ShowBiz News | The list of nominees for the 54th International Emmy Awards was officially released on September 23, 2026. The announcement was made by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Two Japanese anime titles made it to the prestigious list. Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 broke into the Short-Form Series, while My Melody & Kuromi are in Kids: Animation. Each represents a different creative approach in contemporary Japanese animation.
A Total of 64 nominations were recorded this year, coming from 22 countries, and divided into 16 categories. The spread shows an increasingly multipolar global television landscape. Japan is not alone as Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Mexico, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States make up the list. This kind of geographic diversity signals that non-English content is increasingly competitive on the international stage.
In the Short-Form Series category, Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 was one of four competing nominees. The Anime will face Belgium's De Klas van 2000, Brazil's Jornada da Vida: Rio Mekong, and Canada's PeopleWatching Season 3. The nomination was given to Avex Pictures as the Japanese representative. The achievement marks international recognition of the animated anthology format that is rarely highlighted at similar events.
This anime anthology adapts eight short stories by Tatsuki Fujimoto, creator of Chainsaw Man. All of the stories were written between the ages of 17 and 26. Seven directors and six animation studios were involved, namely P.A. Works, Zexcs, Lapin tracks, Kafka Studios, 100studio, and Graph77 Studios. Multi-studio collaborations like this make each episode have its own visual style and narrative tone, which is difficult to realize in regular series production.
The eight episodes are divided into two parts with their own characteristics. A Couple Clucking Chickens Were still Kickin' in the Schoolyard, Sasaki Stopped a Bullet, Love is Blind, and Shikaku filled out the first part. As for Mermaid Rhapsody, Woke-Up-as-a-Girl Syndrome, Nayuta of the Prophecy, and Sisters fill the second part. This kind of division makes it easier for international audiences to digest Fujimoto's early-career work without being tied to chronological order.
The world premiere of the anime was held at TCL Chinese 6 Theatre, Hollywood, as part of the 2025 Global Stage Hollywood Film Festival. Prime Video will launch globally in 2025. In Japan, a two-Sunday limited screening will be held in nine theaters in October 2025. South Korea also holds a two-Sunday screening on the MEGABOX network. This gradual strategy shows distributors ' desire to build word-of-mouth before reaching a wider streaming audience.
The Short Film category at the Bucheon International Animation Festival once saw a pair of laying hens that were still raising in the schoolyard and Shikaku as nominees. Viz Media has released the Tatsuki Fujimoto collection Before Chainsaw Man: 17-21 and 22-26 in English. The presence of this printed version strengthens the cross-medium ecosystem which is one of the drivers of Fujimoto's global popularity.
One of the Four Kids: Animation nominations went to My Melody & Kuromi. Irmao do Jorel Season 5 from Brazil, Lenas Hof (Lena's Farm) from Germany, and the Scarecrows' Wedding from the UK also competed in the category. These four nominations represent four different animation traditions, from stop-motion to digital 2D animation, and show that the children's category is increasingly open to diverse production techniques.
Netflix is airing My Melody & Kuromi globally in July 2025 with 12 episodes, each about 13 minutes long. My Melody opens a pastry shop in Mariland and discovers a heart in the woods that triggers strange events. The Kuromi Japanese food store that stands across the street is constantly silent. Both were then involved in the preparation of the competition to make sweet foods that are considered famous pastry chef named Pistachio.
The Anime is directed by Tomoki Misato, who previously worked on the stop-motion Series Pui Pui Molcar, at TORUKU from WIT STUDIO. Shuko Nemoto wrote the script. A collaboration aiming at a global music audience beyond the traditional kids demographic was realized through the theme song "Kawaii (Prod. Gen Hoshino)" by LE SSERAFIM. Best Animation at the 2025 Asian Academy Creative Awards Singapore was the previous achievement of this series. The award cemented its position as one of the most appreciated stop-motion productions of the year.
The achievement of Japanese anime in the international arena increased through these two nominations. At the same time, two different approaches are also visible. Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 brings anthology works with an auteur approach that explores the creator's short stories. My Melody & Kuromi brings Sanrio's character-based stop-motion, and its charm doesn't stop at just one generation. The success of both shows that the International Emmy Awards no longer views anime as a monolithic category, but rather a creative ecosystem capable of competing in various segments.
International Emmy World Television will bring together all the nominees in New York from November 20 to 22. Welcome cocktail and Nominee Panels & Presentations are listed as two included agendas. The climax took place November 23 when the winners of the 54th International Emmy Awards were announced. For the Japanese animation industry, the end result is an indicator of the extent to which non-English works can break through the dominance of Western productions in the most prestigious television awards.