Doraemon
From Conservapedia
This entry makes use of Japanese characters and will require Japanese language support to be installed on your computer in order to avoid the characters being replaced by question marks, or blanked out.
Doraemon (ドラえもん) is a Japanese manga written by Hiroshi Fujimoto under the pseudonym of Fujiko F. Fujio published in Japan by the publisher Shogakukan since 1969.
Contents |
Storyline
In the 1970s, a boy named Nobita Nobi (Nobi Nobita) receives a robotic cat from the 22nd century called Doraemon. The reason why Doraemon has come into the present is because as a result of Nobita's mishaps (Nobita is slow-witted and does bad in school), the descendants of his family are impoverished. Doraemon has a wide variety of gadgets and inventions, such as a portable helicopter propeller called a "Take-Copter" (Take-koputaa), memory bread (Anki-pan), and many others. However, Doraemon often bungles his good intentions and ends up making matters worse for Nobita.
Publishing history
It has been published by Shogakkan in 45 tankoubon (compilation volumes) since 1969.
Anime
Doraemon has been broadcast as an anime since 1979 on TV Asahi, one of Japan's leading TV networks. In late 2005, the anime underwent a major change, most notably replacing the voice actors.
Spinoffs
Thanks to the popularity of Doraemon, numerous spinoffs, also published by Shogakukan, exist. These involve the supporting characters of the main manga, such as Nobita, Dorami (Doraemon's sister) and many others.
One popular spinoff manga is called Dorabase (Dorabeesu) and involves a black-furred Doraemon-type robot called Kuroemon and the exploits of his baseball team, the Doras.
International following
Besides its immense popularity in its home of Japan, Doraemon has also become very popular in many Asian countries such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Thailand, Latin America, and some European countries.
Doraemon hasn't been introduced to America yet, because of the fact that it has heavy use of Japanese culture. However, it isn't far-fetched to think that it will come to the States, since anime is becoming very popular here. There were rumors that Doraemon would come to America English-dubbed in 2008, but it was quickly proved to be false.
Cultural Impact
Doraemon is now one of the best-known elements of Japanese popular culture. If you would visit Japan, it is hard to meet a single Japanese who doesn't even know about Doraemon. He is just as well-known in Japan as Mickey Mouse is in America.
