The award ceremony for the 25th TV Asahi Newcomer Scenario Award was held on October 29th at the station's headquarters (Minato-ku, Tokyo), and it was announced that Kanako Kondo's "Confession" won the grand prize out of 825 entries.
The TV Asahi Newcomer Scenario Award was established in 2000 and has produced such writers as Ryota Furusawa, Riko Sakaguchi, and Hiroyuki Komine. This year's theme was "mystery," and after an internal screening, the final selection was made by judges Yumiko Inoue, Yoshikazu Okada, and Kazuyuki Morosawa, who decided on the Grand Prize and Excellence Prize.
Kondo was born in 1989 and is 35 years old. He is an office worker living in Tokyo. He had been aiming to become a novelist, but after starting to attend a screenwriting school last year, he decided to apply for the TV Asahi Newcomer Screenplay Award. "I thought I was able to finish writing it because the theme was mystery, and I was lucky that various things came together at the right time. I've been writing for many years, but it was a dream to have a professional read it, so I'm filled with gratitude and joy. I'll continue to work hard," he said of his joy at winning the award.
"Confession" tells the story of Eiji Masukawa, a family court investigator who believes honesty is justice, and Manaho Miyagi, who has been sent to the prosecution for the murder of her own brother. Eiji struggles to build a relationship with Manaho, who is friendly but not very open-minded, and at the same time, he discovers an old notebook among his father's belongings. In it, he finds a confession to a murder his father committed 38 years ago... and so the story unfolds.
Selection committee member Okada praised the scripts, saying, "The selection was of a high standard. The Grand Prize script, in particular, was of an extremely high level, immediately usable, and well-polished. It's a script that I would like many actors to try to act in." He also commented, "The epilogue was a bit of a topic of discussion. I felt that the scene at the end where the heroine loses her own life was a shame. It's a script that makes you want to see it as a drama."
When asked about his future plans, Kondo said, "I had fun depicting a mystery, so I'd like to try doing a detective drama. (This work) has a bad ending, but I would prefer a happy ending, so I'd like to try doing a light-hearted story as well," drawing laughter from the audience.
The Excellence Award went to two works: "Plagiarists" by Yasuhiro Terai and "Pure Love" by Kohei Fujishiro. The award ceremony was attended by the judges, Inoue, Okada, and Ryozawa, as well as TV Asahi President Nishishin.
