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Doraemon: Gadget Cat from the Future is the US English adaptation of the 2005 anime that has been airing since July 7, 2014 and has aired a total of 52 episodes as of 2015. Since February 1, 2016 ,the US adaptation airs bilingually in Japan on Disney Channel Japan.
This dub takes many liberties from the original Japanese version. Besides using the name changes that were used in AltJapan’s English adaptation of the original manga, other changes and edits have been made to make the show more relatable to an American audience, such as Japanese text being replaced with English text on certain objects like signs and graded papers, items such as yen notes being replaced by US dollar bills, and the setting being changed from Tokyo to a small town located somewhere in the United States.
Production
TV Japan aired the original Japanese version of Doraemon (2005 anime) with no English subtitles in the United States and Canada every Friday at 6:30 PM. In March 2014, it was taken off the network’s schedule and replaced by the Anne of Green Gables anime, as The Walt Disney Company acquired the rights of the show.
On May 9, 2014, Nikkei announced that The Walt Disney Company would begin running an English dub of the 2005 anime on Disney XD in the United States starting in July 2014. The network would run a total of 26 episodes. Fujiko Fujio Productions (Fujiko-Pro), TV Asahi, and Shin-Ei Animation produced the English dub together with Bang! Zoom Entertainment. The dub is currently licensed and distributed by Viz Media.
The dub has been edited to appeal more to American audiences and its strict guidelines of violence, depictions of discrimination, depictions of sexual content, and to abide by Disney guidelines. There were name changes that were also used in the Amazon Kindle English adaptation of the original manga, other changes and edits have also been made to make the show more suitable to an American audience, such as Japanese text being replaced with English text on certain objects like signs and graded papers, and items such as yen notes being replaced by US dollar bills. Fujiko Pro and TV Asahi commissioned the edits for the dub to be made by the now-defunct Studio Mir (who also made the edits for the Korean dub) to comply with North American broadcast standards. It should be noted that Disney had no involvement in the visual edits. The dub focuses heavily on episodes that feature more action rather than those that focus on “heartwarming relationships”.
On June 17, 2014, Fujiko Fujio Productions and Viz Media opened an English website for the anime. The website features character info, a gadget list, a free preview of the manga, a link to the Doraemon Repair Shop app, and a trailer that shows the intro of the dub. The intro was later replaced by a video of the full episode “Big G: Master Chef”.
On June 19, 2014, Japan Plus Inc., announced that the first episode of the dub would make its US premiere screening at the Japan America Theater during the Anime De Summer Festival on July 5, 2014.
The dub premiered with its first season on July 7, 2014, with the season finale being on August 29, 2014. On July 11, 2014, four days after the show premiered on Disney XD, Disney Channel debuted the series as part of the Disney XD on Disney Channel block. Episodes aired every weekday at 12:30 PM ET/11:30 AM CT. It would have an encore airing on the same dates at 12:00 AM ET/11:00 PM CT. After the first season’s finale, the encore airings would be moved to 6:00 AM. In March 2015, Brian Beacock, the voice of Sneech, noted on his Twitter account that he was doing further dubbing work for the dub. It was believed to be a sign of further English airings being scheduled. On June 3, 2015, a second season was confirmed by Disney. It later premiered on June 15, 2015, at 1:00 PM in the US. Every episode except for the premiere aired at 12:30 PM. The dub had its finale on September 1, 2015.
The U.S. English dub had a production fee + copyright fee with a combined total of 100 million yen. It is the most expensive dub compared to any of the other international dubs of the series.
The dub later premiered on the Canadian version of Disney XD in August 2015, with episodes airing at 12:00 PM. For unknown reasons, the network aired only 9 episodes before eventually being removed from their schedule. In Australia, it started airing on 26 January 2015 on Network Ten. Later it moved in Australia to Boomerang, which is also available in New Zealand. This dub was never aired in the UK due to an alternative English dub being made by LUK Internacional.
Since February 1, 2016, the US adaptation airs bilingually in Japan on Disney Channel Japan, making Japan the only country to make a redub of this adaptation of the series.
As of 2017, Bang Zoom! Entertainment has stated that there are currently no plans for a third season of the dub. The reruns of the Bang Zoom! dub of the Doraemon anime series has ceased on Disney XD USA in 2017. Plans for DVD and Blu-ray releases have not been announced.
On March 3, 2020, Viz Media uploaded the whole 2 seasons of Doraemon’s US dub to its dedicated YouTube channel when their contract was about to end. Their YouTube account, however, was terminated in June 2020 over several TV Asahi copyright claims relating to the use of Doraemon without a valid contract.
In 2021, the official Doraemon America website has been now taken down and redirected to TV Asahi’s Japanese website page for the series.[1]
On October 8, 2021, Komanyan uploaded all of the high quality/watermark-free episodes of the dub that were ripped from Watch Disney XD, Disney XD On Demand and Doraemon USA YouTube Channel on Archive.org.
Changes
- Most kinds of Japanese elements and cultural differences were Americanized.
- The setting has been changed from Tokyo, Japan to an unnamed fictitious place in the US.
- Many Japanese food items were renamed to be English food items. This likely because several Japanese foods are not well-known in America. This was done in some English dubs of other anime in the past (the most well-known being the English dub of Pokemon by 4Kids Entertainment). Another reason this could have been done was due to a guideline encouraging the promotion of healthy eating. This rule was put into use by the Federal Communications Commission (the US telecommunications regulator, who also oversees the regulation of television broadcasting in the country).
- Omurice is now called “pancakes.”
- However, Omurice and pancakes are very different.
- Ishiyaki imo stands have been replaced by kettle-corn stands.
- Mochi has been changed into apple slices.
Differences between Original Japanese Version (Above) and North American Version (Below)
- Omurice is now called “pancakes.”
- Japanese yen notes are replaced by US dollar bills.
- Most Japanese signage and Japanese text were removed or have been translated into English. (Example: the sign of Gouda’s Goods was translated into English.)
- However, Japanese signage and Japanese text remain untranslated in other International dubs.
- Japanese checkmarks have been replaced by “X” marks along with an “F” letter grade added on test papers. This likely because in the US, a more common system of grading is based on letters instead of numerals.
- In the USA and some international countries, checkmarks are symbols for something being “correct.”
- Chopsticks are replaced by forks. This is likely because forks are more commonly used than chopsticks in the US. Chopsticks are usually only used in the US when eating eastern dishes.
- Doraemon is mistaken for a seal instead of a tanuki/raccoon. This likely because Japanese tanuki are not viewed by westerners in the same vein as Japanese people.
- In the manga publications by Take Minutes (Malaysian manga publication company), Doraemon was often confused as a “fox” and sometimes a “jungle cat”. It is due to the confusion because Malay language lack distinction to the species.
- Interestingly, in the movies, it has become a running gag where most antagonists notoriously confused Doraemon as a fox-like robot which so notorious that he became angry to call as such.
- And finally, when Tora Aman republished the manga in the Chinese language, he was mistaken by tankooni or “fat guy”.
- In the manga publications by Take Minutes (Malaysian manga publication company), Doraemon was often confused as a “fox” and sometimes a “jungle cat”. It is due to the confusion because Malay language lack distinction to the species.
- Noby’s feelings for Shizuka was toned down somewhat to a platonic level as Noby blushing over her has been removed.
- Shizuka’s character has been partially changed to reflect a more tomboyish personality, although her sweet and kind personality was retained. This was done because, in test viewings of the Japanese version, most of the American children requested for her character to be changed since her traditionally Japanese habits were difficult to understand. In addition, her love for bathing and sweet potatoes are not mentioned until season 2.
- The tomboyish character of Shizuka has appeared in a few episodes in original Japanese before it was broadcast in America.
- There is no theme song leading towards the episode. Instead, Doraemon provides his own synopsis narration about how he was sent back to the future to aid Noby, and the troubles that he encounters. The background music during episodes has also changed from the original Japanese version as well.
- During the American version airing in Japan on Disney Channel Japan, it has been translated and dubbed again by their Seiyu but the background music was retained.
- The ending/credits song of the American dub used footage from the second version of Yume Wo Kanaete with minor editing.
- Dorayaki are referred to as “Yummy Buns”.
- The episodes are re-ordered instead of dubbing the Japanese episode order chronologically.
- However, most of the international countries are ordered in Japanese episode order.
- All the Japanese background music has been replaced by original compositions in order to edit the lip-sync on select episodes.
- However, in the UK English dub, the Japanese background music was retained as the other countries also the same as in Japan.
- Most international dubs retain Japanese background music such as Indonesia and Spain.
- The episode title card sequence is excluded from dubbed episodes. The episode title is instead shown as an overlay at the beginning of the episode.
- In the Indonesian version, it used a translated title card placed in the Japanese title card.
- Several international version retains the Japanese title card sequence, and some of them were translated by dubbing.
- Fade to black transitions have been added to most of the episodes.
- Some episodes have several minutes of footage cut due to Disney wanting more time during commercial breaks and not allowing any episodes to run past a half-hour timeslot. This was not because these scenes were inappropriate for children. Examples include All the Way from the Future World, The Galaxy Grand Prix, and Moving to a Haunted Castle.(Disney can into money-grubbing)
- Nudity has been heavily censored by adding computer-generated steam (as seen in Transformade), as well as adding clothing, such as a tank top (as seen in The Horizon in Nobita’s Room).
- However, nudity was not censored in other international dubs, unlike in India (Despite this, India has cut or edited out the nudity scenes because of the tight censorship rules.)
- In Indonesia and Thailand, the nudity had different censoring ways, like blurring or cutting the nudity scenes instead of adding computer-generated steam.
- All scenes showing Nobisuke smoking have been removed due to smoking being considered an unhealthy practice.
Japanese re-dub changes
While the Japanese re-dub kept the changes from the USA English dub, there are a few exceptions.
- The Japanese character names are retained.
- This is most likely because the redub is simply the voice audio from the original Japanese versions put onto the English footage and background music.
- While the episode and gadget names were kept untranslated, the subtitles were provided instead.
Character name changes
It should be noted that these name changes are considered “nicknames”. It is heavily implied that all the characters’ real names are still their Japanese original names.
Voice cast
Episodes
- Main article: List of Doraemon (Disney XD version) episodes
Broadcast History
- Disney XD (original run, July 7, 2014-September 1, 2015; reruns, September 2, 2015-May 12, 2017)
- Disney Channel (July 7, 2014; July 11, 2014–January 15, 2016, January 16–October 7, 2016)
List of specific edits from certain episodes
It should be noted that all episodes have visual edits, even if it’s as minor as removing/translating text.
All The Way From The Future
- All scenes outside of the flashback itself are cut. This was done to act as if this is the first time Nobita meets Doraemon, happening as the episode progresses, as it was the dub’s first episode.
- This could have also been done as the original episode was 15 minutes, which is unordinary for a US timeslot.
- Noby mistakes Doraemon for a seal instead of a raccoon, as Western raccoons look very different from the Japanese tanuki.
- Noby’s face is painted green instead of black to avoid creating a racially insensitive image (known as blackface or minstrel).
- The scene of Noby looking at his wedding book alone is cut. This was done so the episode could fit into the timeslot. This also affects the part where Soby and Doraemon explain how disastrous Noby’s actions are to them in the future.
- Although this scene is not in the dubbed episode, a brief snippet of the cut footage, of an upset Noby throwing his wedding book across the room, made it into the U.S. opening sequence.
- The scene of Soby explaining to Noby that there are four ways to get to Osaka is cut due to the main setting in the dub being in America and not in Japan.
- The episode ends right before the scene of Noby noticing that everyone, including Sue and Little G, is staring at him in his underwear, and then runs away in humiliation. This was likely cut due to time constraints.
Transformade
- When Big G punches Noby for making fun of his singing, stars and dust are added to cover up the violence.
- All instances of revealing nudity are covered up in some way.
- Patches of grass and bushes are added in the empty lot in multiple shots to cover up Noby.
- One scene has Noby being covered up by a police car.
- A shot of Noby hiding behind a pipe is zoomed in.
- Clouds were added to the scenes where he accidentally changes into himself while in the sky. This also happens when he sees Sue and accidentally changes into her.
- The ending shot where Noby is whacked with a broom by his mom has dust added.
- The ending shot of Noby is zoomed in.
Battle of the Dueling Nobys
- A shot of an outside view of Noby, Tammy, and Noby’s uncle is cut due to time constraints.
- A shot of Noby being gifted two 1,000 yen notes had the yen notes changed to be two five-dollar bills. This extends to the shot where Noby adds it into his savings, resulting in another three 100 yen coins being changed to be unlabeled coins.
- A scene with Noby blushing was removed for unknown reasons.
- The Cup Men noodles had their logos removed and were renamed to “Thing o’ Noodles.”
- This was possibly done to avoid copyright infringement. The Cup Men logo looks visually similar to Cup Noodles’ logo, which is a real brand of ramen by Nissin Foods.
- The part where Noby punches his past self had a flash added to censor the impact.
- Noby asking a past Sue for directions was cut for time constraints.
Memory Bread
- Noby explaining his dilemma to Doraemon is cut for time constraints.
- The scene where Noby is walking to Sneech’s house to borrow his notebook is cut.
- Mochi rolls are changed into apple slices to promote healthy eating.
- Chopsticks are changed into forks while the Nobi family is having dinner.
My Best Friend Doraemon
- Noby dubs the Sumo Wrestler the “Famous Wrestler Sumo Guy”, though his name is unknown in the other international dubs.
Invasion of the Body Swappers
- The scene where Sue was watching TV and then was about to take a shower but got uncomfortable doing so with Noby’s body was removed.
- Pork buns in Big G’s house were replaced with apples.
Livin’ The Dream
- In the USA English dub, some scenes, such of Suneo’s dreams at the beginning of the episode, were swapped.
- “Suneo” were replaced with his English name, “Sneech”.
- 2019 were replaced with 2017 (the year where the reruns of USA English dub taken off from Disney XD USA) on the poster.
Experimental Dream Schemes
- Unrevealed disks names, as well as used disks names, were changed.
- In all of the dubs (including the original Japanese one), Shizuka calls Nobita to escape, but he asks what he escapes to. But in the USA English dub, Sue just calls Noby to run to the sun again and he asked what’s happened. Not only this, G-Beard says he will get revenge (or he scolds Nobita for being more angry to him) in original and all of the International dubs, but in the USA English dub, he says that Noby hid from him. (Likely an escape)
- Incomprehensible math problems were on the classroom blackboard in the original and all of the International dubs. In the USA English dub they changed it to “Monkey + Dog – Cat”, “ABC + DEFG =”, and “Sunflower X Watermel (on)”.
The Galaxy Grand Prix
- The beginning of the original Japanese version was cut out. The episode starting with Noby, Sue, Sneech and Big G entering the House for unknown reasons.
- Dorami and Pawaemon’s appearances in the dub were cut out due to time contraints.
- Doraemon’s first encounter with Devlin was cut out due to time restraints, and has been moved to when Doraemon, Noby, Sue, Sneech and Big G arrive at the Galaxy Car Race stage.
- The restaurant scene was cut out because it involved Dorami.
- Everyone struggling to find a car was cut out. This likely to prevent confusion or wasting time. This scene was kept in the original Japanese version.
- Noby telling Sue about the story of Doraemon’s ears was cut out. This was likely cut to prevent any fear of mice among American children leaving them not know about the real reason why Doraemon’s lost its ears.
- The Lava Course (Stage 3 of the Prix) was cut out from the end of Stage 2, and cut to a commercial break, with Stage 4 starting right after the commercial break. This likely due to time constraints or other reasons.
- The scene where Big G jumping into Devlin’s Car to attack him was cut out due to violence.
- The scene in which everyone was cheering and clapping to Noby and Doraemon for winning the race was cut to the Galaxy-Grand Prix Announcer saying “Now, time to hand this over to our winners!”. This likely because the scene was being too overzealous and too long. This scene was kept in the original Japanese version.
Noby, The Great Illusionist
- Phantom Thief is changed to illusionist. This likely because illusionist is more popular than Phantom Thief in North America. This was not in the case in another Japanese anime Yu-Gi-Oh!
- In the original dub, Sneech’s mother and Little G use their own voices, however, in the U.S. dub, Noby’s voice is used like an undubbed episode did, or some reason.
Big G: Master Chef
- Pork Chop’s scene was cut from the U.S. English version.
Escape from Score Zero
- The pause scene where Tammy before open the door were slightly longer than the original version for some reason.
- The scene where Noby lets out a small moan of fear is cut and skipped to the next scene.
- Noby stalling is significantly longer than the original dub.
- Two extra lines of Noby were added before he leaves.
- The scene where Noby punched is edited into a white background. This likely because of a violent scene.
- The scene of Noby’s good chunk dialogue is removed before and after Noby arrives at Ace’s for an unknown reason.
- The scene where Noby is punched second time is edited. This is also likely because of a violent scene.
Go to the Doctor, Doraemon!
- Dorami, Sue, Big G, Sneech and the Factory Manager are removed from the U.S. English dub. This was done to avoid a plothole that was not done outside U.S. which involves the following episode for the original Japanese vervsion, The Day Doraemon is Reborn.
Transform with the Dracula Set!
- In the original Japanese broadcast, Doraemon puts two bandages in the shape of a cross on his nose, creating a crucifix that frightens Nobita. To avoid religious and unrelated cartoon references, the bandages and first aid kit are removed and a garlic pizza is used to scare Noby out of his bat form.
The Time Cloth
- The flyer that Noby’s dad has its Japanese text painted out.
- Noby and Doraemon glancing at the viewer upon creating their plan was taken out due to an overzealous scene.
A Visitor from the Country of the Future
- When Big G’s mom hits the thief with a radish, what comes out of his gun is a white flag instead of the flag of Japan, representing his surrender. This is likely because the main setting in the dub being in America, and not in Japan.
Doraemon and the Space Shooters
- This English dub of the episode is almost not related to events in the original version, since the series is set in the US instead of Japan. All of the texts were translated or blurred, and some English text (for example: “You Win!”) was kept intact.
Deluxified
- The scene where Noby’s tears were cut out because too over-dramatic. However, it was kept uncensored in other International broadcasts since the other countries which broadcast Doraemon anime series aren’t thinking so.
Snowkid on the Block Snowman in Town
- The scene where Noby takes a bath is cut.
When the Last Leaf Falls
- In the original Japanese version, Little G is eating sweet potatoes while she’s reading her book, but in the U.S. English version, she’s eating popcorn. This likely because popcorn is more common than sweet potatoes in America. All Japanese text in the book were removed.
Gorgon’s Spell
- In the Japanese version, when Sue gets petrified by the Gorgon Head, Noby rushes to her and cries over her petrified body. This was taken out in the US version. The reason is that the scene was too traumatic and makes American viewers afraid about it. But this never happened in other International dubs, as leaving this episode was uncensored.
- Similarly, after Noby pulls the snake and undoes the spell, the scene where he shows relief that Sue returned to normal was taken out in the US version.
It’s The End Of The World As We Know It
- In the original episode, Nobita drinks tea to try and stay up, but falls asleep and wets himself instead. The dub changes this to him accidentally kicking over the teapot he poured the tea from in his sleep.
See You Go Round
- Sue does not appear in the U.S. version. Hence, the number of times the gadget being used is reduced from 11 in the original version to 10. The episode plot was rewritten for the U.S. version due to the likelihood of showing Sue bathing being inappropriate for kids.
- The same thing happened in Indonesia, where the scene where Nobita witnessing Shizuka in her bathtub was also cut because the scene was inappropriate, leaving the number of times the gadget can be used to be reduced from 11 in the original version to 9. Thus the episode plot was heavily rewritten.
The Puppet Master’s Camera
- In the American version, Big G and Sneech get drenched in pouring water instead of having their pants wet. This is likely because viewers could think that they’re wetting on their pants.
Noby’s Tough to Stomach
- In the U.S. English dub, the opal is part of Sue’s mom’s $500,000 wedding ring. But this never happened in the other international releases.
Rub-a-Dub-Dub, See the World from a Tub!
- In the original version Doraemon covers something the audience shouldn’t see on Noby due to censorship, but in the U.S. English dub Noby is already wearing green shorts.
- Doraemon going inside Sue’s bathroom to help her out was cut possibly due to inappropriate scene.
- After Sue returns from the Netherlands, she is seen smiling to Doraemon and Noby, but in the U.S. English dub she isn’t.
- Also, she screams and splashes Noby out the bathtub calling him a pervert when he was in her presence. In the US English dub, Noby tells Sue that she “finally” smells good, which makes her feel insulted and tells him that he should take a bath.
What’s on the Robo-Catwalk?
- In the original Japanese version and the U.K. English version, Gian is naked. but in the American English version, he’s in his boxers/panties, thus Dress-Up Camera nerved a bit.
- Meanwhile, in the U.K. English version, the nudity scene was uncensored, as stated above.
- This episode is still unknown that this episode had ever broadcast in Indonesia and dubbed in Indonesian due to this. In the Philippines, this episode was rated as SPG (Strong Parental Guide) due to this.
Mystery of the Haunted Castle
I can’t leave with you Nobita!
- Some scenes have been cut due to time constraints.
Big G’s Big Show
- The U.S. English dub features Lucas Grabeel of High School Musical and Switched at Birth fame as the singing voice of Big G (after eating the mints).
- But in other International broadcasts, it features a different voice cast and different songs for Gian after eating the mints.