The prestigious Anime of the Year Award, which is divided into Movie and TV Animation categories, have finally been given out during last Monday (21 March)’s Tokyo Anime Award Festival. The two winners of the awards are Love Live! The School Idol Movie for the Film Division, and Shirobako for the TV Animation division.

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The fans also voted for their favorite anime, and the Anime Fan Award was given to Gintama for this year.

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A special video for this year’s event was also released:

The nominees should have been shown in Japan from 1 November 2014 until 31 October 2015 in order to be nominated. Last year, Frozen, Ping Pong, and Tiger and Bunny, all won their respective categories. Yes, folks, Frozen did win Anime of the Year last year.

Aside from the Anime of the Year awards, the awarding ceremony also handed out the following honors:

  • Best Director: Yoichi Fujita
  • Best Script or Original Work: Shuu Matsubara
  • Best Animator: Chikashi Kubota
  • Best Character or Mecha Design: Naoyuki Asano

They also handed out the various Merit Awards, which are Lifetime Achievement Awards for various figures in animation. The recipients are:

  • Character Designer/Director: Toyoo Ashida (Cyborg 009, Space Battleship Yamato), posthumous award
  • Sound Director: Yasuo Urakami (Doraemon), posthumous award
  • Seiyuu: Yoshiko Ohta (original seiyuu for Doraemon’s Nobita)
  • Producer: Tatsuo Shimamura (Full Metal Panic!)
  • Animator: Shinichi Suzuki (The Legend of the Galactic Heroes)
  • Art Composition: Kiyoshi Hashimoto
  • Animator, Character Designer: Norio Hikone
  • AniSong Singer: Ichiro Mizuki
  • Creator: Shigeru Mizuki (A posthumous award for the late GeGeGe Kitaro mangaka)
  • Writer: Yoshiaki Yoshida (Dog of Flanders)

Source: TAAF official