A great auzzie Japanophile, Reesan from loneleeplanet is having a great go at the Japan Blog Matsuri for this month. Never having lived in Japan, my knowledge of Japanese figures is limited, but everyone knows Doraemon! You have to living under an Easten-proof rock to never have heard of this cat who is blue but always smiling.

Doraemon is one of those classics, he was originally created in 1969 and has never stopped dishing out Japanese goodness, going on to have over 1,000 stories in just the original series, leading to spin-off and recreation over and over again, even after 40 years there is still another Doraemon movie coming this year. Not just limited to Japan he’s widely infamous all over Asia, infamous I say because everyone from Asia I question has just had too much of him.

Not having Doraemon drilled into my sub conscience from a young age, when given some of the original Doraemon comics a few years ago I grew to like him. Having trouble finding past the 8th volume of Doraemon manga, I only know the original Doraemon, and I like him that way.

So who is Doraemon? Doraemon is a robot gadget cat from the future, who has come back in time to help out Nobita, a boy who has a pretty tough life so far and is actually destined to me miserable for the rest of it, but Doraemon is here to help! With his optimism and a fourth-dimensional pocket that literally can never be filled he has an endless supply of gadgets (どうぐ) to help Nobita out.

You can see his first television episode right here.

He has been recognized as an integral part of Japanese society and winning countless awards for all the joy he brings, in 2002 he was one of the 22 Asian heroes and named ‘The Cuddliest Hero in Asia’.