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'Yasashii March', 'Rain Town' Win Kichijoji Festival Awards
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Wataru Uekusa's "Yasashii March" anime short won the Grand Prix competition at the 7th Kichijoji Animation Film Festival on October 8. Uekusa created the piece as an animation student at the Tokyo University of the Arts graduate school in Yokohama. "Yasashii March" previously won the Animation Award at the 23rd CG Anime Contest.
The Tokyo University of Arts graduate school began streaming a video with clips of students' animation projects, including Uekusa's, in April. "Yasashii March" is the second animated short featured in the video below.
Hiroyasu Ishida's "rain town" also won the Excellence Award, STUDIO4℃ Award, and the Ghibli Museum Award at the Kichijoji Animation Film Festival this year. Ishida was studying in the Animation department in Kyoto Seika University's famed Faculty of Manga. Along with fellow student Shōgo Yoshida, he had been working on the "rain town" anime short as his graduation project for at least two years. Ishida began streaming the entire graduation film in March.
Ishida gained worldwide recognition by streaming his previous multiple award-winning anime short "Fumiko's Confession" on YouTube. The short won the grand prize in the 8th Independent Animation Festival (Indies Anime Festa), making this year's win with "rain town" Ishida's second consecutive triumph at the festival.
Source: Anime Anime Japan
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