Doraemon

Doraemon is a Japanese manga series created by Fujiko F. Fujio (the pen name of Hiroshi Fujimoto) which later became an anime series and Asian franchise. The series is about a robotic cat named Doraemon, who travels back in time from the 22nd century to aid a schoolboy, Nobita Nobi. The series first appeared in December 1969, when it was published simultaneously in six different magazines. In total, 1,344 stories were created in the original series, which are published by Shogakukan under the Tentōmushi manga brand, extending to forty-five volumes. The volumes are collected in the Takaoka Central Library in Toyama, Japan, where Fujio was born.

Doraemon was awarded the first Osamu Tezuka Culture Award in 1997.

History

In December 1969, the Doraemon manga appeared simultaneously in six different children's monthly magazines. The magazines were titled by the year of children's studies, which included Yoiko (good children), Yōchien (nursery school), and Shogaku Ichinensei (first grade) to Shogaku Yonnensei (fourth grade). By 1973, the series began to appear in two more magazines, Shogaku Gogensei (fifth grade) and Shogaku Rokunensei (sixth grade). The stories featured in each of the magazines were different, meaning the author was originally creating more than six stories each month. In 1979, CoroCoro Comic was launched as a magazine of Doraemon. Original manga based on the Doraemon movies were also released in CoroCoro Comic. The stories which are preserved under the Tentōmushi brand are the stories found in these magazines.

Since the debut of Doraemon in 1969, the stories have been selectively collected into forty-five books published from 1974 to 1996, which had a circulation of over 80 million in 1992. In addition, Doraemon has appeared in a variety of manga series by Shōgakukan. In 2005, Shōgakukan published a series of five more manga volumes under the title Doraemon+ (Doraemon Plus), which were not found in the forty-five Tentōmushi volumes.

Plot summary

The first appearance of Doraemon, via the time machine.

Doraemon is sent back in time by Nobita Nobi's great-great grandson Sewashi to improve Nobita's circumstances so that his descendants may enjoy a better future. In the original timeline, Nobita's failures in school and subsequently, his career, has left his family line beset with financial problems.

The stories are formulaic, usually focused on the everyday struggles of fourth grader Nobita, the protagonist of the story. Doraemon possesses a fourth-dimensional pocket from which he can produce all manner of futuristic tools, gadgets, and playthings from a future department store. In a typical chapter, Nobita comes home crying about a problem he faces in school or the local neighborhood. After Nobita's pleading or goading, Doraemon produces a device to help Nobita fix his problem, enact revenge, or flaunt to his friends.

Nobita usually goes too far, despite Doraemon's best intentions, and gets into deeper trouble than before. Sometimes, Nobita's friends (usually Suneo or Jaian) steal the gadgets and end up misusing them. However, by the end of the story, there is usually retribution to the characters who end up misusing them, and a moral lesson is taught.

Characters

Main characters

Fujiko's friends say that every main character represents elementary school student archetypes Fujiko noticed in his own school days.

Doraemon

Doraemon is the robot cat sent back in time by Sewashi to aid Nobita. Doraemon originally had ears but they were bitten off by a robot mouse back in the 22nd century. As a result, he developed a morbid fear of mice, despite being a robotic cat. He also has the tendency to panic during emergencies, characterized by him frantically trying to pull out a very much-needed tool from his pocket (this 4-dimensional pocket is probably the best form of hammerspace), only to produce a huge assortment of unrelated household items.

Of all the Doraemon characters, Doraemon is the only one to have physically changed since the manga began. At first, he was predominantly blue, with a blue tail, a white stomach, and flesh-coloured hands and feet. He also stooped, and had a body much larger than his head. In later issues, he had a smaller body, white hands and feet, and a red tail.

In "The Doraemons" story arc, it is revealed that Doraemon's original paint color was yellow. After getting his ears gnawed off by the robot mouse, he slipped into depression on top of a tower, where he drank a potion with a label having letters that resembled "sadness". As he cried for a long time, the yellow color washed off and his voice changed due to the potion. He was later greeted by his sister, Dorami.

Doraemon weighs 129.3 kg and his height is 129.3 cm. He is also able to run at 129.3 km/h when scared, and jump 129.3 meters when threatened. He was manufactured on September 3, 2112 (12/9/3), at the Matsushiba Robot Factory .

Doraemon's favourite food is dorayaki, a Japanese treat filled with red bean paste, which is often used to make Doraemon do things he is otherwise reluctant to do. Speculations led to dorayaki being the origin of his name. However, it was revealed in one of the manga that his name originates from a Japanese word for "stray cat", dora neko, and the -emon ending which is part of traditional Japanese names, as seen also in, for example, Ishikawa Goemon.

Nobi Nobita

Nobita is another main character of the series. He is a fourth grader^[1] in Tokyo and an only child. He wears glasses, a red or yellow polo shirt with a white collar, and blue shorts. Nobita's character flaws are endless. He is lazy, uncoordinated, dim-witted, frail, plain-looking, unlucky, and bad at sports. Nobita's normal day consists of arriving late to class, scoring zeros on his exam, getting yelled at by his teacher, being bullied by classmates Jaian and Suneo, falling into curbside rain gutters, being chased by dogs, and getting yelled at by his mom for refusing to do his homework. However, his flaws and struggles are what drive the storyline. Nobita does possess some unique talents such as his unrivaled marksmanship and string figure weaving. Although Nobita is frequently portrayed as being cowardly, he has a strong sense of justice and will sometimes risk his life to help save others or entire civilizations, which is shown in full-length stories.

Minamoto Shisuka

Shizuka, usually called Shizu-chan or Shizuka-chan, is a smart and kind girl who is the object of Nobita's affections as well as his future bride. She bathes every morning, noon, afternoon, and evening, which leads to numerous accidental bath scenes. She is also known for taking piano lessons unwillingly, which is sometimes used as an excuse for declining to hang out with Nobita. Her true passions are sweet potatoes and the violin, in which her playing is as bad as Gian is at singing.

Goda Takeshi

Takeshi, usually known by the nickname Gian (Giant), is big, strong, and quick-tempered. His nickname might mean giant. He usually wears an orange shirt. He is known for his confidence in his terrible singing and cooking. He regularly subjects the neighbourhood children to horrendous singing recitals, which is sometimes combined with his homemade dinner. Many of the stories revolve around Nobita and his friends' efforts to avoid Gian's concerts.

He also frequently steals other children's toys and books under the pretext of "borrowing" it, unless the toy is damaged. However, he still has a strong sense of justice, and will not hesitate to help Nobita and his friends when they are in real trouble, which often occurs in the movies. Although he bullies the other children (mostly Nobita), he is terrified of his mother. He founded his own baseball team named after himself. Even though Nobita is often blamed for the loss against the baseball team's rival, the "Tyranos", Gian and Suneo still force Nobita to play because they do not have enough players.

Gian has a younger sister named Jaiko, whom he adores.

Honekawa Suneo

Suneo is the braggart who parades his material wealth in front of Nobita. He is often seen with Gian, who he bullies Nobita with. He actually hates Gian very much, so helping Gian to bully Nobita is probably to avoid suffering the same fate himself. Several stories start with Suneo showing off some new video game, toy, or electronic device his family has bought, or him needing Doraemon's help. He has an extensive knowledge of science, and he is a talented artist and designer. He also has a younger brother Sunetsugu, who was adopted into his uncle's family in New York. In some scenes, Suneo is seen as a narcissist who loves to stare at himself in the mirror while telling himself that he is the most handsome guy in the world. He is still a bed-wetter and needs to wear diapers when he sleeps, despite being in the fourth grade. He considers this as his secret weakness, and according to his mother, it is his only weakness.

Minor characters

Jaiko

Jaiko is Gian's younger sister who would have been Nobita's wife in the future had Doraemon not intervened. She first appeared in the first story, before the introduction of Gian. Her name Jaiko is usually considered a nickname, but Fujiko never gave her a real name.

Jaiko goes by her amateur mangaka pen name Christine Goda (クリスチーネ 剛田, Kurisuchīne , and sometimes submits her stories to publishing companies for prizes.

Hidetoshi Dekisugi

Hidetoshi is Nobita's classmate and rival for Shizuka's affections. He always gets perfect scores on his tests, but never shows off his abilities. He willingly helps Nobita whenever he has philosophical or scientific questions. His name literally means "brilliant over-achiever", and his last name is a pun on dekisugiru, which means "over achieving".

Dorami

Dorami, also known as Dorami-chan, is the younger sister of Doraemon. Strangely enough, they were sibling due to the fact that they shared half of the oil from a can. She lives in the 22nd-century Tokyo with Sewashi, Nobita's great-great-grandson. She is yellow where Doraemon is blue, and she has ears that looks like a large red bow. She likes melonpan and she is afraid of cockroaches. She is also shown to be more advanced than Doraemon. She sometimes visits Nobita with a time machine.

Doraemon & Dorami

Tameru Kaneo

Tameru tends to accompany Suneo and Jaian. He has a friend whose name is not mentioned, and both of them are always seen together. Kane wo tameru, the way his name is read in Japanese, means "to save money" in Japanese.

Mini-Doras

Mini-Doras are actually gadgets of Doraemon. They are mini versions of Doraemon, each with a different color. They can think and feel for themselves, and communicates with Doraemon through the "Mini-Dora" language. They act as helpers for all sorts of jobs, such as repairing the internal mechanism of Doraemon.

Nobita's family

Tamako Nobi

Tamako is Nobita's mother, who is usually seen scolding Nobita, or sending Nobita on errands,but is shown that she loves her son very much.

Nobisuke Nobi

Nobisuke is Nobita's father and a laid-back salaryman. Nobisuke is very considerate of Nobita, often seen arriving home from work to soothe Tamako's anger directed at Nobita. He is also shown to be unable to drive or quit smoking, has a poor memory and sometimes he arrives home very drunk. He was once an aspiring art student.

Sewashi

Sewashi is Nobita's great-great-grandson who sent Doraemon back to the past to look after Nobita. Sewashi was the person who first bought Doraemon in 2112 when Doraemon still had ears and was yellow.

Nobisuke

Nobisuke is Nobita's son, who is named after Nobita's father. He is a much better athlete than Nobita and is sly. He did not hesitate to beat young Nobita when young Nobita tried to stop Nobisuke from running away from home.

Dōgu

Doraemon can take out various devices known as dōgu ( lit. gadget) from his fourth-dimensional pocket. Some of the gadgets are based on real Japanese household devices with fanciful twists, while most are gadgets which are completely science fiction. (Although some may be based on folklore or religious stories). Examples of gadgets are one used to affect the outcome of fights on television or walk on clouds.

Thousands of dōgu have been featured in Doraemon. Some have placed the estimation at approximately 4,500 different dōgu used in Doraemon.

Recurring Dōgu

Fourth-dimensional pocket

The inside of pocket connects to the fourth dimension and acts like a wormhole. It is usually shown attached to Doraemon's abdomen. Doraemon has a spare pocket which connects to the same location.

Time machine

The exit of Doraemon's time machine is in Nobita's desk drawer. The time machine looks like a simple platform with a control console, and a clock with five hands overhanging the console. Doraemon is often seen piloting the time machine. Dorami has her own time machine shaped like a tulip, suggesting a variety of models available in the future. The time machine can create an exit in a specific place spatially as well as temporally. An alternative to the time machine is the time belt, which does not change the wearer's location relative to Earth. The presence of this machine is not known by Nobita's mother (The long story about robots from another planet attacking the earth, shows that when Shizuka took a robot girl to the time machine while Nobita's mother was cleaning his room, Nobita's mother could not understand what happened for the two girls have got into the drawer. A short story showing that when Nobita's mother wanted to punish him, he escaped by hiding into the drawer.)

Take-copter

One of the main modes of transportation for the various characters is the take-copter, which combines the words taketombo ( lit. bamboo dragonfly, the Japanese name for the bamboo-copter), and part of the word herikoputā (), which means helicopter. The take-copter was also called the heri-tombo in early stories. The device is a propeller attached to a tiny suction cup which can be attached to enable flight. Ever since the first few Doraemon stories, the take-copter is seen attached to the head instead of the waist, similar to a propeller beanie, due to a mishap with Nobita's shorts. The take-copter has also been attached to objects to enable its flight. One of its disadvantage is its short battery life.

Moshimo-box

The moshimo-box is a pun based on the Japanese greeting used on the telephone moshi moshi, and the phrase meaning "what if", or moshimo. The device is a telephone booth where the characters dial a number and propose a "what if" scenario which alters the world. Nobita has wished for a world where money was not necessary, and purchasing an item meant receiving cash, and being robbed meant being forced to take cash, causing store clerks to force cash onto his hands upon attempting to purchase toys. Nobita has also wished for a world without mirrors, and for a world where lazy people who napped would be hailed as celebrities. But any situation caused by using this telephone booth may be reverted by using this telephone to make a phone call to request for "Reverting/Restoring to the original situation". This uses to be the ending of the story that mentions about the telephone booth.

Dokodemo door ( lit. anywhere door)

One of Doraemon's most commonly used gadgets is the dokodemo door, a door which allows travel to anywhere by simply going through the door. In an early story, the door is able to travel to the end of the universe, but in later chapters, the door is said to only be able to travel a maximum distance of 100,000 light years and cannot access other dimensions. Another limitation of the door is that it can only safely connect two known locations in its mapping computer.

Time Furoshiki ( lit. Time wrapping cloth)

Another gadget often used by Doraemon, this is a cloth with two different coloured sides (in the anime, red and purple), with patterns of a clock over it. If an object is wrapped around with one face outward, it would reverse the flow of time in the cloth, causing the object to become newer. If wrapped around the other way, it would speed up the flow of time, causing the object to become older. It was first used by Nobita to turn old appliances to new appliances to make money, but its uses extend to do many other things, such as converting an object back to its starting material, repairing broken machinery, aging or de-aging people over a short time, etc.

Small light

Small light, is a lamp similar to a flashlight that will shrink objects and people to minuscule sizes. Its opposite is the big light , which enlarges objects and people. Another tool that is used in a similar capacity is "Gulliver's Tunnel ", which causes a person to grow or shrink depending on which entrance he takes, however its ratio of shrinking and enlarging is fixed.

Pass Loop

A loop which creates a passage through a solid object such as a wall when placed upon it.

Air cannon

A gun barrel worn on the arm used to fire a powerful burst of air which can knock out the victim when the user says "bang". Later models, featured in the long manga and movies, are fired with a trigger.

Translation konjac

A piece of konjac jelly which enables a person to understand and speak any known language in the universe. The effect begins after the person ingests the jelly, but the duration of the effect is unknown. While the ones Doraemon uses are usually unflavored, in the story Nobita's Birth of Japan , he used one labeled to be miso flavored, suggesting the existence of various flavors, which are more expensive.

Dress-Up Camera

A camera that uses a picture of clothing instead of film, and changes the clothes of the person in the viewfinder to the clothing in the picture. It may also be used with no picture or an incomplete picture, with embarrassing results. The story about Doraemon's four-dimensional dustbin shows that the damaged camera will make the person naked - While Shizuka used the damaged camera on Nobita, he turned naked. The camera is often used in the long stories and movies, where the gang must disguise themselves in unfamiliar places to avoid attracting undue attention.

Other dōgu

There are around 4,500 different dōgu featured in Doraemon, and most of the dōgu appears only in one story.

• Memory bread is a bread used to imprint pages, which after ingestion, will imbue the consumer with the content imprinted on the bread.
• Restoring beam is a lamp which is able to restore broken items back to its original state.
• Animal biscuits are animal crackers which transforms the consumer into the animal the biscuit is shaped after for a short period of time.(5 minutes)
• Air glue allows the user to stick things in the air.
• Air Crayons are used to draw things in the air, which then becomes real. The reverse is the air eraser.
• Almighty pass is a pass which grants the holder access to anywhere and anything without cost or identification. Nobita once uses the pass for free taxi rides, going into pubs, and visiting a famous celebrity's house. The pass has an expiration date which needs to be renewed, and is very expensive, as Doraemon was disappointed when Nobita didn't use it for good.
• Anything Mine Gas is a gas that makes anything sprayed with it attracted to the sprayer and flee from anyone else.
• Shocker Gun is a gun that emits electrical beam at a level that will put even a horse down immediately.
• Chocolate Heart is heart-shaped chocolate that causes the consumer to have the same idea as, or agree with, the person who eats the first piece.
• Deep sea cream allows the user to go underwater for extended periods of time and keep the user warm.
• Confessors' Crickets are small robotic crickets which will make their ways into the targets' nostrils on the user's command. Then the target will confess anything he/she did wrong from silly mistakes to major crimes in one go. When all the confessings are done, these crickets will be expelled from the confessors' nostrils with a forced sneeze aided by pepper.
• Fluffy medicine lightens the weight of the user taking this medicine, which allows floating into the clouds. Taking too much at once can be disastrous.
• Instant Christmas tree is a Christmas tree that grows instantly when planted. Similar tools include the instant vine, which grows into the sky moments after planting.
• Cloud hardening gas is a gas which hardens clouds upon application, allowing the clouds to be solid enough to be walked upon. Doraemon and his friends once used this gas to create a cloud city.
• Bamboo horse ( A play on takeuma, which means "bamboo stilts") is a hybrid creature combining the horse and the bamboo, but is highly temperamental. It needs to be fed carrots and cared for to become loyal. Doraemon gives one to Nobita in order for Nobita to win a stilts walking contest.
• Bird hats are hats shaping heads of birds. The wearer will have the same ability as the type of bird worn, for example an owl hat will make the wearer inactive during daylight, while albatros hat will make the wearer need to sprint before fly.
• Mini-airplane is a miniature airplane with the ability to fire ammunition. The users will shrink themselves down by simply stepping onto the airplane's cockpit, where they will pilot the airplane in a real miniature dogfighting. When the mini-airplane is destroyed by the opponents, the pilot will be ejected from it with a parachute. (seen on manga no.12)

• Lightning cloud is a small lightning cloud which floats and has a trigger used to immediately release lightning and thunder. Doraemon gives it to Nobita in order to help Nobita get accustomed to thunder.
• Sticker of truth is a small rubber sticker which can be stuck to anyone in order to make the wearer tell the truth. Nobita once used it on Suneo because Suneo was flattering random people.
• Air tubes are tubes that when stuffed into the nose, allows the user to breathe freely underwater.
• Sea water filter is a straw-like device that instantly filters seawater when the user drinks through it.
• Water pressure gun Is a powerful gun that can only be used underwater. Was used by Nobita in one story to fend off a shark attack.
• Weather Machine is used in many episodes to freely control weather. Works by inserting weather cards into the machine.
• Adaptation beam is another often-used gadget which makes the user able to go any kind of hostile environment, including outer space and deep undersea freely.
• Shadow separation scissors are scissors which can turn shadows into physical beings which can be commanded to do anything the owner wishes. However, after a certain period of time, the shadow must be put back or it will replace the owner and turn the owner into a shadow. (30 minutes)
• Underwater firewood are firewood that can burn underwater.
• Reverse bulbs are bulbs which will turn the surrounding area dark when switched on.
• Time TV is a TV that can watch events in the past or the future.
• Secret keeping dog is a piggy bank-like dog. The user can write his secret on a piece of paper and feed it to the dog and his/her secret will be safe. However, if you feed it with too many secrets, all the papers will come out of the dog's mouth and the secrets will not be safe anymore.

These gadgets, no matter how big they are, look considerably easy to lift, as Doraemon has never had any difficulty getting them in or out his pocket.