Okazaki won award for juried category “Outstanding Individual Achievement In Animation”

The Television Academy today announced on Wednesday the winners for juried categories in the 78th Annual Emmy Awards. Character designer Takashi Okazaki won an award for “Outstanding Individual Achievement In Animation” for his work on “The Duel: Payback” anime short in the Star Wars: Visions Volume 3 anthology project.

The award will be presented at the Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles on September 6. An edited presentation will air on September 12 on FXX. Juried category entrants are screened by a panel of professionals in appropriate peer groups.

Ths year’s Primetime Emmy Awards previously nominated Shinya Ōhira and david production‘s “Black” short from Star Wars: Visions Volume 3 in the Outstanding Animated Program category.

The winners will be announced at the 2026 Emmy Awards on September 14 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

Takanobu Mizuno directed the “The Duel: Payback” short at Kamikaze Douga + ANIMA. The Star Wars franchise describes the story:

With the help of some unexpected allies, Ronin faces off against his greatest foe – a twisted Jedi known as the Grand Master who is bent on revenge.

The short is an sequel to “The Duel” short from the first anthology of Star Wars: Visions. Okazaki was also the character designer for the original short.

Star Wars: Visions Volume 3 debuted on Disney+ in October 2025. The latest anthology continued the storylines of three shorts from the first volume: “The Duel,” “Village Bride,” and “The Ninth Jedi.”

Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi, the limited anime series spinoff from the Star Wars: Visions project, premiered on August 5 on Disney+ and Hulu.

Source: Press release

The staff for the television anime of Nyan Nyan Factory‘s Chainsmoker Cat (Yanineko) manga announced on Wednesday that Yumi Hara will join the anime’s cast as Yani Neko’s mother Shizue Satō. The character will appear in the anime’s seventh episode on Thursday.

Seven Seas is releasing the manga in English, and it describes this comedy set in a world where humans, catgirls, and similar species co-exist:

Yani is a catgirl with a seriously bad smoking habit. She smokes so much that her apartment smells like ash and is littered with cigarette butts—and plenty of other trash! Every time she tries to quit, she becomes weak to the cravings and gives in almost instantly. Will she ever get her life together, or is she doomed to live as a chainsmoking slob forever?

The original manga contains toilet humor, gross-out comedy, and characters regularly consuming drugs and/or alcohol.

The anime stars:

Studio Lemon‘s Taku Kimura (Kairyū to Yūbinya-san, Star Wars: Visions‘ “Tattooine Rhapsody”) is directing the anime at Bibury Animation Studio, and Takashi Aoshima (Himouto! Umaruchan, The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You) is writing the scripts. Riki Matsuura is designing the characters, and Keiichi Suzuki (Saint Young Men, Tokyo Godfathers) is composing the music. Rock band Wasureranneyo performs the anime’s opening theme song “Nanmonee,” while Necry Talkie performs the anime’s ending theme song “Kemuri to Blue” (Smoke and Blue). Other staff members include:

The anime premiered on July 2 at 24:30 (effectively, July 3 at 12:30 a.m.) on the Tokyo MX and BS11 channels. The anime also started airing on AT-X on July 25. WWWave Corporation‘s anime streaming platform OceanVeil is streaming the anime as it airs.

The anime has two versions, an “Evil Dragon Unleashed” version that “respects the work’s directorial intent” on some of the episodes, and an “On-Air” version that is made for terrestrial television broadcast. The “Evil Dragon Unleashed” version is available on the AT-X premium subscription channel and the AnimeFesta, DMM TV, Fuji TV On Demand, Hulu, Netflix, and Anime Times streaming services in Japan. (AnimeFesta ;and Anime Times will also have the “On-Air” version.) 16 other streaming services only offers the “On-Air” version in Japan. OceanVeil streams the “Evil Dragon Unleashed” version of the anime.

Nyan Nyan Factory has been serializing the manga in Kodansha‘s Young Magazine, and Kodansha published the 13th compiled book volume on August 6. Seven Seas published the third volume in English on June 16.

Sources: Chainsmoker Cat anime’s website, Comic Natalie

The Pokémon Company began streaming a new “POKÉTOON” anime short on Wednesday. The short is titled “Kameil to Natsu no Tsuzuku” (Wartortle and the Ongoing Summer).

The short follows a boy named Rikuto who visits his grandmother on an island at the end of summer. There, he meets a Wartortle.

Shingo Yamashita (Cosmic Princess Kaguya!) directed the short at Studio Chromato and Studio Colorido. Aya Satsuki (Solo Camping for Two) wrote the script. Riiki Miura designed the characters and served as chief animation director. Kyosuke Kagawa composed the music.

The short stars Sayaka Senbongi as Rikuto, Tasuku Hatanaka as Gaku, Akiko Hiramatsu as Shuri, Kana Hanazawa as Wartortle (Kameil), Natsumi Haruse as Leafeon, and Michiyo Murase as Bellsprout (Madatsubomi).

Sources: Official Pokémon YouTube channel, Comic Natalie