MS-903 "Doraemon", or simply Doraemon or Doraemon Nobi (ドラえもん Doraemon) is the titular deuteragonist of the Doraemon franchise. After being manufactured in a Factory in the 22nd century, he is sent back in time by his owner, Sewashi Nobi, to help his great-great-grandfather, Nobita Nobi, become a successful person and have a better future.

Doraemon was voiced by Kosei Tomita in early episodes of the 1973 episodes before being replaced by Masako Nozawa in later episodes; Nobuyo Oyama in the 1979 anime; and Wasabi Mizuta in the 2005 anime.

Appearance

Doraemon is a blue robot with white accents. (Some early media colors him pinkish-orange.) from the 22nd century. He has circular palms and feet, a large face with six whiskers and a red nose, a red collar with a yellow bell attached, a red tail which acts as a power lever, and his 4D Pocket on his belly. Although being made up of metal, he can be squeezed and stretched. As he does not have any ears, there is a running gag where he is mistaken for a Japanese raccoon dog (a seal in the US dub).^[2]

Originally, he was yellow and had ears which were eaten by a mouse (a robot mouse that misunderstood an order in the OVA). His yellow paint was washed away with his tears, leaving him blue.

Doraemon in Doraemon: Nobita and the Birth of Japan 2016

Doraemon in Doraemon: Nobita's Great Adventure in the Antarctic Kachi Kochi

Doraemon in Doraemon: Nobita's Treasure Island

Doraemon in Doraemon: Nobita's Chronicle of the Moon Exploration

Doraemon in Doraemon: Nobita's New Dinosaur

Doraemon in Doraemon: Nobita's Little Star Wars 2021

Doraemon in Doraemon: Nobita's Sky Utopia

Doraemon in Doraemon: Nobita's Earth Symphony

Doraemon in Doraemon: Nobita's Art World Tales

Doraemon in Doraemon: New Nobita and the Castle of the Undersea Devil

Doraemon in Stand by Me Doraemon

Doraemon in Stand by Me Doraemon 2

Doraemon in Stand by Me Doraemon 2 with a tie on

History

Doraemon's history has differed multiple times in various iterations, but several aspects remained consistent.

Doraemon was manufactured in the Matsushiba Robot Factory in the year 2112 AD, bearing the code MS-903. He was damaged by an electrical bolt during production which detached a critical screw from him, limiting his abilities while crippling a variety of external attachments. He and his peers served as mechanical child caretakers resembling cats, and as he underwent training, his performance was seen as generally subpar, him often being regarded as an outmode. Sometimes before he entered service, he was infatuated with another mechanical cat named Noramyako.

Doraemon was adopted by the parents of an infant Sewashi Nobi so he could nurture Sewashi, who he quickly bonds with. One day, his ears were nibbled on and damaged by a mouse, giving him a fear of mice. He also gained a fear of doctors when a surgery went haywire and left him bald. He was unable to obtain any replacement ears due to Sewashi's low income. Soon afterwards, Doraemon's yellow bodywork was washed off by his tears, leaving him with just the blue base paint. Later on, his sister model Dorami is manufactured.

As per the request of Sewashi, Doraemon is later dispatched into the past to help Sewashi's great-great grandfather Nobita Nobi have a good future in an attempt to alter the horrendous history of the Nobi family, setting the franchise's plot into motion. Doraemon, Nobita, and friends embark on many time-traveling adventures using gadgets from his four-dimensional pocket.

Personality and Characteristics

Being a machine, Doraemon does not have some average needs of a regular person like food. If he does consume food, it is automatically converted to energy within his nuclear furnace. He has sensors that function similarly to organs, and his hide and fuselage are extremely tough, not deforming even when attacked. His sensors can often paralyze him, such as when he encounters biological agents or extreme temperatures.

Doraemon's favorite food is Dorayaki (known as Yummy Buns in the US dub). It is unclear how he developed this interest, the reason differing between various depicting. Nonetheless, his love of dorayaki often leads him to getting exploited out of one, which leads into a fit of anger like in The Mecha Maker. He also likes to eat watermelon, pudding, tea, juice and various kinds of cake.

Being a robot cat, he is easily infatuated by other cats, living or mechanical. He often acts as a peacekeeper to stop their arguments and gifts many items to them, ignoring his usual hobbies in the process. He has had multiple feline love interests and would pursuing them until he is aware that they are better without him. However, he often gets extremely jealous if his love interests are occupied by others. Having no ears, Doraemon is quite shy around mechanical cats that have any, unless he is already acquainted with them.

Doraemon can get easily annoyed easily if anyone criticizes him for his performance or misidentifies him as a raccoon. His fear of mice and doctors often cause him to overreact, even threatening to detonate a nuclear weapon on the spot to get rid of a rat or refusing to attend to government-mandated robot check-ups. If in a panic, Doraemon may mess up his current task carelessly and produce hordes of irrelevant items from his 4D pocket looking for the gadget in need, much to the annoyance of others.

Name origin

The name "Doraemon" can roughly be translated to "stray." The Japanese name ドラえもん is written in a mixture of two Japanese scripts: Katakana (ドラ) and Hiragana (えもん). The "Dora" is not derived from dora, meaning gong, but instead from "dora neko" (brazen or stray cat), and is a corruption of nora (stray). The "emon" is a component of male names like Goemon that was popular in the 20th century. The franchise plays on the homophony of "Dora", with Doraemon loving grilled Dorayaki.

Relationships

Nobita Nobi

Nobita is Doraemon's very best friend. As seen in many episodes, they have a strong brotherly bond and would never leave each other's side, despite their many quarrels and disagreements.

Whenever Nobita has a problem or is in trouble, such as needing to finish homework or being bullied by/wanting to impress Gian and Suneo, he often runs off to Doraemon begging for him help or to make him feel better. Doraemon almost always succumbs to his needs to in the end, usually pulling out one of his many gadgets for the current situation. Occasionally, Doraemon sometimes rejects assisting Nobita, usually if he is fed up with the latter's constant whining and codependence on him. Nobita sometimes calls Doraemon "useless" because of this, which may make Doraemon angry and want to prove Nobita wrong by using his gadgets to help him out. Nonetheless, the two get along very well with each other

Doraemon once said that Nobita doesn't want to study, doesn't want to play, and never tries harder, saying he is useless but that he is a kind and good person, but he is a kind and good person. Despite the various complications that impeded his efforts to assist Nobita, Doraemon was undeterred and emerged victorious, managing to interfere with the past enough for Nobita to marry Shizuka and get him a better future.

Dorami

Main article: Dorami and Doraemon

Dorami is Doraemon's literal sister model. Doraemon is very attached to Dorami, partially because of him being a defective model and also Dorami's purpose.

Dorami sometimes critiques Doraemon's way of scolding and assisting Nobita in becoming better and succeeding in life, feeling that he should be more tough with Nobita by giving a square potion that made him more strict, but only ended up backfiring.

Shizuka Minamoto

Shizuka and Doraemon are great friends. She usually calling him Dora-chan. Shizuka often invites him with Nobita to her house to play or taste her delicious baked cookies, which is usually loved by both Doraemon and Nobita. It is shown in some episodes and movies that Doraemon cares for Shizuka and always makes sure she is out of danger.

Suneo Honekawa

Doraemon and Suneo are good friends. He also cares for him like he does for Nobita and Gian and tries to keep them out of danger. At times, Suneo will find ways to irritate Doraemon, such as altering a photo of him to make him look like a tanuki which made him turn red in pure anger, or when Suneo dreamed about Doraemon being a worthless robot he found from the dumpster and then repaired to act like an idiotic friend. He even tricked Doraemon with the fake stick of gum trap, which totally enraged Doraemon to the point of seeking vengeance against Suneo for making him look stupid. This also applied when Suneo exploited Doraemon's weakness for dorayaki while using his gadgets for his selfish purposes and not giving him any dorayaki at all. Doraemon is also disgusted by Suneo's behaviour at points and sometimes is fed up with him, even allowing revenge. Suneo used to be jealous of Nobita because he has a cool robot cat (I, Honekawa Doraemon) but it is shown now that he is pretty happy with his own friendship with Doraemon, and does not envy Nobita as much anymore.

Takeshi Gouda

Doraemon is also good friends with Gian. Despite Gian's general hostility, Doraemon does help him in many episodes and also feels sorry for him on some occasions. Gian always tries to return the favor to Doraemon by helping him out with something or other whenever he lends assistance from Doraemon. Similar to others, Gian does attack Doraemon on occasions due to his menacing nature, only ending up with Doraemon defeating Gian instead in most episodes.

Mii-chan

More Information at Doraemon and Mii-chan

She is Doraemon's main love interest within the main time period that Nobita is in. The two frequently go on dates together with Doraemon being the one to bring gifts for her. However, whether Doraemon saw Mii-chan hanging with other cats, he would simply try to keep them separated and get Mii-chan back to him similar to Nobita did with Shizuka hanging out with Dekisugi.

Noramyako

She was Doraemon's 1st love interest in the 22nd century, but after mocking him for the loss of his ears, their relationship shattered and they are no longer in contact with each other for most of the series.

However, like most others, Noramyako isn't hesitant to help if Doraemon is in danger.

Naming and Translation

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Language	Name
Arabic ?	عبقور (before) دورايمون (present) Eabqur (before) Doraemon (present)
Bahasa Indonesia Indonesian	Doraemon
Bengali	ডোরেমন Ḍoreman
Catalan ?	Doraemon
Cebuano Filipino	Doraemon
Chinese Chinese	哆啦A梦, 小叮噹，机器猫 Duō La A Mèng, Xiǎo Dīng Dāng
English English English	Albert (before) Doraemon (present)
Filipino Filipino	Doraemon
Hebrew ?	דוֹרֵימוֹן Doraemon
Hindi	डोरेमोन Ḍoremon
Japanese Japanese	ドラえもん Doraemon
Korean Korean	도라에몽 Doraemon
Spanish Spanish	Doraemon
Tamil Tamil	டோரேமோன்
Telugu Telugu	డోరేమాన్ Doraemon
Thai Thai	โดราเอมอน Doraemon
Urdu ?	دورائےمون Doraemon
Vietnamese Vietnamnese	Đôrêmon (before) Doraemon (present)
Russian Russian	Дораэмон
Ukrainian Ukrainian	Дораемон

Trivia

• Doraemon's lack of clothing was once lampshaded by Daku. However, he is a robot designed on a cat, which don't wear clothes and have fur. Besides, he always wears a collar with a bell and has his 4D Pocket.
• In Japan, even after nearly forty years of the character's first appearance in the original manga, he is now considered to be a cultural icon and was voted one of Time Asia magazine's 22 "Asian Heroes" on April 22, 2002.
• In the manga publications by Take Minutes (Malaysian manga publication company), Doraemon was often confused as a "fox" and sometimes a "jungle cat". This confusion is because the Malay language lacks distinction between the species.
• He has over forty video games to his name.
• He was planned to be made "real" by Bandai through the Real Dream Doraemon Project (R.D.D.P.) as a remote control robot by the name of "Doraemon the Robot" (DTR-01B). However, Bandai had to stop the project in 2009 due to business failure.
• In March 2008, Japan's Foreign Ministry appointed Doraemon as the nation's first "anime ambassador". Ministry spokesman explained the novel decision as an attempt to help people in other countries to understand Japanese anime better and to deepen their interest in Japanese culture. The Foreign Ministry action confirms that Doraemon has come to be considered a Japanese cultural icon.
• In Dorabase, he is one of the Edogawa Dora's founders and initial members along with Kuroemon and five other cat-robots. Doraemon's position in the team is the pitcher and he has the jacket number 10. He had to leave the team later on in order to take care of Nobita.
  • He is also the one who gave the name to his baseball team.
• In the 1973 anime, Doraemon is claimed to be from the 21st century instead of the 22nd. According to Gatchako, Doraemon was sent to the present for training as he was an inferior student at the robot academy.
• Episodes 1-13 of the 1973 anime is the only time where Doraemon was voiced by a male voice actor, Kosei Tomita. He left the show after a traffic accident and was replaced by female actress Masako Nozawa in later episodes.^[3]
• In Vietnam, he was known as "Mèo Ú", literally meaning "Rounded Cat" or "Fat Cat".

Quotes

References

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