Doraemon

Premise

Doraemon is a cat-like robot from the 22nd century future who's sent to the present time (21st century) in Tokyo to steer a 10-year-old elementary boy named Nobita Nobi, an unintelligent, naive and clumsy boy, on the right path in order to secure his future, set him on the right path, and improve his life. Nobita's closest friend and love interest is the kind, sweet, and caring Shizuka Minamoto, while his frenemies who bully and tease him are rich kid Suneo Honekawa and neighborhood bully Takeshi Gōda, also known as "Gian".

Production and broadcasting

Beginning in 2004, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the then-ongoing 1979 anime and the release of Doraemon: Nobita in the Wan-Nyan Spacetime Odyssey, a significant revival of the Doraemon series began development, which would become the third series produced in the franchise. A trailer for the new Doraemon series was previewed for the first time on March 25, 2005, at the end of the first television broadcast of Doraemon: Nobita in the Wan-Nyan Spacetime Odyssey. A week after the 1979 anime finale broadcast on March 18, the television broadcast of the film contained goodbye messages from the 1979 anime voice actors Nobuyo Ōyama, Noriko Ohara, Kazuya Tatekabe, Michiko Nomura and Kaneta Kimotsuki, respectively. The anime officially premiered as a one-hour special on April 15 of that same year, less than a month after the 1979 anime had ended.

With the shift, the majority of the personnel from the 1979 anime stepped down, and were replaced by a new team for the new series, as well as the original voice actors. Sōichirō Zen, who had previously worked on the 1979 anime, served as the director of the 2005 anime for more than 12 years, from 2005 to 2017. Ayumu Watanabe had previously worked on the 1979 anime, beginning in the late 1980s, and after the transition, he was tasked with developing character designs for the series, where he worked for eight years.

The new series features updated versions of the characters, different settings, and a new soundtrack. Although the anime is more faithful to the original manga and volumes, some changes were made. Many of the episodes that adapted chapters from the manga were extended to either have a better conclusion or a good moral to the story. In addition, some elements from the manga were toned down. Some examples include all of Doraemon's gadgets that resembled medicine being changed to different appliances, and Nobita's dad (who smoked often in the manga) rarely smoking in the new series. All mini corners, partners, and next episodes previews in all episodes are cut to fit for the 30-minute block in international versions, except for Hong Kong, which are cut to fit for the 15-minute block in its time-slot. Since May 1, 2009, the series airs in high definition. The episodes are recorded at APU Meguro Studio.

First revealed in June 2017, starting on July 28, 2017, with the episodes "I'm Mini Doraemon" and "The Elephant and the Uncle", the show got overhauled visually to use more vivid colors, which included the poster artwork. The characters were altered to closely resemble their original designs. Shinnosuke Yakuwa, who directed several of the Doraemon films, joined the production team as head director for the anime in 2018, and was succeeded by Hirofumi Ogura in 2020. By 2023, the series' production staff had been divided into two groups.

Casting

On November 22, 2004, The Asahi Shimbun revealed in an exclusive article that the series' five voice actors were considered by the production team to be replaced by a group of newer, younger voice actors, with their roles slated to begin in April of the following year, which was met with confusion and great public interest as the news of such a big change was very abrupt; many employees from TV Asahi learned about the news from the article, while the staff that worked on the anime were previously briefed.

One of the reasons for the new casting was because Nobuyo Ōyama, the original voice actress for Doraemon in the 1979 anime, wanted to step down since 2001 due to health issues she faced in July of that year. Furthermore, Michiko Nomura, who voiced Shizuka in the 1979 anime, decided to step down from the longest-running series Sazae-san to focus on her management position duties at her husband's Ken Production studio and left alongside the original cast. It was also due to the fact that most of the original cast members by that time were in their mid 60s. The voice actors to the five main characters, Doraemon, Nobita, Shizuka, Gian, and Suneo, were chosen from a pool of 590 applicants. Auditions for the series were held to select a voice that would best fit the original anime's atmosphere, starting in December 2004. TV Asahi stated in March 2005 that they chose voice actors who sounded similar to the predecessors, so that there wouldn't be a significant change from the original voice actors to the new voice actors. The new voice actors for the new series were officially announced on March 13, 2005, and were also revealed on March 28 of that year during a news conference in Roppongi Hills.

Subaru Kimura, the voice of Gian in the anime, was the youngest member of the new cast that was confirmed, as he was 14 years old at the time. Subaru was formerly a member of a children's theater group, but he had no experience as a voice actor, and one of the reasons he auditioned for the job was just to gain popularity in class. Subaru was initially terrified at the auditions, but he finally landed the role of Gian. Wasabi Mizuta was chosen to play the title character and was approached by Kazuya Tatekabe, who had previously voiced Gian in the 1979 anime, to audition for the series. Mizuta was initially concerned about being fired, due to the negative criticisms about the sudden change in voice actors, but after Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur 2006 released, she continued with the role. Yumi Kakazu acquired the part of Shizuka, after previously having auditioned for the roles of Doraemon, Suneo, Nobita and Gian.

English dubs

There are three notable English dubs that were produced: Bang Zoom's American English dub, Red Angel Media's British/Hong Kong English dub (which aired on Boomerang), and EarCandy's South African English dub (which aired on Disney Channel). An upcoming fourth dub by Cake Entertainment is currently in the works.

In the United States, Doraemon: Gadget Cat from the Future was first announced in May 2014. Produced by Fujiko Pro, TV Asahi and Bang Zoom! Entertainment, Gadget Cat from the Future aired on Disney XD from July 7, 2014, to September 1, 2015, for a total of two seasons and 52 episodes. The dub features veteran anime voice actress Mona Marshall in the title role of Doraemon and Johnny Yong Bosch as Nobita, who is known in the English dub as "Noby". In Canada, Gadget Cat from the Future briefly aired on Disney XD's Canadian feed, before being re-branded as Family CHRGD. In Australia, the series started airing on 26 January 2015 on Network Ten, before moving to Boomerang. It was announced that reruns of the American version would be re-imported to Japan and aired on Disney Channel Japan starting on February 1, 2016. The network also provides a Japanese dub of the version as a secondary audio feed.

The English dub has been heavily modified to meet American broadcasting guidelines, censoring content deemed inappropriate for American children, as well as replacing many Japanese cultural elements with American cultural elements. Some modifications include Americanized character and gadget name changes from the English version of the manga, an episode order completely different from the Japanese episode order, nudity being heavily censored by adding steam, cloud effects, or clothing, and some episodes having several minutes of footage cut.

However, certain uniquely Japanese characteristics – such as house structure, kneeling on the floor to eat, the side where cars drive, and Nobisuke Nobi (Toby Nobi)'s kimono – remain. Japanese food featured throughout the series were also localized: while Doraemon's favorite food, dorayaki, was kept in but referred as "yummy buns", others were edited out and replaced with Western equivalents, such as omurice becoming pancakes. All the background music and sound effects were replaced with new background music and sound effects deemed "easier for American children to empathize". At least one character's personality was also partially rewritten. Shizuka, renamed Sue in the English dub. is portrayed as more tomboyish and athletic than the Japanese version, although her sweet nature and kind personality were not changed. This is reportedly because her traditionally Japanese habits were perceived as being difficult for American children to understand in test viewings of the Japanese version.

Episodes

Mini corners and specials

In this Doraemon series, since 2005, there are two "mini corners" that were broadcast during the series' runtime: Doraemon Mini Theater from April to July 2005 and Dora Dora Mini Theater from October to December 2022. Like the 1979 anime, the series has both holiday and birthday specials.

Theme songs

Opening themes

In Japanese, the series features a total of eight opening themes, with the first song being "Doraemon no Uta," which originally served as the opening theme for the whole 1979 anime. Beginning in October 2005, "Doraemon no Uta" was replaced for the first time by "Hagushichao". Most of the international versions of the series only use the third opening theme and their own endings.

As of November 2024, the current opening theme is "Yume wo Kanaete Doraemon", which is sung and performed by Mao. The song was previously used from 2007 to 2019. The last broadcast of the previous theme song, "Doraemon", was aired on November 2. The American dub uses its own unique opening sequence that compiles footage from the Japanese version. To explain the premise of the story, a narration by Doraemon about "why he came from the future" is used rather than an actual opening theme. The ending theme is an instrumental played over scenes from the second variation of the third Japanese opening theme.

Ending themes

Since the series incorporates all the credits into the opening theme, an ending theme is primarily absent. However, some episodes use an ending theme.