury ultimately decided not to award the prize to Death Note.
After the Japan Media Arts Festival announced its winners, Death Note failed to secure any of the three major awards.
If the festival's refusal to grant Death Note the Excellence Prize could be attributed to its high standards or the jury's aversion to works with potentially negative moral implications, the fact that the Tokyo Anime Awards and Kobe Animation Awards also passed it over was truly because they considered Lin Zhiyan too young.
Being young was his downfall.
Inside the President's office at L.S Production, Mamoru Hosoda, who was reading the script for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, twitched his lips slightly when he heard the news. He turned to Lin Zhiyan and said, "See? I told you winning all three major awards wouldn't be easy."
Beside Lin Zhiyan, Nanase Mayumi pouted, clearly displeased. "That's so unfair! Makoto Shinkai only quit his job at a game company to become a professional animator because of a Senior's encouragement, yet his personal film, Voices of a Distant Star, won several awards, while our Death Note didn't win any."
"Stay calm," Lin Zhiyan replied, unfazed. "After all, Death Note wasn't made with the intention of winning awards. It's only natural that it didn't win any."
Having had no expectations to begin with, he had no reason to complain.
As for Nanase Mayumi's point, while it was true, comparing them to Makoto Shinkai wasn't quite fair.
Voices of a Distant Star had indeed won several awards, including the Kobe Animation Awards' Best Commercial Packaging Award, the Japan Media Arts Festival's Digital Art Division Special Award, the Seiun Award's Media Division Award, and the AMD Award for Best Supervising Director.
However, these were all rather insignificant awards. Even without considering Lin Zhiyan's age and experience, the judges of these awards wouldn't have dared to bestow such worthless "awards" on his work, as it would have been an insult to him.
To be fair, Voices of a Distant Star winning an award wasn't entirely unreasonable. Although the animation's content was rather weak, its details couldn't withstand close scrutiny, and both the visuals and voice acting were somewhat crude, the film still sent shockwaves through Japan's animation industry. It sparked a craze for personal animation production and is hailed as the dawn of Japan's personal CG animation era.
In a way, it was quite impressive.
Of course, Makoto Shinkai didn't forget his roots. After winning the award, he mentioned Lin Zhiyan in media interviews, saying that Lin's encouragement had emboldened him to resolutely resign from his game company. This earned Lin Zhiyan considerable praise.
Not winning the award didn't matter much to Lin Zhiyan; as long as the money was made, that was enough.
However...
"Next year and the year after, we'll not only achieve greater commercial success but also win so many awards we'll be drowning in them," Lin Zhiyan said to the two people in the office, painting a grand picture.
"Can our new animation win an award?" Nanase Mayumi asked quickly.
"Winning an award at the Japan Media Arts Festival for Lelouch will be tough, but we can definitely aim for the Tokyo Anime Awards and the Kobe Animation Awards. As for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, if we do it right, it has the potential to sweep all the awards," Lin Zhiyan replied seriously.
"Saying that puts a lot of pressure on me," Mamoru Hosoda, also in the president's office, couldn't help but grumble.
"Don't worry," Lin Zhiyan smiled. "Mr. Hosoda, just focus on bringing my script to life with the animation. Don't concern yourself with anything else. Even if we don't win a single award, I won't blame you."
"That's a relief," Hosoda nodded. "I'll go back and study your script thoroughly."
After receiving a nod from Lin Zhiyan, he rose and left the president's office.
Alone with Lin Zhiyan, Nanase Mayumi suddenly asked, "Senior, you trust Mr. Hosoda that much? He was fired from Studio Ghibli, you know."
"I know," Lin Zhiyan replied dismissively. "To me, that's not a stain. With me here, he'll succeed, and our new animation will succeed too."
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