is the first

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

TV series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed b ...

based on

Fujiko F. Fujio was a manga writing duo formed by Japanese manga artists and . They formed their partnership in 1951, and used the Fujiko Fujio name from 1954 until dissolution of the partnership in 1987, upon Fujimoto's illness. The pair was best known ...

's manga of the same name. It was produced by Nippon TeleMovie Productions. It aired from April 1, 1973, to September 30, 1973. After the anime ended, Doraemon remained exclusively a manga until 1979 when

Shin-Ei Animation is a Japanese animation studio owned by TV Asahi and founded in Tokyo in 1965 as A-Production by Daikichirō Kusube, who was previously an animator for Toei Animation. Shin-Ei is known for being the animation studio behind two of the anime tele ...

produced a more successful second anime adaptation, which officially ended in 2005; it was in turn replaced by a third anime adaptation shortly after which continues to air to recent days. The series is now considered as a piece of lost media due to its rarity and obscurity. Of the 52 segments, only 21 are known to survive.

Cast and characters

The voice cast was determined in cooperation with Aoni Production and Theatre Echo *

Kōsei Tomita was a Japanese actor and voice actor from Tokyo Prefecture who was affiliated with Aoni Production and Production Baobab. He voiced Doraemon in the first half of the original 1973 '' Doraemon'' series. He voiced Shunsaku Ban, also known as M ...

and

Masako Nozawa is a Japanese actress, voice actress and narrator. Throughout her life, she has been affiliated with Production Baobab, 81 Produce and self-owned Office Nozawa; she is also affiliated with Aoni Production. Her late husband, Masaaki Tsukada, ...

Doraemon ''Doraemon'' ( ja, ドラえもん ) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Fujiko F. Fujio. The manga was first serialized in December 1969, with its 1,345 individual chapters compiled into 45 ''tankōbon'' volumes and p ...

, Botako * Yoshiko Ohta as Nobita Nobi *

Masako Ebisu Masako (written: , , or in hiragana) is a feminine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: * *, (1888–1940), 6th daughter of Emperor Meiji *, Japanese long-distance runner * Masako Ebisu (born 1945), Japanese voice actress * ...

as Shizuka Minamoto *

Shun Yashiro was a Japanese actor and voice actor from Tsuyama, Okayama. At the time of his death, he was affiliated with Theater Echo. Throughout his career, Yasario was also known as , , and . Yashiro was best known for his roles in ''Inakappe Taishō'' ( ...

as Suneo Honekawa * Kaneta Kimotsuki as Takeshi "Gian" Goda *

Noriko Ohara , better known by her stage name , is a Japanese actress and voice actress. She was previously represented by Aoni Production, then Production Baobab, but is now freelance. Her son is Sunrise animator . She is best known for the roles of Nob ...

as Tamako Nobi * Ichirō Murakoshi as Nobisuke Nobi * Kazue Takahashi as Mrs. Honekawa *

Toshiya Ueda was a Japanese voice actor who worked for 81 Produce. He died on February 8, 2022, at the age of 88. Filmography Television animation *''Jungle Emperor'' (1965) (Lion A) *'' Sabu to Ichi Torimono Hikae'' (1968) (Rihei) *'' Andersen Stories'' ...

as Mrs. Honekawa *

Sanji Hase , better known by the stage name , was a Japanese voice actor and the father of Macross star Arihiro Hase. He died of lung cancer on March 8, 2002, at the age of 66. At the time of his death he was a free agent, but he had been previously repr ...

as Mr. Honekawa * Osamu Katou as Mr. Honekawa,

Sensei Sensei, Seonsaeng, Tiên sinh or Xiansheng, corresponding to Chinese characters , is an East Asian honorific term shared in Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese; it is literally translated as "person born before another" or "one who ...

*Masayuki Tatekabe as Sasuke Goda *Keiko Yokoyama as Mrs. Minamoto *Shinichi Kimotsuki as Yoshio Minamoto *

Keiko Yamamoto , born August 7, 1943, is a Japanese voice actress from Osaka Prefecture. Many of her roles have been older women, young boys, or tomboyish young girls. Filmography Anime television series * Akado Suzunosuke – Akadō Suzunosuke * Andersen ...

as Sewashi Nobi * Sachiko Chijimatsu as Sewashi Nobi *

Masashi Amenomori was a Japanese actor and voice actor. Death Amenomori died of cirrhosis on April 9, 1984. At the time of his death he was represented by Aoni Production. Notable voice work *'' Ai Shite Knight'' (Juliano) ''final role'' *'' Gatchaman'' (Debu) ...

* Keiko Yokozawa as Pregnant Mii-chan * Junko Hori as Gachako * Noriko Tsukase as Damako * Rihoko Yoshida as Jamako

Production and broadcast

The series was broadcast between May 25 to September 30, 1973, on Nippon Television. 26 episodes, divided into 52 individual segments were produced. A pilot film was produced in 1972 and shown to test audiences in January 1973. Audience included Doraemon creator

. They initially approved of the show, but when they were shown the progress, they apparently were angered by the fact that they changed Nobita and Doraemon's personalities. The show was frequently rebroadcast throughout the 1970s. The station,

Toyama Television is a TV station affiliated with Fuji News Network (FNN) and Fuji Network System (FNS) in Toyama, Toyama. It is broadcast in Toyama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Toyama Prefecture has a popu ...

, was the last to air the show, airing from July 3 to July 24, 1981, and briefly again in August of that year. The station aired the show in individual segments. On August 3, the

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

of the Doraemon manga requested the station to cease airing the show, to make sure the reputation of the more famous and longer running 1979 series isn't harmed. The animation crew of the show, Nippon TeleMovie Productions, went bankrupt in 1981. Before they went defunct, they tried covering debt by selling off the masters of the 1973 series, and destroying cels and

storyboards A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in t ...

in a kerosene fire. In 1995, the Japanese post-production company IMAGICA, discovered episodes 18 and 20 through 26 in their archive, as well as segments 5A, 10B and 12B. In 2003, the production chief of the show,

Hiroshi Shimozaki is a common masculine Japanese given name. It can also be transliterated as Hirosi. Possible writings Hiroshi can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *浩, "meaning" *汎 *弘, *宏, *寛, *洋, *博, *博一, *博司, ...

, now going under the name Masami Jun or "mcsammy", came forward with several episodes and rush reels (raw footage). He later uploaded low quality versions of the intro and credits to his site on a members only and password protected page, however, a few minutes after the upload, he was told that the intro and credits were uploaded to Japanese anonymous board site

2channel , also known as 2ch, Channel 2, and sometimes retrospectively as 2ch.net, was an anonymous Japanese textboard founded in 1999 by Hiroyuki Nishimura. Described in 2007 as "Japan's most popular online community", the site had a level of infl ...

. He immediately removed the video files from his site, but it was already too late. Many images of his episodes were uploaded to GeoCities. In the late 1990s, a person came forward with a VHS recording of the episode "Crazy Stomach Clock", dated from 1978. Audio clips were uploaded, but the site they were hosted on was removed. In 2015, a YouTube user discovered a clip playing on a television set in a Japanese pornographic film from the 1970s. It is nearly impossible to find info on this version of Doraemon. No episodes exist online, or on home media besides an audio recording of the final episode. The only footage currently available is Jun's uploads of the opening and ending. However, the footage is of very low quality ( 240p 193kbit/s video, 128kbit/s audio).

Episode list

References

External links

*
Doraemon (1973 TV series) Design Works
* {{Doraemon Doraemon (anime) 1973 anime television series debuts Japanese children's animated comedy television series Japanese adult animated comedy television series Lost television shows Nippon TV original programming