Overview
The Animax Awards are an animation script contest award organized by CS animation channel Animax since 2002 to discover tomorrow's leading artists in the anime industry.
This is a dream project: the awarded scripts are transposed into animation by leading anime studios in Japan and are aired by Animax the following year. The theme for the seventh Animax Awards was "action," and the winner among 1200 entries was Shoka (The Calligraphers) by Kenji Saido.

Animator Makoto Yamada (You're Under Arrest OVA, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, Blood+ opening 3, Le Chevalier D'Eon opening) takes directorial duties, with character designs by Hirokazu Kojima (Shikabane Hime: Aka and Kuro, Coyote Ragtime Show). The key animator team includes Yasunori Miyazawa (Kill Bill: Vol. 1), Hiroyuki Imaishi (Gurren Lagann) Kanta Kamei (Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike) Tokuyuki Matsutake (Tales of series) Yasuomi Umetsu (A Kite). Hiroshi Ito (Blood+, Noein - to your other self) is overseeing the background art, while acclaimed composer Kenji Kawai (Ghost in the Shell, The Sky Crawlers, Eden of The East) scores the soundtrack.

Story
A mysterious underground organization conspiring against the Tokugawa government is bringing havoc to the city of Edo, ravaged by giant creatures appearing from nowhere.

Hanmoto Jumonji, the Grand Master of the Mystic Calligraphy Order is among the first ones to realize the entity of the imminent peril, and summons to Edo his best disciple, Sumiya Shiro.

However, a mysterious man called Kokusen Gen is lurking on Shiro's path to the city. Using a giant brush, Gen draws ideograms that come to life as a powerful beast-like creature, and send it against Shiro.

Following Gen, Shiro approaches an old temple in the outskirts of Edo, where he joins with Shimaki and Ena, two other calligraphers sent by the Grand Master to investigate. But the threesome is unaware that they are but following Gen's vicious game...

Air date in Japan: March 25, 2010
Format: 1 x 24

official website (Japanese only):
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