By guest writer: Fort Reeves

Take this for a plot: a robot cat from the future travels back to the present to help a hapless little boy overcome his shortcomings and save his descendants from imminent poverty. This robot cat carries with him a huge array of gadgets to accomplish his objective. But as these magical gadgets were all meant for good intentions, they never fail to lead the boy into further disaster.

Though the story of Doraemon is basically a sick cycle of bad luck, it does not fail the catch the viewers’ attention. And we’re not singling out a particular age group. This animation series has captured generations. It’s pretty rare to have a cartoon run for 30 years. Its appeal can be attributed to two factors: being funny and simple.

Doraemon’s simplicity is also manifested in its art. The series is plainly illustrated with a lighter hue and doesn’t collaborate with more recent anime series wherein figures are more complex and colors are much brighter. This is to be expected in a series, which started three decades ago. But still, even as the producers have maintained their simplistic approach on the artwork, the appeal of Doraemon hasn’t wavered.

Doraemon’s soundtrack is classical in some respect. But again, what we’re watching now on our local television was aired in Japan 30 years ago. But the manifestation of Doraemon’s universal appeal is its successful Filipino adaptation. Dubbed in Filipino, Doraemon has demonstrated its strength in terms of respectable TV ratings.

Individual Rating: Art: 9; Story & Plot: 9; Characters: 9; Sounds: 9

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 23rd, 2001 at 9:55 pm and is filed under Doraemon, Anime. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.