Today’s news says that Academy Award nominates selection chose Ponyo on the Cliff and Atom or Astroboy in English title as pre-selected works.  This means they might be nominated in Academy Award of Animated films category, so this is still in the stage of choosing the NOMINATED works. They are not even nominated yet.

So this news is probably too early for us to be over the moon.

Ponyo is targeted only to children, but Astroboy is for both children and adults.  Hayao Miyazaki and Osamu Tezuka are both masters of Japanese animation, so if they both are nominated, our heart will be divided into two parts.  Both works are unforgettable and especially Osamu Tezuka already passed away, so some might think he should get a prize as he died too fast before Japanese animation went out the world and he didn’t get enough prize for his splendid works.

Hayao Miyazaki once took Academy Award with Spirited Away.  Although the award is certainly great prize, their works are beyond any works.  They already gave enough joy to us for our better life.