Doraemon (American dub on Disney XD)

[winstein]

Since Doraemon is largely unknown around here, I think it's OK to let everyone here know about the anime on Disney XD. After all, it's currently airing for five days a week, and as of writing this, three episodes (with two stories each) had aired. Doraemon's status as an influential franchise in Japan means that Japan lovers should really check it out!

This week, Doraemon was finally broadcasted in America, with dub and all. This means every character has an American voice actor behind them. Not only that, most characters got renames, such as Nobita becoming Noby, Suneo becoming Sneech and Shizuka becoming Sue. It also contains some edits, though from what is shown so far, is nothing serious. There are translation-induced changes (like the "No Littering" sign in Mecha Maker) and some changes that might seem strange (such as the dollar notes becoming more US-like in Battle of Dueling Nobys).

Based on the timing of this anime's debut in America, the most recent anime is used instead of the previous one (the longest running one). This means that the version used have characters look closer to the manga's artstyle, the colours are cleaner, the resolution is befitting of HD, the stories are more faithful to the manga (compared to the previous anime), and CG animation is used.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Elysion]

Wow I didn't even know Doraemon got an English dub.

 

[King Robert]

Dang, and I don't have Disney XD. That sounds so cool.

 

[Mint0]

I decided to watch some of it online, besides the name changes, which aren't really that buggy, It's pretty good and funny

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

I've been watching it on Disney XD when there's nothing else on, and I can say that asides from the censorship issues (which aren't as bad as 4Kids, at least in my opinion) the English dub has been actually pretty decent, particularly with the voice acting (Doraemon himself sounds similar to his Japanese voice).

It's not the best dub, but it could have been much worse, I'm just surprised it took this long for a dub to come. I did hear a rumor around 2009 or so that it was going to be dubbed and aired on Cartoon Network on a revived Toonami block, but I think it was just a rumor. I'm just glad we got a dub at all, even a bowlderized one will at least give people some exposure to this Japanese pop-culture icon that many consider the Japanese equivalent of Mickey Mouse.

Only a few of the name changes bug me, as well as the fact that the setting was changed to somewhere in the US despite it still looking like Japan (I'm guessing it's set in San Fransokyo), but otherwise it doesn't bother me, I don't watch too much anime but this is at least something I've been willing to watch. Lately I've been watching a number of the original Japanese Doraemon episodes subbed since the dub actually got me curious about the Doraemon franchise as a whole, and there are a few things I feel the Japanese version excels in, particularly that the original Japanese music and sound effects are better, but that's just my opinion.

My only real concern is not the edits, but that the series might not really break out among American audiences and that not many people will notice this series, primarily because of how many in the west tend to view anime as being heavily story-driven action series like Naruto and One Piece rather than being a multitude of different genres and styles. Thing is, Doraemon actually borrows a significant number of elements from western animation shows, which many fans of western animation like me would quickly be accustom to. I'm not saying anime like Naruto and One Piece are bad, but Doraemon justifies the large variety in anime, and it hasn't really been exposed too much in the west while having local dubs in several Asian and Latin American countries. I just hope to see more of this series being seen in the west in the future.

 

[matt0044]

Personally, it's a very fun series. I hope it's released on DVD sometime soon.

 

[King Robert]

I've seen every episode on Disney XD now (thanks to my DVR), really hoping they make more new episodes sometime in the future. I mean, it's rare to have an anime for kids on TV (aside from Pokémon).

 

[Rentorar]

They butchered the heck out of it. I'm not supporting the dub.

 

[Satoshi-chan]

I just wish that Disney would have given it decent promotion. It was only by chance that I learned that it was going to be airing on XD (and I only learned that a few days before it started airing), and whenever I check the Doraemon tag on Tumblr, I still see people saying "holy crap, when did Disney start showing Doraemon?"

From what I hear, it really didn't do all too well, but that's probably because nobody knew that it was actually happening. I guess Doraemon got the Gravity Falls treatment in that respect.

 

[Isaac Gravity]

^That's too bad to hear because I really am enjoying it.

The awesome voice work also shows why I never get tired of hearing Johnny Yong Bosh.

 

[Juliko]

I have to admit, I expected the dub to be a LOT worse, though I admittedly haven't seen the original. Having seen most of the episodes, I actually really like it! Mona Marshall kills it as Doraemon, I had no idea Johnny Yong Bosch could pitch his voice so high, the script actually ISN'T a bad Saban joke filled script like Digimon's (though I will always love Digimon), and some episodes have really interesting concepts. I'm waaaaay behind on it, though.