Turner Broadcasting System acquired the US rights to Doraemon in 1985 in a co-production with the scandal-plagued Canadian children's animation company Cinar (now known as WildBrain), entitled The Adventures of Albert and Sidney. Both companies planned to air the first 50 episodes that year on what was then called SuperStation WTBS, but due to unknown circumstances, the series did not air on the network as planned. It did, however, end up airing on CBC TV 8 in Barbados during the late 1980s and early 1990s.[1]
TV Japan aired Doraemon in its original Japanese version without subtitles[citation needed] in the US and Canada from May 2012 until March 2014.
The U.S. dub of Doraemon started airing on 7 July 2014 on Disney XD in the US, Disney XD aired a few episodes of the show in Canada in the summer of 2015 for two weeks before pulling it.
On 14 November 2008, Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur 2006 was screened in its original Japanese version with English subtitles in the Washington, D.C. area, marking the first time Doraemon ever made an appearance in the United States.
Foreign streaming service Netflix released an English dub of Stand by Me Doraemon 2 in Japan on 6 November 2021 featuring the return of the voice cast of the English dub of the 2005 anime. Netflix also released the dub around the world on 24 December 2021.
In North America, Viz Media is the master licensor for the series, but like all other Fujiko Fujio properties, it never had an English release. Back when the company was known as Viz Communications, they had plans to publish the manga in English in the early 1990s. But, due to the large amount of crude humor, and perverted moments that would have to be censored (one example being the numerous bath scenes featuring the female character, Shizuka), the license was eventually removed.
The Doraemon Exhibition originally presented at the Fujiko F. Fujio Museum was heading overseas for the first time. The "Meet! Doraemon" exhibit was shown in at Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The exhibit opened on 15 February-20 April 2014.
Telemundo aired the Latin American Spanish dub of the 1979 anime making this the first time the 1979 series could be seen on American airwaves from 2001 to 2004.
Brazil
The 1979 series had a first distribution attempt by Everest Video in the late 1980s, but the acquisition did not materialize due to the high cost of license at that time. In October 1992, distributed by WTC Comunicações, Doraemon was broadcast under the Doraemon, O Super-Gato Portuguese title on Rede Manchete children program Clube da Criança. However, the number of dubbed episodes was less and the series was not successful. In 2001, Creative Licensing tried to redistribute the series on television, but was unsuccessful.
In 2014, Sato Company in association with Rose Entertainment from Mexico, distributed the 2005 series under the Doraemon, O Gato do Futuro Portuguese title.[2]
The 1979 series was licensed by Rose Entertainment in 1999 for the entire Latin American region. A Latin American Spanish dub produced in Mexico under the Doraemon, el gato cósmicoSpain's title has been distributed in most countries. In 2014, Rose Entertainment licensed the 2005 series under the same title.
TV broadcast: First broadcast on Guangdong Television from 1989 to 1991 as 叮当, Doraemon's dubbing is Zhang Lin (only 26 episodes were shown); Second broadcast on CCTV-2 in 1991 as 机器猫, Doraemon's dubbing is Dong Hao, Zhang Lu and Liu Chunyan (only 113 episodes were shown); Third broadcast on CCTV-14 in 2007 as 哆啦A梦, Doraemon's dubbing is Zhang Limin; Third broadcast on many cartoon channels from 2004 to 2015 as 哆啦A梦, Doraemon's dubbing is Li Ye (only 300 episodes were shown) (All of these are 1979 anime only)[citation needed] Network broadcast: the first 300 episodes use Li Ye's dub version, 301st episode 2577th episodes use Taiwan version, Dissemination of copyright websites Jiayunshe to video websites in China. Movies: Nobita's Dinosaur 2006, Nobita's New Great Adventure into the Underworld, Nobita and the Green Giant Legend, Doraemon's dubbing is Zeng Dan; Nobita's Great Battle of the Mermaid King was originally planned to be released, but failed to pass the examination by Film censorship in China; Stand by Me Doraemon, Nobita's Treasure Island, Doraemon's dubbing is Liu Chunyan; Nobita and the Birth of Japan 2016, Nobita and the Great Adventure in the Antarctic Kachi Kochi, Doraemon's dub is Shan Xin.
First introduced in 1993 through a comic magazine "Doraemon" (多啦A夢),[3] was official publication licensed by Television Broadcasts Limited (電視廣播有限公司) for Kelly Chen (陳惠林).
First broadcast in August 1981 on TVB Jade[4] The first overseas broadcast in Doraemon history. Second broadcast from April 1991 until 30 March 1996 as 叮当 on Star Chinese Channel as the vert first overseas satellite broadcast in Doraemon history was telecast by STAR TV Television Productions.
It started airing on Hungama TV from May 2005, which was the introduction of the Doraemon franchise in India.[5][6][7] Since 19 November 2010, Hungama TV's sister channel, Disney Channel India has been rerunning the old dubbed episodes which have already been broadcast by Hungama TV. Hindi-dubbed episodes started with the 1979 Doraemon series. Later episodes of the 2005 Doraemon series started airing on Hungama TV and Disney Channel India in October and November 2013.[8] New seasons of Doraemon are available on Disney+ Hotstar in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.[9] As of 2023, 35 films (including special films) have been dubbed into Hindi, Tamil and Telugu and aired on Hungama TV and Disney Channel also two of them have been released in theatres.
Disney India was banned in Pakistan and Bangladesh due to the non-availability of English and local dubs of content including Doraemon.[10][11] The channel was similarly removed from air in Sri Lanka and Bhutan.
Bangladesh got Disney Channel India, which used to air Doraemon. In February 2013, Bangladesh banned the airing of unapproved foreign satellite television channels, particularly Disney Channel India, due to concerns that children would learn Hindi instead of Bengali.[12] The government also banned other channels such as Disney XD India and Pogo TV.[13] The Hindi dub was not completely banned as Hungama TV was still available. However Hungama TV stopped airing Doraemon in January 2018.
Later on, a Bengali dub was brought by Ddhoni Chitra Ltd. for episodes of the 1979 anime and has been airing on the cable channel Asian TV since 1 April 2014.[citation needed]
Doraemon was first aired by RCTI, as its first program during trial broadcast on 13 November 1988.[14] For two years, until 2 December 1990,[15] RCTI stopped airing Doraemon, and later started again on 7 December 1990 on Sunday at 9:00 AM. Later the airtime was moved to 8:30 AM on 12 May 1991[16] and finally to 8:00 AM on 2 June 1991. RCTI later maintained this airtime until early 2021 and still airs the cartoon to this day (since 2011 they air the 2005 version), making it the longest continuously airing animated television program in the country. It was also aired by former affiliate SCTV from 27 August 1990 until 22 August 1993.[17]
RCTI also has aired this series in short-lived airtimes such as every day in mid-2000s and on Saturday in early 2000s.[18][19] In 2018, the airtime was extended to one hour (from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM on Sunday), but later in early 2021 it was reduced to original (30 minutes) and the timeslot moved to 8:30 AM.[20] On 14 April 2024, the timeslot reverted to the original (8:00 AM).[21]
There are some important things about Doraemon's airing in Indonesia. During its early broadcast (mainly from 1990-1991), RCTI sometimes stopped Doraemon's broadcasting, however this was not continued after 1991. Doraemon is also the first Japanese cartoon to be aired in Indonesia (during this time, RCTI mostly aired US cartoons).[22] Doraemon's airing in Indonesia also had differences with original Japanese version: the title card, especially from 1979 version are edited and replaced, and because of advertisements, sometimes RCTI cut the length of episodes (for example, from 10 minutes to 5-8 minutes). From 2011-2014, despite having officially aired the 2005 version, sometimes RCTI still aired the 1979 version albeit with changes of title card and voiceover.
In addition to original series, RCTI sometimes aired Doraemon movies in morning, on weekdays. This series has high ratings: on one occasion (November 2017), Doraemon's rating was higher than soap operas, a staple for many television stations in Indonesia.[23]
11 December 1992 (Đôrêmon version, uncopyright) 1996 (licensed) 29 May 2010 (Doraemon version, licensed)
In the 2000s, VTV1 and VTC1 aired some episodes of the 1979 anime. Later HTV3 aired 52 episodes of the 1979 anime from 9 January to 4 July 2010, then the remaining of the anime from 20 November 2014 to 2 December 2015. Later, HTV3 aired the 2005 anime since 3 December 2015. HTV3 also aired 17 movies from 7 December 2012 to 27 December 2013.
From 2013, Doraemon movies were licensed in cinema theaters. The Stand By Me Doraemon film aired on 1 June 2015 on K+ NS.
102 early episodes (each one including 3 segments) from the 1979 series were dubbed in Italian and aired first on Rai 2 and then on local broadcasters, featuring the theme songs Il gatto Doraemon sung by Oliver Onions and La canzone di Doraemon (a cover of the Japanese theme "Boku Doraemon") sung by Il Coro I Nostri Figli di Nora Orlandi. From 2003 Italia 1 started airing most of the 1979 series with a new dub and the theme song titled Doraemon, sung by Cristina D'Avena, enjoying massive success.[citation needed] Since the 2010s the 1979 series was moved to Boing (Italy); the 2005 series started airing in 2014 alongside the previous one.
2000 by Canal Panda in Spanish with subtitles (before 2010) with ratings success in the core demographic of the channel in the early 2000s[28] and dubbed in Portuguese (since 2011), 2001 by RTP1 and RTP2 dubbed in Portuguese, 2009 by Panda Biggs with the 2005 episodes and the 1979 episodes in Spanish with subtitles in Portuguese, 2015 by Cartoon Network Portugal with the 2005 episodes and some of the 1979 episodes dubbed in Portuguese and 2019 by Boomerang Portugal with the 2005 episodes dubbed in Portuguese
1993 by TVE-2 and 1994 by Televisió de Catalunya, Canal Nou, Euskal Telebista, Canal Sur, TVG and other autonomical televisions (FORTA). Apart from running now on FORTA autonomical televisions network, the Spanish version also runs on Boing, a channel that airs around the whole country, giving it even a more mainstream appeal. In fact Doraemon acts as the unofficial mascot of that channel, its logo sharing the same blue color and the series airing during most of its daytime programming. The Doraemon airings on Boing offer a choice between Spanish and Japanese audio, and also offer Spanish teletext closed captioning. Doraemon is translated into four languages including Basque, Catalan (including a Valencian version since the early 1990s and a Balearic one since the mid-2000s) and Galician in addition to Spanish. The first Doraemon film was televised in 2000.
