Doraemon

Set in 20th century Tokyo, Japan, the series revolves around Nobita Nobi, a ten-year-old school boy who is kind-hearted and honest, but also lazy, clumsy, and hapless, performing poorly in both school and sports. One day, a blue robot cat from the 22nd century named Doraemon is sent back to the past by Nobita's future great-great-grandson, Sewashi Nobi, to take care of Nobita so that his descendants can have a better life. Doraemon has a four-dimensional pocket in which he stores tools, inventions, and gadgets from the future to aid Nobita whenever he is faced with a problem. Although Doraemon is a cat robot, he has a fear of mice because of an incident where robotic mice chewed off his ears. Afterwards, Doraemon lost his original yellow color and turned blue from sadness.

Nobita has three main friends: Takeshi Goda (nicknamed Gian), Suneo Honekawa (Gian's sidekick), and Shizuka Minamoto (Nobita's love interest). Gian is a strong, leading and domineering boy, but also loyal to his friends. Suneo is a wealthy and spoiled boy who uses his friendship with Gian to win the respect of other schoolmates. Shizuka is a gentle and kind girl who frequently plays with Nobita.

Doraemon was written and illustrated by Fujiko F. Fujio, the pen name of Japanese manga artist Hiroshi Fujimoto. According to Fujio, the series was originally conceived following a series of three events: when searching for ideas for a new manga, he wished a machine existed that would come up with ideas for him; during this, he tripped over his daughter's toy, and heard cats fighting in his neighborhood. To set up the plot and characters, he used some elements from his earlier manga series, Obake no Q-Tarō, which involve an obake living with humans, with a similar formula.

Fujio said that the idea for Doraemon came after "an accumulation of trial and error", during which he finally found the most suitable style of manga to him. Initially, the series achieved little success as gekiga was well known at the time, and it only became a hit after its adaptation into an anime TV series and multiple feature films.

Doraemon is considered one of the best-known manga of all time, a true Japanese cultural icon, and an essential part of family life of the Japanese post-war generation. Akihiro Motoyama observed that "mothers who watched the movies when they were children are now taking their own children to see them". It was also commercially successful: over 108 million volumes were sold in Japan by 1996. The 1979 and 2005 anime series also achieved high ratings on television.

With the film Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum, the Doraemon anime film series reached 100 million tickets sold at the Japanese box office, surpassing Godzilla as the highest-grossing film franchise in Japan. By 2015, it had sold over 103 million tickets, and was the largest franchise by numbers of admissions in the country.