Nobita Nobi

Nobita Nobi (野比のび太, Nobi Nobita), or Noby Nobi in the English dub,^[1] is the main protagonist in virtually most stories of the series along with Doraemon.^[2] He was born on 7 August, thus having the sun sign Leo. He is a fourth grader^[3] (fifth grader in anime version) in Tokyo's Nerima Ward and the only child of Nobisuke and Tamako Nobi.

Thinking you're no good and worthless is the worst thing you can do.

— Nobita Nobi

Character

Throughout the series Nobita is mostly shown to be very dependent on Doraemon. He begs Doraemon for many things, such as gadgets allowing him to have vengeance on his bullish friends - Gian and Suneo, and something better for show-off after listening to Suneo brag about his trips to Hawaii, the exclusive games he possesses, and privileges he enjoys.^[4]

As seen throughout the series, there are a lot of weaknesses which plague Nobita, but he has just as many positives. He is hopeless at swimming (a common topic of ridicule from his friends except for Shizuka), despite being taught once how to swim, and was once provided with an imagination pill to make him think that he was in a swimming pool. However, he imagined a preschool pool at which he accidentally stepped on a child's foot. He never really manages to swim and always has to use a floater. His inability to swim almost proved to be fatal in Doraemon: Nobita's Great Adventure in the South Seas as he nearly drowned when the ship he was travelling in was wrecked, and Gian failed to hold onto his hand. However, he was swiftly rescued by the Time Patrol Dolphin, Ruffin. In one of his dreams, he, as a genius, successfully produced a rocket to Mars in his bedroom. Both events show Nobita's amazing talent at thinking outside the box.

Nobita's great creativity leads to new and bizarre ideas about ways to use Doraemon's high tech devices. An example of this is the new sport of free flying with the use of Doraemon's "power of wind" fans (fans that can create a gust of wind with just a gentle swish) and how he used the voice hardener, which is considered useless by Doraemon, for transportation.

Nobita isn't someone who can easily score good marks in his tests, but he has done so on multiple occasions, and as his teacher once pointed out, the frequency of him getting zeros in his tests has gone down considerably. Many a times, he has been shown to study diligently, mostly because he feels repentant for paining his mother with his poor grades. His imagination is the reason why he can write a great narrative, even with so many spelling and grammatical mistakes and a very bad handwriting. Although not good at drawing, he still managed to write a 32-page comic. He is known to be lazy and rarely does his homework unlike his friends Shizuka and Dekisugi who usually study after school. This leads to him being scolded a lot by his Sensei or teacher and his mother, Tamako Nobi. Due to his laziness he often falls into deep trouble, for which he cries in front of Doraemon and the latter pities him and gives him gadgets, warning him not to do mischief. Nobita rarely follows this advice and, much to Doraemon's ire, misuses the gadgets to show off and trouble his friends. This generally ends up with Gian or Suneo stealing the gadget, misusing it even more, and thus getting both themselves and Nobita into a bigger trouble than before.

Grades

Due to not studying, always using doreamon gadjets and idling about, Nobita often gets a zero (or sometimes a very low score such as 10 or 20), which results in him being rebuked by his teacher and being detained after school. It also causes his teacher to visit his house to complain about Nobita to his mother. This causes her to get furious, and she often bars Nobita from watching television or visiting and playing with his friends, and quite often she tries to (and sometimes does) sells his comics in exchange of tissue papers. Nobita is also heavily averse to doing homework, telling Doraemon that although he tries his best to do it, the sight of the books gives him headaches and finally induces sleep.

Habits

He has the somewhat erotic habit of trying to watch Shizuka (his love since childhood whom he eventually marries) when she showers and is naked, despite her extreme displeasure at this. He also has the habit of sleeping a lot, and this is the activity that he usually engages in (if he doesn't want to meet with Shizuka or read comics) as soon as he returns from school, instead of doing his homework or studying. This is the habit that is usually held responsible for the fact that he fails in his exams and doesn't do his homework. He also regularly oversleeps and even Doraemon fails to wake him up, causing him to be very late and get punishment from his teacher, who makes him stand outside the class for the day, wait after school to study, do additional homework or even clean the classroom after school all alone. Nobita also considers himself 'the unluckiest boy in the world' and has frequent bouts of depression. This has caused him to think of leaving or actually leave his house 'forever' at least a dozen times, though this impulse is temporary. His caring side is most visible in his habit of helping others, ranging from struggling hotel and sweet shop owners to injured plants and animals (even a dinosaur in Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur), albeit with Doraemon's help.

Strengths

Despite the above flaws, Nobita is usually portrayed as being courageous, honest, kind-hearted, occasionally hard-working, and—above all—a true friend. He has often risked his life to help save others (including numerous wounded or threatened animals and plants, of which he later grows affectionate of) or even entire civilizations in full-length stories. Nobita can be very serious and responsible at times. Nobita is weak in almost every aspect but does have many upsides. For example, Nobita has excellent marksmanship which rivals (or even surpasses) Dora the Kid. He can also weave awesome string figures, is a fairly good comic book critic, and is a great archer. He is also very creative when it comes to utilizing Doraemon's gadgets, putting them to brilliant uses which even Doraemon himself probably couldn't have thought of.

Pre-Doraemon History

In the original timeline where Doraemon does not interfere, Nobita would marry Jaiko Goda, Gian's sister but nobita wants he only to marry Shizuka), never find a good job, start his own business, and eventually go bankrupt. Despite everything, Doraemon succeeds on his mission, as seen in several episodes in which they travel to the future, since Nobita eventually marries Shizuka and becomes an officer in The Ministry of Environment.

Appearance

Nobita is a boy of medium height,but he was good boy,and though he is 5 centimetres taller than his friend, Suneo Honekawa, with fair skin. He is roughly a few centimeters shorter than his friend (and sometimes enemy) Takeshi 'Gian' Goda. He shares his mother's appearances. He wears large, round glasses like his mother, and has a more or less slender build. He usually wears a yellow or orange polo shirt with a white collar in the older anime episodes along with dark blue shorts. In the newer versions of the anime he tends to wear a red and white T-shirt along with his usual blue shorts.

Relationships

Doraemon

Doraemon and Nobita are best friends and even tend to call each other brothers. Nobita is highly reliant on Doraemon and a day of separation results in Nobita getting in very deep trouble, and depressed. It is quite rare that they have a very big fight. Nobita tends to bribe Doraemon with Dorayaki so that later he can blackmail him to extract gadgets from him. The strength of the bond of love between them is revealed in many of the episodes. For example, Nobita was once arrested by the Robot Court of the 22nd century for ill treatment of Doraemon, which resulted in him (Doraemon) collapsing that day due to fatigue and being admitted to hospital. During Nobita's trial, where it was becoming clear that he was to be convicted, Nobita suddenly evaded the guards and ran out of the court to get to the hospital, and cried his heart out beside Doraemon for troubling him. This emotional scene finally caused the court to drop the charges against Nobita. Again, when Doraemon had one day lost a screw from his body and had fallen ill, Nobita had frantically run to the streets searching for it, retrieving it despite the best attempts of 'the guiding angel' to prevent him from doing it, since he had to study for his test the next day. Doraemon, too, frequently states (as a soliloquay) that he cannot bear to see Nobita sad.In an episode it was seen Nobita to be left by his friends and becomes upset but hides it. Doraemon undertood it and bought him a high tech ezpensive robot friend for Nobita.

Shizuka Minamoto or Shizuka Nobi

She is Nobita's childhood friend whom he's loved for a really long time. He often uses Doraemon's gadgets to impress or help Shizuka. Shizuka starts off as a friend to him, but eventually develops a secret fondness on him (in the Nobita and the Fantastic Three Musketeers, Shizuka dreamed she was Princess Shizuka and will marry Nobita, who dreamed he was Silver Knight Nobitania). Nobita also has a very bad habit of walking through the Anywhere Door (Doko Demo Door in Japan) and witnessing Shizuka nude. While they frequently quarrel, by the end of the episode they will usually make up. Nobita will eventually marry Shizuka and have a child named Nobisuke. If Doraemon had not interfered, he would have married Gian's sister, Jaiko. Shizuka's closeness to Degisuki causes Nobita intense jealousy, and is the plot for many episodes, where he tries to separate them, and fails. Many episodes prove their love. In one episode, Shizuka and Nobita went shopping together and Nobita brought a gadget that could create a clone of any person. He gave it to Shizuka, who created a clone of herself because Nobita was bad at shopping and was easily bored. Shizuka's clone was aggressive and kept pushing Nobita to search clothes for Shizuka, since he had kept on bringing babyish clothes for her. When he finally found a good T-shirt he accidentally gave it to another girl, mistaking her for Shizuka from behind due to the two having the same hairstyle but with different clothes. Shizuka and her clone abandoned Nobita after this and continued shopping. Nobita was sitting on a bench in the mall and he saw Shizuka and her clone fighting. Nobita then told Shizuka to make her clone disappear with the gadget he gave her. Shizuka took out the gadget and her clone snatched it but it fell on the ground and Nobita retrieved it. But unable to distinguish the real Shizuka, he started asking them questions about his tests and the food that he likes a lot. Both Shizukas answered the questions correctly. He then asked if Shizuka liked him and both of them started blushing. One of them stammered and said 'I-like' and the other said, 'Oh God, Shizuka! Don't tell me that you like a dumb boy like him!', thus betraying that she was the clone and Nobita made her disappear. The other Shizuka was blushing and smiling. This is one of the lots of proofs that Shizuka loves Nobita. And sometimes Nobita is seen hugging Shizuka .

Takeshi 'Gian' Goda

While typically being a bully, Gian shares a love-hate relationship with Nobita. Gian, along with Suneo, is known to constantly bully, beat and insult Nobita. He also tends to steal Nobita's toys, comics and even Doaremon's gadgets in the name of "sharing" or "borrowing", which results in Nobita returning home crying and complaining about Gian's behavior to Doraemon, asking for gadgets to punish him and often saying nasty things about him.

Gian attacks Nobita often, he even said: "If I don't bully Nobita a day, I can't eat and sleep anymore." However, the bond of friendship and affection between them is really strong, as is evident from numerous episodes and the movies. During the Truthful Robot episode, both Nobita's robot and Gian's robot confessed that they would rather be the best of friends rather than enemies, causing both of them to blush. Gian is usually the first one to support Nobita's decisions in the movies. They are often shown to be very close to each other, as in the movie "Nobita's Great Adventure in the South Seas". When Nobita falls into the sea after the shipwreck, Gian tries his best to hold onto his hand and tells him not to let go, but fails. The feeling that he could not save Nobita moves Gian to the point of tears. Again, in one episode, when Nobita gets sick, Gian helps him off the ground and even offers to take Nobita home to provide him an effective medicine. Although Nobita mostly stays apprehensive of Gian and his deadly singing, and often uses gadgets and plots to put him into trouble, he never wants to actually harm Gian. When Nobita had made Gian vanish using 'the dictatorship switch', he had felt deep contempt for himself and longed to have his friend back. Nobita also helps him readily, especially cases involving Gian's sister, Jaiko.

Hidetoshi Dekisugi

Dekisugi is Nobita's one-sided proclaimed 'eternal rival'. Nobita is jealous (and this jealousy is the plot of countless episodes) that Shizuka is very friendly to him, because Dekisugi is handsome and he tends to be better than Nobita at almost everything - from studies to athletics, even cooking. Dekisugi, however, does not feel the same way about Nobita and tends to be friendly. They are different in many ways. This jealousy eventually disappears when Nobita grows up and marries Shizuka (proven when Nobita agrees to look after Dekisugi's son, Hideo, when Dekisugi and his wife have to travel to Mars).

Suneo Honekawa

He is one of Nobita's closest friends, and also somewhat of a rival. He is a fox-faced rich child who loves to flaunt his materialistic wealth and his possessions in front of everyone, which usually makes Nobita very jealous, causing him to run to Doraemon to obtain something like that which Suneo has - like remote-controlled toys, trips to Hawaii or even a villa in the South Islands. Suneo is often seen with Gian, bullying Nobita, though deep down he sometimes actually feels sorry for him. He has a habit of inviting Gian and Shizuka to try something or go to someplace, purposely in front of Nobita, whom he always leaves out with lame reasons like "there is not enough space in the car" or "you would not be able to handle it".

Suneo sometimes blames Nobita for every anti-Gian deed Gian comes to know about, like drawing an insulting portrait of him on the school board or complaining to Gian's mother, and Nobita usually gets Suneo punishment using a gadget. They are shown to be laughing and joking together in many scenes, and sometimes they gang up on Gian, especially to prevent his concerts. They almost always come to each other's help, like when Nobita (along with Gian and Doraemon) had destroyed what they thought was a test paper in which Suneo had failed (actually he had got a 100) to prevent him from getting scolded, or when Suneo had helped in deactivating Doraemon's defective automatic chair that had fastened itself to Nobita. Nobita and Suneo are good friends, but sometimes conflicts do arise between them due to Suneo's consistent lying and his inflated sense of self.

Parents

Although Nobita appears to be frustrated and disheartened with the constant nagging and scolding of his parents in relation to his grades and carelessness, he is actually very affectionate of both of them. There are numerous episodes where he had worked unusually hard to please his parents, or had tried to bring about reconciliation between them after a fight. His parents too believe that though Nobita has been slow at everything since childhood, he has never failed them in the long run and would never do so in the future.

• Once, when Nobita and Doraemon had gone to the past to learn why his father, Nobisuke, had given up what could have been a very promising career in art, it is revealed that a very wealthy gentleman had agreed to carry all expenses to make Nobisuke an artist, but on the condition that he married his daughter. Doraemon, alarmed, pointed out that they had to stop it because if Nobisuke did not marry Nobita's mother, Tamako, Nobita would disappear forever (since he would never be born). But Nobita prevented Doraemon, saying that he did not want to stop his father from pursuing his dreams and would rather be destroyed. Thankfully, Nobisuke rejected the offer himself.
• When Nobita was banished from the house by his mother (under the influence of Doraemon's gadget) for not appreciating (and criticizing) the sweater she had made for him, Nobita understood his mistake. He returned to his mother with the sweater on him for warmth, and told her that he would not hurt her feelings again, causing his mother to cry and embrace him. Even Doraemon was surprised and touched by the emotional scene.
• Nobita once tried to avoid nagging by turning invisible using Doraemon's gadget cap, but was left depressed when his parents and friends kept overlooking him and the cap got stuck to his head. When he got it off, he ran to his parents and shouted joyfully that even their scolding was seeming so welcome.

See also

• Doraemon
• List of Doraemon characters
• Doraemon (Character)
• Shizuka (Character)

References

External links

• Doraemon official website (Japanese)
• Doraemon movies official website (Japanese)
• Doraemon official website at Asahi TV (Japanese)
• Doraemon article on Time Asia
• Doraemon (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia