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Tonko House, the animation studio behind “The Dam Keeper”, which was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Animated Short Film category and has won more than 20 awards at international film festivals around the world, opened the online community “Dirty Pals” in December 2020.

“Dirty Pals” is a place where you can experience Tonko House’s vision of “Inspire Curiosity” and share the “journey of making things” with them through behind-the-scenes journals of animation production and collaborative projects launched by Tonko House and community members.
Community-only advance distribution of all 10 episodes of the new work “Acorns” has also been announced.

The monthly fee for “Dirty Pals” is 1,500 JPY (tax not included), and the group will be active mainly on Facebook. To apply for membership, please visit the official website.

＜The full text of the comments is below＞
Four big dreams that Tonko House wants to achieve
Tonko House is an animation studio that started with the short film “The Dam Keeper. From the time I quit Pixar to start the studio up until now, there have been many obstacles and bumps in the road. However, the reason why we can overcome any obstacle and move forward is because we have many exciting dreams ahead of us. The process of Tonko House running towards its dream is a journey and a story.

If we have friends nearby to support us on this journey, we will be able to realize a great future that Tonko House alone cannot achieve. At Tonko House, we have four big dreams that we want to make come true.

The first is our dream, the “ONI” project. It’s a story that uses characters from old Japanese folktales created by Tonko House. We also have a more in-depth work called “Acorns”, a story about three little acorns who travel around the world and find their place in the world. It’s a story that mirrors the adventures of Tonko House.
There are also some projects that have not yet been announced to anyone. One of them is a project called “Curiosities”. Inspired by the Tonko House studio’s vision of “Inspire Curiosity”, this project is a story about small stones and plants in nature. We would like to create a real park based on this work.
And of course, we would like to create a full-length version of our classic short film, “The Dam Keeper”. We have expressed this work in various forms, such as graphic novels, but we also have a number of other big ideas and a worldview that we want to convey. I would be happy if I could work with everyone to make that happen.