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Doraemon (1973 anime), one of the articles sharing the title Doraemon, directs to this article which covers the Nippon TV anime series from 1973.
For other uses of Doraemon, see the disambiguation page.

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Comparison of the different anime adaptions.

The 1973 Doraemon anime series was a brief but successful attempt at adapting the original manga series into anime. It was initially aired on the Nippon TV network starting in April 1973, and lasted 6 months and ended with an episode named "Goodbye, Doraemon". After it ended, Doraemon remained exclusively as a manga until 1979 when Shin El Animation and TV Asahi produced and aired a more successful second anime adaptation, which finished its run in March 2005. After the 1979 anime finished its run, a new version of the anime aired shortly after, which is still running to this day.

The series' episodes aired every Sunday from 7:00 PM to 7:30 PM, having two 11-minute segments in each broadcast. It had reruns from 1974 to 1979. The last rerun, in 1979, was ended abruptly after Shogakukan sent a letter to the TV station (Toyama TV) that was airing the series ordering them to stop airing the 1973 series since it would "damage the reputation of the new anime (1979 series)" or "confuse the children (referring to the difference between 1973 and 1979)".

It is worth noting that the character designs in this anime adaptation appear more stylized than the character designs used in later adaptations, which were more true to the original manga. It also used a different opening theme, which was possibly influenced partly by the theme song to the original The Pink Panther cartoons.

Characters[]

Character Set

The five main characters and Nobita's mother.
From left to right: Doraemon, Suneo, Nobita, Shizuka, Gian and Tamako.

Main Characters[]

Other Characters[]

Episodes list[]

Main article: List of Doraemon (1973 anime) episodes

Cancellation[]

Contrary to popular belief, the series did have good ratings, although it was still considered unsuccessful. It was considered to be renewed for another year, but ultimately was not. It was mainly canceled due to financial issues with Nippon TV Video, as well as the president of the animation studio resigning. The new elected president of the animation studio did not have any interest in continuing the anime.

Rarity[]

Doraemon 1973 Promo -4

One of the promos for the show.


After Shogakukan sent a letter to the TV station (Toyama TV) in 1979, Nippon TV Video became defunct.

It is very difficult to find any footage of this version of Doraemon, aside from a few short clips and the opening and ending theme. Nippon TV Video sold off the film reels to attempt to cover their debt. It was also rumored that Nippon TV Video deliberately ordered a "cremation fire" and destroyed almost all of the episodes, cels and storyboard. Masami Jun, the production chief of the 1973 series, later confirmed that this was nothing more than a farce.

In 1995, episodes eighteen, and twenty through twenty-six were found to be stored in Studio Rush (now known as IMAGICA) completely intact but with only two episodes without audio. These episodes are commonly shown at Doraemon conventions, but can not be legally released on DVD, due to company (Nippon TV Video) being defunct in 1979 (This same happened to the another manga-anime series Cyborg Kuro-chan, which has 53 episodes released on VHS but was never released on DVD due to PIBI becoming defunct in early 2001, but all 66 episodes were released online.)

Date and Time of the original run and reruns[]

First Run:

  • Nippon Television (NTV, Tokyo, Nippon TV network): April 1, 1973 - September 30, 1973, weekdays and weekends at 7-7:30 pm

​Off-network runs:

  • Broadcasting System of Niigata (BSN, TBS network): September 4th, 1974 - October 11th, 1974, weekdays 5-5:30 pm.
  • Ryukyu Broadcasting (RBC, Okinawa, TBS network): dates and times info unknown.
  • TV Shizuoka (SUT, Fuji TV network): April 17th, 1975 - unknown, Thursdays 6-6:30 pm.

Dates unknown for Nagano, Ishikawa, Okayama and Saga.

Reruns:

  • Nippon Television (NTV, Tokyo, Nippon TV network) :
    • First rerun: March 27th - May 2nd, 1974, weekdays 8:20 - 8:55 am, later moved to 8-8:30 pm.
    • Second rerun: April 2, 1975 - May 6th, 1975, weekdays 8-8:30 pm.
  • Aomori Broadcasting (RAB, Nippon TV Network): December 5th, 1974 - January 17th, 1975, weekdays 4:55-5:25 pm.
  • Iwate Television (TVI, Nippon TV and TV Asahi network): January 5th, 1975 - February 17th, 1975, weekdays 4:55 - 5:25 pm.
  • Fukuoka Broadcasting System (FBS, Nippon TV network): April 17th, 1975 - May 22nd, 1975, timeslot info unknown.
  • Yomiuri Television (YTV, Osaka, Nippon TV network): May 12th, 1975 - June 12th, 1975, weekdays 6:30 pm, episode 26 unaired.
  • Hiroshima HOME Television (UHT/HOME, Nippon TV network): May 22nd, 1975 - June 16th, 1975, timeslots unknown.
  • Miyagi Television Broadcasting (MTB, Nippon TV network): July 9th, 1975 - August 18th, 1975, weekdays 8-8:30 am.
  • RKK Kumamoto Broadcasting (TBS): 1976/1977, timezone info unknown.
  • Toyama Television (T34/BBT, Fuji TV): July 24th, 1979 - August 3rd, 1979, weekdays 6:45-7pm, only one episode instead of two.

Cast[]

Voice Actor Role(s)
Kosei Tomita Doraemon (episodes 1-13)
Masako Nozawa Doraemon (episodes 14-26)
Yoshiko Ota Nobita Nobi
Masako Ebisu Shizuka Minamoto
Kaneta Kimotsuki Takeshi Gouda
Shun Yashiro Suneo Honekawa
Noriko Ohara Tamako Nobi
Ichiro Murakoshi Nobisuke Nobi
Kazue Takahashi Suneo's mother
Sanji Hase Suneo's father
Osamu Katō Suneo's father
Keiko Yamamoto Sewashi Nobi
Osamu Katō Sensei
Kato Haruyo Sensei
Junko Hori Gatchako


Trivia[]

  • Several of the 1973 episodes were never adapted for the 1979 nor the 2005 subsequent series, with only few episodes getting the treatment.
  • The 1973 series is the only one that has never been released, nor aired outside of Japan.
  • As of 2024, no full episodes can be found online, with most of the surviving assets being various screenshots and animation cells, which had emerged online.
  • A video store in South Korea that kept a recorded videotape of the 1973 version of Doraemon existed until 2010.[1] The owner of the video store is believed to have received the video tape from a person named Kim Young-soo in 1993.[2] Unfortunately, the owner of the video store went out of business in 2010 and died of cancer in 2011. According to his son, most of the videos were sold elsewhere or ended up in the garbage incinerator.[3][4]

Differences Between Manga and Subsequent Anime Series[]

This series had a total of 12 major changes from the original manga.

  • Gian lives with his widowed father, who is weaker and shorter than his son. His father usually contradicted Gian, and so, was often bullied by Gian himself. However, in the manga and the subsequent anime series, Gian's mother is alive, and a recurring character along with Gian's dad.
    • In this version, his mother had passed away, only being seen in a photo in some episodes.
    • In the later anime adaptions, Gian's father received a total redesign, becoming as strong as his son.
    • Gian's father was named Sasuke in the 1973 series, but went unnamed in the later series.
  • The series ends with Doraemon leaving Nobita for good, and the former never comes back to the latter. It is speculated that there was going to be a second season in which Doraemon returns from the future, but due to its cancellation, it never happened.
    • Doraemon leaving Nobita permanently almost occurred in the manga due to the writers considered cancelling the series because of its poor ratings at the time before Volume 6. However, due to the the manga becoming successful, Doraemon was brought back in Volume 7.
    • After this anime series was cancelled, Doraemon series was going back to being manga-only exclusive franchise for almost 6 years until a newer and even more successful anime adaption was made in 1979 by Shin-El Animation and aired in TV Asahi which was running until 2005 and it's replaced by the new 2005 anime adaption which also made by same animation studios and currently still running today in Japan and several overseas countries.
  • The Take-copter is named "Heritonbo", name used in the early manga.
  • Doraemon comes from the 21st century, instead of the 22nd century.
  • Sensei has a given name, Ganari (我成).
    • Later anime adaptations had Sensei's name changed into "Eiichirou Senjou".
  • There was an additional character named Gatchako, an annoying female robot duck. She was removed from later versions of the manga and never appeared in the subsequent anime series as Fujiko F. Fujio disliked her due to her personality.
    • She was replaced with Dorami in later anime adaptations and later manga.
  • Dorami, Dekisugi and Jaiko never appeared in this version. The latter is often mistaken with Botako due to their appearance.
    • Dorami's first appearance was on the same year when this anime aired in the manga but she didn't appear in anime until the 1979 Anime.
    • Dekisugi's first appearance was after this anime's cancellation. He debuted in a later episode of 1979 Anime.
    • Jaiko has appeared in manga before this anime started, but in this version it's possible that she may have never been born as a result of Gian's mother being portrayed as deceased.
  • The series emphasized slapstick comedy unlike 1979 and 2005 Anime.
  • Nobita's school was named "Downtown Elementary School", which went unnamed in the later anime adaptions, only being referred to as "The School".
  • Doraemon's gadgets were called "Secret Weapons".
    • Every time when Doraemon took his gadgets out, he often said "a~rayo" in Edo accent.
    • The Anywhere Door never appeared in the 1973 anime series, only debuting in the original manga, and as well as 1979 and 2005 anime series.
  • Sewashi used to wear glasses, much like Nobita. In the later series, Sewashi no longer wore glasses.
  • Botako is a recurring character and Shizuka's housekeeper.
    • Later anime adaption, Shizuka no longer have a housekeeper and Botako become minor character and also had major difference.

Unknown images[]

Images whose corresponding episodes have not been identified

Production material[]

Promos[]

Animation Cels[]

Storyboards[]

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