Doraemon is a Japanese manga series created by Fujiko F. Fujio (the pen name of Hiroshi Fujimoto) which later became an anime
series and Asian franchise. The series is about a robotic cat named Doraemon, who travels back in time from the 22nd century to aid a schoolboy, Nobita Nobi.
Nobita Nobi was what you would define a loser as. He was weak and fearful. He was often bullied by Gian and Suneo. He also did very poorly in sports and poorly in school. This is evident by his habit of hiding his test papers to conceal the zeroes. The series first appeared in December 1969, when it was published simultaneously in six different magazines. In total, 1,344 stories were created in the original series, which are published by Shogakukan under the Tentōmushi manga brand, extending to 45 volumes. The volumes are collected in the Takaoka Central Library in Toyama, Japan, where Fujio was born.
The Nippon TV-produced Doraemon anime series was a brief and unsuccessful attempt at adaptating the original manga series into anime. It was launched in 1973 on the Nippon TV network and only lasted 6 months. After a brief and unpopular animated series in 1973 by Nippon Television, Doraemon remained exclusively as a manga until 1979 when TV Asahi produced and broadcasted a much more successful anime adaptation, which has new episodes still being made in 2008. This series became incredibly popular, and ended with 1,049 episodes on March 25, 2005. It''s worth noting that the character designs in this anime adaptation appear more stylized than the character designs used in the TV Asahi anime adaption, which were more true to the original manga. It also used a different theme tune, which was possibly influenced partly by the theme tune and music to the original Pink In 1980, Toho released the first of a series of annual feature length animated films based on the lengthly special volumes published annually. The films are more action-adventure oriented, taking the familiar characters of Doraemon and placing them in a variety of exotic and perilous settings. Nobita and his friends have visited the age of the dinosaurs, the far reaches of the galaxy, the heart of darkest Africa (where they encountered a race of sentient bipedal dogs), the depths of the ocean, and a world of magic. Some of the films are based on legends such as Atlantis, and on literary works such as Journey to the West and Arabian Nights. Some films also have serious themes, especially on environmental topics and the use of technology.