When I first heard that NHK was airing a show called ¡°The Mating Game,¡± I assumed it was the national broadcaster¡¯s answer to ¡°Terrace House¡± ¡ª a beautifully shot voyeuristic look into the lives of young couples.

And in many ways I was right, except that, in ¡°The Mating Game,¡± the human subjects have been replaced with infinitely more interesting specimens from the animal world.

Co-produced with Silverback Films, the U.K.-based studio behind David Attenborough¡¯s ¡°Planet Earth¡± series, ¡°The Mating Game¡± (¡°Koi Suru Ikimono-tachi no Chosen,¡± in Japanese) follows the intricate, elegant and frequently deceptive courting rituals of 80 species in 22 different countries. It is also the first natural history series to be shot entirely in 8K.