Doraemon

Something random that I've delayed posting about for reasons entirely unknown. Sort of. Other thoughts arise now and then. Constantly.

Anyways.

Doraemon. A blue robotic cat without ears from the year 20xx. He has within a pouch that links to another dimension where he can store as much stuff as he wants. This stuff just so happens to be amazing tools and gadgets that allow him to help the protagonist of the story.

Our protagonist, Nobita (I think that's his Japanese name in English anyways), is useless. Like actually. Not kidding. Fails at sports, academics, confidence, bullied, etc etc. It's no wonder that his son (?) from the future sends Doraemon back in time to help him. Except rather than help, each chapter pretty much has Nobita messing around with the gadget and ruining everything.

What really shone with this manga series were, obviously, the awesome gadgets in each chapter. There was a plethora of awesomeness that I can't possibly name (because I can't possibly remember them all).

Some of these include:
- Apparatus attached to your head that allows for flight
- A flashlight for shrinking / enlarging things
- A door that can literally open up to anywhere
- Time machine
- Machine that can create buildings made of solid cloud (lol)
- Shoes that allow you to step within a book
- Simulation that brings you into the video game
- An encyclopedia that brings its contents to life
... and more.

Looking back, how are these scientifically plausible?

The pouch to another dimension. Wouldn't there be some sort of intense pressure gradient between the two that sucked them into it? How can he so easily find what he's reaching for by just placing his hands (which are literally just white spheres) into the bag and digging for a few seconds? Perhaps there's an automated mechanism on the seal that helps him search and equalizes pressure...

The flight apparatus would place immense strain on your neck because you're suspending your body by your head. That would hurt. A lot. Also, expensive chiropractor bill.

The shrink / growth flashlight. Wouldn't the compression kill you by explosion? Basically it'd be akin to shrinking the gap between all of the atoms within your body. This would bring similar charges way too close together. Couple that with all the other cells in your body... and... you get the picture.

Are just a few contradictions. Some are even worse. However, if there exists a book that tries to explain all of these, I would love to read it.

Oh. Also, his ears were bitten off by mice when he fell asleep. Which is why he's afraid of mice. Which is confusing because he's a robot. He also has a penchant for red bean buns. Yay.

Of course, these tools could solve so many of our current world problems. We could use the flashlight to enlarge the food so there's enough for everyone. We could use the mirror that duplicates objects to do the same as well. The door to everywhere would reduce transportation pollution to zero. We wouldn't need to fight because we can literally have everything.

Except idle hands are the devil's playthings. Or something like that. With no specific need for jobs and this high tech stuff, there's bound to be some sort of dissidence and evil take-over-the-world-through-time-travel kind of junk.

Anyways. Doraemon is awesome because it was literally the first manga I ever read. It also helped me develop my reading of the Chinese language. The cartoons were awesome too. I'm not sure how many times I rewatched those. Or reread. Over and over and over.

I'd like to note that my dad disapproved of Doraemon because it taught kids to become dependent on some robot that could provide for all their needs. On the flipside, you could see how pathetic he was and strive not to be that way. Speaking of disapproval...

Also, there was no clearcut ending to the series (there usually isn't for a series such as this...). There were two main hypotheses to the end though. One was that this was all inside Nobita's head and he was really just a lonely, melancholic kid living off in his own imagination. That's depressing. The other much better hypothesis was that a malfunction occurred with Doraemon, causing all of the tools present to not work (including the time machine that could take him to the future and fix him). Nobita then became determined to do better at school and study robotics (or whatever) so that he could someday repair his friend. Aw.


In other news...


That was rather long. Wasted weekend too. Bleh. I'm going to bed. Soon.