UFO Baby (だぁ!だぁ!だぁ!) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Mika Kawamura. The manga was serialized by Kodansha in Nakayoshi from February 1998 to March 2002, and the chapters were collected into nine tankōbon volumes.[1] It was adapted into a 78-episode anime television series produced by NHK, animated by J.C.Staff, and directed by Hiroaki Sakurai, which was broadcast between March 2000 and February 2002 on NHK's BS2 broadcast satellite network.[2] The series was one of the top-rated anime series during its initial broadcast.[3]
The story follows two junior high school students, Miyu and Kanata, who find and care for an abandoned alien baby without discovering that they are living together without adult supervision. The anime adaptation concluded before the manga was completed, resulting in different endings for each series. Kawamura later wrote a sequel to the manga, Shin Dā! Dā! Dā! (新☆だぁ!だぁ!だぁ!).