NHK announced last week that its NHK-E network will air Pig: The Dam Keeper Poems (Pig: Oka no Ue no Dam Keeper or “Pig: The Dam Keeper at the Top of the Hill”), the series of animated shorts based on Tonko House’s Oscar-nominated short film “The Dam Keeper.”
Hulu Japan produced the series, first announced under the title “Dam Keeper no Nakama-tachi” (The Dam Keeper’s Friends).
Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi (Hayao Miyazaki’s nephew-in-law) and Robert Kondo, both former Pixar art directors, founded Tonko House in 2014 and debuted the 18-minute “The Dam Keeper” film the same year.
It debuted at the Short Shorts Film Festival event in Tokyo in June, and began streaming on Hulu Japan in August.