The Kyoto Animation Awards celebrates new writers and not only awards a cash prize, but also an anime adaptation. However, with recent events happening with Kyoto Animation, the studio has opted to cancel the next one.

The studio stated that difficulties with screening and judging due to the current state of the studio led to the cancellation. Of course, it was last July’s tragic arson fire which killed 36 people and injured many others which led to that “current state”.

As for the contest applicants, KyoAni also stated that it will contact applicants about what will happen to their manuscriots via email in November. They also urged them to contact the awards organisers if they don’t hear back by December.

Before the arson fire, KyoAni announced that the awards will resume again. And after the fire, back in 14th August, the studio suspended the contest before cancelling it completely.

The Kyoto Animation Awards’ Grand Prize, which is an anime adaptation plus a 300,000 yen cash prize, is notoriously hard to win. The only work to ever win that award was of course, Violet Evergarden, and the company has used the anime adaptation as a symbol of its recovery. Other non-Grand Prize winners also received anime adaptations. These include Chuunibyou, Love, and Other Delusions, as well as Free!, Beyond the Boundary, and Myriad Colors Phantom World.

Source: Kyoto Animation