Doraemon: the Cosmic Cat

Our family has a new weird obsession:a Japanese cartoon that is dubbed in Spanish. The series is about Doraemon, a robotic cat who travels back in time from the 22nd century to aid a schoolboy named Nobita. Doraemon is sent back in time by Nobita's great-great grandson Sewashi to help Nobita to not be such a clumsy, lazy doofus. Nobita is a terrible student which subsequently affects his future career. His actions as a child lead to his descendants debts and shame. In order to change history and reverse Nobita's family's fortunes, Sewashi sent him a robot called Doraemon. The robot cat does not have ears because a robot mouse bit them off leading to Doraemon's fear of mice. Doraemon has a four dimensional pocket from which he produces many gadgets, medicines, and tools from the future. Nobita, kind of wimpy and whiny, always comes home crying about a problem in school or with his friends: Suneo, Gigante and Shizuka. After listening to Nobita's whining, Doraemon always offers helpful advice . . . but Nobita is always looking for an easy solution. With enough pleading and/or tantrum throwing by Nobita, Doraemon always busts out a futuristic gadget from his four dimensional pocket to help Nobita fix his problem, exact revenge, or show off in front of his buddies. Nobita usually goes overboard using the object in spite of Doraemon's advice and gets into worse trouble. Sometimes his friends Gigante and Suneo steal the gadgets and misuse them. Anyone who misuses a gadget always gets their just desserts in the end.

We can all sing the theme song (in Spanish) and we all run to the TV when it is on. The kids get so excited when there is a new episode and are almost as happy when it is one that they have seen before. Collin read online that it will be shown in English on Cartoon Network next year in the U.S. I'm not sure exactly what makes the show so appealing, probably the wish fulfillment theme. Our family spends a lot of time fantasizing about what gadget we would want the most. I would love to get my hands on some Doraemon comic books either in English or Spanish. We all go around saying, "¡Huy, Doraemon!" in Nobita's voice. Ian has Doraemon's scratchy, grumpy voice down pat.

Examples of gadgets:

fireworks you can wish on: whatever you wish for as the firework bursts comes true

material changer: changes glass to steel to make windows unbreakable, etc.,

superhero costume: makes you fly

magic microphone: makes people do whatever you say

Apparently, Doraemon is so popular in Japan that in 2008, Japan's Foreign Ministry appointed Doraemon as the nation's first "anime ambassador." Time Asia named Doraemon an Asian Hero in 2002.

I know it is a little strange to dedicate a whole blog post to a cartoon, but I have always and will always love cartoons. I still watch SpongeBob and Fairly Odd Parents and many other cartoons with or without my children present. I actually schedule my day around back to back episodes of the Simpsons in Spanish here.

Doraemon, a Japanese phenomenon dubbed in Spanish that has our American family memorized by it's quirkiness.