Chris Kwan's Personal Blog

Over the years, many people have asked me: “What is your favourite anime/cartoon series?” Every time, my response is the same: “My favourite anime is Doraemon”!!

5 main characters in Doraemon

Doraemon is a robot cat (some say gadget cat) from the 22nd century. In the 22nd century, robot cats are produced as servants, they are used as babysitters, cleaners and to perform other activities of a house mate. However, these cats are equipped with state-of-the-art technologies therefore can perform many duties human simply can’t. Doraemon is being sent back in time to take care of a kid named Nobita Nobi. This kid is not very bright, he doesn’t have good scores at school, lacks athletic abilities and is often being laughed at by his friends. Nobita’s descendants think that by sending a robot cat back in time to help out Nobita, this may change the fate of Nobita thus his descendants as well.

Doraemon is over 40 years old (the first Doraemon series was released in 1969) but the stories of Nobita and the technology that Doraemon utilizes continue to bring laughter and happiness to kids, young adults and even adults today. I have been watching Doraemon for my whole life and I still like to watch it and will not stop any time soon. Many of the high tech gadgets that Doraemon uses is stored in a pocket that is placed on his stomach. This pocket leads to a fourth dimensional storage place and Doraemon can literally fit almost anything into the pocket. Doraemon has thousands of gadgets but I will only list a few often used gadgets here:

1. “Take-koputa” (Bamboo Copter) – this is a personal flying device that uses 22nd century aerodynamic technology that can lift a person in the air. This device is small, light and can be attached to any part of the body, but usually the head for ease of mobility.

2. Time Machine – Doraemon uses a time machine to travel back in time. Nobita and his friends have used the time machine to travel to different time periods. This machine is parked right in the drawer of Nobita’s desk (again, the drawer leads to another dimension of the world). The machine can travel to any location and time periods. However, this machine is often known to mechanical failures.

3. “Dokodemo Door” – this is a door that can cut through time space and can bring the subject to any where in the world. Let say you are in Tokyo, you just have to call out a destination to the door, perhaps, New York, then when you open the door, it will bring you right into New York.

4. The “Big” and “Small” light – in Doraemon’s pocket, there are two flashlights, one is the big light, one is the small light. The big light will enlarge an object that crosses the light path of the flashlight while the small light to decrease the size of an object. (For example, Nobita will use the small light to decrease his own body size so he can get into toy cars)

5. “Time Furoshiki” – this is a time cloth that can make an object to go forward in time or backward in time, depending on which side the cloth is used when wrapping an object. For example, in one episode, Nobita found a dinosaur fossil egg. So Nobita wrap the egg in the time cloth (the side which makes the object go back in time), the egg returned to it’s original condition and hatches into a dinosaur and became Nobita’s friend.

There are simply too many gadgets and each episode Doraemon will use his gadgets to help solve problems of Nobita. I have attached some photos of Doraemon’s gadgets below: