Doraemon in Thailand

The flag of Thailand.

Thai logo

Doraemon in Thailand refers to the Thai dub of the Doraemon series or films in Thailand.

Manga

The 2015 re-release of the first volume.

Throughout the 1970s, the manga was unofficially published by several publishers. Since 1982, the year after the Thai dub of anime were aired on Modernine TV, it was officially licensed and published by Nation Edutainment (NED Comic). Including the 45-volumes manga, Doraemon Long Story, Spin-off Series, etc; however the Thai translations were unofficially published in Vietnam since early 1990s.

Early publications of Doraemon mangas in Thailand. Published by Mithmitri, titled "Dorēmon: The Meddlesome Cat"

Changes

• In early releases, the manga was mirrored to be read from left-to-right in order to avoid confusing Thai children (Thai books were read from left-to-right unlike Japanese books). As a result, the early releases contained many minor mistakes, such as the "N" on Nobita's shirt being mirrored.
  • However, newer releases of the manga (such as the 2015 re-release of the 45-volumes manga) reverted to the original right-to-left format and the old Thai translation of the logo were replaced with new one.

Anime

1979 anime

The Thai dub of Doraemon (1979 anime) aired in Thailand on Channel 9 MCOT HD (formerly known as Channel 9 and Modernine TV) from September 5, 1981 to July 2007. Now, early episodes of 1979 anime are currently being re-run with re-dubbing voice overs.

2005 anime

The Thai dub of Doraemon (2005 anime) began airing in Thailand on Channel 9 MCOT HD, The same channel that aired 1979 anime, on July 15, 2007 and is currently ongoing. Like many other international versions, the special episodes were skipped. Reruns are often shown on sister channel MCOT Family (defunct).

Voice cast (Both 1979 and 2005 anime)

• Doraemon - Chantana Tarajan
• Nobita Nobi - Sansanee Wattananukul
• Shizuka Minamoto - Sriarpha Ruennak
• Takeshi Gouda - Nirun Boonyarattaphan (first voice, films), Thanakrit Janklongtham (second voice, TV series)
• Suneo Honekawa - Arunee Nanthiwat
• Tamako Nobi - Sulaksana Thephatsadin Na Ayutthaya
• Nobisuke Nobi - Rewat Sririsap (first voice, deceased), Harit Poomdit (second voice), Kaiwan Wattanakrai (third voice), Thanakrit Janklongtham (films)
• Sewashi Nobi - Sriarpha Ruennak
• Jaiko Gouda - Arunee Nanthiwat
• Hidetoshi Dekisugi - Sulaksana Thephatsadin Na Ayutthaya
• Mini-Doras - Chantana Tarajan
• Gian's mother - Arunee Nanthiwat
• Suneo's mother - Chantana Tarajan
• Sensei - Harit Poomdit (first voice), Kaiwan Wattanakrai (second voice), Thanakrit Janklongtham (films)
• Shizuka's mother - Sansanee Wattananukul

Character name changes

• Doraemon - Dorēmon (Sometimes)
• Dorami - Dorēmi (Used in anime and newer manga)
• Shizuka - Shizu-Chan (Only used in manga as well as raw version)

Movies

The first film, Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur, was officially released in theaters on August 21, 1981, one year after the original release in Japan, and it was known as "โดเรม่อน เดอะมูฟวี่ ตอน ผจญไดโนเสาร์" (Dorēmon: Dinosaur Adventure) there. gaining a huge success; earning approx. 2 Million THB at the time. The film was licensed and dubbed in Thai by Chaiyo Productions and its late founder, Sompote Sands (สมโพธิ แสงเดือนฉาย, Sompote Saengduenchai).

One week later, the second film Doraemon: The Records of Nobita: Spaceblazer was released under the name Dorēmon: Adventure in Space, but however the success of the previous film wasn't repeated again this time. was likely due to the fact that Modern Nine TV began to aired the Thai dub of the 1979 anime series back then, so less people are interested to watch the movie.

Since then, no more Doraemon films was released in theaters, but it was received a home media release such of in VHS and VCD. Until 2001, almost all of Doraemon films got an official home media release, but due to the licensing issues, 1995-1998 films weren't officially released on Thailand:

• Nobita's Genesis Diary
• Nobita and Galactic Express
• Nobita's Adventure in Clockwork City
• Nobita's Great Adventure in the South Seas

On October 11, 2001. Vigital released Doraemon: Nobita's Legend of the Sun King (Under the name Doraemon: The Legend of the Sun King) in theaters to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Doraemon series, making it the first Doraemon film to be released in Thailand theaters for 20 years.

Two years later, WPM Film International released Nobita and the Winged Braves in theaters on October 23, 2003. Since then, Doraemon films began to release in the theaters every years.

In 2004-2015, Doraemon films were published and released in Thailand by Rose Media and Entertainment (ROSE). The film will be release in theaters on October of every year. The VCD and DVD version will be release around January of the year after the film was released.

Began in 2017, Doraemon films will be published and released by Kantana Magic, starting Nobita's Space Heroes onward.

It announced that Stand by Me Doraemon 2 will be released in Thailand in April 6, 2021, with special previews set on April 1 to April 5, 2021.

Censorship

Shortly to say, Doraemon anime series is also censored in Thailand, according to the Wikipedia page:

"In television broadcasts, scenes with "...clothes showing cleavage, a man's bare chest, weapons pointed at people, consumption of alcohol and even the bottom of a shoe (because showing the soles of a shoe in Thailand is considered rude) are all obscured..." If a Thai TV show is broadcast overseas the blurs will most likely be omitted. As in all media, criticism of the king is not allowed."

Trivia

• Thai is the one of the first countries to air the 1979 anime series and as well as release the first film into the theaters, the other being Hong Kong and Latin America and Mexico.

• During when the anime series was aired in Thailand, Thai muted the Japanese audio during dialogue to insert their speaking dialogue. This is speculated to occur became Thai did not get the rights to dub some episodes so they just muted the audio when a dialogue part would come up. This only occurred in the some episodes in the 1979 anime.

• Due to several publishing companies unofficially publishing the manga simultaneously, different names for Doraemon were used. Many people in Thailand call Doraemon as "Dorēmon" or even "Doramon" (Although the latter was unheared of nowaday).

• Even though the Thai dub of Doraemon anime was made by several companies for VHS releases. They still used the same voice actor for Doraemon and some other characters.

• Although Shizuka was referred as Shizu-Chan in the Thai version of the manga, Sometimes in the newer release of Doraemon manga (such as the Doraemon Long Story) she was referred as Shizuka.
• In the Thai dub of the anime, They used the same voice actors/actresses for nearly 35 years, Except for the voice of Gian, Which was changed due to the health problem of the original voice actor. (Nirun Boonyarattaphan)
  • However, in the films. Gian is still voiced by Nirun Boonyarattaphan. Likely because the making of the Thai dub of the films allowed him to record voice over at home, while the making of the Thai dub of the anime doesn't.  
  • Due to personal problem, Suneo's voice actress Arunee Nanthiwat chose to step down from all her voice acting roles in 2021, including her other famous role such as Conan Edogawa and Sonoko Suzuki from Detective Conan. However, she still continues to voice Suneo to the present day.

• The translated titles for Doraemon films usually didn't included the word "Nobita" in the title. This was changed since the release of Nobita and the Winged Braves (Dorēmon: Nobita and the Knight of the Winged Land) onward, with only one exception; Nobita's Great Battle of the Mermaid King. (Dorēmon: Mermaid War at the Undersea)

• Due to licensing issues, Thailand didn't receive any Doraemon films once again in 2015 and 2016.
  • Nobita's Space Heroes was instead released in May 4, 2017.
  • Nobita and the Birth of Japan 2016 was released in February 16, 2017.

• Also, due to the circumstance of the country at the time, Nobita's Great Adventure in the Antarctic Kachi Kochi's release date was pushed back from 2017 to March 29, 2018.
  • The release date announcement also referred the film as "Doraemon The Movie 2018" despite it being a 2017 film.
• In May of 2013, an Doraemon-themed funeral for a Thai Doraemon fan who died of cancer was reported to be held.

Controversy

Smiliar to what happened in Taiwan on 2013, 8 Thai citizens put drugs into Doraemon package boxes to prevent getting revealed, but in unknown date of 2019, the Thai polices seized a large number of drugs in Long Tsai and other places in Central China.

The Thai police confiscated a total of 6.118 million tablets, 600 kilograms of powder, 15.4 kilograms of heroin, etc., and arrested 8 Thai suspects. It is estimated that the total value of the seized drugs in the local area reached 20 Billion THB at the time.