50 Fun Facts About Doraemon

Which colour did the robot cat Doraemon leave the factory painted, before a crying fit washed it off?

Yellow was Doraemon's factory coat; in his 1974 backstory mice chewed off his ears and he wept until the paint came away, leaving the blue base coat and a lifelong fear of mice.

Doraemon flies into a rage whenever his missing ears get him mistaken for which animal?

A raccoon dog, or tanuki, is what strangers take the earless Doraemon for, and the mix-up is one of the series' longest-running gags, alongside his panic at the sight of any mouse.

Where does Doraemon keep the future gadgets he pulls out each time Nobita lands in trouble?

A four-dimensional pocket on his belly holds every tool Doraemon brings from the future, and the stories use those gadgets to paint a hopeful picture of technology in children's lives.

Which Japanese sweet, two small pancakes around red bean paste, is Doraemon's favourite food?

Dorayaki means roughly 'gong cake', after the gong a legendary samurai supposedly cooked on, and the first English manga renamed it 'fudgy pudgy pie'.

Which pink Doraemon gadget lets you step straight to wherever the person turning its knob is thinking of?

The Anywhere Door opens onto any place its user pictures, and alongside the Take-copter and the Time Machine it is one of the gadgets that recur most often in the series.

The Take-copter, the tiny propeller hat Doraemon hands out so friends can fly, is named after which material?

Bamboo is 'take' in Japanese, and the Take-copter is a bamboo headpiece that lifts its wearer into the air; it is the gadget that turns up most often in the whole series.

Where in Nobita's bedroom is the entrance to the time machine he and Doraemon ride into the past?

His desk drawer hides the Time Machine, a nod to Nobita's wish to control time, a craving the stories return to again and again through gadgets that stop, rewind or skip it.

Which arm of Japan's government appointed Doraemon the nation's first 'anime ambassador' in 2008?

The Foreign Ministry made the appointment hoping the robot cat would help people abroad understand anime and deepen their interest in Japanese culture.

Sewashi, who sends Doraemon back to help Nobita, is short of spending money because his family inherited what?

Debts Nobita ran up left his descendants in poverty, so Sewashi shipped a factory-reject robot to the 20th century to fix the family's fortunes at the source.

What does Doraemon's sister Dorami wear in place of ears, so as not to remind him of what he lost?

A red bow replaced Dorami's ears so Doraemon would not dwell on his own, and like Nobita's mother she is terrified of cockroaches.

What makes Doraemon and Dorami brother and sister in the series' own logic, rather than any common design?

They shared one can of oil, half each, when Dorami was made, and that is the entire basis of the siblinghood; she lives in 22nd-century Tokyo with Sewashi.

Doraemon is rated at a modest 129.3 horsepower; his more advanced sister Dorami can produce how much?

10,000 horsepower makes Dorami by far the stronger robot, yet when Nobita tried to swap her in for her brother he found she would not tolerate his antics.

Pulling which part of Doraemon shuts the robot down, while pressing his nose programs a task?

His tail is Doraemon's off switch, part of a spec sheet that also includes the nose button, and a few stories show him dangerously close to breaking down for good.

Which city near Tokyo, home to the Fujiko F. Fujio Museum, made Doraemon an official resident in 2012?

Kawasaki granted Doraemon residency exactly one hundred years before his birth date, a year after the museum devoted to his creator opened in the city.

Doraemon debuted in December 1969 in how many children's monthly magazines at once, each aimed at a different age?

Six magazines ran the manga at once, from a preschool title up to a fourth-grade monthly, and two more for fifth- and sixth-graders joined in 1973.

Which singer's 2018 tribute song, titled simply 'Doraemon', served as the anime's opening theme from 2019 to 2024?

Gen Hoshino wrote the song as a tribute, and it first played over 2018's Nobita's Treasure Island, which drew 4.6 million admissions, more than any Doraemon film before it.

Which Indian children's channel, launched in 2004, switched to all-animation following the success of Doraemon?

Hungama TV opened with live-action shows as well, but Doraemon's success after its 2005 Indian premiere pushed the channel, now owned by JioStar, to go fully animated.

Doraemon's manga found particular success in which country, with a record-breaking 40 million copies sold there by 2006?

Vietnam bought 40 million copies by 2006 and embraced Doraemon so thoroughly that in 1993 its cultural authorities praised the manga's effect on children, youth and adults alike.

Which letter did Motoo Abiko add to the shared pen name after the duo behind Doraemon split in 1987?

A, as in Fujiko Fujio A, was Abiko's signature from 1988 until his death in 2022, while his partner Hiroshi Fujimoto kept Doraemon under the name Fujiko F. Fujio.

Which rule did Hiroshi Fujimoto and Motoo Abiko, the duo behind Doraemon, keep for their entire partnership?

Splitting all income equally, expenses too, was the pair's rule from their first schoolboy collaboration in Takaoka, and it survived even as their styles drifted apart.

Which manga master handed Fujimoto and Abiko his old room at Tokyo's Tokiwa-sō apartments when he moved out?

Osamu Tezuka had already praised their Ben Hur drawings on a visit to his Takarazuka home, and the pair first called themselves 'Tezuka Fujio' in his honour.

Fujimoto and Abiko, creators of Doraemon, grew up in which prefecture, where a Takaoka library keeps the volumes?

Toyama Prefecture is where Abiko transferred into Fujimoto's Takaoka primary school and caught him drawing in a notebook, the start of a lifelong team.

Tripping over his daughter's toy was one of three events that sparked Doraemon for its creator; which was another?

Hearing cats fighting in his neighbourhood was the third spark; the first was wishing a machine existed that would dream up manga ideas for him.

What does the 'dora' in Doraemon's name come from, ahead of the old-fashioned male-name suffix '-emon'?

A word for a stray cat, 'dora neko', gives the name its first half, so the gong in his favourite snack's name is a red herring; '-emon' is the ending in names like Ishikawa Goemon.

Which network aired the first, short-lived Doraemon anime in 1973, most of whose master tapes are now lost?

Nippon TV ran 26 episodes from April to September 1973, and the studio's 1981 bankruptcy scattered the masters; no episode survives online or on home video.

Which network has carried Doraemon since April 1979 and relaunched it with an all-new voice cast in 2005?

TV Asahi now owns the studio that animates the show, and in 2014 it struck the deal that brought Doraemon to American television.

Which actress voiced Doraemon for 26 years from 1979 and later played Danganronpa's Monokuma?

Nobuyo Ōyama kept recording Doraemon through cancer treatment in 2001, retired from the role with the rest of the cast in March 2005, and titled her memoir I Was Doraemon.

Which actress has voiced Doraemon since April 2005, after her mentor Kazuya Tatekabe urged her to audition?

Wasabi Mizuta burst into tears when she won the part, then feared being fired amid the backlash over the cast change until the go-ahead for 2006's Nobita's Dinosaur told her she was staying.

Which studio has animated Doraemon for television since 1979 and made its more than forty feature films?

Shin-Ei Animation took its name in 1976 when founder Daikichirō Kusube cut ties with Tokyo Movie, and every Doraemon feature it has made is released through Toho.

In the first Doraemon feature film, 1980's Nobita's Dinosaur, which creature hatches from the fossil egg Nobita finds?

A Futabasaurus named Piisuke soon outgrows Nobita's room, and the film became 1980's highest-grossing animated release before a 2006 remake opened the rebooted series.

By 2015 the Doraemon films had overtaken which series as the top-grossing film franchise at Japan's box office?

Godzilla lost the crown once Doraemon's films passed 100 million tickets sold in Japan, a mark reached with Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum.

Stand by Me Doraemon's 2015 release in which country made it the top non-Hollywood animated film there?

China had admitted no Japanese film for three years until Stand by Me Doraemon opened in May 2015 and took $86.9 million, more than in any other market outside Japan.

Nobita's Treasure Island, the first Doraemon film to pass ¥5 billion, borrows its plot from which author's novel?

Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel was reworked by Genki Kawamura, producer of Your Name, and the 2018 film drew 4.6 million admissions, more than any Doraemon film before it.

Which '-ism' names the creed 'What's mine is mine, what's yours is also mine' of Doraemon's resident bully?

Gianism is how Japan labels the creed, and the rock band Nightmare borrowed the word for two album titles; the bully himself only ever 'borrows' other kids' toys.

Takeshi Gōda, the Doraemon bully, forces friends to attend which events, where his performances leave them nauseous?

His concerts showcase a singing voice so dire that even his lyrics written on a board once made listeners sick, though one film turns the voice into a weapon.

Which fox-faced rich kid in Doraemon flaunts every new toy at Nobita yet frets about being the shortest in class?

Suneo Honekawa, 'Sneech' in the English dub, inherited the fox face from his mother and is the one most eager to go home whenever a film's adventure turns dangerous.

Shizuka in Doraemon endures piano lessons for her mother but truly loves which instrument, played appallingly?

Violin playing is Shizuka's private passion, along with sweet potatoes, and her sound is described as every bit as dreadful as the local bully's singing.

Which habit of Shizuka's, repeated several times a day, does Nobita keep interrupting by misusing Doraemon's gadgets?

Taking a bath several times a day is Shizuka's routine, and Nobita blundering in on it is the series' most notorious running gag, cut from dubs in India, Europe and the United States.

Hidetoshi Dekisugi, the straight-A classmate Nobita envies in Doraemon, grows up to take which job?

An astronaut is what Dekisugi becomes, married to someone other than Shizuka, whose friendship with him never stops her marrying Nobita in the end.

Besides napping, the hapless Nobita in Doraemon consistently excels at which skill, mastering the Air Cannon gadget?

Marksmanship comes naturally to Nobita, who aces light-gun games too, even though he scores zero on tests and is hopeless at sport.

Which US channel aired the 2005 Doraemon anime from 2014 under the title 'Doraemon: Gadget Cat from the Future'?

Disney XD ran 52 Americanised episodes from July 2014, with renamed characters, a reshuffled episode order and minutes of cuts, and the dub was later re-imported to Japan.

Which French actor played a grown-up-era Doraemon in Toyota's live-action 'ReBorn' commercials from 2011?

Jean Reno wore the blue suit for Toyota's campaign, which imagined the manga's characters two decades after their childhood adventures.

In 2013 Doraemon was named an ambassador for Tokyo's bid to host which event?

The 2020 Summer Olympics bid won, and Doraemon returned at the 2016 Rio closing ceremony, where Shinzo Abe popped out of a Mario warp pipe in the handover show.

A 2016 resolution in which country's Punjab Assembly sought to ban Doraemon over Nobita's influence on children?

Pakistan's motion, tabled by a Tehreek-i-Insaf member, cited the show's mixed-sex classrooms as well as Nobita's laziness as bad examples for the young.

Doraemon's Translator Tool, which lets anyone converse in any language, takes what unlikely form?

A cuboid jelly is eaten to unlock every language, and the list of staple gadgets also includes the Time Kerchief, a cloth that makes objects new or old.

Fujiko F. Fujio himself put the total number of different gadgets Doraemon uses across the manga at how many?

1,293 was the creator's own tally, though a 2004 university study counted 1,963 gadgets across 1,344 sketches.

Which singer first recorded 'Doraemon no Uta', the 1979 anime's theme later passed to four other performers?

Kumiko Ōsugi's recording carried the show from 1979 until 1992, and the lyrics name-check the Take-copter and the Toy Soldiers among the gadgets.

Which neighbourhood cat does Doraemon neglect his duties to pursue, in a running gag of unrequited love?

Mii-chan never returns Doraemon's affection, and the chase is kept light enough that it never dents his reputation as Nobita's minder.

Nobita's Dinosaur 2006, the first Doraemon film with the relaunched cast, got its first US screening in which city?

Washington, D.C. hosted a private subtitled screening in November 2008, the first time Doraemon had appeared in the United States at all.

Which director of Stand by Me Doraemon went on to win an Oscar for the visual effects of a 2023 kaiju film?

Takashi Yamazaki co-directed both Stand by Me films with Ryūichi Yagi, and his 2023 kaiju epic made him part of the first Japanese crew to win the visual-effects Academy Award.