Kaminari (神成さん Kaminari san) is a recurring character in Doraemon. He is an old man living next to the Open Lot where Nobita and his friends play.
It is often shown that the baseballs are breaking the glass of Kaminari's window (a woman's window in early manga chapters) or destroying one of his favourite bonsai plants, which angers him a lot. The children always try not set his rage off and play carefully whenever he is around. He also has a wife who rarely appears and a beautiful niece that the boys fall in love with.
Appearance
Kaminari is an old man, and he wears glasses and wears a Japanese Traditional Cloth most of the time.
Personality
Kaminari with Nobita and his Granddaughter
He is seen as a hot-headed old man particularly due to children breaking his window frequently, but he is sometimes seen as a good and nice old man towards the girls (as seen in the case of Shizuka in one episode) or when someone apologizes for breaking his glass, seen in the case when Nobita apologizes to him, and he happily gives the baseball to Nobita along with other baseballs that he had acquired since then. He is also shown to be protective towards his granddaughter who was a short time love interest of Gian, Suneo and Nobita.
In the birthday episode, Shizuka-chan and the Grandfather Tree, Kaminari is shown to be very passionate about the oldest tree that Nobita, Doraemon and Shizuka tried to save. He'd even rush to city hall to protest to save the Grandfather Tree from being cut down, thanks to one of Doraemon's gadgets that encouraged him to do so. It is because Kaminari used to play next to the Grandfather Tree when he was very young.
In the episode The Great Battle of the Breaking Neighbourhood, when Nobita tried to make things right with Kaminari, he offered to bring one of his most prized bonsai to the contest, to which Kaminari happily complied. Doing so successfully despite almost every kid in the neighborhood, including Gian mostly, wanting to catch Nobita was enough to make Kaminari forgive Nobita for accidentally breaking his window(s) and bonsai(s).
Quote
— Kaminari's official dialogue
Trivia
- Kaminari means literally “To become a god”.
- In the English dub, his name is changed to Mr. Rumbleton.
- He is simply referred to as Kaminari Uncle or Uncle Kaminari by Nobita.
- In some episodes of the Tamil dub, his name is changed to Kaminathan.
- He is a character that came first from Obake no Q-tarō series.
- He also never appears in the 1973 Anime along with Dekisugi, Dorami and Jaiko.
- He has a certain resemblance to Namihei Isono, the father of Sazae of the anime Sazae-san.
- In the 2005 version of Do your Best! Ghost House, it revealed that he isn't afraid of ghosts, much like Gian.
- Kaminari is similar to Squidward Tentacles from the SpongeBob cartoon due to his hatred of getting his stuff broken.