Doraemon
is one of Japan's most popular and well-loved comic book
heroes, and now perhaps one of the most recognized faces
in all of Japan. Doraemon’s appearance on a colorful,
musical coin holder containing the official 2005 Japanese
Mint Set is expected to result in a quick sellout of the
limited edition of 200,000 sets.
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Place
your mouse over this picture to play Doraemon tune |
These
are available for $49 per Mint Set from the official North
American distributor for the Japan Mint, PandaAmerica. Credit
card orders can be placed by calling (800) 472-6327, emailing
info@pandaamerica.com,
or on the web at www.pandaamerica.com/Doraemon
. Add $5.50 per order for shipping and insurance within
the USA. And California residents add 8.25% sales tax.
The
2005 mint set contains six coins: 500, 100, 50, 10, 5, and
1 Yen plus a specially produced medal depicting Doraemon
and inscribed with “2005” and “35th Anniversary”
in Japanese.
The
story, by Hiroshi Fujimoto, first appeared 35 years ago.
Nobi Nobita (Nobita being the first name) is a fourth-grade
boy who wears glasses and lives in a subsection of Tokyo.
One day, a strange being pops up in his desk drawer ---
a round, blue cat-style robot (minus ears), who fails to
introduce himself and instead eats Nobita's afternoon snack
and then goes back into the drawer. The matter is eventually
straightened out and explained. Nobita's great-great-grandson
(or something like that) lives in the 22nd Century --- except,
thanks to Nobita's mistakes, the entire family is living
in poverty. To rectify this, Nobita's descendent is sending
his robot Doraemon (not a very high-quality robot) back
to the past, to help prevent Nobita from making mistakes.
Of course, this is a difficult task, since Nobita is the
weakest and least intelligent child in his class. And initially,
Doraemon isn't the smartest of robots, either. He does,
however, have a 4-dimensional pocket on his front, which
contains all manner of cool gadgets from the 22nd Century,
and it is with these toys that Doraemon will try to save
Nobita from a future of poverty and failure.
With
this premise, Doraemon and Nobita go on to become one of
Japan's most famous duos. Nobita, as class weakling and
dunce, needs lots of rescuing, and Doraemon is obliged to
give him the right gadget to fix his situation.
Doraemon
Links:
http://www.dora2006.com/
http://www.time.com/time/asia/features/heroes/doraemon.html
http://www.ex.org/4.8/35-manga_doraemon.html
