Anime Vice News

And the SPJA Finalists Are...

And what a long list it is.


This year's most-nominated series.
This year's most-nominated series.
The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA), which is also the organization that runs Anime Expo, has announced its finalists for its 2009 SPJA Industry Awards, which will be held at Expo, of course. Here are the nominees:


Best Voice Actor (JP)

Jun Fukuyama for Code Geass' Lelouch

Kappei Yamaguchi for Death Note's L

Katsuyuki Konishi for Gurren Lagann's Kamina


Best Voice Actor (EN)

Samuel L. Jackson for Afro Samurai Resurrection's Afro and Ninja Ninja

Dave Wittenburg for Naruto's Kakashi Hatake

Kyle Hebert for Gurren Lagann's Kamina


Best Voice Actress (JP)

Riisa Naku for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time's Makoto Konno

Maaya Sakamoto for Garden of Sinners' Shiki Ryogi

Junko Takeuchi for Naruto's Naruto Uzumaki


Best Voice Actress (EN)

Laura Bailey for Shin Chan's Shin-chan

Michelle Ruff for Gurren Lagann's Yoko

Michelle Ruff for Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody's Rukia Kuchiki


Best Casting Director

Jaime Simone for Bleach

Jaime Simone for Afro Samurai Resurrection

Kaeko Sakamoto for Gurren Lagann


Best Character Design

Masaru Kitao for Death Note (Madhouse)

Yuji Iwahara for Darker than Black (Bones)

Daisuke Nakayama for Tweeny Witches (Studio 4°C)


Best Mechanical Design

Yoh Yoshirari for Gurren Lagann (Gainax)

Takeshi Takakura for Genesis of Aquarion (Satelight)

Niohiro Washio for The Third: The Girl With The Blue Eye (Xebec)


Best Male Character

Tamaki Suou, Ouran High School Host Club

L, Death Note

Hei, Darker than Black


Best Female Character

Rukia Kuchiki, Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody

Revy, Black Lagoon

Sei Sato, Maria Watches Over Us


Best Mascot Character

Mokona, xxxHOLiC

Kon, Bleach

Boota, Gurren Lagann


Best Background Design

Ogura Workshop for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

GREEN for Hell Girl

Minoru Nakamura of Studio Pierrot for Bleach


Best OVA

KITE Liberator (Media Blasters)

BALDR FORCE EXE (FUNimation)

Lucky Star OVA (Bandai Entertainment)


Best Feature Film

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Bandai Entertainment)

Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody (VIZ Media)

Vexille (FUNimation)


Best TV Series

Shin Chan (FUNimation Entertainment)

Naruto (VIZ Media)

Gurren Lagann (Bandai Entertainment0


Best Original Score

Yoshihisa Hirano and Hideki Taniuchi, Death Note

Yoko Kanno and Hokari Hisaaki, Aquarion

Kanihiko Ryo, Emma: A Victorian Romance


Best Original Song

Beat Crusaders, “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight” from Bleach

Yui Makino (performer), Mina Kubota (music), Eri Kawai (Lyrics), “Undine” from ARIA the Animation

RZA and P.DOT, “Combat” from Afro Samurai Resurrection


Best Director (JP)

Tetsuro Araki, Death Note

Mamoru Hosoda, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Hiroyuki Imaishi, Gurren Lagann


Best Director (EN)

Karl Willems, Death Note

Joe DiGiorgi, The Third: The Girl With The Blue Eye

Mike McFarland, One Piece


Best Manga – Action

CLAMP, Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE (Del Rey Manga)

Kohta Hirano, Hellsing (Dark Horse)

Rei Hiroe, Black Lagoon (VIZ Media)


Best Manga – Comedy

Hiro Mashima, Fairy Tail (Del Rey Manga)

Yusaka Hanakuma, Tokyo Zombie (Last Gasp)

Takagi Satoshi, Kitsune no Yomeiri (Kodansha)


Best Manga – Drama

Naoki Urasawa, Monster (VIZ Media)

Miyuki Kobayashi and Natsumi Ando, Kitchen Princess (Del Rey Manga)

Okuse Saki and Meguro Sankichi, Ghost Talker's Daydream (Dark Horse)


Best Publication

Shonen Jump (VIZ Media)

Style School (Dark Horse)

Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)


Best Full Motion Video In Video Game

Afro Samurai (Namco Bandai)

Final Fantasy IV (Square Enix)

Left 4 Dead (Valve/Electronic Arts Inc.)


So, let's see...wow. FUNi, Bandai, and VIZ literally each got 13 nominations for various anime titles (that's including Japanese voice actors and directors, and setting aside anything that's unlicensed in those categories). Right Stuf also picked up four nods, and Media Blasters got one.


VIZ picked up four manga nominations, as did Del Rey Manga. Dark Horse got two, and Last Gasp picked up one.


As for individual series...Gurren Lagann topped the list with nine nominations, while Bleach (with an advantage of being both anime and manga and both TV and movie) came away with eight, while Death Note has six noms.


If you're curious about how this compares to last year, here are the nominations, and here are the winners.


...If you're keeping track of these kinds of things, anyway. And no, after how long it took to link all this stuff manually, I'm not going to count up the Japanese companies. But if you do, feel free to share your results! And in the meantime, share your thoughts and opinions in the comments.

Bertmastaon May 4, 2009 at 1:50 p.m.
okay one problem. Kyle Herbert as kamina,come on that was his worst job he has ever done, maybe the JP standard was too high tho
kratos1010on May 4, 2009 at 1:52 p.m.
Seconded that, the english Gurren made me quite sad. Still, go Gurren! Dont loose to Naruto!
Sigueon May 4, 2009 at 1:58 p.m.
Why is Kamina not in for Best Male Character?
giaon May 4, 2009 at 3:12 p.m.
Sigue: I don't know-- and I don't know why Tamaki IS nominated for it. Don't get me wrong, I love Ouran and Tamaki, but if anyone from that show was going to get nominated it should have been Haruhi.

I also don't know why Yen+ didn't get a nom for best publication, why Ghost Hunt and Gurren Lagann weren't nominated for best soundtrack, why Libera Me wasn't nominated for best song...
MoonStormon May 4, 2009 at 3:16 p.m.
That a long list. Humm. I well have to say Samual L. Jackson did make a good Afro and Ninja Ninja.

For Best TV Series why do I have to chose between Shin Chan (FUNimation Entertainment) and Gurren Lagann (Bandai Entertainment) I love them both. Same thing with Mokona and Boota in the best Mascot.

However to me Hellsing is the best manga and I for anything that is Left 4 Dead

I find it strange that Yen+(plus) is not even in the running for best publication. Unless I'm thinking of it in the wrong way.


HeeroYuyon May 4, 2009 at 4:34 p.m.
Maaya Sakamoto won for her role as Ryougi Shiki!!! I'm happy :D

Michelle Ruff is awesome too, I liked her work as Arcueid the most, but she did a good job as Yoko too.
lanaswifton May 4, 2009 at 4:56 p.m.
Heero: Maaya Sakamoto didn't WIN, she was nominated.
Sigueon May 4, 2009 at 4:57 p.m.
gia said:
"Sigue: I don't know-- and I don't know why Tamaki IS nominated for it. Don't get me wrong, I love Ouran and Tamaki, but if anyone from that show was going to get nominated it should have been Haruhi. I also don't know why Yen+ didn't get a nom for best publication, why Ghost Hunt and Gurren Lagann weren't nominated for best soundtrack, why Libera Me wasn't nominated for best song..."
Maybe they just don't want Gurren Lagann to win everything..?
Chibi_Kajion May 4, 2009 at 6:20 p.m.
Hmmm, Revy or Sei Sato for best Female Character... I don't know who I want to win. :(
lanaswifton May 4, 2009 at 8:28 p.m.
Revy. Easy pick.
HeeroYuyon May 4, 2009 at 9:45 p.m.
Meh, to heck with her competition, Maaya Sakamoto should win best female VA.... a girl winning a role for best voice actress because she played a male character just strikes me as wrong... (though Makoto would still be competition)
giaon May 5, 2009 at 9:05 a.m.
Heero: So should Junko Takeuchi be placed in the Best Voice Actor category? That doesn't seem quite right either! ;)
HeeroYuyon May 5, 2009 at 5:11 p.m.
That's not what I was going for, but yeah, that wouldn't make sense either. I don't really have any real suggestion for how they SHOULD do it, it's just that it seems weird for a female voice to win that award for a role of a male character they played...that's all.
lanaswifton May 5, 2009 at 6:32 p.m.
I don't see why; the category is best voice actress, period. And best voice actor, period. If a voice actor or actress plays a gender neutral character-- say, mokona, or an angel --they would still be in the same categories. Why not for actors who play roles of the opposite gender?

There aren't many men who play female characters, it's true...but it's very common for women to play young male roles.

Dig Deeper into Anime Expo

The Anime Expo is North America's largest anime convention which takes place in the greater Los Angeles area every 4th of July weekend. In its recent years, it has been held in the Los Angeles Conventional Center.

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