Coretan Sopi

You've seen him all over the world, even
though you don't know his name. When you
are blue, and feel like the world is turning
its back on you, you see his warm smile and
could feel his optimism flooding into your
body all of a sudden. He appeared on stamps,
numerous games, TV series and nearly
everything that could be seen in Japan. Who
is this charismatic character that has
beaconed over us in the past 30 so years?
It is none other than Doraemon, the futuristic
robotic cat from the 22nd Century, who
paved humanity a path towards nirvana.

Doraemon didn't start out to be great. A
faulty robot which was auctioned to a family
suffering from abject poverty, Doraemon
suffered drastically during his first years.
Baby-sitting, failing all his tests in the
Robots Academy, and having his pair of ears
beaten off by a mechanical mice, these are
just some of the major dramas he have to go
through back home. It was until one day when
his family decided to send Doraemon back in
time on a mission, to approximately 250
years ago, where his family's ancestor lived,
in suburban Tokyo, in the year 1969.

Doraemon's mission is to help Nobi Nobita,
the great-great-great-great grandfather of
Doraemon's owner. Nobita is what many
would have considered a failure, having
inherited all the bad characteristics from his
parents. Incapable in his academics and
disabled in athletics, Nobita is only good at
shooting, which proves almost useful in the
Japanese society. This is the reason why he
ended up as a failure in the future. And
Doraemon is sent from the future to help him
become successful.

It seems rather ironic having a faulty robot
helping a faulty child, but somehow the duo
manage to succeed every time. Though
Doraemon is capable of handling every
situation with ease, he sometimes get real
mixed up and get things even worse. But in
the end, the problems are all fixed and
Doraemon is once again the robot who we
envy, the cat who can reach inside his fourth
dimensional pocket on his belly and produce
that myriad of wonderful gadgets and solve
all problems in life, single-handedly.

Doraemon is more than just a robot who can
solve almost every problem in life with his
wonderful gadgets. If you have watched a
Doraemon episode, you will know what I am
trying to address. Not only does he look onto
the bright sides of life, Doraemon is kind and
understanding. Every time when Nobita runs
home crying because he got abused at school,
Doraemon would listen carefully to Nobita's
troubles and try to solve the complication.

Doraemon also seems to capture human
emotion of every kind, ranging
from anger to revenge, happiness to
sympathy, and of all these, we empathise with
him thoroughly, because all his emotions are
caused by understandable reasons. In fact,
his reactions are similar to how we would
have reacted if we were acting on human
instinct.

For example, in one of the stories, Nobita
was chased by a stray dog and without
thinking twice, Doraemon just threw himself
against the dog to save the defenceless
Nobita. Such quality of bravery is instilled in
many of us, and most of us can find
resemblance of ourselves in Doraemon.

Doraemon is more than just a pretty face,
unlike Hello Kitty. Anime characters such as
Hello Kitty - who seem to drink tea all their
life and serve no real purpose other than
being cute and acting like girls - when put in
the spotlight against Doraemon, the perfect
friend who we all want, who conjures all
those wonderful qualities: being able to solve
all problems, being brave, being optimistic
and more importantly, trusting his friends,
you know why Doraemon has been so
successful. And it is those qualities that
bring a 70 year old and a 17 year old
together, chatting for hours, because they
are what we all more or less desire in
ourselves. As long as men can see, Doraemon
will always be remembered for the qualities
he contain, not just his pretty face.