Two anime productions are in the running at the 2026 International Emmy Awards. The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced its nominees on Wednesday, with the Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 anthology anime nominated in the Short-Form Series category and the My Melody & Kuromi stop-motion series nominated in the Kids: Animation category. Winners will be announced in New York City on November 23.
Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26
The anthology adapts early one-shots by Chainsaw Man creator Tatsuki Fujimoto. It had its world premiere in October 2025 during the Global Stage Hollywood Film Festival 2025 at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatre in Hollywood, followed by a limited two-week theatrical run in nine cinemas across Japan starting the same month.
The eight-episode anime screened in two four-episode parts. The first part covers A Couple Clucking Chickens Were Still Kickin’ in the Schoolyard, Sasaki Stopped a Bullet, Love is Blind and Shikaku. The second part covers Mermaid Rhapsody, Woke-Up-as-a-Girl Syndrome, Nayuta of the Prophecy and Sisters. A two-week run also played in South Korea at MEGABOX theatres, and two titles from the series, A Couple Clucking Chickens Were Still Kickin’ in the Schoolyard and Shikaku, were nominated in the Short Film category at the Bucheon International Animation Festival.
In English, Viz Media licensed the source collections Tatsuki Fujimoto Before Chainsaw Man: 17-21 and Tatsuki Fujimoto Before Chainsaw Man: 22-26, releasing them in January 2023 and April 2023 respectively. Shueisha published the two compiled volumes in Japan in October and November 2021.
My Melody & Kuromi
The stop-motion series debuted worldwide on Netflix in July 2025 and is set in Mariland, where My Melody and Kuromi live. Tomoki Misato, director of the Pui Pui Molcar stop-motion television series, directed it at TORUKU from WIT STUDIO, with Shūko Nemoto writing the scripts. LE SSERAFIM performed the theme song “Kawaii” (produced by Gen Hoshino). The series previously won the Best Animation award at Singapore’s 2025 Asian Academy Creative Awards.
Netflix’s synopsis sets up the premise: My Melody opens a cake shop in Mariland, encounters a heart in the forest, and strange things begin happening around her. Kuromi’s Japanese sweets shop across the street is always empty, so she searches for the secret behind My Melody’s cakes. Both work toward a sweets-making contest judged by the world-famous pastry chef Pistachio, unaware that the contest will lead to an incident threatening the fate of Mariland.
Why it matters
Anime’s awards footprint has been widening, and these two nominations show how different the recognition paths now look. Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 is a theatrical anthology built around a celebrated manga author’s earliest work, while My Melody & Kuromi is a Netflix-backed stop-motion children’s series from an established animation studio. Both sit outside the late-night television model that most anime news covers.
The International Emmy Awards have also become a notable stop for Japanese animation in recent years, so a win on November 23 would carry real weight, particularly for the Fujimoto anthology, which had a comparatively small theatrical release and no traditional broadcast run. For the stop-motion series, the nomination follows its Asian Academy Creative Award and reinforces a production that has already found a global audience through streaming.
Source: Anime News Network
Featured image: Key visual for the Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 anime, via Anime News Network (©TATSUKI FUJIMOTO/SHUEISHA・Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 Committee).
