Humans Are Nice Parodies
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About
"Humans are Nice" (Japanese: 人間っていいな, Ningen tte Iina) is a quite well-known Japanese child song that was played in an ending movie for a Japanese famous TV anime series Manga Nippon Mukashi Banashi (まんが日本昔ばなし).[1] This song has been familiar to almost all Japanese people for over many decades, and hence sometimes utilized as musical resource in online parodies.
Origin
"Humans are Nice" was composed for an ending theme song of the program by a famous Japanese composer Asei Kobayashi[2] and arranged by Joe Hisaishi[3], known as the main composer in Studio Ghibli's anime movies. And its innocent lyrics was written by Akari Yamaguchi.[4] This song was originally aired as the 5th ending theme of that program from 1984 to 1987 and earned a much popularity among viewers. Then it came back to the ending movie in 1990 and continued to be played till the program ended in 1994. Besides, the ending theme had been fixed to this song when the show was re-aired in 2000s.
| Japanese (Romanized) | English Translation |
|---|---|
| Kuma no ko mite ita kakurenbo | A baby bear is watching children playing hide-and-seek. |
| Oshiri wo daishita ko ittoujou | A child baring his hip is in the best spirits. |
| Yūyake koyake de mata ashita mata ashita | Let's go home with the sunset. See you tomorrow. |
| Iina iina ningen tte iina | How nice. How nice. Humans are nice |
| Oishii oyasumi hoka hoka gohan | With yummy treats and warm dishes, |
| Kodomo no kaeri wo matteru daro na | Parents will wait for their children's return. |
| Boku mo kaero ouchi e kaero | I'll too go home, go back my home. |
| Den- den- denguri gaette bai bai bai | Let's somer-, somer-, somersault and then say bye-bye-bye |
| Iina iina ningen tte iina | How nice. How nice. Humans are nice |
| Minna de nakayoku pocha pocha ofuro | They will take a bath together delightfully |
| Attakai futon de nemurun daro na | and sleep in cozy beds. |
| Boku mo kaero ouchi e kaero | I'll too go home, go back home. |
| Den- den- denguri kaette bai bai bai | Let's somer-, somer- ,somersault and then say bye-bye-bye. |
Spread
Since this song is the memorable song for almost all Japanese people, it's a very common occurrence that they sing filk songs of this song in childhood. Hence, many filk songs of "Humans are Nice" naturally became to be posted to the Japanese video sharing service Nico Nico Douga (NND) after its launch in 2007. "2D (Nijigen) is Nice"[5] and "Phimosis is nice"[6] are good examples for silliness of those filks.
In addition to this, this song and its movie became to be often utilized in Vocaloid covers or parodies such as MAD videos and hand-drawn animations around the end of 2007. Famous earliest hits in both genres are a hand-drawn animated video featuring Jojo's Bizarre Adventure posted in November 2007 (shown below, left)[7] and Donald McDonald's Ran Ran Ru MAD "Donald is Nice" posted in December 2007[8] (shown below, right).
Like these, there are hundreds of parodies for this song are uploaded to NND[9], and most of them are usually named by the phrasal template "X is Nice" (Xっていいな).
Notable Examples
For more videos, check out the videos section in this entry.
Left: Street Fighter | Right; Battle Dome
Left: El Shaddai | Right; Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Left: Crazy Live Report feat. Daigo Umehara | Right; Axis Powers Hetalia
Search Interest
A large spike around the beginning of 2008 was caused by a TV commercial featuring the song covered by Japanese punk rock musicians.
External References
Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos listed in this section.
[1] Wikipedia – まんが日本昔ばなし (Japanese)
[2] Wikipedia – Asei Kobayashi (Japanese)
[3] Wikipedia – Joe Hisaishi
[4] Wikipedia – Akari Yamaguchi (Japanese)
[5] niconico Video – 日本オワタ話(ED：にじげんっていいな）verミジンコ11-26-2007 (deleted)
[6] niconico Video – ほうけいっていいな / Posted on 02-15-2008
[7] niconico Video – にんげんっていいな・ジョジョver / Postedo n 10-18-2007
[8] niconico Video – 【ドナルドMAD】ドナルドっていいな【にんげんっていいな＋ドナルド】 / Posted on 12-11-2007 (deleted)
