Locally produced Mechamoto wins fan award at Tokyo anime festival

It is the first non-Japanese animation series to win the Anime Fan Award.

PETALING JAYA: Mechamato, a locally produced animated series, made history when it became the first non-Japanese animation to receive the Anime Fan Award at the 2023 Tokyo Anime Awards Festival (TAAF).

The series, about a boy named Amato and his partner robot MechaBot, who fight against bad robots, was produced by local animation company Animonsta Studios (Monsta).

In a statement, Monsta said the series qualified for the award after making its mark on Cartoon Network Japan and Netflix Japan last year.

Its chief creative officer Anas Abdul Aziz accepted the award in Tokyo, Japan, Bernama reported.

Anas took to Twitter to convey his gratitude to the people who voted for the series.

“Alhamdulillah. Thank you to every single fan who voted for us from the whole Asia Pacific region. We will continue to work hard and bring AniMY (animation Malaysia) to new regions and export our culture as well,” he said.

Monsta said it was grateful that Mechamato had been able to captivate the Japanese audience, especially children and families.

Commenting on Monsta’s plans to expand Mechamato in Japan, Anas said Mechamato season two had completed its dubbing process for Japanese airing and Mechamato season three was now under production.

Mechamato Movie, which is currently ranked number one in the local animated film category, is making its rounds airing in Indonesia and Singapore cinema chains as it has been dubbed fully into English.

The “Anime Fan Award” has been won by titles such as Idolish Seven in 2021 and 2022, Uta no Prince-sama in 2020, and Yuri!!! On ICE in 2018 and 2017.