#Nobita in the Wan-Nyan Spacetime Odyssey

[albertonykus]

Doraemon Long Stories Vol. 24: Nobita in the Wan-Nyan Spacetime Odyssey

Corresponding with the last movie in the 1979 Doraemon anime, this is considered the final entry of the Doraemon Long Stories series. Manga adaptations have been made for some of the Doraemon films after the 2005 anime reboot as well, which I may end up checking out, but for now I can check another milestone off the list.

May contain spoilers below the break. My review of this story's movie counterpart can be found here.

I first read this manga before I saw the movie, and that's probably one of the main reasons why I found the film somewhat underwhelming. It's not so much that there are major differences in the plot between the two (there aren't really), but there are many small moments in the manga that I feel make it more effective and impactful.

It would be misleading to claim that Shizuka, Gian, and Suneo are all that important in either version of this story. However, they feel more present in the manga. @filmfactors posted a while back about how it's nice when Shizuka and Suneo both get to show off their roles as the "smart ones" in the group, and they get a moment to do so here. (In the movie, Nobita decides what time period to go to on his own.)

Additionally, in the manga it's Gian and Suneo who come up with idea to use amusement park rides to get inside the villain's time machine, not Nobita and Ichi/Hachi as in the film.

I think the emotional core of the story in which Hachi remembers that he is Ichi works better in the manga as well. For one, the turning point where Nobita comes to believe that Hachi is not the same person as Ichi, despite his earlier suspicions, feels much more dramatic.

The eventual payoff near the end comes when Nobita uses the name "Hachi", only for Ichi to correct him. This is unlike in the movie, where Nobita somehow independently realizes by himself that Hachi is Ichi after all.

Last but not least, I thought most of the action scenes looked cooler in the manga. Here, it looks like Doraemon defeated all of these guards in a single fluid stroke!

The movie's version of the same scene, on the other hand, does not leave quite the same impression.

[timely-nobi]

🌃 °○•.☆.•○° 🌃

Nobita in the Wan nyan spacetime odyssey (2004)

Aww 🥺

[doraemon-facts]

Doraemon is attracted to cats and has formed romantic relationships with a few.

One of them is Mii-chan. Doraemon mentions going on dates with her multiple times (ex. 半分おでかけ雲, 1987 manga story; セルフアラーム, 1989 manga story).

Source: なかまバッジ, 1987 (manga)

Another of Doraemon’s dates who has appeared more than once is Tama-chan.

Source: ��予言・地球の滅びる日, 1984 (manga)

Source: ドラえもんに休日を！！, 1984 (manga)

In the 1979 anime, Mii-chan and Tama-chan are merged as one character, Mii-chan.

Doraemon has been shown dating a third, unnamed cat. She looks unimpressed, maybe because he was late for their date.

Source: のぞき穴ボード, 1983 (manga)

Doraemon had a love interest in the 22nd Century, a cat robot named Noramyako. The exact relationship between the two of them varies by adaptation, but in the most commonly reprinted manga short that shows Noramyako, she was Doraemon’s girlfriend. She burst into laughter when she saw how Doraemon looked after he lost his ears, which probably put a downer on their relationship.

Source: ドラえもん大事典, 1976 (manga)

Doraemon has fallen in love with many other cats, but failed to start a romance with them for some reason or another. One story has him working up the courage to speak to a white cat sitting on a rooftop nearby. In the end, he befriends her successfully, but the manga doesn’t mention her again.

Source: 好きでたまらニャい, 1971 (manga)

Another time, Doraemon becomes infatuated with a pampered Persian cat. Again, he manages to befriend her, only to find out that she is already interested in a different cat, a stray. Doraemon is enraged, but agrees to help the lovers find a way to be together after hearing the Persian refer to him as a dear friend who can do anything.

Source: 恋するドラえもん, 1982 (manga)

Once Doraemon fell in love with a toy cat, which he calls Mii-chan (not the same character as the actual cat Mii-chan mentioned above). Doraemon uses gadgets to bring Mii-chan to life, but is devastated to learn that Mii-chan is actually male.

Source: すてきなミイちゃん, 1973 (manga) [colorized version shown]

The anime has introduced even more love interests for Doraemon. One is Sharmee, a humanoid cat from a nation of intelligent cats and dogs that Nobita founded.

Source: Nobita in the Wan-Nyan Spacetime Odyssey, 2004

Another is Belle, also a cat robot from the 22nd Century. Unfortunately for Doraemon, she turns out to be engaged.

Source: ドラえもんの青い涙, 2008 (episode from 2005 anime)

Doraemon is mesmerized by Mia, a celebrity cat who appears in ads on TV. Nobita uses the “Advance Diary” (あらかじめ日記) to let Doraemon spend a day with her.

Source: ドラえもんのたった一日の恋, 2011 (episode from 2005 anime)

There’s also Luna, a cat Doraemon meets while she is singing on a rooftop at night. She ends up moving out of the country, but Doraemon helps her reunite with a childhood friend.

Source: 青い月夜のリサイタル, 2014 (episode from 2005 anime)

[milkbrexd]

let’s make a wish, in this weather that's ideal for dreaming that we’ll be happy tomorrow too.

[princess-unipeg]

Cute!

sharmee from doraemon nobita in the wan-nyan spacetime odyssey

[mapsontheweb]

Countries and territories the Doraemon franchise has visited through >70 movies.

UnadamantlySmall:

The Doraemon franchise takes place somewhere in suburban Tokyo, Japan. While some of its movie sets take place in another planet/world (2019 takes place on the Moon), they have also travelled throughout the world through its numerous movies. In order of mainline appearance, the list of places include:

1980: Nobita's Dinosaur in USA and Canada (remade in 2006)

1982: Nobita and the Haunts of Evil in Democratic Republic of Congo (remade in 2014, my personal favorite movie)

1984: Nobita's Great Adventure into the Underworld in Croatia (remade in 2007)

1988: The Record of Nobita's Parallel Visit to the West in People's Republic of China (also featured in 1989's Nobita and the Birth of Japan that would be remade in 2016. Xinjiang and Tibet were also featured in 2003's Nobita and the Windmasters)

1991: Nobita's Dorabian Nights in Iraq

1992: Nobita and the Kingdom of Clouds in Germany (also featured in 2001's Nobita and the Winged Braves)

1993: Nobita and the Tin Labyrinth in Italy

1994: Nobita's Three Visionary Swordsmen in France

1997: Nobita and the Spiral City in Slovenia

1998: Nobita's Great Adventure in the South Seas in Oceania (country not specified)

2000: Nobita and the Legend of the Sun King in Mexico (shut-out to Austria's Wiener Sängerknaben (GER: Vienna Boys' Choir) for providing the opening track for this movie)

2002: Nobita in the Robot Kingdom in Ukraine

2003: Nobita and the Windmasters in Mongolia

2004: Nobita in the Wan-Nyan Spacetime Odyssey in New Zealand

2010: Nobita's Great Battle of the Mermaid King in Palau

2012: Nobita and the Island of Miracles—Animal Adventure in Fiji

2013: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum in United Kingdom

2017: Nobita's Great Adventure in the Antarctic Kachi Kochi

2018: Nobita's Treasure Island in The Carribean (country not specified)

Edit: 1983's Nobita and the Castle of Undersea Devil took place somewhere in The Atlantic Ocean. While not part of the mainline movies, the Doraemon franchise has also visited The Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland in 藤子不二雄スペシャル ドラえもん・ヨーロッパ鉄道の旅 (JP: Fujiko Fujio Special Doraemon: Europe Rail Travel). The Doraemons spin-off includes characters from Spain, Russia, and Brazil.

[doraemonfanclub]

🧐 Countries Doraemon visited in the movies

👉 https://www.reddit.com/r/Doraemon/comments/vn7m35/countries_and_territories_the_doraemon_franchise/ 🙏 u/UnadamantlySmall

👉 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doraemon_films/

The Doraemon franchise takes place somewhere in suburban Tokyo, Japan. While some of its movie sets take place in another planet/world (2019 takes place on the Moon), they have also travelled throughout the world through its numerous movies. In order of mainline appearance, the list of places include:

1980: Nobita's Dinosaur in USA and Canada (remade in 2006)

1982: Nobita and the Haunts of Evil in Democratic Republic of Congo (remade in 2014, my personal favorite movie)

1984: Nobita's Great Adventure into the Underworld in Croatia (remade in 2007)

1988: The Record of Nobita's Parallel Visit to the West in People's Republic of China (also featured in 1989's Nobita and the Birth of Japan that would be remade in 2016. Xinjiang and Tibet were also featured in 2003's Nobita and the Windmasters)

1991: Nobita's Dorabian Nights in Iraq

1992: Nobita and the Kingdom of Clouds in Germany (also featured in 2001's Nobita and the Winged Braves)

1993: Nobita and the Tin Labyrinth in Italy

1994: Nobita's Three Visionary Swordsmen in France

1997: Nobita and the Spiral City in Slovenia

1998: Nobita's Great Adventure in the South Seas in Oceania (country not specified)

2000: Nobita and the Legend of the Sun King in Mexico (shut-out to Austria's Wiener Sängerknaben (GER: Vienna Boys' Choir) for providing the opening track for this movie)

2002: Nobita in the Robot Kingdom in Ukraine

2003: Nobita and the Windmasters in Mongolia

2004: Nobita in the Wan-Nyan Spacetime Odyssey in New Zealand

2010: Nobita's Great Battle of the Mermaid King in Palau2012: Nobita and the Island of Miracles—Animal Adventure in Fiji

2013: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum in United Kingdom

2017: Nobita's Great Adventure in the Antarctic Kachi Kochi

2018: Nobita's Treasure Island in The Carribean (country not specified)

Adapted from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Countries_where_Doraemon_visited_in_the_movies.svg#/media/File:Countries_where_Doraemon_visited_in_the_movies.svg

Note: 1983's Nobita and the Castle of Undersea Devil took place somewhere in The Atlantic Ocean. While not part of the mainline movies, the Doraemon franchise has also visited The Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland in 藤子不二雄スペシャル ドラえもん・ヨーロッパ鉄道の旅 (JP: Fujiko Fujio Special Doraemon: Europe Rail Travel). The Doraemons spin-off also includes characters from Spain, Russia, and Brazil. Feel free to add to this comment if there are anything else incorrect and/or missing.

[thatbeatlesnerd23]

What is your favorite Doraemon movie?

My favourite Doraemon movie has to be Nobita in the Wan Nyan Spacetime Odyssey. That movie is a classic.

[albertonykus]

Doraemon Movie Review: Nobita in the Wan-Nyan Spacetime Odyssey (2004)

What is Doraemon? The title character of the Doraemon manga and anime is a blue robotic cat from the 22nd Century who keeps an array of high-tech gadgets in a portable pocket dimension on his belly, and has traveled from the future to improve the fortunes of a hapless schoolboy named Nobita. Although relatively obscure in the English-speaking world, Doraemon is a Mickey-Mouse-level cultural icon in East Asia (and some other regions, too). The Doraemon franchise was a big part of my childhood, and there are still elements of it that I enjoy now.

Doraemon has released theatrical films almost annually since 1980, most of which involve Nobita and his friends (kind Shizuka, brash Gian, and crafty Suneo) getting swept into adventures thanks to Doraemon's gadgets. Despite being of potentially broad appeal to fans of science fiction and animated films, there are very few English reviews of the Doraemon movies, so I'm embarking on a project to write about all the films that have come out so far. Good luck to me…

Movie premise: Nobita does something about the local stray problem by sending abandoned dogs and cats to a safe haven 300 million years ago. The stray animals then start their own civilization.

My spoiler-free take: This film contains the right elements to be a great Doraemon movie, but has room for improvement in the handling of its story.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT

Review: This movie is a landmark, being the last film to come out of the classic Doraemon anime that started in 1979. All the remaining Doraemon movies from here on out were (and will be) released following the 2005 anime reboot.

Befitting the old anime series’ final cinematic hurrah, this film has an interesting art style that almost seems “transitional” between the visuals used for most of the classic series and those of the reboot series. There’s no other Doraemon movie that looks quite like it.

The storyline of Nobita in the Wan-Nyan Spacetime Odyssey has many ingredients that could make a great Doraemon movie: there are time travel shenanigans, emotional connections between the protagonists and movie-exclusive characters, and decent action sequences with creative application of gadgets. However, I thought that the execution of the story was not as fluent as it could have been. There are times when the plot simply moves too fast, leaving little time for major developments to sink in, and the reveal that Sharmee, a cat idol singer who Doraemon falls in love with, was working with the villain would have been more impactful had it not been shown to the audience before being made known to Doraemon.

In addition, the characters make a few strange decisions in the name of plot convenience. For example, at one point most of the protagonists and their allies escape from the villain’s base while knowing that Doraemon is still imprisoned inside, but only decide to go rescue Doraemon after they’ve already left the base. Luckily for them, the villain chooses that very moment to leave the base himself in his time machine, bringing the captive Doraemon with him, which saves the heroes the trouble of having to go back inside. What are the odds?

Also, Doraemon’s romantic subplot with Sharmee felt awkward considering that he was shown going on a date with his girlfriend in the beginning of the movie. (His girlfriend is a regular house cat, if you’re wondering.)

On a different note, it was hard for me not to feel a sense of wistfulness as this movie ended, not so much because of the content of the film itself, but due to its status as one of the last works from the 1979 series, which was the Doraemon anime I grew up with. I think the main voice actors on the current Doraemon anime are excellent, but this movie made me realize how much I’m going to miss the old voice cast.

It’s wild to think about how long this franchise has been going. A child who was the same age as Nobita and his classmates when the first Doraemon movie was released would have been 34 by the time this one came around! And though there has been a changing of the guard, this remarkable robot cat and his friends show no signs of stopping anytime soon.

Star rating: ★★★☆☆

[timely-nobi]

🐶 °○•.☆.•○° 🐶

Nobita in the wan-nyan spacetime odyssey (2004)

Guess what else I'm watching

[timely-nobi]

🐾 °○•.☆.•○° 🐾

Nobita in the Wan-Nyan Spacetime Odyssey (2004)

[albertonykus]

Ranking the Doraemon Movies (Updated 2024)

Having watched (or rewatched) and reviewed every Doraemon movie released up to this point, the temptation to rank them is hard to resist. I’ll stress that the following ranking is of course based on my own opinions and I can’t pretend to represent any sort of consensus viewpoint. The Doraemon films have played with such a wide variety of settings and story genres that it’d only be natural for different viewers’ rankings to differ dramatically based on personal taste.

It’s striking to me that even after over 40 installments, there are very few Doraemon movies that I’d outright consider “not worth watching”. Not only that, but each cinematic storyline manages to do something that sets itself apart from the others (excluding remakes, that’s a total of 38 unique narratives to date). Considering how easy it would be for the nearly annual releases of such a long-running, popular franchise to descend into staleness and mediocrity, that is quite an achievement. No, not every Doraemon film is a winner, and I’m not going to claim that even my favorite movies in the franchise are the pinnacle of animated entertainment. However, if you enjoy family-friendly science fiction about adventure and friendship, there are certainly worse ways to spend an evening than with a Doraemon movie that has an enticing premise.

Full ranking (with links to individual reviews) below the break...

Note that for reasons given in my review, the original Nobita and the Haunts of Evil (1982) is disqualified from ranking.

From highest to lowest rated:

Nobita and the Birth of Japan (2016)

Nobita’s Great Adventure into the Underworld (1984)

Nobita and the Kingdom of Clouds (1992)

New Nobita’s Great Demon (2014)

Nobita’s Little Star Wars 2021 (2022)

Nobita’s Little Star Wars (1985)

Nobita’s Three Visionary Swordsmen (1994)

Nobita and the Steel Troops (1986)

Nobita’s New Dinosaur (2020)

Nobita’s Sky Utopia (2023)

Nobita and the Windmasters (2003)

Nobita and the Legend of the Sun King (2000)

Nobita’s Chronicle of the Moon Exploration (2019)

Nobita’s Earth Symphony (2024)

Nobita’s Diary on the Creation of the World (1995)

Nobita in the Robot Kingdom (2002)

Nobita and the Tin Labyrinth (1993)

Nobita’s Dinosaur (1980)

Nobita’s Dinosaur (2006)

Nobita and the Castle of the Undersea Devil (1983)

Nobita and the Galaxy Super-express (1996)

Nobita in the Wan-Nyan Spacetime Odyssey (2004)

Nobita and the Winged Braves (2001)

Nobita’s Treasure Island (2018)

Nobita’s Secret Gadget Museum (2013)

Nobita and the Animal Planet (1990)

Nobita’s Great Adventure in the Antarctic Kachi Kochi (2017)

The Records of Nobita, Spaceblazer (1981)

Nobita and the Birth of Japan (1989)

Stand by Me Doraemon 2 (2020)

Nobita and the Knights on Dinosaurs (1987)

The Record of Nobita’s Parallel Visit to the West (1988)

Nobita and the New Steel Troops (2011)

Nobita and the Green Giant Legend (2008)

Nobita’s New Great Adventure into the Underworld (2007)  

Nobita and the Spiral City (1997)

Nobita’s Great Adventure in the South Seas (1998)

Nobita’s Space Heroes (2015)  

Nobita Drifts in the Universe (1999)

The New Record of Nobita’s Spaceblazer (2009)

Nobita’s Dorabian Nights (1991)

Stand by Me Doraemon (2014)

Nobita and the Island of Miracles (2012)

Nobita’s Great Battle of the Mermaid King (2010)

Also, because I have to be a dork about this, I made a graph of this ranking with the movies ordered by release date. Each film is assigned a score based on its ranking, with the highest-rated having a score of 44 and the lowest-rated having a score of 1. The green line on the left separates the entries produced within the manga author Fujiko F. Fujio’s lifetime from those that came afterward, whereas the green line on the right marks the beginning of the 2005 anime reboot.

It’s interesting to see where the rises and dips are (or so I think). Looks like I’m not a fan of most movies that came out during the first decade of the anime reboot! More recent Doraemon films, however, have generally done pretty well in the rankings. I look forward to seeing what this franchise brings next!

[albertonykus]

Doraemon Vol. 8 from The Complete Works of Fujiko F. Fujio

The stories in this one were published in 1975–1981. In a clear indicator that some of them were drawn concurrently with the airing of the classic anime series, Doraemon and Nobita namedrop their own voice actors at one point!

Some of the most iconic Doraemon stories in this volume (as determined by my personal experience and biases):

"音のない世界" ("A World Without Sound", 1977): To avoid having to listen to another one of Gian's concerts, Nobita and Doraemon create a parallel universe where sound doesn't exist. It doesn't work as planned, because just reading Gian's lyrics is unbearable. I wondered how the anime handled this story, and as it turns out... it hasn't. This is one of the few Doraemon manga chapters that has never been adapted into the anime.

"天井うらの宇宙戦争" ("The Space War in the Ceiling", 1978): Nobita and Doraemon answer a distress call from tiny aliens, in a parody of Star Wars: A New Hope. Not to be confused with Nobita's Little Star Wars, despite the very similar theme.

"のび太の地底国" ("Nobita's Underground Nation", 1980): Nobita and his friends build a secret base underground. He appoints himself as their leader and the power goes to his head. The beginning of this story was later used as the basis for the movie Nobita and the Knights on Dinosaurs.

"ぼくよりダメなやつがきた" ("Someone Worse Than Me Came", 1980): Nobita's class receives a new transfer student who gets even worse grades than he does.

"のら犬「イチ」の国" ("Land of Ichi the Stray Dog", 1980): Nobita picks up a stray dog and realizes that there's a major stray animal problem in the area. He and Doraemon find a home for them in the Carboniferous Period. This story was later used as the basis for the movie Nobita in the Wan-Nyan Spacetime Odyssey.

"しずちゃんさようなら" ("Goodbye, Shizuka", 1980): Nobita worries that Shizuka will be miserable if she gets married to him in the future. He decides that the solution to this is to make her hate him.

"のび太が消えちゃう?" ("Will Nobita Disappear?", 1981): Nobita and Doraemon travel back in time to convince Nobita's dad to pursue his dream of becoming an artist, but then realize this might prevent Nobita from ever having been born.

[lesserknownwaifus]

sharmee from doraemon nobita in the wan-nyan spacetime odyssey