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Japan's NHK to Air 2 of 3 Wild Life Drama Episodes
posted on by Egan Loo
The NHK public broadcaster of Japan clarified the status of its manga-based Wild Life drama series by announcing that two of the three completed episodes will still air in March. NHK had announced on Thursday that the entire series was canceled in response to the deaths of two giraffes that were filmed for one episode. On Friday, the broadcaster's public relations department issued a statement that said, "We decided to cancel [the production] at the beginning of the year because the production company notified us that it would be difficult to continue filming. We plan to broadcast the remaining two episodes as complete, standalone stories."
The drama series adapts Masato Fujisaki's Wild Life manga about a young veterinarian who saves animals' lives. The production company separated a giraffe mother and its calf, for the first time from each other, for three days in December in order do its filming of one episode. In particular, the calf was filmed for three to four hours. The giraffe mother and father showed signs of stress, and two days after the mother and calf were reunited, the mother collapsed and died. The calf died six days later. The zoo has yet to determine that the stress from the filming was the cause of the deaths, but the episode featuring the giraffes will not air.
Source: Nikkan Sports via Ultimatum
