Another film featuring Japan’s cultural icon Doraemon is coming up in March 2023. The film is titled Doraemon: Nobita and Utopia in the Sky (Doraemon: Nobita to Sora no Utopia) and is the 42nd anime film to feature Doraemon.
The plot will follow the titular character and his friends who set out on an adventure in the sky city Utopia where, true to its name, everyone can live happily ever after. Plot-wise, that’s all that has been revealed, so stay tuned for further developments.
The first teaser trailer and a poster have been made available, so take a look:
Judging by the trailer, there is a brand new time zeppelin, so let’s hope it will spice things up.
Doraemon: Nobita and Utopia — what we know so far
The staff has been revealed, with Takumi Dōyama directing the film and Ryōta Kosawa in charge of the screenplay.
The cast remains unchanged as compared to the previous Doraemon movie, as follows:
- Wasabi Mizuta — Doraemon
- Megumi Oohara — Nobita
- Yumi Kakazu — Shizuka
- Subaru Kimura — Gian
- Tomokazu Seki — Suneo
The Doraemon franchise: as legendary as it gets
Doraemon (ドラえもん) was originally a manga series by Fujiko F. Fujio. It began serialization in CoroCoro Comic in 1969 and ended in 1996. The manga series numbers a total of 1,345 chapters, which have been compiled in 45 tankōbon volumes. Shogakukan published the original series.
Another manga series, Doraemon Plus, also published by Shogakukan, was serialized from 2005 to 2014.
The plot follows the titular Doraemon, a robotic cat from the 22nd century, who goes back in time to assist a boy (Nobita Nobi).
The manga was a huge success and has since evolved into a full-blown franchise spanning three TV anime series (in 1973, 1979, and 2005), 41 animated films distributed by Toho (Nobita and Utopia is the 42nd), a slew of soundtracks, musicals, and video games, and all kinds of merchandise imaginable.
To this day, Doraemon remains the most recognizable Japanese pop culture icon, unrivalled even by Hello Kitty. Don’t miss the subtle recipe for success: both characters are cats.
The Doraemon manga series is licensed by a collaboration of Fujiko F. Fujio Pro with Voyager Japan and AltJapan Co., Ltd. and is distributed via Amazon Kindle.
Doraemon has inspired a number of spin-offs, the most popular of which are Doraemon Long Stories (1980–2004) by Fujiko F. Fujio (Vol. 1–17) and Fujiko F. Fujio Pro (Vol. 18–24), The Doraemons (1995–2003) by Michiaki Tanaka, and Dorabase (2000–2014) by Shintaro Mugiwara.