Inai Inai Baa!

Television series

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Inai Inai Baa!
Fuuka era (2003–2007) opening

Japanese	いないいないばあっ!

Genre	Children's television series
Starring	Kanako Tahara (1996–1999) Rina Saitou (1999–2003) Fuuka Hara (2003–2007) Kotomi Kuga (2007–2011) Yuuna Sugiyama (2011–2015) Yuki Oosumi (2015–2019) Haruki Kuramochi (2019–2023) Oka Takeishi (2023–present)
Country of origin	Japan
Original language	Japanese
Production
Running time	15 min
Production company	NHK
Original release
Network	NHK Educational TV
Release	April 1, 1996 (1996-04-01)
Related
China: Yiyayiya Vietnam: Ú Òa! Myanmar: Tu Tu Yay Wah

Inai Inai Baa! (Japanese: いないいないばあっ!^ⓘ) is a Japanese children's TV program broadcast by NHK Educational TV for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners (0–6 years old), consisting of gymnastics, songs, educations, etc. It first premiered on April 1, 1996.

Overview

NHK's program for infants, which started broadcasting in 1996.^[1]^[2] The audience rating of NHK education as a children's program is the most popular program, following Okaasan to Issho and Miitsuketa!.^[3]

The program name "っ!" has the meaning of "full of energy".^[4]

The pilot version was broadcast on BS2 on January 15 and 16, 1996. Broadcasting began on NHK BS2 Television on April 1, 1996,^[5] and then on October 7, 1996, it moved to the current educational television frame. From April 5, 1999, there were two broadcasting systems, morning and evening.

Appearances are regular such as Wanwan, Sister (O-chan as of 2023), and Puppet (Poupo as of 2023). Up until now, elementary school girls have been appointed as sisters, and they have been replaced in four years (only the first three years). The puppets also change irregularly.

As of 2021, localized versions are being produced and broadcast in Shanghai (People's Republic of China), Vietnam and Myanmar.^[4]

Characters

There are an amount of characters that appear in the show.

Puppets

Regular


Character name	Date	Description
Penta (ペンタ)	April 1, 1996 - April 4, 1997	A 5-sided star shaped creature with a green antenna that has buck teeth. They graduated from the show just over a year later, and was the only character that did not appear in the 20th anniversary special in 2016.
Kuu (くぅ)	April 7, 1997 - April 4, 2003	A light pink cloud fairy with a green mohawk. In 2000, Dada, a new friend appeared along with Kuu. They both left in 2003.
Dada (ダーダ)	April 3, 2000 - April 4, 2003	A baby bird who only says 'dada'. They joined the show along with Kuu, before both graduating in 2003.
U-tan (うーたん)	April 7, 2003 - March 31, 2023	A fairy from the Land of Music, and has a lot of friends. Graduated from the show in March 2023, almost 20 years after they joined.
Poupo (ぽぅぽ)	April 3, 2023 - present	A baby with pompoms on the head, and loves being stroked gently.

Songs

The many songs in the show is designed to be fun and exciting for babies and young children, and is only 1 to 2 minutes in length. Across the years, many well-known lyricists, composers, picture book authors, musicians and scriptwriters had contributed to adding songs into the show. In the beginning, the team behind the show were not intending to have songs by famous people, but would end up doing so as they were introduced by people involved in the program (e.g. lyricists). Gymnastics songs that play in every episode aired change every few years, and feature movements to help develop the infant mind.

Specials

20th Anniversary Special! -Always Together!-

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the show in April 2016, a 30-minute special was aired on January 2 of the same year (rebroadcasting on January 11). This featured many past segments making a return. Some of the special included a medley of gymnastics songs from the past, a felt puppet segment featuring puppets of past girls and characters from the show (excluding Penta), and the full version of the 20th anniversary song, Always Together (ずーっといっしょ). It was also released on DVD, Blu-ray and streaming services.

References

^ キッズワールド NHK Eテレこどもポータル"いないいないばあっ!". Archived from the original on 2014-02-14. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
^ "アニメより「カウントダウン」に大興奮…日本初の赤ちゃん向け番組「いないいないばあっ！」２５周年". 産経ニュース. 2021-12-14. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
^ 個人視聴率調査"幼児のテレビ視聴と録画番組･DVDの利用状況〜2018年6月「幼児視聴率調査」から〜" (PDF). 世論調査. NHK放送文化研究所. 2018-10-01. Retrieved 2019-07-23. 表10 Eテレでよく見られている番組（放送時間10分以上）
^ ^a ^b 『いないいないばあっ! キャラクターだいすき BOOK』講談社、2021年、2頁。 ISBN 978-4-06-522311-6。
^ 「テレビが子守をする時代―？　世界初、ＮＨＫ衛星で０―２歳児向け番組」『読売新聞』1996年4月9日付朝刊　17面