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Nandarō (なんだろう, lit. 'What Is It?') was the mascot of Nippon Television.

The motif is a green pig whose tail resembles the number 4 (alluding to the channel frequency NTV has, and the subsequent digital channel number).

Overview and usage

It was used from August 1992 to 2012. It was produced to commemorate the then-upcoming 40th anniversary of Nippon Television in 1993.

The character was designed by Hayao Miyazaki, the director of Studio Ghibli, and appears in the beginning of Porco Rosso. According to Miyazaki, this character is "a genderless fictitious creature, if you will, a symbol of curiosity and dreams that exist in everyone's heart".^[1]

Initially, it is planned to be used for a limited period of one year as a character for the 40th anniversary slogan, "I am among everyone" (みんなの中に、私はいます。, Min'na no naka ni, watashi wa imasu). Instead of the enacted Nippon Television company emblem and unified symbol mark, what will be used, and it will be called ``Production work (Nandarou) 40th Nippon Television.

In 1993, stuffed Nandarōs appeared on the set and placed on the seat of the host of popular programs on Nippon Television at the time, such as Gogo wa Omoikkiri TV, Quiz World is SHOWby Showby!!, and Magical Brain Power!!. In the previous year, 1992, the official character "Otama Jackson" from the annual NNS telethon 24-Hour Television: Love Songs Save the Earth was placed in each program, but it became known to viewers and became popular as a stuffed animal took over. Since 1994, it has been officially set as a mascot character, and it has been used in production program credits.At the same time, from 2003 to 2013, it was used as the Nippon Television company flag along with the logo change. It was also drawn on relay cars and TV cameras.

From 2004 to 2013, it was also used by Nippon Television affiliate RF Radio Japan. As a company logo, the color scheme changed from 2003 (black edge + green → gold edge only, satellite channel BS Nippon Television until the end of March 2008 used "black edge + green" and still remained unchanged).

From January 1, 2008 to March 29, 2009, due to the use of the campaign logo (Nittele 55) associated with the 55th anniversary of the company's founding, Nandarō was temporarily dropped from the credits (After the end of the campaign on March 30, 2009, the end credits displayed Nandarō again).

From January 1, 2013, due to the replacement with the campaign logo ("Nittele Go! Next 60") accompanying the 60th anniversary of its founding, it will no longer appear in the end credits again, including some programs on CS broadcasting and BS Nippon Television. The channel names Nittele G+, Nittele NEWS24, and Nittele Plus continued to use the conventional logos they had been using since 2003.

Since April 2014, Nandarō has stopped appearing on TV screens, and Da Bear is actually the mascot character of NTV (he was introduced in 2009). However, it didn't mean that the usage of Nandarō ended, and that it will continue to be used as a NTV character in the future.^[2] In the lower right corner of the promotional poster for Studio Ghibli's When Marnie Was There (directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi) released on July 19, 2014, "なんだろう?" is written in small letters with only a black edge, instead of the new NTV logo. In addition, the logo displayed at the beginning of movies related to Nippon Television was partially changed due to the use of the current logo.

Commercials

In the first year of the mascot's usage, when it was planned to be a one-year mascot in anticipation for NTV's 40th anniversary, Hayao Miyazaki created a series of commercials to promote the mascot. The spots first aired during November 1992, and featured one 15-second spot and four smaller 5-second spots.^[3] They have been released on both the Ghibli ga Ippai LaserDisc box set and the Ghibli ga Ippai Special Short Short DVD set.^[4]