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Pihotek: Walking With the Wind in the North Pole Picture Book Gets Anime Short

Japanese adventurer Yasunaga Ogita and illustrator Nana Inoue's children's picture book Pihotek: Walking With the Wind in the North Pole (Pihotek: Hokkyoku o Kaze to Aruku or Pihotek: Walking the Arctic With the Wind) inspired an anime short. Animehon, a new animation initiative from Kodansha, posted the 30- second commercial version of the animation and the two-minute director's cut version on September 6.

The short is the third project in the Animehon initiative, which animates short videos based on Kodansha's picture books (ehon in Japanese).

Kodansha describes the story:

Informed by his relationships with Inuit friends and 20 years of mostly solo expeditions, Yasunaga Ogita pens a poetic account of a walk in the Arctic. He observes animals in their natural habitat, and falls asleep with a sense of oneness with nature mediated by the wind. Then when the new dawn arrives with energy for the world, he sets off walking again. An essay in the back of the book discusses the seriousness of climate change.

Kazuhiro Hocchi (episode director on Rita et Machin, Shōnen Ashibe GO! GO! Goma-chan) directed the short, and Yuri Habuka (More Than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers, Maebashi Witches, Zannen na Ikimono Jiten) composed the music. Fanworks animated the short.

Kodansha published the book in August 2022.

Sources: Animehon's YouTube channel, Cocreco, Comic Natalie, Kodansha