Beginning in 2004, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the then-ongoing
1979 anime and the release of
Doraemon: Nobita in the Wan-Nyan Spacetime Odyssey, a significant revival of the
Doraemon series began development, which would become the third series produced in the franchise. A trailer for the new
Doraemon series was previewed for the first time on March 25, 2005, at the end of the first television broadcast of
Doraemon: Nobita in the Wan-Nyan Spacetime Odyssey. A week after the 1979 anime finale broadcast on March 18, the television broadcast of the film contained goodbye messages from the 1979 anime voice actors
Nobuyo Ōyama,
Noriko Ohara,
Kazuya Tatekabe,
Michiko Nomura and
Kaneta Kimotsuki, respectively. The anime officially premiered as a one-hour special on April 15 of that same year, less than a month after the 1979 anime had ended. With the shift, the majority of the personnel from the 1979 anime stepped down, and were replaced by a new team for the new series, as well as the original voice actors. Sōichirō Zen, who had previously worked on the 1979 anime, served as the director of the 2005 anime for more than 12 years, from 2005 to 2017. Ayumu Watanabe had previously worked on the 1979 anime, beginning in the late 1980s, and after the transition, he was tasked with developing character designs for the series, where he worked for eight years. The new series features updated versions of the characters, different settings, and a new soundtrack. Although the anime is more faithful to the original manga and volumes, some changes were made. Many of the episodes that adapted chapters from the manga were extended to either have a better conclusion or a good moral to the story. In addition, some elements from the manga were toned down. Some examples include all of Doraemon's gadgets that resembled medicine being changed to different appliances, and Nobita's dad (who smoked often in the manga) rarely smoking in the new series. All mini corners, partners, and next episodes previews in all episodes are cut to fit for the 30-minute block in international versions, except for
Hong Kong, which are cut to fit for the 15-minute block in its time-slot. Since May 1, 2009, the series airs in
high definition. The episodes are recorded at APU Meguro Studio. First revealed in June 2017, starting on July 28, 2017, with the episodes "I'm Mini Doraemon" and "The Elephant and the Uncle", the show got overhauled visually to use more vivid colors, which included the poster artwork. The characters were altered to closely resemble their original designs. Shinnosuke Yakuwa, who directed several of the
Doraemon films, joined the production team as head director for the anime in 2018, and was succeeded by Hirofumi Ogura in 2020. By 2023, the series' production staff had been divided into two groups. Originally, the show aired on Fridays at 7:00pm from its premiere to September 29, 2017, the same network timeslot that the 1979 anime aired on from 1981 up until its conclusion in 2004. As of October 5, 2019, the anime now airs Saturday afternoons at 5:00pm on
TV Asahi and other ANN stations. The series has paid respect to past cast members, such as Nobuyo Ōyama, the voice for Doraemon for the 1979 series who died on September 29, 2024. The episode "Emperor's New Clothes!? Ultra Yoroi" was scheduled to be rebroadcast, but it was replaced with a montage of clips from the 1979 anime honoring Ōyama's contributions to the series and a rerun of the episode "Wolfman Cream".
Casting On November 22, 2004,
The Asahi Shimbun revealed in an exclusive article that the series' five voice actors were considered by the production team to be replaced by a group of newer, younger voice actors, with their roles slated to begin in April of the following year, which was met with confusion and great public interest as the news of such a big change was very abrupt; many employees from TV Asahi learned about the news from the article, while the staff that worked on the anime were previously briefed. One of the reasons for the new casting was because
Nobuyo Ōyama, the original voice actress for Doraemon in the 1979 anime, wanted to step down since 2001 due to health issues she faced in July of that year. Furthermore,
Michiko Nomura, who voiced Shizuka in the 1979 anime, decided to step down from the longest-running series
Sazae-san to focus on her management position duties at her husband's
Ken Production studio and left alongside the original cast. It was also due to the fact that most of the original cast members by that time were in their mid 60s. The new voice actors for the new series were officially announced on March 13, 2005, and were also revealed on March 28 of that year during a news conference in
Roppongi Hills.
Subaru Kimura, the voice of Gian in the anime, was the youngest member of the new cast that was confirmed, as he was 14 years old at the time.
Wasabi Mizuta was chosen to play the title character and was approached by
Kazuya Tatekabe, who had previously voiced Gian in the 1979 anime, to audition for the series. Mizuta was initially concerned about being fired, due to the negative criticisms about the sudden change in voice actors, but after ''
Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur 2006'' released, she continued with the role.
Yumi Kakazu acquired the part of Shizuka, after previously having auditioned for the roles of Doraemon, Suneo, Nobita and Gian.
English dubs There are three notable English dubs that were produced: Bang Zoom's American English dub, Red Angel Media's British/Hong Kong English dub (which aired on
Boomerang), and EarCandy's South African English dub (which aired on
Disney Channel). In the United States,
Doraemon: Gadget Cat from the Future was first announced in May 2014. It was announced that reruns of the American version would be re-imported to Japan and aired on
Disney Channel Japan starting on February 1, 2016. The network also provides a Japanese dub of the version as a secondary audio feed. The English dub has been heavily modified to meet American broadcasting guidelines, censoring content deemed inappropriate for American children, as well as replacing many Japanese cultural elements with American cultural elements. Some modifications include Americanized character and gadget name changes from the English version of the manga, an episode order completely different from the Japanese episode order, nudity being heavily censored by adding steam, cloud effects, or clothing, and some episodes having several minutes of footage cut. and began broadcasting on August 17, 2015 on
Boomerang. However, it finished its run sometime in January 2016 and has never been broadcast since, due to it being considered a failure in the British market and was removed from the Boomerang lineup in early 2016. This dub is believed to have covered 26 episodes, with some of these episodes having not been found. Unlike the previous English dub from the United States, this dub is more accurate to the original scripts from the Japanese version of the series, as well as the opening and episode orders. Two notable differences are that in this dub, the original title cards are retained, albeit with English localization, unlike the American dub, which superimposed the text over the episode and removed the Japanese title card. However, unlike the American dub, Japanese text in the episodes (e.g. signs) in the UK dub are unlocalized, with no subtitles or voiceover whatsoever translating them. Despite this dub being made for and to be broadcast in the United Kingdom only, it was produced in
Hong Kong, where the dub was recorded at Red Angel Media. The names of the main characters are borrowed from the English dub from the United States. In
India,
Doraemon was aired in English on Disney Channel in early 2020, and later on Disney Channel HD from August 14, 2023 to May 10, 2025. This dub was produced by EarCandy in
South Africa and licensed by
Spacetoon India, and covers seasons 15 and 16. Like LUK International's dub, this dub is more accurate to the Japanese version of the series, although some dialogue, such as references to beef or alcohol products, is muted to meet Indian broadcasting standards. Unlike the other two dubs, this dub consists of a very limited cast of only three actors who play the roles of every character. ==Episodes==