One of the funniest things about the Nobita–Shizuka–Dekisugi dynamic is that Dekisugi is almost always enthusiastic about joining whatever Nobita has planned, whereas Shizuka has probably been burned enough times to be more guarded.
In fact, Dekisugi was fully (if understandably reluctantly) prepared to sit through a Gian concert with Nobita.
Meanwhile Shizuka:
I normally don’t give much credence to claims that Shizuka is indifferent towards Nobita’s suffering, but this time… I got nothing. 😅
(The irony is that this story is meant to show her kindness through her empathy for… the doll.)
Reading the lesser-known manga Koakuma Meringue (a sort-of precursor to Non Non Biyori) and… surprise Suneo reference?!
I’m liking the number of Laid-Back Camp references in Bocchi the Rock!
(The “insult to camping” comment is ironic because I think Laid-Back Camp does a good job of being non-judgmental about the different ways people enjoy camping. RV camping? Backyard camping? Anything goes as long as you stay safe and are considerate of others.)
The fact that there’s an official Nijika cover of the Laid-Back Camp season 1 opening song is nothing short of incredible.
(Also, it’s funny that Nijika canonically claims to be bad at singing when every Nijika song is a certified banger.)
SPOILERS FOR NOBITA’S DIARY ON THE CREATION OF THE WORLD
In the English translation of the Doraemon manga, the bee people who appear at the end of Nobita’s Diary on the Creation of the World gave themselves the scientific name Homo sabees. I find this puzzling…
…because in the Japanese version, their name was Homo habeelis, which would have still worked for an English-speaking audience and is a much better pun!
(I’ll overlook the fact that in our taxonomy, humans and bees would not share the same genus, sapient or not. After all, we don’t know what scientific name the bees use for humans.)
In general, the English translations for scientific terms in the Doraemon manga leave something to be desired. For example…
(In the Japanese version, Dsungaripterus is correctly called a pterosaur and not a “flying dino”. Tuojiangosaurus is also said to be the most complete stegosaur known from Asia, not the most complete fossil of any kind.)
If that weren’t enough, the English version also commits the sin of translating paleontology as “archaeology”!
Every now and then, the question of how one should start getting into Doraemon comes up. It is a fair question: with more than 40 movies, more than 1300 manga chapters, and more than 1400 individual stories in each of the two main TV series (the classic 1979 anime and ongoing 2005 anime), not to mention new movies and episodes still being produced at a regular pace, Doraemon certainly seems like a daunting franchise to consume.
When this occurs, numerous fans (especially in the English-speaking community) will inevitably recommend starting with the 2014 film Stand by Me Doraemon (and its 2020 sequel).
I could not disagree more with this recommendation.
I am well aware that many of these fans credit this movie with having gotten them into Doraemon. If that’s the case, I’m happy for them and hope they enjoy their time in the fandom. My intent here is not to invalidate anyone else’s own experiences, but to explain why I, personally, would not back this recommendation.
Full disclosure: I don’t like this movie. I’ve already elaborated on why in my review. If that’s not enough, I also wholeheartedly agree with most of what @filmfactors had to say about the film. However, I am confident that even if I did like Stand by Doraemon, I still would not recommend it to someone who is new to the Doraemon franchise.
What makes a good introduction to a long-running work? To me, a good intro gives audiences a reasonable idea of what to expect from the rest of the franchise, explains the premise of the series well, or both.
Stand by Me Doraemon certainly does not prepare one for what other Doraemon installments are like. On the contrary, it is a very atypical Doraemon movie. Most obviously, the 3D-animated art style is unique to it among animated works in the franchise. That may not be a dealbreaker, but more importantly, the film does not follow the typical formula one can expect to see in other Doraemon movies. Most Doraemon movies focus on Nobita and his friends going on far-flung adventures by using Doraemon’s gadgets, whereas this is not the case in Stand by Me Doraemon.
Nor does the movie provide a good example of the episodic nature of most of the shorter stories in Doraemon. It is instead an adaptation of multiple standalone manga chapters (several of which deviate somewhat from the series’ usual formula themselves) stitched together to form a continuous narrative.
Probably the main argument in favor of recommending Stand by Me Doraemon as an intro, however, is supposedly how well it explains the premise for the rest of the series. This seems to make sense: after all, if it is adapted from a combination of multiple key chapters from the manga, it should be a reasonably faithful portrayal of the original story, right?
I would argue that that is not the case either. Stand by Me Doraemon actually makes a number of superficially minor but narratively important changes compared to the manga it was adapted from. Here are just a few examples of what Stand by Me Doraemon would have you believe about the series:
Contrast these with the original manga:
There are other changes I could list, but I think there are enough here to make my point. Consider how these alterations reflect on the characters and the story. Stand by Me Doraemon presents a version of Doraemon who needs to be strong-armed into assisting Nobita and unscrupulously attempts to force Shizuka into a future relationship with no regard for her own feelings or consent. Shizuka develops romantic feelings for Nobita not so much because of his kindness like the film tries to claim, but because… she was misled into thinking that he was planning to end himself? Hmm. If anything, Nobita spends a good amount of time in this movie treating Shizuka with the opposite of kindness: spying on her while she’s sleeping, changing her into a swimsuit without her approval, going along with Doraemon’s plan to brainwash her… Are these really the ingredients for a positive first impression of the franchise and its main characters? You can make up your own mind about that.
To be clear, Nobita attempting to brainwash Shizuka into liking him (occasionally with Doraemon’s endorsement, no less) is not unique to Stand by Me Doraemon, and neither is Shizuka citing her concern over Nobita’s ability to care for himself as a reason she eventually decides to marry him (see “Romance in the Snowy Mountains”). The brainwashing in particular is a pretty distasteful recurring element in the source material. However, it is at the very least slightly easier to ignore in the series’ original episodic format compared to its status as a key plot point in Stand by Me Doraemon. Furthermore, in the rest of the franchise one can point to other moments where Nobita acts with genuine kindness, whereas Stand by Me Doraemon has little such luxury.
In any case, I am highly skeptical that Stand by Me Doraemon was originally intended to target new audiences to begin with. It is difficult to overstate just how much of a cultural icon Doraemon is in its native Japan. I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that the average Japanese moviegoer would already know the basic premise of the series. To them, the main novelty of Stand by Me Doraemon would have been to see Doraemon storylines that they were likely familiar with depicted using “modernized” graphics, with a few adjustments in between that add connective tissue and a little extra conflict to the previously disjointed stories.
Is there anything left then to recommend this movie as an entry point to the franchise? It is sometimes pointed out that Stand by Me Doraemon and its sequel are the only Doraemon movies with readily accessible official English subtitles and dubbing, being currently available on American and British Netflix. This at least is true. However, it strikes me as a flimsy reason when taken on its own. If one intends to delve into animated Doraemon media, they will sooner or later have to make peace with the fact that official English translations do not exist for most of them.
For those interested in the stories adapted by Stand by Me Doraemon, I would sooner recommend going straight to the original manga. An official English translation for nearly the entire Doraemon manga is available on Kindle. As for which animated media I’d suggest to first-time viewers, I certainly have my preferences, but frankly just about any of the 2D-animated films would likely provide a better sense of the series’ usual style than Stand by Me Doraemon.
Reposting the back cover illustration from the explanatory booklet for the 1981 Doraemon English translation, solely for the “main character Shizuka” vibes.
As part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Doraemon print volumes, Shogakukan has been re-releasing “special editions” of the first six volumes of the manga, which are printed on higher-quality paper and come with additional bonus items.
The bonus item associated with the re-release of vol. 3 is quite interesting to those of us in the English-speaking part of the fandom. It is a reprint of a booklet that includes seven of the stories from the manga translated into English. Originally published in 1981, this was the first official English translation of Doraemon ever released, though it doesn’t appear to have been very widely distributed.
The following stories are included (I’m also providing the Japanese titles and English Kindle titles in parentheses):
There are also English introductions to the main characters on the inside of the front cover, and a guide to how Doraemon’s body functions (translated from “The Doraemon Encyclopedia”) inside the back. Interspersed between some of the manga chapters are a few interactive activity pages.
Besides the English comics, purchases of the vol. 3 re-release come with a second booklet (pictured above on the right), which contains some explanatory text in Japanese and compiles the original Japanese versions of the same stories for comparison.
Something I find striking is the amount of effort that was evidently put into this obscure English translation. Not only were all the panels mirrored to be read from left to right, but parts of the artwork were even redone by Fujiko F. Fujio himself. For example, written sound effects were all changed into English, and for a few early stories (such as “The Instant Memory Bread”), Shizuka was redrawn with an updated character design.
The characters all keep their original names and still use Japanese honorifics. Interestingly though, dorayaki is called “Dora-Burgers” on one of the activity pages. (It is otherwise not mentioned in any of the stories included.)
Nobita’s Little Star Wars is probably still one of the best Doraemon stories at showing different sides of Shizuka:
Boredom!
Pride!
Overcome by cuteness!
Annoyance!
Anticipation!
Confused relief…?
Guilt!
Bravery!
Creativity!
Although the 2022 movie remake of this story cut out Shizuka’s role in the filmmaking subplot, I appreciate that it adapted many of these other moments faithfully, even enhancing them at times.
