He’s considered the Mickey Mouse of Japan, a character with a simple, easily identifiable look, an ambassador that promotes the country’s animation worldwide.
But Doraemon, the titular star of a manga series by Fujiko Fujio and countless animated adaptations over the years, remains a largely unknown commodity in the United States. The nation that’s already embraced Japanese properties such as "Astro Boy," "Sailor Moon," "Dragon Ball Z," "Naruto" and "Pokemon" has yet to do the same for the round-headed robot cat.
That may soon change with "Meet Doraemon! Japan’s Time-Traveling Cat," an exhibit jointly produced by Bishop Museum and the Fujiko F. Fujio Museum in Kawasaki, Japan, that opened Saturday and runs through April 20.
Hawaii’s position as a geographical and cultural bridge between Asia and the United States was a major factor in the Fujio Museum’s decision to premiere it here, said Carol Diebel, senior vice president for Bishop Museum.
‘MEET DORAEMON! JAPAN’S TIME-TRAVELING CAT’
>> When: Through April 20
>> Where: Bishop Museum, 1515 Bernice St.
>> Admission: $19.95, $16.95 for seniors, $14.95 for ages 4-12; $12.95, $10.95 and $8.95, respectively, for Hawaii residents and military
>> Info: 847-3511 or bishopmuseum.org |
"They feel that Hawaii is a great place to first bring Doraemon out to America, because it’s such a good mixed culture here, with Asia and America both," Diebel said.
Bishop Museum officials first heard from their Japanese counterparts last fall, she said. The idea intrigued the local institution, with Doraemon representing a facet of contemporary Japanese culture and being family-friendly — two elements the museum likes to promote and encourage.
"And then we found all these other kind of synergies," Diebel said, with events related to Japanese culture happening around the same time, including the Honolulu Festival in March and local anime convention Kawaii Kon in April.
"I’m hoping it’ll just create this whole buzz about manga/anime while it’s on," she said.
On the Fujio Museum’s side, the exhibit is a dream come true for the institution’s vice president, who loves Hawaii and has visited the isles many times, according to chief curator Junko Kobayashi, speaking through a translator.
"We’re so lucky to be here. … We were maybe aiming for 2015 to do this, but there just happened to be this open spot," Kobayashi said.
The three-month planning stage was unusually short for an exhibit of this magnitude. By comparison, similar events can take a year or more to develop, Diebel said. But both sides worked hard to take advantage of the opportunity.
The Fujio Museum had more than 100 people working on getting clearance from various "Doraemon" franchise rights-holders and collaborating with Bishop Museum, Kobayashi said.
Other obstacles include a language and cultural barrier. Because Doraemon is so well known in many parts of Asia, Fujio Museum officials had a difficult time understanding that Americans didn’t immediately know the character and that the exhibit would need to serve more as a primer.
"For them it was like, ‘Well, why would you need to do that?’" Diebel said. "I get it, from their perspective, but that’s what we have to do: We have to act like our visitors coming in and, we have to make them feel oriented and comfortable and we want them to engage."
Fujio Museum representatives originally envisioned a more standard, static exhibit featuring the artist’s original works and some cutouts of the characters, but Bishop Museum officials quickly nixed that idea. Diebel said they pushed for more "playful" interactive and engaging features for families.
It’s certainly appropriate for a series that’s playful by nature: Doraemon is sent from the future to help Nobita, a rather unexceptional boy, improve his standing in life through the use of hundreds of futuristic gadgets. One of those gadgets, the Anywhere Door, allows Doraemon and Nobita to travel wherever they want to go.
Accordingly, there’s an Anywhere Door at the entrance to the exhibit, serving as the gateway to displays that include the cutouts that were initially proposed as well as 10 statues of Doraemon holding different gadgets that visitors can pose with, a coloring book and drawing station with specially designed tables, a subtitled "Doraemon" anime projected onto a wall with beanbag chairs to sit on, interactive materials and a manga library with volumes in multiple languages.
"It’s gonna be loud in here," Diebel said. "The kids are gonna love it."
Hard-core fans and students of anime and manga will appreciate the rear portion of the exhibit, where a timeline of Fujio’s career, original artwork and re-creations of his desk and the desk from which Doraemon first appeared to Nobita in the story are on display. The area is divided into five sections, each one focusing on a recent "Doraemon" film, with a subtitled trailer playing on a continual loop.
Bringing Fujio’s work to the world through the popular "Doraemon" is the main thing the Kawasaki museum hopes to achieve, Kobayashi said as she helped set up the exhibit Wednesday, carefully inserting pages of Fujio’s artwork into frames for display.
"We’re very pleased to bring this," Kobayashi said. "This is the first place that Fujiko-san’s work ever (has been shown) for the public" outside Japan.
Whether a longtime fan or someone meeting Doraemon for the first time through the exhibit, there’s something for everyone. And therein lies the appeal, Diebel said.
"No matter what culture you’re in, each of these characters is universal: the poor little kid who needs a lot of help — which is the main character — the bully, the girl he wants to marry, the smart friend, the rich kid," she said. "You can see that people have been able to relate to it. I don’t think Americans are going to have any trouble at all with that."
For more coverage of the Doraemon exhibit and all things anime and manga, visit the "Otaku Ohana" blog at otakuohana.staradvertiserblogs.com.
