The First American Anime Awards

Date: 2006 November 16 12:04

Posted by Jeremy

The first ever American Awards will be held at the New York Comic Con in February.

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Anime hasn’t gotten much respect in terms of awards in America since "Spirited Away" won the Oscar back in 2002. Sure, "Howl’s Moving Castle" got a nomination, but it lost out to "Wallace and Grommit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit". The solution to this problem is simple: create an anime awards show.

And that’s just what’s happening at the next New York Comic Con. ICv2 has announced that the first ever American Anime Awards will be presented on Saturday, February 24th, held at the New Yorker Hotel in midtown Manhattan during the convention. For those who can’t make it, the ceremony will be streamed on the internet live at IGN.com, then broadcast later on the Anime Network. Hosting the event will be some of the top American voice actresses in the business, including Christin Auten, Jessica Boone, Shelley Calene-Black, Alice Fulks, Hilary Haag, Taylor Hannah and Serena Varghese. Attending the Awards will be the top anime and manga companies, including Viz, Tokyopop, Media Blasters, Geneon, FUNimation, Del Rey, Bandai and ADV Films. Serving as Awards Committee Chairman will be ICv2's Milton Griepp. No word yet as to any musical guests for the show, or if there will be any at all.

The award categories will include Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Actor in a Comedy, Best Actress in a Comedy, Best Cast, Best DVD Package Design, Best Anime Theme Song, Best Comedy Anime, Best Anime Feature (OAV), Best Short Series (13 episodes or less), Best Long Series (over 13 episodes) and Best Manga. The awards will be chosen by fan voting on the Web during the month of January. Nominees will be submitted by American anime and manga companies and a panel of industry experts that will include representatives of Anime Insider, Anime News Network and Anime on DVD. The five top-getters will be announced on February 5th, and the winners at the ceremony. So keep your eyes peeled for your favorite series to get a nod or two, and hope that it’ll go home with some awards gold.