I don't watch much anime, so I have never seen the animated adaptation of Fujiko Fujio's Doraemon manga. That, however, may have to change, especially since CA editor Caleb Goellner just summed it up for me as "a robot cat from the future who travels back in time to be friends with kids and fight the Terminator." That kind of sounds like exactly the sort of thing that I would be into, even if the Terminator stuff turned out to just be a one-time gag.

Fortunately, it looks like I'll have my chance this summer: Disney XD is planning to air a 26-episode run of one of the latest Doraemon series, five times a week, in a block of programming designed for younger, elementary school-aged kids.

In addition to changing the names of characters (similar to the names that were used in the recent English editions of the manga), the show will also be edited for content to bring it more in line with Disney XD's guidelines. It will also be dubbed rather than subtitled.

The tradeoff to that is that this is the first time Doraemon has ever been shown on television in America, and with Disney getting behind it, there are massive opportunities for bringing content, both for new fans and for existing ones who have sought it out before. Plans are already in place for the high-end Tamashii Nations action figures to be brought to the American market, and that's just the tip of the iceberg as far as what's been available in Japan since Doraemon's debut in 1973.

 

 

[via ANN]

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