Doraemon (1979)

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♥ This article is dedicated to Nobuyo Ooyama, the voice actor of Doraemon (October 16, 1933-September 29, 2024) and Noriko Ohara, the voice actor of Nobita and also some other voices, such as Doronbo in Yatterman series (October 2, 1935-July 12, 2024), may both rest in peace
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Doraemon
The show that started the Doraemon franchise to be popular.
Genre: Comedy
Running Time: 11 minutes
Country: Japan
Release Date: April 2, 1979 – March 18, 2005
Network(s): TV Asahi
Created by: Fujiko F. Fujio
Distributed by: Shin-Ei Animation
Starring: Nobuyo Ōyama
Noriko Ohara
Kaneta Kimotsuki
Kazuya Tatekabe
Michiko Nomura
Seasons: 35
Episodes: 1787 (+ 30 specials)
Previous show: Doraemon (1973)
Next show: Doraemon (2005)

Doraemon (ドラえもん, Doraemon) is a 1979 children's anime TV series created by Fujiko F. Fujio and based on the manga series of the same name. It ran from April 2, 1979 to March 18, 2005, being replaced with the same series, but with a different style.

Summary

Nobita is a 4th-grade boy in Tokyo. One day, a round, blue cat-style robot (minus ears) pops up in his desk drawer. Nobita's great-great-grandson (or something) lives in the 22nd Century, but thanks to Nobita's mistakes, the entire family is living in poverty.

Why It Deserve A Take-Copter

  1. For starters, this is the show that has made Doraemon very popular and also one of the very first animated series to make a franchise extremely popular, even to this day, along with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987).
    • The reason why this series was the very first one to make Doraemon popular is because the 1973 series failed and was cancelled right before the second season because of a budget issue.
  2. There are a huge number of great tie-in games based on the series; these are, but are not limited to:
  3. The series is also one of, if not the longest anime based on manga, right with Kamen Rider, Sazae-san, One Piece, The first anime on Naruto along with Naruto Shippuden, as it's had over 1787 episodes along with 30 special episodes!
  4. There are a lot of funny moments in the series, even if some of them are inappropriate for a kids show.
  5. It paved the way for the Japanese anime industry to be able to compete against the American cartoon industry, mainly due to its simplistic and enjoyable story and also the funny moments in some episodes.
  6. Great soundtrack, despite this being a children's show.
  7. Like South Park, unlike the television programs of the United States or the most well-known and emblematic animes of Japan, Doraemon has been one of the few series that have never suffered a notable or cancerous decline within its history, demonstrating that the creative team that works on the series cares about the quality of the show. At the same time, there have only been very few cases where fans have been disappointed with the episodes, the specials, or the movies during its 26 years of production for the 1979 series, which is extremely impressive.
    • This can also be said about most of the movies, as most of them are very good, and there aren't any terrible movies based on Doraemon.
  8. The character designs are great, and most of the characters can be cute because of this.
    • On the topic, the redisign of the characters in the 80s for this series are better and much more good-looking, especially Suneo and Shizuka (with the latter being her most iconic design of the franchise), despite them being already nice for the times.
  9. It's also spawned a lot of great movies (despite some of them being a bit boring in some scenes).
  10. There are a lot of great episodes in the series.
    • The Fishing Pond in My Study Room
    • Dream Town, Nobita Land
    • Transformation Biscuits
    • Wrestling Killer
    • Doraemon's Prediction
    • I Got 100, For Once in My Life...
    • Game of Exchanging Moms
    • Secret Room Door
    • Top Secret Spy Operation
    • A Girl Like White Lilies
    • Ah, Love, Love, Love!
    • The Girl With the Red Shoe
    • Flattering Lipstick
    • The Strange Encounter Machine
    • Mad Watch
    • The Bypass Spyglass
    • The Story of Taking Off Your Body's Skin
    • I'm Mari-chan (both parts 1 and 2).
    • The Friend Circle
    • Set the Room Guard
    • Gian's Annoying Concert
    • I Did Not Know Nobita is a Dad
    • Energy-Saving Hot Air Balloon
  11. All of the characters are likeable and have distinct personalities.
    • Doraemon is a helpful robot cat that loves Dorayaki, and he always helps Nobita when he is in trouble, especially when he gets into trouble in school or when he gets bullied by both Gian and Suneo, and in some cases, he helps Shizuka and other of the Nobita friends.
    • Nobita portrays a weak, lazy boy who has a crush on Shizuka and wants to improve himself; he is also one of the most relatable characters in the series.
    • Shizuka is a girl who is often seen protecting Nobita from bullying from Gian and Suneo and is friendly and kind.
    • Gian and Suneo, although usually portrayed as bullies and rich, flamboyant boys, respectively, usually help Nobita and friends in many episodes and especially in the movies.
    • Dorami (who isn't really considered to be the main character) is a robot cat similar to Doraemon but more advanced than her brother, Doraemon. She can sometimes be more useful than Doraemon for helping Nobita and consoling Nobita on some occasions.
  12. The animation is good for the times, especially for the later seasons.
  13. The gadgets that Doraemon uses have various creative characteristics, ranging from simplistic stuff such as a bamboo copter to even powerful gadgets, such as a telephone booth, that are able to change the world as the user wishes.
    • Some gadgets are very useful and even make the viewers want them in real life, such as a door that makes the user travel everywhere or the take-off helicopter.
  14. Despite being a children show, it's doesn't get any toilet humor, which is very impressive considering the huge amount of episodes.
  15. The theme song used for the intro is very memorable and one of the most well-known anime intros of all time, mostly due to the song.
    • Likewise, the ending song is also catchy, despite not being as well known as the theme song.
  16. Although Doraemon focuses especially on children, it's shown some serious themes such as death, long-distance friendship, self-esteem, existential crises, the damage of the human being to the world, clinging to a dream, slavery, child abandonment, and clinging to the past, among many others.
    • At the same time, when Doraemon combines his main story with mature themes, it doesn't feel anticlimactic or forced.
  17. Pokes fun at family and teacher stereotypes in a rather comedic way.
  18. It's explained time travel theory in an understandable format.
  19. The episodes of the 1979 series have some very funny stories and various endings, such as an ending when Gian and Suneo were getting punished after stealing Doraemon's gadgets and using them carelessly, or a heartwarming ending. Many episodes later became memes in Japan due to how funny they can be.
  20. Doraemon can be considered a harsh criticism of how human beings should not cling to a dream or how the tools capable of solving life in a minute will not guarantee happiness.
  21. Overral, this show can be a great way to start watching a show with a Japanese voice; in fact, even if you don't understand Japanese, it's still a great watch. Knowing the Japanese language can make the show even better and funnier.
  22. Lot of great morals, such as taking care of your friends and always helping people.
  23. Despite being aimed mostly at very young kids, you can still watch it when you're an adult and still have a great moment, much like it's 2005 series along with other kids animes such as Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, Ojamajo Doremi and Sonic X (to an extend).

Bad Qualities

  1. While many of the tie-in video games are great or decent, there are still a lot of mediocre games in the franchise, or even some of the worst games ever made. This includes, but is not limited to:
    • Doraemon on Arcadia 2001
    • Doraemon Kart, while not as bad as its sequel, it's still a mediocre game with some flaws.
    • Doraemon Kart 2, which is one of the worst games of the franchise or maybe even one of the worst games of all time, and there are a huge lot of issues.
    • Doraemon: Nobita to Fukkatsu no Hoshi, while not the worst game of the franchise and not the worst platformer, it's still a terrible game with some terrible gimmicks and gameplay mechanics.
    • Doraemon no Game Boy de Asobouyo: Deluxe 10, with it being the worst Doraemon game on the Game Boy and one of the worst party games on the Game Boy and even in general.
    • The Doraemon Study Boy series, which are the worst games of the entire franchise, and most of them are basically the same games, which makes them a reskin of a reskin.
  2. When Fujiko F. Fujio died in 1996, the series was going somewhat downhill, as the episodes could sometimes be a rehash of another one with a similar plot with only a few additions. Despite this, the series in this era didn't really go downhill horribly, and it's good enough to not be considered bad media.
  3. Despite the series being good, it has a lot of animation bugs or errors to list.
    • Doraemon's whiskers are disappearing.
    • Despite being less fat in the 1979 series, Doraemon can be skinny in some scenes.
    • Nobita can be tall on certain occasions in most episodes, which doesn't make any sense.
  4. It spawned an unauthorized bootleg Chinese movie called Doraemon Robot War that was released in 1983, and it's also lost media except for a 30-second clip that survived.
  5. It's got a lot of inappropriate moments, most notably when Nobita sees Shizuka taking a bath, despite the fact that most of the time he doesn't do this on purpose. Due to this, some time he can be considered a pervert to Shizuka and takes his love of her to an extreme (not helping the fact that they are both 10 years old), or some of the main characters are naked. This problem would also be seen in the 2005 series, in which they can be even worse than the 1979 series.
  6. Both Nobita and Shizuka suffered from flanderization as the series went on.
    • Nobita went from a clumsy, slow, unforgetable, average child who relies on Doraemon most of the time but still tries his best to be good most of the time and is sometimes caring to his friends and even Doraemon, into an absolute jerkish man-child.
    • Shizuka went from a simple character who was a love interest for Nobita into a flawless character who is perfect in every way possible, though at least she was not as bad as Nobita.
  7. A huge problem with the series is that it tends to limit the abilities too much or alter the personalities of the characters.
    • In fact, Doraemon can be considered a god, or more specifically, "the 6 Gems of Infinity," since he has artifacts capable of creating life, manipulating time, space, reality, the soul, the mind, and the life of the planet. However, even if Doraemon is limited in many of those aspects when they face a problem,
      • Not to mention that some episodes position him as someone of great strength and endurance capable of withstanding blows, explosions, and attacks from wild animals, but in several episodes he is unable to withstand blows from giants or cardboard boxes.
    • Nobita also suffers from some of these problems, where he is shown as someone who is almost unable to move a ball or write his name well when there is a time when he can deal with problems of titanic magnitude.
    • Gian and Suneo exaggerate their personalities by being mean to Nobita, even though he is one of their best friends.
    • Dekisugi can be defined as a Gary stu par excellence, being able to get 100 in everything, or being able to solve any problem without any inconvenience.
    • Shizuka is somewhat way too perfect, which was fixed by the American version by giving her a tomboy streak.
      • Even Ace himself is also very perfect, as he always gets high scores and is better at everything than Nobita.
    • Nobita's mother can be a jerk and unlikable sometimes, although this is somewhat justified since Nobita is close to being uneducated due to having a hate for studying.
    • Gian's mother, towards him, is strict, far too stern, and unlikable, even compared to Nobita's mother, that being said, she is much worst in the 2005 series.
  8. Some of the main characters can be unlikable sometimes, especially Gian and Suneo, although rarely.
  9. The design of some characters in the earlier seasons look a bit off and uncanny, fortunately, it's got improved when they redisigned the characters.
  10. Despite having a lot of good to amazing episodes, there's still some bad to awful episodes such as Lucky Gun and Drunkin Lid

Reception and Legacy

Doraemon was awarded the first Shogakukan Manga Award for children's manga in 1982. In 1997, it was awarded the first Osamu Tezuka Culture Award. In 2008, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs appointed Doraemon as the first anime cultural ambassador.   On April 22, 2002, in the special issue of Asian Hero in Time magazine, Doraemon was selected as one of the 22 Asian heroes. Being the only anime character selected, Doraemon was described as "the cuddliest hero in Asia". In 2005, the Taiwan Society of New York selected Doraemon as a culturally significant work of Japanese otaku pop culture in its exhibit Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture, curated by renowned artist Takashi Murakami.   The 1979 also received positive reviews by critics, with a score of 8,1/10 on IMDb.

Episodes with their own pages

Trivia

  • Most of the original 1973 series is lost. While there are not many videos, there are many pictures, scripts, and audio.
  • Doraemon is the most-aired show in India on Hungama and Disney Channel India.
  • There was an obscure American dub for the show called The Adventures of Albert and Sidney, which replaced both Doraemon and Nobita's names as Albert and Sidney. It only aired on the small island of Barbados instead of Canada, where the dub was made.
  • The Baleric Catalan dub is lost media due to it only airing the early 1979 episodes; however, the intro only survived and can be seen on YouTube.
  • This Doraemon anime series is sometimes referred to in Asia as the Ōyama Edition (大山版), after Nobuyo Ōyama, the voice actress who voiced Doraemon in this series.
  • Some episodes were adapted from manga chapters, while others were original and never made it into the 2005 anime adaptation. The chances of certain episodes getting made into the new anime adaptation are often very slim.
  • Several episodes and movies of the 1979 anime were (illegally) dubbed into English in Malaysia and released on VCDs throughout Southeast Asia.
  • The 1979 series had several changes and updates:
    • Ending Quickie, which simulates an episode's plot, was used during early episodes of this anime adaptation (and this version of Ending Quickie was different from the manga version) until October 2, 1981, when the series was refreshed. A change similar to this happened to another anime series, Kirby: Right Back at Ya!. (only in the Japanese versions of episodes 73–100).
    • In early episodes and early years, Doraemon had a different design look until the series was updated and refreshed. The character received a new design look on October 2, 1981, in BGM and debuted in the series a few years later (approximately starting in 1982–1983). At the same time, Ending Quickie was removed from the subsequent series (as stated above). Also, the episodes were extended from 7 minutes to 11 minutes.
    • The episode duration was extended, and there was a 3-episode duration of 8 minutes, 57 seconds, 10 minutes, 50 seconds, and 12 minutes, 43 seconds.
    • Some episodes from the 1979 series also didn't air or were delayed due to the following reasons:
      • On November 14, 1986, there was a report about the eruption of Mount Mihara.
      • On July to August 2001, there was a World Aquatics Championships event held in Japan. Also, the episodes that originally aired from July to August 2001 were skipped for unknown reasons.
      • On October 23, 2004, there was a report about the Chūetsu earthquake. It should be noted that an episode of the Pokémon anime was also banned at that time.
  • This series was also revised on April 1st, 1994.
  • Beginning on March 3, 2000, the series transitioned from mono to stereo.
  • This series shifted from its original traditional hand drawing animation that was used for almost 23 years to digital production and became fully digital animation on October 4, 2002.
  • This anime version is named Classical Doraemon in India.
  • In september 2024, an official channel on YouTube appeared for uploading french dub of the series, the channel can be found here.

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