Don't Want to Go to Bed?

About

Don’t Want to Go to Bed? (Japanese: ねないこだれだ, Nenai Ko Dareda) is a picture book for children written by a Japanese picture book author Keiko Sena.^[1] This picture book became to the first icon of the Japanese imageboard site Futaba Channel (2chan), and numerous kind of its photo collages had been created by the users.

Origin

“Don’t Want to Go to Bed?” has been a long-seller picture book which has been sold more than 2 million copies since it was first published in 1969.^[2] Its story is quite brief and simple: a child who don’t want to go to bed gets taken away to somewhere far night sky by a ghost. Quite a few Japanese people who have read it in their childhood have a strong impression, similar to a trauma, of this book in their memories due to its cruel story and unique artwork made by collage of pieces of colored paper.

Child who don’t want to go to bed must mutate to ghost.
Fly away to the ghost world
Mutate to a ghost and fly away

In the predawn of Futaba Channel, its users began to use the cover art of this book as a sort of a Reaction Face to themselves who didn’t want to go to bed and were chatting on the threads till late in every night.

At that time Futaba hadn’t had the /b/ (Nijiura) board yet. So, “Don’t Want to Go to bed?” is considered as the first fad on Futaba Channel in the history of the Japanese web .

Spread

The development of a photo collage fad for this Futaba’s iconic picture book was led by the rise of the photo collage movment triggered by The Majesty, Waha~ and other earliest fads in the /b/ board in early 2003. In particular, they not only made collages of a ghost in the cover art but also liked to modify its 7-letter title in hiragana characters (Ne-Na-I-Ko Da-Re-Da) to something funny by matching rhyming words.

Those classic works are salvaged in Futaba user’s private archives and tell the atmosphere of good old days of that imageboard site. In addition, this picture book is counted as one of the “Nijiura Magnificent Ten” as same as The Majesty and others because of this popularity.

Notable Examples

Photo Collages

A girl I had sex the other day.
(Ko-Na-I-Da Ne-Ta-Ko_)
I have a sty in my eye.
(Me-Ba-Chi-Ko De-Ki-Ta_)
Nerunerunerune
I’ve got a girlfriend.
(Ka-No-Jo-Ga De-Ki-Ta)
I AM the man who doesn’t want to go to bed!
(Ne-Na-I-Ko O-Re-Sa)
Say NO to Drugs!
(Sha-Bu-Wa Da-Me-Da)

Compilations

Appearance in Other Media

The cover art of this picture book had a cameo appearance in the 15th episode of a Japanese TV anime series for Ken Akamatsu’s manga Negima! Magister Negi Magi^[3] in 2005. This TV anime series is also known for a cameo appearance by Senkōsha in its 1st & 3rd episode.

Search Interest

External References

Editor’s Note: Futaba relating websites basically prohibit people from introducing their URLs in the external. Do not write the URLs in articles or comments. Please use search engines.