CANDY TINS AGAIN & DORAEMON

Doraemon candy tins! Bought them on impulse, because I collect Japanese candy tins... see my 2 previous posts 'Sakuma Shiki Drops' and the 'Commemorative edition from Grave of the Fireflies'.

The candy featured above is not by Sakuma but Morinaga. Isn't the packaging so cute! My friend egged me to buy both, initially I only wanted the blue one since Doraemon is blue. And no, NO ONE is ever too old for Doraemon =)

Anyhow I wonder if everyone is familiar with Doraemon?

I had a surprise when my American friends or contacts had never heard of this character. My reaction was 'Really?!' since the series is comparable to... Hello Kitty for instance. Doraemon is also listed in Time Magazine as one of the 22 Asian heroes so yes, he is pretty huge and for 30 years already. I guess it all boils down to what the tv channels are showing; maybe the series was too Japanese-oriented and the gags will likely be lost in translation. The manga was created by Fujio F. Fujiko in 1969 and ended in 1996 when he passed away. I've been watching the anime since kindergarten in the early 80s - in my opinion, the best of the lot though they were only about 6.5 mins per story.

About Doraemon:

Doraemon is a robotic cat from the future. His greatest phobia is mice - reason being a mouse ate his ears after he was just manufactured. Also, his prototype is supposed to be yellow. He turned blue permanently from depressing over being an earless cat and was considered as a reject. His sister, Dorami, is yellow and has ears. His favourite food is Dorayaki, a bean paste-filled japanese pancake.

Doraemon was sent back in time to change history and aid 4th-grader Nobita to a better life as Nobita's descendents were beset with financial problems (no doubt this was partly Nobita's fault as he was lazy and often plagued with misfortunes)! Doraemon, being a very righteous and sympathetic robot, comes to the rescue with various futuristic dougu or equipment, from his 4th-dimensional pocket whenever Nobita comes bawling to him for help.

'You're a bigger loser than Charlie Brown! And stop stealing my dorayaki!!'

Most of the time the gadgets are mis-used for showing off, acting revenge on Nobita's bullies or enhancing Nobita's laziness through convenience (an irony). Instant gratifications usually do not turn out right! There are thousands of dougu: teleportation door, camera that makes a 3-D miniature of whatever you've photographed, mood and seasons changers, scenery stimulators etc. The only invention not legal to own is... counterfeiting money machines of course! My favourite one is the food realization machine - just feed the machine a drawing/photo of whatever you want to eat and out comes the actual thing! Wow.