Doraemon (2005 TV series)

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Doraemon
Logo
Also known as	Doraemon: Gadget Cat from the Future
Genre	Science fiction
Created by	Fujiko F. Fujio
Based on	Doraemon by Fujiko F. Fujio
Written by	Manami Sakurai[1]
Screenplay by	Higashi Shimizu[1] Kimihito Ito[1] Yosuke Suzuki[1] Isao Murayama[1] Teruko Uchiumi[1]
Directed by	Soichiro Zen (2005–2017) Shinnosuke Yakuwa (2017–2018) Hirofumi Ogura (2020–present)[1]
Voices of	Wasabi Mizuta Megumi Ōhara Yumi Kakazu Subaru Kimura Tomokazu Seki Chiaki
Music by	Kan Sawada[1]
Country of origin	Japan
Original language	Japanese
No. of seasons	20
No. of episodes	835 (1160+ segments)[2] (list of episodes)
Production
Editor	Yuki Tsudo[1]
Running time	20-26 minutes
Production companies	TV Asahi ADK Emotions[a] Shin-Ei Animation
Original release
Network	ANN (TV Asahi)
Release	April 15, 2005 (2005-04-15) – present
Related
1979 anime 1973 anime

Doraemon (ドラえもん, Doraemon) is a Japanese anime television series based on Fujiko F. Fujio's manga of the same name and is the successor to both the 1979 anime and 1973 anime of the same name, serving as the third adaptation in the franchise. The series, produced by Shin-Ei Animation, TV Asahi and ADK Emotions, premiered on TV Asahi in Japan on April 15, 2005, and currently airs in over fifty countries internationally. Since its premiere in 2005, Doraemon aired a total of 835 episodes and holiday specials, alongside with 19 feature films. This Doraemon anime series is referred to in Asia as the Mizuta Edition (水田版), after Wasabi Mizuta, the voice actress who voices Doraemon in this series.^[3]

Licensed by Viz Media for North American broadcast rights only, two English dubs had been produced; the first was developed by Bang Zoom! Entertainment and aired on Disney XD in the United States as Doraemon: Gadget Cat From the Future from July 7, 2014 to September 1, 2015, with reruns until 2017.^[4][5] The second dub was produced by LUK International and began running on Boomerang in the United Kingdom on August 7, 2015, but ended its run in January 2016 and is considered lost media.

As of 2024, TV Asahi holds the distribution and licensing rights to the series, as well as the previous television adaptation and the feature-length movies.

Doraemon is a cat-like robot from the future who appears in the present 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. Nobita's closest friend and love interest is Shizuka Minamoto. His frenemies are Takeshi Goda and Suneo Honekawa.

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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 Noriko Ohara, Kazuya Tatekabe, Michiko Nomura, Kaneta Kimotsuki, and Nobuyo Ōyama, 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.^[18][19]

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.^[20]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 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.^[21][22][23] 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,^[24] and was succeeded by Hirofumi Ogura in 2020. By 2023, the series' production staff had been divided into two groups. Originally airing new episodes on Fridays, the anime now airs on Saturday nights, starting on October 5, 2019. The series has paid respect to past cast members, most recently Nobuyo Ōyama, the voice for Doraemon who died on September 29.^[25] The episode "Emperor's New Clothes!? Ultra Yoroi" was scheduled to be rebroadcast, but it was replaced with a group of clips from the 1979 anime and the episode "Wolfman Cream".^[26]

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,^[28][29][30] 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, quit the longest-running series Sazae-san to focus more on her management position duties at her husband's Ken Productions studio and left alongside the original cast. It was also due to the fact that most of the cast members by that time were in their mid 60s.^[28] 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 in order 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.^[31] 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.^[31] 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.^[32][33] 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.^[34] Yumi Kakazu acquired the part of Shizuka, after previously having auditioned for the roles of Doraemon, Suneo, Nobita and Gian.^[35]

There are two notable English dubs that were produced: Bang Zoom's American English dub and Red Angel Media's British/Hong Kong English dub, which aired on Boomerang.

In the United States, Doraemon: Gadget Cat from the Future was first announced in May 2014.^[4] Produced by Fujiko F. Fujio Pro, TV Asahi, Bang Zoom! Entertainment, and distributed by Viz Media, 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 Cartoon Network and Boomerang.^[36] 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.^[37]

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,^[38][39] and some episodes having several minutes of footage cut.^[5]

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".^[5] 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.^{[citation needed]}

In the United Kingdom, Gadget Cat from the Future was first announced by LUK International in mid-July 2015^[40] and began broadcasting on August 17, 2015 on Boomerang,^[40] but finished its run sometime in January 2016 and has never been broadcast since, as the dub was deemed a failure in the English market and was removed from the Boomerang lineup in early 2016. It is thought that only 26 episodes were dubbed from the series, with some of these episodes being lost. Unlike the previous English dub from the United States, this dub is more accurate to the original scripts from the Japanese version of the series, as well as the opening and episode orders. Despite this dub being made for and to be broadcast in the United Kingdom only, it was produced in Hong Kong, where the dub was recorded at Red Angel Media. The names of the characters are borrowed from the English dub from the United States.

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 included holiday and birthdays specials.

Annually, since 1980, a Doraemon feature film have been released in theaters during March every year. Outside for films made during the period of the 1979 anime, as of March 2024, there have been 19 feature films and two special feature films released since the start of the 2005 anime, with some of them serving as remakes to previous films. All films had been released by Toho.

In Japanese, the series features a total of seven 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 "Doraemon," which is sung and performed by Gen Hoshino. The song was initially used as the closing theme of the 38th Doraemon anime film, Doraemon: Nobita's Treasure Island, released in 2018, before being changed to the show's opening theme.^[41] On November 1, 2024, it was announced that "Doraemon" will be replaced by its third original opening "Make Your Dreams Come True, Doraemon" (夢をかなえてドラえもん) for the film series' 45th anniversary and the upcoming Doraemon film, Doraemon: Nobita's Picture World Story, starting the following week on November 9, with the last broadcast of "Doraemon" airing on November 2.^[42][43][44]

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 utilized rather than an actual opening theme.^[5] The ending theme is an instrumental played over scenes from the second variation of the third Japanese opening theme.

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

• Official Spain website Archived 2022-08-02 at the Wayback Machine
• Doraemon (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Official Japanese Website