Animation studio Production I.G's international holiday greeting card featured Pigtails , the international title for a short animated film based on Machiko Kyō's Mitsuami no Kami-sama (Braided Pig-Tail Deity) manga. The company posted information on its English website on Tuesday.

Francesco Prandoni of Production I.G's international operations confirmed with ANN that Production I.G is handling the international rights to the film, and is in discussions with distributors in some territories. However, he said he "strongly doubts" that Production I.G will release the film directly.

The 28-minute animation was part of a mixed-media stage production that ran in Tokyo in October. Yoshimi Itazu (Miss Hokusai chief animation director) helmed the short film for his directorial debut.

The stage production combined line readings, animation, music, and sand art to present the story. Production I.G was a co-producer of the stage play, and has international rights for the whole play, but will focus on the animation part only.

Kyō's original Mitsuami no Kamisama manga centers around a pigtailed girl who lives alone in a solitary house by the sea after a disaster that is never specified. The manga is a reflection of Kyō's personal feelings toward the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, though it is never explicitly stated in the story, out of consideration for those affected by the disaster. Kyō published the manga in Shueisha's now-defunct Jump X ( Jump Kai ) magazine in 2013, and Shueisha published the manga's first and only compiled book volume in the same year. The manga won an award in the 18th Annual Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize in March 2014.

Update: Plot description corrected. Production I.G does have international rights to the entire stage play, but is only focusing on the animation.