Doraemon

Arguably the most iconic Anime character ever, Doraemon was created by Fujiko Fujio, first appearing as a manga character in the late 60's, later being adapted to a TV show in the 70's, which is still running to this day.

Doraemon is a blue robot cat from the 22nd Century, built at the Matsushiba Robot Factory on September 3rd, 2112. His serial number is MS-903. Robots his type help their owners in their daily lives. Doraemon is sent back to the 20th century by Sewashi to help Nobi Nobita (his great-great-grandfather) so his descendants will have a prosperous future. The time machine he travels on is connected to Nobita's desk drawer.

One of Doraemon's key feature includes his 4th dimensional pocket located on his stomach where he stores all his gadgets, no matter the size of the object. These gadgets are purchased in electronic department stores like common goods in the future. His most icon gadgets include "take koputa (hopter)" and "dokodemo doa (anywhere door)". Hopter is a small helicopter propeller placed on the users head, allowing them to fly. Anywhere door is a door that can lead to anywhere the user desires.

Doraemon is also well known for his favorite food "dorayaki (yummy buns)", a bean paste sandwich, staple of Japanese snacks so popular, often it is available in oriental stores in the United States.

Doraemon has other unique characteristics including his fear of mice, ironic being that his a cat type robot. His fear of mice is link to how he lost his ears and his original color of yellow. One day he fell asleep on the beach and woke up to find his ears were "eaten" by a robotic mouse. This event caused him to go into depression which resulted into a massive crying episode, which in turn, washed away his yellow coat of paint. This tragic incident lead to his musophobia which has been a long running joke in the series.

Doraemon has a younger sister name Dorami. She doesn't appear often but when she does, it's usually to help Doraemon. Although Doraemon is usually the level headed mature character in the standard episodes, in episodes with Dorami, it is revealed that Doraemon isn't actually particular smart and often quite clumsy.

In the anime series, Doraemon was voiced by voice actress Nobuyo Oyama for over 25 years. Her raspy delivery was iconic and integral to the character as any of his other features. She retired in 2005 and Doraemon is now voice by Wasabi Mizuta.

Trivia

• Series as run for over 40 years
• Doraemon was originally yellow and had ears
• appointed "anime ambassador by Japan's Foreign Ministry in March of 2008
• Has over 40 games to his name
• Has 30 feature-length movies released annually
• Fear of mice
• Favorite food is dorayaki
• Nationality is Japanese
• Cat-type robot
• owner is Sewashi (Nobita's great-great-grandson)
• is offended when others refer to him as a "tanuki" (raccoon)
• highly attracted to real female cats
• Doraemon finally made his US debut in 2014