July 2, 2013

Image Caption: One of the grand prize winning characters of the GPM Anime contest, Mizu-chan wears a flowing blue dress with clouds at the hemline. Mizu-chan, created by Sabrynne Buchholz from Hudson, Colo., will co-star in a comic series about precipitation science and GPM mission. Credit: Sabrynne Buchholz

NASA

She can evaporate water with her hair. He measures all the rainfall and snowfall on Earth. Selected as the winners of the Global Precipitation Measurement missions Anime Challenge, these two characters will star in their own comic series to help teach the public about precipitation science and the Global Precipitation Measurement mission.

The GPM mission, a collaboration between NASA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the space agencies of France and India, and other international partners, challenged people from around the world to design an anime character to help demonstrate GPM educational science themes of the water cycle, weather and climate, and technology. Anime, short for animation, is a Japanese style of art that has filled shows and comics that are popular around the world.

After receiving more than 40 submissions, a panel of NASA scientists and outreach specialists selected two grand prize winners and two runner-up winners from three different age categories.

The two grand prize winners are Sabrynne Buchholz from Hudson, Colo., and Yuki Kiriga from Tokyo, Japan.

Buchholz, 14, was the president of her schools art club this past year and hopes to pursue a career in animation. She enjoys watching anime and learning about Asian cultures. Her winning character for the contest is Mizu-chan (Mizu means water) who personifies water and precipitation. Mizu-chans blue dress and blue strands of hair signify water while the yellow strands of her hair represent the sun. Her dress is hemmed with clouds, which can produce rain or snow. When water drops from the clouds lining her dress, it evaporates with help from her yellow strands of hair and then goes back through the water cycle, where it condenses again as clouds at the bottom of her dress.

The runner-up winners in the other categories:

Middle school (ages 13-15): Kielamel Sibal, 13, Winnipeg, Canada; and Nicole Bohlen, 15, Winter Park, Fla.

Continue reading here:

NASA Announces GPM Mission Anime Contest Winners