The official website of Tokyo Anime Award Festival, or TAAF in short, announced the winners of the 2024 Lifetime Achievement awards on Dec 14, 2023.  The award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the development of animation industry and culture.

The following members have won the TAAF 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award;

1. Shunzo Kato

A renowned producer behind numerous works of TMS Entertainment and Telecom Animation. Anpanman, Akira, Space Cobra are some of his well known anime.

2. Akira Toriyama

Mangaka, who is known for Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump – Arale-chan, SANDLAND, among others.

3. Sukehiro Tomita

He is a scriptwriter, known for his work on Space Runaway Ideon, Macross II, Digimon Frontier, Gall Force, etc.

4. Ryousuke Takahashi

A director, who is known for original works such as Armored Trooper VOTOMS, Fang of the Sun Dougram, Cyborg 009, Phoenix, and others. TAAF describes him as “a rare creator who has consistently unfolded his unique worlds across a wide range of genres,

5. Shuichi Seki

An animator, who pays close attention to form and texture, he creates characters that move gracefully. A beloved figure in the world of animation, known for his work on enduring titles. Belladonna of Sadness, Vicke the Little Viking, Little Lulu are some of his well known works.

6. Yuji Ohno

One of the most famous anime music composers in Japan, known for his work on Lupin the Third. He brought a fresh perspective to anime music with a style rooted in the jazz idiom.

7. Toshio Furukawa

Voice Actor, who is described as a master of versatile high baritone. He has worked in popular anime with a range from the strength of passionate heroes to the gentle humor of comedic roles. He is known for playing Piccolo in Dragon Ball Z, Ataru in Urusei Yatsura, Shin in Fist of the North Star.

8. Chikara Yamamoto

Representative Director of Duplo System, a company that produced trace machine that made large-scale production of animation possible.

Toru Hara, Yoshio Urasawa, Akihiro Kanayama, Kazutaka Miyatake, Iwao Yamaki, Shizuo Kurahashi, and Motomu Kiyokawa had won the lifetime achievement awards at TAAF 2023.

The Tokyo Anime Awards started in 2002 but was named in 2005. The first, second and third award ceremonies were simply named ‘Competition’. The award ceremonies were held at the Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF) until 2013.

In 2014, after the merger of the Tokyo International Anime Fair with the Anime Contents Expo and the formation of the AnimeJapan convention, the Tokyo Anime Awards was changed into a separate festival called Tokyo Anime Awards Festival (TAAF).

Source: Official Website