Doraemon (ドラえもん)

To be honest, growing up I liked Shin-Chan more than Doraemon, likely because I liked Crayon Shin-Chan more than I liked Nobita. My issue with Nobita? He lives a quite unlucky life despite having the all-powerful Doraemon by his side — a robotic cat from the future whose four-dimensional pocket contained a solution to virtually every problem— and so, it does feel slightly frustrating at times. 

But recently, I learned that Tsutomu Shibayama (芝山努) — the long-time director of Doraemon — had passed away. And so, I felt a need to revisit this piece of childhood of mine.

The episode I watched centered on April Fools' Day (エイプリルフール). The premise was simple and very Doraemon: Nobita, who is not good at lying — うそが下手 — gets hold of a special tool that makes everything he says believable to others, regardless of whether it's true. As he plays around with this new tool, he predictably started to cause chaos. And just as predictably (but warmly) the episode closes with Nobita learning that うそをついてはいけない (lying is wrong). It was gentle, funny, and sweet — exactly the kind of episode you'd want a child to watch.

What surprised me, though, was how much I understood.

I found myself catching familiar words and phrases — particularly in the exchanges between Nobita and his お母さん. When she told him おべんきょうしなさい, I didn't need subtitles. And then, I also learned of the word, うそ, which means "lying" since this entire episode was centered around this theme.