Images: Madhouse, Studio Durian
The winners for the Tokyo Anime Award Festival 2025 have been revealed.
Announced on Friday, 1 January, the Tokyo Anime Award Festival selected the winners from a pool of 417 anime titles distributed within Japan from 1 October, 2023, to 30 September, 2024. The awarding ceremony is scheduled on 7 March to 10 March, and will be held in Ikebukuro, Tokyo.
Anime fans voted for the best 100 works to determine the ‘Everyone’s Choice Best 100’, and from these 100 works, ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Individual Award’ winners were chosen. In addition, the ‘Anime Fan Award’ was selected through general votes via X (formerly Twitter).
Here are the winners for each major category:
Best Picture:
Theatrical Film Category: Look Back
Based on Tatsuki Fujimoto’s one shot, Look Back is a coming-of-age drama film animated by Studio Durian, directed by Kiyotaka Oshiyama, and distributed by Avex Pictures. The movie first premiered at the French Annecy International Animation Film Festival on 24 June, 2024, before being theatrically released in Japan on 28 June of the same year.
The story follows two girls named Fujino and Kyomoto, who form a strong friendship through their shared love of creating manga.
TV Series Category: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
Based on the award-winning manga written by Kanehito Yamada and illustrated by Tsukasa Abe, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a fantasy series produced by Madhouse. The series aired from September 2023 to March 2024.
The story follows the titular Frieren, an elf mage who undertakes a journey to the resting place of souls to reunite with her comrade Himmel the Hero, who once entreated her to join his party to slay the Demon King.
Anime Fan Award: Kitaro Tanjou: Gegege no Nazo
A dark fantasy film based on the Gegege no Kitaro manga series by Shigeru Mizuki, it was released on 17 November, 2023. The film was produced by Toei animation and distributed by Toei Company to commemorate Mizuki’s 100th birthday. Kitaro Tanjou: Gegege no Nazo is the fourth film of the franchise, and is a prequel to the 2018 anime series.
The movie tells the story of Kitaro’s birth, and follows a salaryman named Mizuki, who finds himself embroiled in a mystery as a series of bizarre deaths ensue.
Individual Awards:
- Original Story/Screenplay Category: Hiroyuki Yoshino (Kitaro Tanjou: Gegege no Nazo, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED)
- Director and Production Department: Kiyotaka Oshiyama (The Wind Rises, SHISHIGARI)
- Animator: Toru Yatabe (Kitaro Tanjou: Gegege no Nazo, Evangelion: 3.0)
- Art, Color, and Video: Mai Ichioka (Kitaro Tanjou: Gegege no Nazo, The Kindaichi Case Files R)
- Sound and Performance: Evan Call (My Happy Marriage, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End)
TAAF winners for 2024 included The First Slam Dunk and Oshi no Ko for Best Picture, and IDOLiSH7 The Movie LIVE 4bit BEYOND THE PERiOD for Anime Fan Award. Takehiko Inoue, Takeshi Honda, Hiroki Nakazawa, and YOASOBI bagged individual awards.
