Kamis, 03 Maret 2011
Where to start? Doraemon apparently first appeared in 1969 or 1970 (it ran as a manga series starting about 1974), with the infamous something-wonderful-pops-out-of-the-desk-drawer story. Since then, it has gone on to become one of Japan's most popular and well-loved manga series, and Doraemon is now perhaps one of the most recognized faces in all of Japan. The comedy series is still continuing, though it suffers from the defection of one of the two original writers. From my own point of view, Books 1 through 30 are probably the classic Doraemon, and the stories seem to solidify and improve at around book 6 (before that, the drawing style is a little old-fashioned, and the plots are a little thin).
The first story explains the premise of the entire series. Nobi Nobita (Nobita being the first name), is a fourth-grade boy who wears glasses and lives in a subsection of Tokyo. One day, a strange being pops up in his desk drawer --- a round, blue cat-style robot (minus ears), who fails to introduce himself and instead eats Nobita's afternoon snack and then goes back into the drawer. The matter is eventually straightened out and explained. Nobita's great-great-grandson (or something like that) lives in the 22nd Century --- except, thanks to Nobita's mistakes, the entire family is living in poverty. To rectify this, Nobita's descendent is sending his robot Doraemon (not a very high-quality robot) back to the past, to help prevent Nobita from making mistakes. Of course, this is a difficult task, since Nobita is the weakest and least intelligent child in his class. And initially, Doraemon isn't the smartest of robots, either. He does, however, have a 4-dimensional pocket on his front, which contains all manner of cool gadgets from the 22nd Century, and it is with these toys that Doraemon will try to save Nobita from a future of poverty and failure.
With this premise, Doraemon and Nobita go on to become (as I've said), one of Japan's most famous duos. Nobita, as class weakling and dunce, needs lots of rescuing, and Doraemon is obliged to give him the right gadget to fix his situation. Unfortunately, Nobita also has the bad habit of misusing the gadgets and landing himself in yet more trouble --- unless some of his school friends get their hands on the gadgets and get themselves into even worse trouble. This is usually the source of the series' comedic humor. However, Doraemon has another, more serious side; starting around Book 8, the volumes begin to close with a story that is longer and more serious than the others. Often touched with a bit of educational science, moral teaching and a hint of conservationism, these stories usually involve Nobita and Doraemon and friends working together to solve a larger problem.
(As a warning to sensitive American readers, Doraemon, even though a children's manga, does include things like nudity and streaks of traditional Japanese sexism! For example, poor Shizuka, the main heroine, starts off as the brightest of the children --- yet as the series progresses, becomes more of a bath-addict (facilitating numerous bathtub scenes) and becomes number two in intelligence to the brilliant boy Dekisugi ("Dekisugi" is a pun on the word "overbuilt" or "too good")).
For all his flaws (laziness, stupidity, and cowardice (and occasional attacks of megalomania and selfishness)), Nobita is one of the neighborhood's nicest and most sensitive children, and it is his desire to see justice done that drives the best Doraemon stories. And it is probably why Doraemon himself does not fling up his hands in defeat --- though surely it must be tempting, after so many hundreds of stories starting off with Nobita running home in tears, crying "Doraemon! Do something!"
Among some of Doraemon's most commonly produced gadgets are: the Wherever Door (you can walk through it to wherever you want to go), the air gun (a tube you slip over your finger; it produces a pulse of air to knock out your enemies), the What If phone box (allows user to enter a world in which some condition is changed "What If mirrors didn't exist?" (the name is a Japanese pun)), the personal copter (a little beanie that you stick on your head, which lets you fly), and the Gulliver Tunnel (lets you shrink). Another often used device is the time machine, which is, of course, located in Nobita's desk drawer. But aside from these frequently used devices, Doraemon always seems to have something new in his pocket. He has produced miniature spy satellites, car simulators, water-warding rope, portable holes, cardboard games that you step into to play, super food seasoning, a fashion "bug" (virus), time mirrors, ice construction sets, real-item encyclopedias, and everything else that could possibly make life a little more interesting. (Speaking of which, it's interesting to note that many Doraemon devices would be civil liberty and personal rights nightmares in the U.S.).
Of course, the gadget doesn't necessarily make the story. As far as plots go, Nobita is the protagonist, and usually makes the right decisions in really important matters.
In one story, Nobita's efforts to save a stray dog and cat eventually lead him try to save a whole group of stray animals (his mother is NOT pleased). In desperation, he and Doraemon are forced to send the animals back in time --- after increasing their intelligence and giving the animals a hamburger-making machine. Back in the present day, Nobita's friends find a newspaper article about a lost civilization that left behind miniature buildings --- large enough for maybe a dog or cat --- and even a statue of a godlike, winged creature whose face just happens to look like Nobita's.
In another story, Nobita and Doraemon decide to help a group of hunters who are tracking down a wolf family in the wilds. Nobita, disguised as a wolf, finds the wolves --- who, welcoming him as a friend, tell him about the pain of surviving in a world rapidly being taken over by humans. When his disguise wears off, the wolves try to attack Nobita --- but Doraemon rescues him. When Doraemon suggests turning the wolves in, however, Nobita refuses. Together, they somehow persuade the hunters that the area has no wolves.
Of course, there are utterly silly stories, too.
In one silly story, Nobita uses an illness-transferring device to help his sick father (who needs to go to a business meeting), and then runs around trying to find someone to give his new cold to. Unfortunately, the school bully is unexpectedly sympathetic ("Wanna come to my place? I've got medicine that'll help you"), and Nobita can't bring himself to infect him. Luckily, he and Doraemon happen to run into a man who wants his cold --- because he happens to have a crush on a local nurse. And so, in the end, everyone is happy ... strangely enough.
In another silly story, Nobita is deeply touched by his teacher's morale-raising lecture, but can't seem to convey the "touching" part of it to anyone else. Doraemon then produces for him a microphone/speaker that makes anything he says deeply inspiring. Nobita of course runs off to show it off to his friends; they are all busy watching the local videotaping of a popular idol. Nobita is determined to inspire and move them more than the celebrity can; unfortunately, he has gotten his microphone switched with a baby's toy, and has to recover it. Finally, with the microphone in his back pocket, he rushes over to his friends to impress them --- but accidently farts while trying to pull the microphone out of his pocket. There is a moment of stunned silence. The last panel shows Nobita fleeing in sheer embarrassment from a mob of pursuing people who are shouting, "What a deeply moving fart that was!"
Doraemon manages to slip in the moral teachings with a good amount of subtlety.
For example, Nobita once manages to pick up a cloning device, with which he makes clones of his "friends," the cunning Suneo and brutish Gian. The clones arrive at 4th-grade age but with the minds of babies. Nobita raises them in a trans-dimensional room, thinking of raising the clones into his well-behaved, friendly, (submissive) friends/"children." However, the clones' minds mature rapidly, and they begin to figure out that Nobita is weaker and not as bright as they are. Since they watch TV, they realize there is a world outside their room which Nobita is not showing them. So they revolt. Doraemon finds out what has happened, but explains to Nobita that since the clones are living people, they can't be arbitrarily destroyed. ("Maybe we can convince them to live on another planet," Doraemon suggests). However, the clones discover the cloning apparatus by accident, and hit the equivalent of the "Undo" button, thus un-creating themselves and saving everyone a lot of headache.
Other fun stories:
Nobita's father wants to get a driver's license, even though the mother makes the side comment that since he isn't cut out for driving, it would be safer for the world if he didn't. Nobita and Doraemon set up a miniature roadway for the father to practice with, using the Gulliver Tunnel to shrink him. (Of course Doraemon and Nobita have to test-drive the roads first). Nobita's father, deeply touched, starts using the roadway. Becoming bold, he takes his miniature car out to the real roads ("Where of course I can't hurt anyone!") and promptly has a major accident with a little boy's toy truck, demolishing the miniature car. "Maybe he really isn't cut out for driving," Nobita and Doraemon mutter.
Nobita finds an egg that Doraemon has left lying around, and adopts it. Doraemon takes too long to remember what egg it was --- a wind storm egg --- and it hatches. (Yes, future science has created a sentient wind storm). The cute little whirlpool of air, lovingly raised by Nobita and fed with hot air from candles, gradually becomes a minor menace. Nobita's parents demand that the little whirlpool leave. But that night, a major typhoon arrives off the Japanese coast and threatens the Nobi house. The little whirlpool leaps out into the howling winds and battles the far larger typhoon, subduing it and saving the house. In the morning, both storms are gone, having dissipated in the battle....
One day, Doraemon has to leave on business. Unfortunately, Nobita's parents have already left town on other business, thinking Doraemon would be around to take care of Nobita. This now leaves Nobita alone. Desperately, Nobita begs Doraemon to stay. To help him, Doraemon leaves a robot rope that can take up the shape and function of just about anything. At first Nobita doesn't like the odd-looking thing, but after it kicks out an intruder, helps him with baseball, cooks dinner, and acts as a horse, he's converted. Meanwhile, Doraemon is so worried about Nobita that he cuts short his business and returns home --- only to find Nobita engrossed in a game with the rope, and practically oblivious to Doraemon's return.
In another story, Nobita has to read a book for a class assignment. Since he hates reading books (as opposed to comic books), Doraemon produces a book-helmet that causes the wearer to recite the contents of a book. The brilliant boy Dekisugi is convinced to recite a book for Nobita (he's shown around the future as a pre-payment). He does so, and Nobita is drawn into the adventure story. Finally, late at night, Dekisugi is too tired to continue, and is allowed to go home. Nobita wants to find out what happens in the story so much that he sits down and starts reading the book himself. His parents come in and tell him not to stay up all night reading, but Doraemon holds them back. "Don't make him stop --- he's finally discovered the joy of reading!"
 Story and Art by Fujiko Fujio (Abiko Motoo and Fujimoto Hiroshi)Copyright © Fujiko Fujio, Shogakukan   |  |  —by Eri Izawa Perhaps the most famous manga character in all of Japan is Doraemon. Almost the equivalent of Mickey Mouse in the U.S., Doraemon and his namesake series symbolize to many the foibles and adventures of childhood. Characters from DORAEMON are referenced in adult manga, Doraemon's face graces candy, and just about anyone you ask in Japan would recognize the name and the round face with the round button nose, long whiskers, big smiling mouth, and collar with a bell. Penned by famous children's mangaka Abiko Motoo and the late Fujimoto Hiroshi, who for a long time co-authored the series and called themselves "Fujiko Fujio," DORAEMON was a big hit in the 1970s that continued through the 1980s, and even into the 1990s (though with only Fujimoto Hiroshi on the project, writing as "Fujiko F. Fujio"). The children who first grew up reading DORAEMON are now adults rising up through Japanese society.What is DORAEMON? It is a humorous children's manga (later a TV-series) about a boy named Nobi Nobita who is so unlucky, weak and lazy that his descendants had to send the family robot back in time to help him out. That robot is Doraemon (where the "Dora" is presumably based on the word "dora-neko," or stray cat), and his four-dimensional pocket produces any number of futuristic gadgets and devices meant to help Nobita become something other than a complete failure in adulthood. Though smart and caring, Doraemon has his own foibles, and his partnership with Nobita produces both triumphs and disasters, hilarious situations and occasional poignant moments.As a "gag" manga for children, the series has no real progression; our hero is always a fourth-grader, and rarely do changes carry over from story to story. As a glimpse into Japanese family life, though, DORAEMON is priceless. We see Nobita's parents as very typical for Japan of the 1970s, with the father a stocky and mellow salaryman, and the mother a hardworking housewife whose job it is to make sure Nobita studies hard and does his chores. Although ferocious when angry, she is also caring and smart; at heart she just wants her son to grow up to become a decent, hardworking adult with a bright future. Nobita's friends include the class bully nicknamed Gian (presumably based on the word "giant"), the class rich kid Suneo who usually acts as Gian's lieutenant, the gentle and smart girl Shizuka and the occasionally appearing super-brilliant Dekisugi (which can be read as "over done" or "overly perfect"). There's also their schoolteacher, a stern man who has no compunction against sending Nobita off to stand in the hallway for being late. In all this, Doraemon acts as the childhood friend or older sibling we all wish we could've had: caring, smarter than us, with a sense of justice, imperfect and fallible enough to not be irritating, and with a magic pocket that can produce the solution to any problem.A typical DORAEMON story starts with Nobita suffering from the abuses of Gian and Suneo, or doing badly in school, coming home crying, and being comforted by a tried but true Doraemon. Doraemon patiently (or resignedly) digs into his four-dimensional pocket and produces a new gadget that (it seems) might offer the perfect cure for the problem...until Nobita or his friends get too greedy (and even Doraemon's been known to screw things up from time to time).For example, after a day of forgetting his books at home and his pack at school, Doraemon produces a handbag that allows one to reach in and pick up something far away. Nobita retrieves his pack from school...and then promptly rushes out to show off the handbag to his friends. To prove its abilities, he grabs his mother's glasses from the handbag—which doesn't impress anyone—and then goes on to pull out Suneo's narcissistic diary and even Gian's suspiciously wet futon. But when he returns home, his mother is angry about her glasses—and she quickly finds the handbag very useful for retrieving her wayward son!Doraemon also sometimes carelessly leaves devices lying around. Nobita once found a time vending machine, which allowed the user to buy products from other times with modern money: thanks to inflation, of course, things from the past cost much less in absolute yen terms. Nobita uses it to buy boxes of cheap 1933 cigarettes for his father and a mountain of jars of ink for his mother, and even fails to buy a camera from the year 745. But when Doraemon warns him not to use the machine for making a profit, Nobita naturally rushes off to do so. With his new earnings, he decides to buy something different—candy from 100 years in the future, indescribably delicious. Unfortunately, he forgot about cost inflation...and he finds himself 230,000 Yen in debt to the machine, which is now demanding its payment!Almost every story brings a new gadget at play: a camera that turns objects into two-dimensional photos that need hot water to revert to normal (don't ask how Nobita returned to normal after he used it on himself!); a deluxe light that converts anything it shines on into a more deluxe model (which surprisingly makes some people unhappy); a cloud-shaping machine that alters the clouds in the sky (but don't let it overheat!); the flavor-sharing gum, which allows one to taste what someone else eats (great for rich friends, but very bad if a stray dog chews it); or the helping pill, which makes those who swallow it help out anyone they meet in need (and of course, Nobita winds up swallowing it instead of his friends). A few gadgets, though, return once in a while or are standard "staples" of the series. For example, the Dokodemo Doa ("Wherever Door"), which allows one to go anywhere; the Moshimo Box ("What If Phone Booth"), which allows one to go to an alternate world where a suggested proposition is true; the time machine in Nobita's desk drawer, which allows one to travel to any time; the take-copter, a tiny helicopter-style blade to wear on one's head, that allows one to fly; the time-cloth, which makes objects it is wrapped around younger or older; and of course, Doraemon's four dimentional pocket itself, which produces all these items. The stories, however, are not really about the gadgets; they are about Nobita and his decisions. The gadgets serve only as outlets for his character to shine through, whether in moments of greed, indignation, remorse or compassion. His mistakes, moments of weakness and occasional moments of bravery are what make the stories. And ultimately, the stories have a moral core. Nobita's misuse of the gadgets usually bring dire consequences back on his head, but when he champions justice and acts for worthy reasons, he usually manages to do lasting good. Thankfully, Nobita is at heart a good kid with a compassionate heart, if fraught with flaws.A prime example of this is the story where a new transfer student turns out to be even worse off than Nobita: slower, weaker and with even poorer test scores. Nobita is overjoyed to find someone worse than himself, so he studies with, races against and plays games with the new kid; and in each case the new boy fares worse. At last, Nobita even gets him drafted into Gian's dreaded baseball games instead of himself. But Doraemon brings out a film viewer in which characters can be switched. He shows that Nobita's actions to the new kid were just like Suneo's usual behavior to Nobita: condescending, arrogant, mean and self-serving. Nobita sees the truth in this, and when he sees Gian and Suneo beating up the other kid over his poor baseball performance, exactly where Nobita would have been, Nobita jumps in and takes the beating instead.Indeed, a number of DORAEMON stories depart from a simple gag routine and take a long, steady look at issues of moral and ethical importance. Stories have been told about environmental issues, caring for pets, self-sacrifice for another's sake, bravery in the face of danger, parental love and guidance, and the importance of reading. If not concerned with ethics, some stories are educational, touching on subjects ranging from biology, history, genetics, archaeology and geology (or even the notion of economic inflation, as mentioned above). When these elements are combined with comedy, familiar characters and a plethora of fun and fantastic gadgets, there is very little doubt about why DORAEMON became as popular as it did, or why so many Japanese can look back it with such fondness.For anyone who has the chance to read DORAEMON, it offers an excellent look at child's eye view of Japanese home life of the 70s, and should not be missed.Here's more about the main characters from the classic series:
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