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Afro Samurai: Resurrection's Shigemi Ikeda Wins Emmy (Updated)

Art director Shigemi Ikeda has received a Primetime Emmy Award for his work on Spike TV and Gonzo's Afro Samurai: Resurrection television film, according to a Monday announcement by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. A jury determines the award recipients in the "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation" category without a nomination process. The award will be presented at the 2009 Creative Arts Awards on Saturday, September 12, at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.

The film itself has earned a nomination in the "Outstanding Animated Program (for programming one hour or more)" category. Ikeda's previous work include the first Afro Samurai anime series, Bastard!!, Bokurano, Gantz, Gasaraki, Inuyasha, Library War, Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ and many later Gundam projects, Phantom - The Animation, Planetes, and Starship Troopers.

Afro Samurai: Resurrection, which is the animated television movie sequel to 2007's Afro Samurai mini-series, premiered on Spike TV on January 25. Both television projects adapt Takashi Okazaki's manga about an afro-haired samurai wandering across a futuristic yet feudal alternate-world Japan. In the sequel, Lucy Liu (Charlie's Angels, Kill Bill) and Mark Hamill (Star Wars) joined Samuel L. Jackson on the cast, and RZA returned to provide the soundtrack. Funimation collaborated on the production and merchandising, and it released the DVD on February 3.

Source: animeanime.jp

Update: Funimation notes that this is the first Emmy ever awarded for work on a Japanese-animated production. Afro Samurai: Resurrection is the first Japanese-animated project to even receive an Emmy nomination.