Kadokawa's Takeshi Natsuno, Madhouse's Masao Maruyama head selection committee

Anime committees frequently arrange collaborations, or cross-promotions, between their works and other businesses, be they restaurants, theme parks, car companies, video games, or traditional craft enterprises. It's a mutually beneficial partnership that brings in a new crowd to whatever the business is selling while raising the profile of new anime. Even towns have forged their own partnerships with specific anime, usually with some sort of local connection, in the hopes of encouraging "anime pilgrimages" of passionate fans. To honor these collaborations and other uses of anime or anime-style characters in business promotion, the first annual Anime Monozukuri [Manufacturing] Awards will be presented in early May.

There will be five different awards in the categories of Animated Commercials, Cross-Promotional Collaboration, Original Promotion, Craft Design, and Best Production. The eligible time frame is 2015 and 2016 (announced or carried out). The head of the selection committee, Takeshi Natsuno (a guest lecturer at Keio University and director at Kadokawa), explains that "anime and manufacturing are Japan's two greatest strengths." He credits the government's Cool Japan initiative with encouraging more anime-business collaborations and raising the profile of anime to the extent that "you can't say anime is a subculture anymore."

Other members of the selection committee include Masao Maruyama (co-founder of Madhouse Studios) and Taro Maki (president of GENCO). The awards website is accepting nominations until March 21. The awards show will take place at the Machi ★ Asobi festival in Tokushima, Shikoku.

The AnimeJapan anime convention will hold its own gallery of 2016's best anime collaborations on March 25 and 26.

Source: Anime! Anime!: Katsunori Takahashi; Image from Anime Monozukuri Award official website