The Fair Returns, and So Does a Miyazaki

The fair came back in March 2012, a year after being cancelled entirely. Attendance was down from its 2010 peak, 98,923 visitors and 216 exhibitors, but Tokyo Big Sight was open again, and that alone counted as a win.

Animation of the Year went to From Up on Poppy Hill, directed by Goro Miyazaki, Hayao Miyazaki's son, in what was only his second feature after a rocky debut. The family name opens doors, sure, but it also raises the bar every single time.

Television was dominated by two shows that couldn't have been more different: Puella Magi Madoka Magica, a magical girl series that spent its back half dismantling the entire genre, and Tiger & Bunny, a buddy-cop superhero series with corporate sponsorships built into its universe. Akiyuki Shinbo won Best Director and Gen Urobuchi won Best Screenplay, both for Madoka Magica, while Masakazu Katsura and Hiroaki Hirata took Best Character Designer and Best Voice Actor for Tiger & Bunny.

The Merit Award for Director carried real weight this year. It went to Osamu Dezaki, one of anime's defining directors across five decades, who had died the previous April at 67. The Merit Award for Voice Actor went to Masako Nozawa, who by 2012 had already been voicing Son Goku in Dragon Ball for over 25 years and was nowhere near done.