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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.

Doraemon is considered a cultural icon of Japan and on April 22, 2002, is voted one of the 22 Asian Heroes by Time Asia magazine[1]. A majority of Doraemon episodes are comedies with moral lessons regarding honesty, perseverance, courage, etc. Several noteworthy environmental issues are often visited, including homeless animals, endangered species, deforestation, and pollution. Topics such as dinosaurs, the flat earth theory, wormhole traveling, Gulliver's Travels, and the history of Japan are also covered.

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 Tentmushi manga brand, extending to forty-five volumes. The volumes are collected in the Takaoka Central Library in Toyama, Japan, where Fujio was born.

Doraemon was awarded the first Shogakukan Manga Award for children's manga in 1982,[2] and the first Osamu Tezuka Culture Award in 1997.

HISTORY

In December 1969, the Doraemon manga appeared simultaneously in six different children's monthly magazines. The magazines were titled by the year of children's studies, which included Yoiko (good children), Y?chien (nursery school), and Shogaku Ichinensei (first grade of primary school) to Shogaku Yonnensei (fourth grade of primary school). By 1973, the series began to appear in two more magazines, Shogaku Gonensei (fifth grade of primary school) and Shogaku Rokunensei (sixth grade of primary school). The stories featured in each of the magazines were different, meaning the author was originally creating more than six stories each month. In 1977, CoroCoro Comic was launched as a magazine of Doraemon. Original manga based on the Doraemon movies were also released in CoroCoro Comic. The stories which are preserved under the Tent?mushi brand are the stories found in these magazines.

Since the debut of Doraemon in 1969, the stories have been selectively collected into forty-five books published from 1974 to 1996, which had a circulation of over 80 million in 1992. In addition, Doraemon has appeared in a variety of manga series by Sh?gakukan. In 2005, Sh?gakukan published a series of five more manga volumes under the title Doraemon+ (Doraemon Plus), which were not found in the forty-five Tent?mushi volumes.

STORIES

Where to start? Doraemon apparently first appeared in 1969 or 1970 (it ran as a manga series starting about 1974), with the infamous something-wonderful-pops-out-of-the-desk-drawer story. Since then, it has gone on to become one of Japan's most popular and well-loved manga series, and Doraemon is now perhaps one of the most recognized faces in all of Japan. The comedy series is still continuing, though it suffers from the defection of one of the two original writers. From my own point of view, Books 1 through 30 are probably the classic Doraemon, and the stories seem to solidify and improve at around book 6 (before that, the drawing style is a little old-fashioned, and the plots are a little thin).
The first story explains the premise of the entire series. Nobi Nobita (Nobita being the first name), is a fourth-grade boy who wears glasses and lives in a subsection of Tokyo. One day, a strange being pops up in his desk drawer --- a round, blue cat-style robot (minus ears), who fails to introduce himself and instead eats Nobita's afternoon snack and then goes back into the drawer. The matter is eventually straightened out and explained. Nobita's great-great-grandson (or something like that) lives in the 22nd Century --- except, thanks to Nobita's mistakes, the entire family is living in poverty. To rectify this, Nobita's descendent is sending his robot Doraemon (not a very high-quality robot) back to the past, to help prevent Nobita from making mistakes. Of course, this is a difficult task, since Nobita is the weakest and least intelligent child in his class. And initially, Doraemon isn't the smartest of robots, either. He does, however, have a 4-dimensional pocket on his front, which contains all manner of cool gadgets from the 22nd Century, and it is with these toys that Doraemon will try to save Nobita from a future of poverty and failure.

With this premise, Doraemon and Nobita go on to become (as I've said), one of Japan's most famous duos. Nobita, as class weakling and dunce, needs lots of rescuing, and Doraemon is obliged to give him the right gadget to fix his situation. Unfortunately, Nobita also has the bad habit of misusing the gadgets and landing himself in yet more trouble --- unless some of his school friends get their hands on the gadgets and get themselves into even worse trouble. This is usually the source of the series' comedic humor. However, Doraemon has another, more serious side; starting around Book 8, the volumes begin to close with a story that is longer and more serious than the others. Often touched with a bit of educational science, moral teaching and a hint of conservationism, these stories usually involve Nobita and Doraemon and friends working together to solve a larger problem.

(As a warning to sensitive American readers, Doraemon, even though a children's manga, does include things like nudity and streaks of traditional Japanese sexism! For example, poor Shizuka, the main heroine, starts off as the brightest of the children --- yet as the series progresses, becomes more of a bath-addict (facilitating numerous bathtub scenes) and becomes number two in intelligence to the brilliant boy Dekisugi ("Dekisugi" is a pun on the word "overbuilt" or "too good").

For all his flaws (laziness, stupidity, and cowardice (and occasional attacks of megalomania and selfishness)), Nobita is one of the neighborhood's nicest and most sensitive children, and it is his desire to see justice done that drives the best Doraemon stories. And it is probably why Doraemon himself does not fling up his hands in defeat --- though surely it must be tempting, after so many hundreds of stories starting off with Nobita running home in tears, crying "Doraemon! Do something!"

Among some of Doraemon's most commonly produced gadgets are: the Wherever Door (you can walk through it to wherever you want to go), the air gun (a tube you slip over your finger; it produces a pulse of air to knock out your enemies), the What If phone box (allows user to enter a world in which some condition is changed "What If mirrors didn't exist?" (the name is a Japanese pun)), the personal copter (a little beanie that you stick on your head, which lets you fly), and the Gulliver Tunnel (lets you shrink). Another often used device is the time machine, which is, of course, located in Nobita's desk drawer. But aside from these frequently used devices, Doraemon always seems to have something new in his pocket. He has produced miniature spy satellites, car simulators, water-warding rope, portable holes, cardboard games that you step into to play, super food seasoning, a fashion "bug" (virus), time mirrors, ice construction sets, real-item encyclopedias, and everything else that could possibly make life a little more interesting. (Speaking of which, it's interesting to note that many Doraemon devices would be civil liberty and personal rights nightmares in the U.S.).

Of course, the gadget doesn't necessarily make the story. As far as plots go, Nobita is the protagonist, and usually makes the right decisions in really important matters.

In one story, Nobita's efforts to save a stray dog and cat eventually lead him try to save a whole group of stray animals (his mother is NOT pleased). In desperation, he and Doraemon are forced to send the animals back in time --- after increasing their intelligence and giving the animals a hamburger-making machine. Back in the present day, Nobita's friends find a newspaper article about a lost civilization that left behind miniature buildings --- large enough for maybe a dog or cat --- and even a statue of a godlike, winged creature whose face just happens to look like Nobita's.

In another story, Nobita and Doraemon decide to help a group of hunters who are tracking down a wolf family in the wilds. Nobita, disguised as a wolf, finds the wolves --- who, welcoming him as a friend, tell him about the pain of surviving in a world rapidly being taken over by humans. When his disguise wears off, the wolves try to attack Nobita --- but Doraemon rescues him. When Doraemon suggests turning the wolves in, however, Nobita refuses. Together, they somehow persuade the hunters that the area has no wolves.

Of course, there are utterly silly stories, too.

In one silly story, Nobita uses an illness-transferring device to help his sick father (who needs to go to a business meeting), and then runs around trying to find someone to give his new cold to. Unfortunately, the school bully is unexpectedly sympathetic ("Wanna come to my place? I've got medicine that'll help you"), and Nobita can't bring himself to infect him. Luckily, he and Doraemon happen to run into a man who wants his cold --- because he happens to have a crush on a local nurse. And so, in the end, everyone is happy ... strangely enough.

In another silly story, Nobita is deeply touched by his teacher's morale-raising lecture, but can't seem to convey the "touching" part of it to anyone else. Doraemon then produces for him a microphone/speaker that makes anything he says deeply inspiring. Nobita of course runs off to show it off to his friends; they are all busy watching the local videotaping of a popular idol. Nobita is determined to inspire and move them more than the celebrity can; unfortunately, he has gotten his microphone switched with a baby's toy, and has to recover it. Finally, with the microphone in his back pocket, he rushes over to his friends to impress them --- but accidently farts while trying to pull the microphone out of his pocket. There is a moment of stunned silence. The last panel shows Nobita fleeing in sheer embarrassment from a mob of pursuing people who are shouting, "What a deeply moving fart that was!"

Doraemon manages to slip in the moral teachings with a good amount of subtlety.

For example, Nobita once manages to pick up a cloning device, with which he makes clones of his "friends," the cunning Suneo and brutish Gian. The clones arrive at 4th-grade age but with the minds of babies. Nobita raises them in a trans-dimensional room, thinking of raising the clones into his well-behaved, friendly, (submissive) friends/"children." However, the clones' minds mature rapidly, and they begin to figure out that Nobita is weaker and not as bright as they are. Since they watch TV, they realize there is a world outside their room which Nobita is not showing them. So they revolt. Doraemon finds out what has happened, but explains to Nobita that since the clones are living people, they can't be arbitrarily destroyed. ("Maybe we can convince them to live on another planet," Doraemon suggests). However, the clones discover the cloning apparatus by accident, and hit the equivalent of the "Undo" button, thus un-creating themselves and saving everyone a lot of headache.

Other fun stories:

Nobita's father wants to get a driver's license, even though the mother makes the side comment that since he isn't cut out for driving, it would be safer for the world if he didn't. Nobita and Doraemon set up a miniature roadway for the father to practice with, using the Gulliver Tunnel to shrink him. (Of course Doraemon and Nobita have to test-drive the roads first). Nobita's father, deeply touched, starts using the roadway. Becoming bold, he takes his miniature car out to the real roads ("Where of course I can't hurt anyone!") and promptly has a major accident with a little boy's toy truck, demolishing the miniature car. "Maybe he really isn't cut out for driving," Nobita and Doraemon mutter.

Nobita finds an egg that Doraemon has left lying around, and adopts it. Doraemon takes too long to remember what egg it was --- a wind storm egg --- and it hatches. (Yes, future science has created a sentient wind storm). The cute little whirlpool of air, lovingly raised by Nobita and fed with hot air from candles, gradually becomes a minor menace. Nobita's parents demand that the little whirlpool leave. But that night, a major typhoon arrives off the Japanese coast and threatens the Nobi house. The little whirlpool leaps out into the howling winds and battles the far larger typhoon, subduing it and saving the house. In the morning, both storms are gone, having dissipated in the battle....

One day, Doraemon has to leave on business. Unfortunately, Nobita's parents have already left town on other business, thinking Doraemon would be around to take care of Nobita. This now leaves Nobita alone. Desperately, Nobita begs Doraemon to stay. To help him, Doraemon leaves a robot rope that can take up the shape and function of just about anything. At first Nobita doesn't like the odd-looking thing, but after it kicks out an intruder, helps him with baseball, cooks dinner, and acts as a horse, he's converted. Meanwhile, Doraemon is so worried about Nobita that he cuts short his business and returns home --- only to find Nobita engrossed in a game with the rope, and practically oblivious to Doraemon's return.

In another story, Nobita has to read a book for a class assignment. Since he hates reading books (as opposed to comic books), Doraemon produces a book-helmet that causes the wearer to recite the contents of a book. The brilliant boy Dekisugi is convinced to recite a book for Nobita (he's shown around the future as a pre-payment). He does so, and Nobita is drawn into the adventure story. Finally, late at night, Dekisugi is too tired to continue, and is allowed to go home. Nobita wants to find out what happens in the story so much that he sits down and starts reading the book himself. His parents come in and tell him not to stay up all night reading, but Doraemon holds them back. "Don't make him stop --- he's finally discovered the joy of reading!"

MAIN CHARACTERS

Fujiko's friends say that every main character represents elementary school student archetypes Fujiko noticed in his own school days.

Doraemon
Doraemon is the robotic cat sent back in time by Sewashi to aid Nobita. He possesses a fourth-dimensional pocket from which he can acquire various kinds of futuristic tools, gadgets, and playthings from a future department store. Doraemon originally had ears but they were bitten off by a robotic mouse in the 22nd century. As a result, he developed a morbid fear of mice despite being a robotic cat. He also has the tendency to panic during emergencies, characterized by him frantically trying to pull out a very much-needed tool from his pocket, only to produce a huge assortment of unrelated household items.
Doraemon's physical appearance changed as the manga progressed. At first, he was predominantly blue, with a blue tail, a white stomach, and flesh-coloured hands and feet. He also stooped, and had a body much larger than his head. In later issues, he sported a smaller body, white hands and feet, and a red tail--the appearance most identify him with today.
In "The Doraemons" story arc, it is revealed that Doraemon's original paint color was yellow. After getting his ears gnawed off by a robot mouse, he slipped into depression on top of a tower, where he drank a potion labeled "sadness". As he wept, the yellow color washed off and his voice changed due to the potion.
Doraemon weighs 129.3 kg (285 lbs) and measures at 129.3 cm (4'3") tall. He is able to run at 129.3 km/h (80.3 mph) when scared and jump 129.3 m (424.2 ft) when threatened. His maximum power is 129.3 bhp. He is manufactured on September 3, 2112 (12/9/3), at the Matsushiba Robot Factory (Matsushiba Robot Factory?). Doraemon is considered a substandard product because many of his robotic features (ie. radar whiskers and cat-calling bell) malfunctioned after production. One can turn off Doraemon by pulling his balloon tail.
Doraemon's favourite food is dorayaki (dorayaki?), a Japanese treat filled with red bean paste. Speculations led to dorayaki being the origin of his name. However, it was revealed in one of the manga chapters that his name originates from the Japanese word nora neko (???, nora neko?) for "stray cat", and the -emon ,ending which is part of traditional Japanese names, as seen also in, for example, Ishikawa Goemon.
In the 2007 birthday episode, 'MS-903' is used to call Doraemon by the factory owner where Doraemon is produced.

Nobita Nobi
Nobita is the other major character of the series. He is a fourth grader[1] in Tokyo's Nerima Ward and an only child. He wears glasses, a red or yellow polo shirt with a white collar, and blue shorts. Nobita's character flaws are endless: he is lazy, uncoordinated, dim-witted, frail, plain-looking, unlucky, and bad at sports. Nobita's typical day consists of arriving late to class, scoring zeros on his exam, getting lectured by his teacher, being bullied by classmates Gian and Suneo, falling into curbside rain gutters, being chased by dogs, and getting yelled at by his mom for refusing to do his homework.
Despite his flaws, Nobita possesses some unique talents such as his unrivaled marksmanship and ability to weave intricate string figures. Although Nobita is usually portrayed as being cowardly, he has often risked his life to help save others or even entire civilizations (as seen in full-length stories).

Shizuka Minamoto
Shizuka, usually called Shizu-chan or Shizuka-chan , is the smart, kind, and pretty neighborhood girl who is the object of Nobita's affections. She takes baths several times a day. Somehow, Nobita always seem to unintentionally walk in on her (via the Dokodemo Door) while she is still in the bathtub. She is also known for taking piano lessons unwillingly, which is sometimes used as an excuse for declining to hang out with Nobita. Her true passions are sweet potatoes and the violin, in which her playing is as atrocious as Gian's singing. Due to Doraemon's intervention, Shizuka will become Nobita's wife in the future timeline.

Takeshi Goda
Takeshi, usually known by the nickname "Gian" (Jaian) from English word "giant", is the big, strong, and quick-tempered local bully. His nickname may be derived from giant. He is known for his confidence in his terrible singing voice. He regularly subjects the neighborhood children to horrendous singing recitals, which is sometimes combined with his equally bad homemade dinner. Several of the stories revolve around Nobita and his friends' efforts to avoid Gian's concerts.
He also frequently steals other children's toys and books under the pretext of "borrowing" them, unless the toy is damaged. However, he does not hesitate to help Nobita and his friends when they are in real trouble, which often occurs in the movies. Although he bullies the other children (mostly Nobita), he is terrified of his mother, who runs the local grocery store. He founded his own baseball team named after himself. Although Nobita is often blamed for the losses against the baseball team's rival, the "Tyranos", Gian and Suneo still force Nobita to play because they do not have enough players.
Gian has a younger sister named Jaiko, whom he adores.

Suneo Honekawa
Suneo is the fox-faced rich kid who loves to flaunt his material wealth before everyone. He is often seen with Gian, serving as Gian's lackey while they bully Nobita together. Some of the stories start with Suneo showing off some new video game or toy which evokes Nobita's envy. He has an extensive knowledge of science, and is a talented artist and designer. He also has a younger brother Sunetsugu, who was adopted into his uncle's family in New York.
In some scenes, Suneo is seen as a narcissist who loves to stare at himself in the mirror while telling himself that he is the most handsome guy in the world. He is still a bed-wetter and needs to wear diapers when he sleeps, despite being in the fourth grade. He considers this humiliating habit his secret weakness. Suneo is also very self-conscious about his height, being the shortest kid in his class.

MINOR CHARACTERS

Minor characters

Jaiko
Jaiko is Gian's younger sister who would have been Nobita's wife in the future had Doraemon not intervened. She appears in the very first chapter of the manga, even before the introduction of Gian. Her name Jaiko is usually considered a nickname, but Fujiko never gave her a real name. An aspiring mangaka, Jaiko goes by her amateur mangaka pen name Christine Goda and sometimes submits her manga to publishing companies for prizes. She is sometimes referred to as Hana.

Hidetoshi Dekisugi
Hidetoshi is Nobita's classmate and rival for Shizuka's affections. He always gets perfect scores on his tests, but never shows off his abilities. He willingly helps Nobita whenever he has philosophical or scientific questions. His name literally means "brilliant over-achiever", and his last name is a pun on dekisugiru, which means "over achieving". Unfortunately for Nobita, Shizuka tends to prefer the company of Hidetoshi, who is more of her intellectual equal.

Dorami
Dorami, also known as Dorami-chan, is the younger sister of Doraemon. Strangely enough, they are siblings due to the fact that they shared half of the oil from a can. She lives in the 22nd-century Tokyo with Sewashi, Nobita's great-great-grandson. She is yellow and has ears that resemble a large red bow. She likes melonpan and is afraid of cockroaches. She is also shown to be a more advanced robot than Doraemon (Dorami is able to produce 10,000 horse power, in comparison to Doraemon's 129.3). She sometimes visits Nobita with a time machine when Doraemon is "off-duty."

Sensei
Nobita's homeroom teacher. He is a strict taskmaster who often punishes Nobita for failing to do his homework. The punishments range from standing in the hallway to sweeping the classroom after-school. He often pays unexpected visits to the Nobi’s in order to inform Mrs. Tamako about Nobita’s recent zeroes on exams. His real name is unknown and he is only referred to as "Sensei", but in the NTV anime his name is given as Ganari (??, Ganari?).

Kaminari
An old man who lives next to the vacant lot where Nobita and the gang play baseball. They sometimes accidentally throw baseballs, rocks, or even one of Doraemon's gadgets through his window, breaking it and knocking over his prized bonsai. The children refer to him as Kaminari-oyaji (Old Man Thunder), because he shouts so loud that they scatter. Kaminari is his family name.

Tameru Kaneo
Tameru tends to accompany Suneo and Jaian. He has a friend whose name is never mentioned, and the two of them are always seen together. Kane wo tameru, the way his name is read in Japanese, means "to save money" in Japanese.

Mini-Doras
Mini-Doras are actually gadgets of Doraemon. They are mini versions of Doraemon, each with a different color. They can think and feel for themselves, and communicate with Doraemon through the "Mini-Dora" language. They act as helpers for all sorts of tasks, such as repairing the internal mechanism of Doraemon.

SERIES FINALE RUMORS

There are three current and often quoted urban legends that started spreading in late 1980s of an ending to the Doraemon series.

The first and the more optimistic ending was made public by Nobuo Sato several years ago. Doraemon's battery power ran out, and Nobita was given a choice between replacing the battery inside a frozen Doraemon, which would cause it to reset and lose all memory, or await a competent robotics technician who would be able to resurrect the cat-robot one day. Nobita swore that very day to work hard in school, graduate with honours, and become that robotics technician. He successfully resurrected Doraemon in the future as a robotics professor, became successful as an AI developer, and thus lived happily ever after, thus relieving his progeny of the financial burdens that caused Doraemon to be sent to his space-time in the first place. A dojin manga for this ending was made by a "Tajima T Yasue" in 2005, and it sold 13,000 copies before Shogakukan halted its publication. Tajima apologized to Shogakukan in 2007 and paid an undisclosed amount of money for settlement.[3]. See reference for scans of the ending.[4]

The third ending suggests that Nobita fell and hit his head on a rock. He fell into a deep coma, and eventually into a semi-vegetative state. To raise money for an operation to save Nobita, Doraemon sold all the tools and devices in his four-dimensional pocket. However, the operation failed. Doraemon sold all his tools except for one used as a last resort. He used it to enable Nobita to go wherever he wanted, whichever time era he wished to go. In the end, the very place Nobita wanted to go was heaven.

DOGU

Doraemon can take out various devices known as dogu from his fourth-dimensional pocket. Some of the gadgets are based on real Japanese household devices with fanciful twists, but most are completely science fiction (although some may be based on folklore or religious stories).

Thousands of dogu have been featured in Doraemon. Some have placed the number of d?gu at approximately 4,500. It is this constant variety which makes Doraemon popular even among adult readers/viewers. In the series, the availability of dogu depends sometimes on the money Doraemon has available, and he often says the some dogu are expensive in the future.

Some of the recurring d?gu appear also in other Fujiko F. Fujio's major works such as 21-emon, Paman or Kiteretsu Daihyakka.

Recurring DOGU

Fourth-dimensional pocket
The inside of this pocket connects to the fourth dimension and acts like a wormhole (see also: hammerspace). It is usually shown attached to Doraemon's abdomen. Doraemon has a spare pocket which connects to the same location. Nobita has used the spare pocket on ocasion, often for mischievous purposes but sometimes for helpful purposes (for example, he used it to save Doraemon on the movie Nobita and Tin-Plate Labyrinth).

Time machine
The entrance to Doraemon's time machine is in Nobita's desk drawer. The time machine looks like a simple platform with a control console, and a clock with five hands overhanging the console. Doraemon is often seen piloting the time machine. Dorami has her own time machine shaped like a tulip, suggesting a variety of models available in the future. The time machine can create an exit in a specific place spatially as well as temporally. An alternative to the time machine is the time belt, which does not change the wearer's location relative to Earth. The presence of this machine is not known by Nobita's mother.

Take-copter
One of the main modes of transportation for the various characters is the take-copter, which combines the words taketombo (bamboo dragonfly, the Japanese name for the bamboo-copter?), and part of the word herikoput? which means helicopter. The take-copter was also called the heri-tombo in early stories. The device is a propeller attached to a tiny suction cup which can be attached to enable flight. Ever since the first few Doraemon stories, the take-copter is seen attached to the head instead of the waist, similar to a propeller beanie, due to a mishap with Nobita's shorts. The take-copter has also been attached to objects to enable its flight. One of its disadvantage is its short battery life.

Moshimo-box
The moshimo-box is a pun based on the Japanese greeting used on the telephone moshi moshi, and the phrase meaning "what if", or moshimo. The device is a telephone booth where the characters dial a number and propose a "what if" scenario which alters the world. Nobita has wished for a world where money was not necessary, and purchasing an item meant receiving cash, and being robbed meant being forced to take cash, causing store clerks to force cash onto his hands upon attempting to purchase toys. Nobita has also wished for a world without mirrors, and for a world where lazy people who napped would be hailed as celebrities. But any situation caused by using this telephone booth may be reverted by using this telephone to make a phone call to request for "Reverting/Restoring to the original situation". This used to be the ending of the story that mentions about the telephone booth.

Dokodemo door (anywhere door)
One of Doraemon's most commonly used gadgets is the dokodemo door, a door which allows travel to anywhere by simply going through the door. In an early story, the door is able to travel to the end of the universe, but in later chapters, the door is said to only be able to travel a maximum distance of 100,000 light years and cannot access other dimensions. Another limitation of the door is that it can only safely connect two known locations in its mapping computer, which also has a limited range of information based on Time as shown in the movie "Nobita's Dinosaur."

Time Furoshiki (Time wrapping cloth)
Another frequently used gadget, the time cloth has the ability to advance or reverse time depending on which of its two different colored sides are used. When an object is wrapped around with one face outward, the flow of time reverses, causing the object to become newer. When wrapped around the other way, time moves forward, causing the object to become older. It was first used by Nobita to turn old appliances to new appliances to make money, but its uses extend to many other things, such as converting an object back to its starting material, repairing broken machinery, aging or de-aging people, and restoring millions-of-years old fossils. Nobita knew about the cloth before the initial appearance. When picked up, of course, the holder does not age, which means the cloth is activated by will, but it has been floating over objects with no user and mindlessly timing objects.

Small light
Small light is a lamp similar to a flashlight that will shrink objects and people to minuscule sizes. Its opposite is the big light , which enlarges objects and people. Another tool that is used in a similar capacity is the Gulliver Tunnel, which causes a person to grow or shrink depending on which entrance he takes; however, its ratio of shrinking and enlarging is fixed.

Pass Loop
A loop which creates a passage through a solid object such as a wall when placed upon it.

Air cannon
A gun barrel worn on the arm used to fire a powerful burst of air which can knock out the victim when the user says "bang". Later models, featured in the long manga and movies, are fired with a trigger.

Translation konjac
A piece of konjac jelly which enables a person to understand and speak any known language in the universe. The effect begins after the person ingests the jelly, but the duration of the effect is unknown. While the ones Doraemon uses are usually unflavored, in the story Nobita's Birth of Japan (Nobita's Birth of Japan?), he used one labeled to be miso flavored, suggesting the existence of various flavors, which are more expensive.

Dress-Up Camera
A camera that uses a picture of clothing instead of film, and changes the clothes of the person in the viewfinder to the clothing in the picture. It may also be used with no picture or an incomplete picture, with embarrassing results. The story about Doraemon's fourth-dimensional dustbin shows that the damaged camera will make the person naked (ie. when Shizuka used the damaged camera on Nobita, he turned naked). The camera is often used in the long stories and movies, where the gang must disguise themselves in unfamiliar places to avoid attracting undue attention, or to provide with a second change of clothes such as bathing suits.