Doraemon (ドラえもん) is a Japanese manga and anime series. It was written by Fujiko F. Fujio. It was started in a children’s magazine in 1969. Doraemon is the name of a robot cat that came from the future to help a boy named Nobita Nobi.
The Doraemon manga series was first published in December 1969 in six different magazines. A total of 1,345 stories were created in the original series, which are published by Shogakukan under the Tentōmushi (てんとう虫?) manga brand, extending to forty-five volumes. The volumes are collected in the Takaoka Central Library in Toyama, Japan, where Fujiko Fujio was born. Turner Broadcasting System bought the rights to the Doraemon anime series in the mid-1980s for a United States English-language release,[1] but canceled it without explanation before broadcasting any episodes. In July 2013 Voyager Japan announced the manga would be released digitally in English via the Amazon Kindle e-book service. It is one of the best-selling manga in the world, having sold over 100 million copies.
Awards for Doraemon include the Japan Cartoonists Association Award for excellence in 1973, the first Shogakukan Manga Award for children’s manga in 1982, and the first Osamu Tezuka Culture Award in 1997. In March 2008 Japan’s Foreign Ministry appointed Doraemon as the nation’s first “anime ambassador.” Ministry spokesman explained the novel decision as an attempt to help people in other countries understand Japanese anime better and to deepen their interest in Japanese culture.”[2] The Foreign Ministry action confirms that Doraemon has come to be considered a Japanese cultural icon. In India, its Hindi, Telugu, Tamil translation has been telecasted, where the anime version is the highest-rated kids’ show; it won the best Kids’ Show award at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards India.[3] In 2002 Time Asia magazine acclaimed the character as an “Asian Hero” in a special feature survey. An edited English dub distributed by TV Asahi aired on Disney XD in the United States that started on July 7, 2014. On August 17, 2015, another English dub distributed by Luk Internacional began broadcast by Boomerang UK. The film series is the largest by number of admissions in Japan.
Nobita is a young boy who suffers from poor grades and frequent bullying. In order to improve the life of his descendants, the robotic cat Doraemon is sent back in time by one of those descendants to protect and guide Nobita. Doraemon has a pocket from which he produces items known as “gadgets”, which range from toy and medicines, to technology from the future. Some of these include the “bamboo-copter“, a small head accessory that allows flight and the “Anywhere Door”, a door that opens up to any place the user wishes.
Nobita’s closest friend is Shizuka Minamoto, who also serves as his romantic interest. Nobita is usually tormented by the bullying Takeshi Goda, (nicknamed “Gian”), and the cunning and arrogant Suneo Honekawa. A typical story consists of Doraemon using one of his gadgets in order to assist Nobita in various ways, often causing more trouble than he was trying to solve.
In December 1969 the Doraemon manga appeared in six different children’s monthly magazines published by Shogakukan. The magazines were aimed at children from nursery school to fourth grade. In 1977 CoroCoro Comic was launched as the flagship magazine of Doraemon.[4]
Since the debut of Doraemon in 1969, the stories have been selectively collected into forty-five books published from 1974 to 1996. Shogakukan published a master works collection consisting of Twenty volumes between July 24, 2009 and September 25, 2012.[5][6]
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 pipi volumes. On December 1, 2014, a sixth volume of Doraemon Plus was published. This was the first volume for eight years.[7]
There have been two series of bilingual, Japanese and English, volumes of Doraemon by SHOGAKUKAN ENGLISH COMICS called “Doraemon: Gadget Cat from the Future”, and two audio versions.[8][9] The first series has ten volumes and the second six.[10]
In July 2013, Fujiko Fujio Productions announced that they would be collaborating with ebook publisher Voyager Japan and localization company AltJapan Co., Ltd. to release an English language version of the Doraemon manga in full-color digitally via the Amazon Kindle platform in North America.[11] Shogakukan released the first volume in November 2013.[12] This English version incorporates a variety of changes to character names; Nobita is “Noby”, Shizuka is “Sue”, Suneo is “Sneech”, and Gian is “Big G”, while dorayaki is “Yummy Bun/Fudgy Pudgy Pie.”[13]
The Doraemon manga has been published in English in print by Shogakukan Asia, using the same translation as the manga available on Amazon Kindle. Unlike the Amazon Kindle releases these volumes are in black and white instead of color. They have released four volumes.[14]
Shogakukan started digital distribution of all forty-five volumes Doraemon manga throughout Japan from July 16, 2015.[15]
There are a total of 63 Japanese-only video games ranging from platformer games to RPG games, which began with the Emerson’s Arcadia 2001 system. Doraemon can also be seen in Namco‘s popular Taiko no Tatsujin rhythm game series like Taiko no Tatsujin (11 – 14 only), Metcha! Taiko no Tatsujin DS: Nanatsu no Shima no Daibouken, Taiko no Tatsujin Wii, Taiko no Tatsujin Plus, and Taiko no Tatsujin DS: Dororon! Yokai Daikessen!!. The Chinese version of Microsoft’s 3D Movie Maker contained a Doraemon-themed expansion pack.
Resources from: https://doraemon210.wordpress.com/blog/
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