The Media Arts Award, administered by the Agency of Cultural Affairs, an organ of the Japanese Government's Ministry of Education, was established to encourage and reward the creation of outstanding new creative works in a range of visual media, including computer graphics, internet websites, and gaming software as well as animation and manga comics. Award winners are put on display at Tokyo's National Theater and the Tokyo Opera City center for the performing arts, following a round of award ceremonies and seminars on graphic media.
The manga division of the Media Arts Award recognizes story manga that expand
the boundaries of artistic expression. Blade of the Immortal, by Hiroaki Samura, was praised for its "outstanding detailed touch that challenges the limits of movable type printing technology. With the distinctive sensibility evident in its graphic depictions, the power of its artwork, and its deep exploration of complicated human characters, Blade of the Immortal can rightly be called a work of great ambition that at once inherits the best traditions of the `good old days' of Japanese story-telling manga, while taking the form to new heights of maturity and accomplishment."
Final selection was made by a panel of comic book artists, animators, and art scholars, including animator Mamoru Ishii, cartoonist Monkey Punch of Lupin III fame, and Shintaro Ishinomori, the creator of Cyborg 007 and other Japanese classics (who tragically passed away shortly after the awards ceremony). Other manga in contention for the award were Seirei-atsukai Elementerer by Takeshi Okazaki, Azumi by Yu Ogawa, and Monster by Naoki Urazawa.