Overview
Doraemon comes from Fujiko F. Fujio's manga, which first appeared in Shogakukan magazines in December 1969. Doraemon is a robot cat sent from the 22nd century to the home of Nobita Nobi, a clumsy, lazy and frequently bullied schoolboy, with the mission of changing his future. Each of Nobita's problems gets solved, or made worse, by the gadgets pulled from the four-dimensional pocket.
OtaHub's take
The first anime aired on Nippon TV in 1973, but the version that defined the franchise is the Shin-Ei Animation series broadcast on TV Asahi from April 1979 to March 2005. The current series premiered on 15 April 2005 with a new voice cast and designs, and still airs weekly on TV Asahi. Alongside it runs the annual film series that began with Nobita's Dinosaur in 1980, released every spring and now a tradition for many families in Japan as well as audiences in Vietnam.
The film series alternates original stories with remakes of classic long stories. The 44th film, Nobita's Art World Tales, reached theaters in 2025, while the 45th, New Nobita and the Castle of the Undersea Devil directed by Tetsuo Yajima, opened in Japan on 27 February 2026 as a remake of the 1983 film. In July 2026, Toho and Shin-Ei Animation announced the 46th film, Nobita's Steam-Powered Time Machine, which takes the friends to Victorian London and is set to open in Japan on 5 March 2027 under director Rushio Moriyama.
Verdict
Doraemon suits every age, from young children discovering animation to adults looking to revisit their childhood. The TV series offers light entertainment through short stories, while the films are where the franchise shows bigger ambitions with adventures about friendship, the environment and technology.
