Doraemon is a manga series illustrated and written by Fujiko F. Fujio and published in Japan from December 1, 1969, to April 26, 1996, for a total of twenty-seven years. The animated series also aired for twenty-seven seasons from 1979 to 2005, and forty-three feature films were produced.
DORAEMON: The Plot
The plot is set entirely in Japan and follows the adventures of a boy, Nobita Nobi, who is disinclined to study and tends to get into trouble. The story begins with the arrival of "Doraemon," depicted as a robot cat, from the future, specifically the 22nd century, accompanied by Sewashi Nobi , a descendant of Nobita. The two reveal parts of Nobita's future, from his marriage to his bully's sister to his disastrous career, and the enormous amount of financial debt he will accumulate.
Doraemon's challenge is to change Nobita's destiny. This is a very difficult task, given the protagonist's attitude and the misfortunes that often befall him. However, Doraemon has a very special power: the chiusky, gadgets the robot cat uses to help Nobita.
As often happens, cartoons, TV series, short films or movies represent an important magnifying glass on some important socio-anthropological themes; in this specific case, Doraemon describes some peculiarities of Japanese society.
Doraemon and Japanese society
Can Doraemon be a tool for understanding Japanese society? We can begin by analyzing the characteristics of the families of the various characters in the series. Japan ranks among the lowest in the world in terms of birth rate, and according to data published by the Japanese Ministry of Health, the number of families with children under eighteen has fallen below the ten million mark. Of all families with children, 43,9% have only one child. This data is of great concern to the Japanese government, so much so that it has made it a priority, which in June 2023 led to the presentation of a project to reverse the trend by adopting measures to support new parents. The families depicted in Doraemon, starting with that of the protagonist Nobita, tend to reflect this data. Almost all of Nobita's schoolmates, in fact, are only children.
The Nobi family as a prototype of the Japanese family
Nobita's family embodies many distinctive elements of Japanese culture. In addition to the family's numerical composition (the family consists of Nobita, his father, and his mother), the roles and characteristics attributed to each of its members are also consistent with Japanese culture. The father, like many Japanese heads of households, spends the day at work and only interacts with the family in the evenings during dinner. Fathers in typical Japanese families tend to follow a similar daily routine while retaining decision-making power over family matters.
Nobita's mother is the one who effectively takes care of her son and supervises his schooling and education. In Japanese families, many women dedicate their lives to raising and caring for their children, so much so that the relationship that develops between mother and child is often identified with the term amae , meaning a feeling of dependence and the resulting search for benevolence by one person (in this case the offspring) towards another (in this case the mother), as described by Takeo Doi in 2001 in his book "Anatomy and Dependence."
Another noteworthy element is how, in the TV series, on many occasions where we can observe Nobita engaged in his adventures, the neighbors are very rarely depicted; in fact, their homes are often blurred, even graphically. It's also very rare to observe conversations between Nobita's mother and the other parents. It could be a coincidence, of course, but even in this case, it's possible to find parallels in the make-up of real-world Japanese society. In fact, relationships with neighbors tend to be very rare and sporadic, so much so that they don't even know those who live a few meters away. Friendships often occur within the workplace for adults or at school for children.
School as a gateway to the world of work
In every society, school represents the institution that, quoting Parsons and his famous AGIL model, has the task of reproducing the latent models of society, that is, that part of the functioning of the social system that depends on the inner world of individuals together with the family, religious associations and various forms of associationism.
School is a leitmotif of the Doraemon TV series; in fact, it comes from the future with the goal of encouraging Nobita to constantly commit to school to safeguard his future. The Japanese educational system is highly competitive, and poor academic performance can severely compromise the future of young people who, once they graduate from high school, find it difficult to access prestigious universities, which are a prerequisite for a fulfilling career, both emotionally, socially, and financially. It is no coincidence that this is the moment when, in many cases, social harakiri occurs, manifesting as the phenomenon of hikikomori.
The moral and warning for the "Japanese"
Nobita, a collector of poor academic results, contrasts with Suneo Honekawa (from a very wealthy family) and Shizuca Minamoto (Nobita's best friend and secret love), figures who, in different ways, are synonymous with good academic performance. The TV series tends to create stories in which study, commitment, and perseverance pay off positively, while contrastingly, when these aspects are lacking, as in Nobita's case, the characters end up suffering the negative consequences.
Andrea Zampieri
Bibliography
Doi T. (2001), Anatomy of Addiction , Cortina Raffaello, Milan.
