"GeGeGE no Kitarou" Becomes the First Anime to Receive the "Galaxy Award" Special Award. Sawashiro Miyuki Said, "This is amazing. It brought me tears."
The 6th series of the anime "GeGeGe no Kitarou" won the TV Category Special Award at the "57th Galaxy Award" (Association of Broadcast Critics), which awards individuals and groups that contributed to the broadcasting culture. This is the first time that an anime received the special award.
According to the documents revealed by the Association of Broadcast Critics, "Having 6 anime adaptions over a period of 50 years will go down in TV history."
Also, reshaping the story to match modern society without losing the essence of the Youkai from the original work, and depicting the fear and darkness of human society, which stays the same no matter the different times and society, was praised as, "It was thoroughly produced to carefully send a message to the targeted children on Sunday morning. This aroused much sympathy from many people. We believe this is the true value of a TV anime."
<Full comments are as below>
The reason behind the awarding (extracted from the documents revealed by the Association of Broadcast Critics)
Having 6 anime adaptions over a period of 50 years will go down in TV history. The 6th series, which was created to commemorate its anniversary, continued for 2 years and gained much support.
They've done a great job in reshaping the story to match modern society by introducing new supporting characters and changing the settings of the main characters while keeping the essence of the Youkai from the original work.
The story depicts the fear and darkness of human society, which hasn't changed since the days of the original work by Mizuki Shigeru, no matter the different age and society.
It was thoroughly produced to carefully send a message to the targeted children on Sunday morning. This aroused sympathy from many people. We believe this is the true value of a TV anime.
Sawashiro Miyuki (voice of Kitarou from the 6th series)
When I heard the news of the award from producer Nagatomi, I couldn't believe it. I was beyond joy and couldn't wrap my head around it at first, but now I see how amazing this was and it brings me to tears.
I'm grateful that the work of the members of the 6th series for the past 2 years has been highly praised. It was good enough to hear cute, joyful voices saying, "I'm watching Kitarou" (or "It's too scary for me!"), but this award was like a mature voice telling me, "It was an amazing piece of work," and it made me pull my socks up. This is amazing! Horray!
Nozawa Masako (voice of Kitarou from the 1st and 2nd series and Medama-oyaji from the 6th series)
Congratulations on the award!
There are many anime series out there but "GeGeGe no Kitarou" is my starting point.
My entire career began with Kitarou, so the latest series being praised deeply moves me.
And above all, Mizuki-sensei is no less than amazing.
Though many animations are created to match the taste of the children of the time, Kitarou seemed to have a different side to it.
It started in Mizuki-sensei's world and has been woven in Kitaro's world for over 50 years.
It's truly immortal. I think it will continue forever.
I'd like to see 2 or 3 more series while I'm around, so I hope I can live a long life.
Ogawa Kouji (Series Director)
It's an honor that GeGeGe no Kitarou (6th series) has received the TV Category Special Award at the 57th Galaxy Award. The Kitarou anime has changed along with the development of human society, and I remember struggling to show how close these dark entities, Youkai, were to us in the modern world in the scenario.
As a Sunday morning anime, we were able to not only keep up with nowadays topics, but also create fascinating characters for entertainment, great acting of the voice actors, and impressing art and photographing techniques, which supported us through the 2 years of broadcast. Thank you so much.
The 6th season had this hidden theme of keeping in line with the "Seven Things to Stay Happy" proposed by the original author Mizuki Shigeru-sensei. I would be glad if the emotional stories and characters who make a bad example, will lead to the happiness and future of us living in this chaotic society.
Kano Yuuta (Fuji TV Organizing Producer)
I am very happy to receive the TV Category Special Award of the Galaxy Award.
"GeGeGe no Kitarou" had been running for two years. However, due to the spread of COVID-19, the "Mizuki Shigeru Birthday Party" that was scheduled to be held in Sakaiminato, the after party of the show for the staffs and cast, and the "Fan Screening Party" that was scheduled to be held in Choufu City had been postponed.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to show our 2 years of gratitude to those involved in this work and the fans who have supported us, but I'm glad that the Youkai's brought us such a wonderful award, which I never expected to receive.
This wasn't my intention, but being able to start the 7th series right after the 6th series, which I thought would be 10 years later, since the series so far was created roughly every 10 years. I felt that this also was a message from Kitarou and his friends to the people of today.
This series had the theme of the words by Mizuki-sensei, "There are things out there you can not see," and working on this anime for 2 years made me believe it.
I would be glad if people's lives would be happier and enriched by Kitarou and his friends.
Nagatomi Daichi (Toei Animation Producer)
We are honored that "GeGeGe no Kitarou" received the TV Category Special Award of the historic Galaxy Award. Also, I'm happy to hear that this is the first time for anime to win this award.
This might not be the right place to announce this, but it was just a coincidence that we were able to produce and start broadcasting the 6th series in 2018, the 50th anniversary of the work, haha.
Maybe it was some mischief done by Mizuki Shigeru-sensei, who passed away in 2015, and the Youkais.
By the way, "GeGeGe no Kitarou"'s 1st series (broadcast in 1968) was the first piece of work produced by Fuji TV and Toei Animation (Toei Doga at the time). This series, broadcast in the 50th anniversary fo the title, receiving this award, is thanks to all those who have kept this series going for all this time.
We wouldn't have won this award without the staff, cast, affiliated companies, and the fans who supported the series every time it came back to the TV screen, for the 50-few years of "GeGeGe no Kitarou". I would like to again express my gratitude to everyone.
The 6th TV series has finished, but if you remember Kitarou and the Youkais, you'll hear the sound of his Geta again.
I, as a fan, am looking forward to that day.
I hope that this news will reach Mizuki Shigeru-sensei.
(C)Mizuki Pro・Fuji TV・Toei Animation
