NHK broadcasts Kunio Kato music video "Seru no Koi" for seven consecutive weeks

by Chris MaGee

It's been a couple months now since Kunio Kato took home the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film at the 81st Annual Academy Awards, but we haven't heard much from the 32-year-old animator since then. I can only imagine that he's off somewhere hard at work on his latest animated flight of fancy, but in the meantime his increased profile has gotten the attention of the folks at NHK who have decided to feature one of Kato's earlier films on their airwaves for the next seven weeks.

Japanese singer/ songwriter and actor Akinori Nakagawa put out a single "Seru no Koi" in August of 2005 and to accompany its release Kato was brought on board to direct a music video. Kato's interpretation of the love ballad has an underwater boy pining for a beautiful mermaid.

NHK will be broadcasting "Seru no Koi" every Friday at 9:55 p.m. between April 3rd and May 15th, but don't worry if you're not in Japan or have heavy duty cable service. You can check out the song and video right here.

Thanks to Variety Japan for the details on this.