Characters / Doraemon: The Main Five

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As a Whole

• Adaptational Badass: All of them go from being average kids in the anime series to Kid Heroes in the movies and specials.
• Anti-Hero: While they're all good people overall, they occasionally do morally ambiguous deeds, with the exception of Shizuka.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
  • As much as they pick on him, Gian and Suneo have shown quite a few times that they care about Nobita, and vice versa. There are some episodes where they bully him in the beginning, but do something nice for him at the end. Individually, Nobita has more of these moments with Gian than with Suneo, though. In the movies and specials, they are True Companions.
  • Nobita and Doraemon have a lot of these moments, and several episodes and specials focus on their close friendship. Their relationship isn't particularly antagonistic, but in daily life, they get on each other's nerves a lot (usually because of Nobita's behavior).
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Out of Nobita's friends, there's pretty Love Interest Shizuka (Beauty), clever and cunning Suneo (Brains), and strong Big Guy Gian (Brawn). However, Shizuka is at least as smart as Suneo (if not smarter), while Suneo is a bit of a Gonk.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: Out of the human boys, Gian, Nobita, and Suneo are this respectively.
• Butt-Monkey: Doraemon and the boys all undergo Amusing Injuries and misfortunes to different degrees throughout the series, but Nobita is easily the one who suffers this the most, followed by Suneo, then Gian, then Doraemon. While Shizuka is usually an exception to this, she still has her moments as well, especially in the early stories (one episode ends with her being locked out of her house by her mother at night just for coming home late and it's Played for Laughs). She is also by far the most common victim of Naked People Are Funny, and she has been crushed by giant letters, had a cannon exploding in her face, pushed accidentally into a hole by Nobita once, mauled to the point of unconsciousness by a robot dog, etc.. Since this is a long-lasting franchise, her Amusing Injuries are still relatively rare, compared to the others.
• Childhood Friends: Flashbacks show Nobita being friends with Suneo, Gian, and Shizuka since when they were little kids. It's also shown that Nobita and Shizuka will remain friends with Suneo and Gian when they are adults.
• Cool Kid-and-Loser Friendship: Nobita is the loser to everyone else's Cool. Gian and Suneo are not really well-liked by the other kids (especially Gian) but, being the strong leader of a sports team and a talented, clever, rich kid respectively, they are still more respected than Nobita. Then there's the smart and pretty Shizuka, and Dekisugi, who is The Ace and extremely popular.
• Dub Name Change: They have the nicknames D, Noby, Sue, Big G, and Sneech in the American English dub.
• Enemy Mine:
  • A lot of episodes focus on Gian and Suneo antagonizing Nobita, but they would work with him as a team in some situations. For example, while in most stories Gian and Suneo tend to respect Dekisugi more than Nobita, there's one episode where even they start being jealous of Dekisugi's Mr. Perfect status and they team up with Nobita to make him look bad (they fail, obviously).
  • On occasion, Suneo will team up with Nobita to get back at Gian, usually using one of Dorameon's gadgets. Likewise, while it's rather rare in comparison, Gian will be the one who teams up with Nobita instead when Suneo is the one who is messing with them, especially when it comes to Suneo's bragging habit. For example in Suneo's Luxuriously Poor Birthday, where everyone is annoyed by Suneo's spoiled condescending ways and the episode ends with Gian and Nobita beating up Suneo.
  • Doraemon is usually on Nobita's side and often helps him to get revenge on Gian and Suneo. However, if Nobita goes too far, he would even team up with Gian and Suneo (or with Nobita's mom) to punish him.
  • In the movies and special events, the enemy part is usually dropped altogether.
• Family Theme Naming: Most of their family members don't have original names. We have Nobita Nobi with a father named Nobisuke and an uncle named Nobirou, Doraemon with a sister named Dorami, Gian with a sister named Jaiko, Suneo with a brother named Sunetsugu and and a cousin named Sunekichi. Their children in the future also seem to follow their name's traditions.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • The three main human boys often put themselves first.
    • Nobita's is (of course) his laziness, Extreme Doormat tendencies, and last but not least, lack of commitment. These have landed him in trouble so many times, and he rarely overcomes them or even makes an effort to improve, too (with several exceptions).
    • Gian's is his The Bully tendencies and dreadful singing abilities. Though he wants to be appreciated and cares about his friends, him trying to get them to fulfill his needs have made them fear him a lot, which makes healthy friendships outright difficult.
    • Suneo's is his tendency to brag and Lack of Empathy. They've caused trouble quite a few times, and have resulted in his friends being angry at him.
  • You could say that Doraemon and Shizuka, while nicer than the others, have a tendency to jump to negative conclusions. Shizuka has assumed things about Nobita that aren't true more than once, and Doraemon gets carried away with his love of dorayaki and fear of mice.
• Five-Man Band: Especially in the Long Tales series. No adventure is complete without the whole five being involved. We have Nobita as The Leader, who typically prompts the adventure by complaining about his latest misfortune, Doraemon as his primary sidekick, whose gadgets enable the adventure, and Shizuka being the one Nobita seeks to impress. Gian usually serves as the main muscle of the group, with Suneo tagging alongside him, occasionally serving as the brains of the group.
• Foil: The difference between Doraemon/Nobita and Gian/Suneo being Heterosexual Life-Partners.
  • Doraemon and Nobita might argue and mess with each other a lot on occasion, with Nobita often taking advantage of Doraemon to get a gadget, but they can't stay away from each other for too long and will always be the best of friends, no matter what. This is something that Dorami even lampshaded at one point.
  • On the surface, Gian and Suneo appear to be on good terms. But, their relationship is nothing more than a shallow bully/henchman pairing with Suneo secretly hating Gian and often tricking him for his own personal gain, while Gian doesn't hesitate to make Suneo his secondary punching bag next to Nobita. Their dynamic also heavily Depending on the Writer; they can be portrayed either as False Friends in their worst moments, or as Vitriolic Best Buds who stick together despite abusing each other, or even as genuinely good friends who enjoy each other's company.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Doraemon himself is Eclectic - the most, well, eclectic member who's not a human; Nobita is somewhere between Phlegmatic and Melancholic - lazy and laid-back, yet dealing with issues due to his incompetence; Gian is Choleric - boisterous, brash, rude and a violent bully; Shizuka is Phlegmatic - kind, quiet, selfless and a Yamato Nadeshiko, and Suneo is an unsympathetic Sanguine - outgoing, an arrogant show-off and egotistical.
• Free-Range Children: They are elementary school kids wandering from town, to traveling around the world, to exploring out of the world and even adventuring across different universes, timelines, and dimensions in the movies and specials, always without any parents or adults. Doraemon's gadgets (especially the take-copters) often help.
• Gonk: Downplayed Trope. Gian and Suneo are a bit gonkish, though not absurdly ugly. Nobita is also plain-looking and explicitly stated to be below average in the Sliding Scale of Beauty.
• Interclass Friendship: Rich Kid Suneo is friends with middle-class Gian, Shizuka, and (when not bragging about his family's wealth, teasing, and playing pranks on him) Nobita. The friendship between Gian and Suneo is especially notable, since Gian is the biggest Lower-Class Lout of all the main characters, and yet he's the leader of the duo because of his strength.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Except Shizuka, who is naturally kind-hearted, and usually Doraemon, the rest of the main cast are all some sort of jerks in daily life with varying levels of jerk. If anything unusual happens, however, they actively become very heroic and selfless.
• Kid Hero: In the movies, they are often a team of Kid Heroes. Doraemon is technically not a kid, but is just as much of a hero as the others.
• Kids Are Cruel: While they're overly mischievous and ill-mannered children instead of malicious people, Gian and Suneo can fall into this trope. Even Nobita can be unnecessarily cruel when he gets carried away with gadgets.
• Like Brother and Sister: Gian and Suneo are good friends with Shizuka and she often hangs out with them, even when Nobita is not around. However, they have no romantic interest in her.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Nobita's name means "to grow up and be strong", possibly the Series Goal.
  • Shizuka's name mean "quiet, silent". Her parents want her to grow up and be a kind and caring girl.
  • Gian's name come from "Giant", he's the largest of the main cast. His real name "Takeshi" means "warrior".
  • Suneo's name contains the kanji of "lord". His chinese name uses the kanji for "little lord".
• Nice Mean And In Between:
  • Nobita's friends in regular episodes: Shizuka is the only good-natured one (nice), Gian is often the villain that bullies, terrorizes, and beats up all the kids in the neighborhood (mean), and Suneo is spoiled, arrogant, and a complete jerk to Nobita, but usually harmless when it comes to other people and can be nice once in a while (in-between).
  • In the movies, Shizuka is still the nicest, but Gian and Suneo switch roles. Gian is still brash but shows a lot of bravery and Hidden Heart of Gold (in-between), while Suneo is much more of a selfish Dirty Coward, though it's downplayed that he can be brave and heroic as well when encouraged enough (mean).
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: Downplayed. While some episodes do show them grown-up in the future, in the "current" timeline they have remained at 10 years ever since their 1969 debuts, despite the countless different episodes about their birthdays.
• Odd Friendship: Why should a responsible and sweet girl like Shizuka hang out with three irresponsible and mean boys (including a dumb loser, the school bully, and a Rich Bastard)? In Nobita's case, it could be considered a case of Opposites Attract.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Aside from Shizuka, all of them are representative of one or more sins.
  • Envy: Nobita, since his jealousy and envy of other people (especially Suneo and Dekisugi) often drive the plot of the episodes.
  • Gluttony: Doraemon, who has an obsession with his Trademark Favorite Food.
  • Greed: Suneo, who mostly cares about money and material possessions.
  • Lust: Nobita, who is a Stalker with a Crush and is known for the infamous Running Gag of him peeping at Shizuka in her bathtub.
  • Pride: Suneo, who is known for being extremely vain and proud of himself.
  • Sloth: Nobita, due to his extreme laziness.
  • Wrath: Gian, who is the most short-tempered and prone to anger.
• Strong Family Resemblance: All main human characters take after their parents in physical appearance. Nobita looks almost exactly like his mother (though she got the delicate female mouth later as the author got better with his drawings), and also like his father as a child, and also like his future son with Shizuka. Shizuka looks somewhat like her mother. Gian looks exactly like his mother and little sister; his father only appears a few times early on in the manga, more frequently in the anime, but he also shares the family physical traits. Suneo looks exactly like both of his parents who, oddly enough, look exactly like each other (even his cat Chiruchiru looks a lot like Suneo, somehow). Gian and Suneo also look like their future sons respectively. Strangely enough, there are even some occasional random strangers from different time periods that look exactly like them anyway, regardless of whether they're related or not.
• Three Plus Two:
  • Doraemon and Shizuka are usually Nobita's first choice of friends to hang out with, so they tend to make a core trio with Gian and Suneo tagging along or antagonizing them. Gian and Suneo also associate with each other more than either of them does individually with the other three. This dynamic is lampshaded in the Title Sequence of Doraemon: Nobita and The Space Heroes.
  • Other times, the trope is inverted: Nobita and Doraemon as a main duo and Shizuka, Gian, and Suneo as a supporting trio.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Nobita, Gian, and Suneo are shown to be kinder people as adults.
• True Companions: While they may be constantly at odds with each other, they will always stick together to the end.
• Unlikely Hero: The gang as a whole aren't exactly heroes, but merely kids and a robot cat from the future who are constantly at odds with each other on a daily basis. With that said, when they stumble upon a troubled individual or civilization, they are always ready to help.
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • You can't avoid the trope when in a group of five, three of them often fall into The Friend Nobody Likes:
    • Nobita with everyone, since Gian and Suneo are pretty much his frenemies, and he often manages to irritate even Doraemon and Shizuka with his reckless and immature tendencies, even if the latter is usually a little bit more patient with him in comparison. Even Doraemon and Shizuka make fun of Nobita on occasions, mostly the former.
    • Due to being a bully, Gian naturally also counts to everyone as he can come across as antagonistic toward them at times because of it and often forces his friends to fulfill his needs such as attending his concerts and tasting his bizarre foods, with his friends unable to object to them since he's The Dreaded. Not even both Shizuka and Doraemon are safe from this. Sometimes, this leads them to come up with a bunch of schemes in order to drive Gian away behind his back, with varying results.
    • Suneo's tendency to brag usually irks Nobita the most with how the former often picks on him specifically, but there are times where even both Shizuka and Gian are annoyed by it. When that habit of his is at its worst, Suneo excludes everyone else as much as Nobita. Naturally, either his friends try to get back at him in retaliation or karma bites him hard afterward (sometimes, even both).
  • Gian and Suneo are sometimes vitriolic with each other (mostly Gian since Suneo is his Yes-Man). In one episode, they even sing an entire duet about their vitriolic Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them dynamic. Unfortunately, the song is not successful and Gian takes it out on Suneo.
• Weirdness Magnet: For starters, one of the five is a Do-Anything Robot cat from the future who involves the rest in all the craziest adventures.
• With Friends Like These...:
  • This obviously happens when the bullies who pick on you every day are your closest friends.
  • Despite being a Nice Girl and Nobita's best friend, even Shizuka has her moments. Most notably, when Suneo repeatedly excludes Nobita from the group's trips and activities (inviting Gian and Shizuka but not him), she often does nothing to defend him. She just joins Suneo and Gian without any problem and couldn't care less about her closest friend being excluded. A few later short stories avert this by showing her actively giving up her "rights" in support for Nobita.

Doraemon

Voiced in Japanese by: Kosei Tomita, Masako Nozawa (1973), Nobuyo Oyama (1979 - 2005), Wasabi Mizuta (2005 - present)

Voiced in English by: Mona Marshall

Voiced in Arabic by: Amal Sad-aldeen (1979 - 2005), Rasha Baidas (2005 - present)

Voiced in European Spanish by: Anna Orra (1st dub, 1st voice), Eduard Itchart (1st dub, 2nd voice), Estibalíz Lizárraga (2nd dub and 2005 series)

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Hector Lee (Movie 1), Ricardo Tejedo (1979 - 2005 series), Irwin Daayán (2005 - series)

The titular character and the supporting protagonist of the story. He is a cat-like robot created by the Matsushiba robot company, and is sent back in time by Sewashi to aid Nobita.

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• Accidental Pervert: Less so than Nobita, but he also has caught Shizuka bathing a couple of times.
• Adaptational Badass: Several games turn him into a Mario-style One-Man Army who saves the world often alone for the most part.
• Adaptational Jerkass: While still being a Nice Guy on occasion. Doraemon is shown to be a whole lot more unpleasant and jerkish to Nobita in the Disney XD dub than in the original dubs, and lacks much of his original character's redeeming factors.
• Affectionate Nickname: Shizuka and Tamako, Nobita's mom, usually tend to call him "Dora-chan". In the Vietnamese translation Nobi usually affectionately call him "Fat Kitty".
• Animal Motif:
  • He's factory-defined, and he identifies as a cat robot, but he's frequently mistaken for a raccoon dog and gets upset as a result. When traveling to the Amusement Park in Fairy Tale Land, he turned into a raccoon dog.
  • When the gang ends up in Birdopia in the Doraemon: Nobita and the Winged Braves movie, he wears a pigeon hat (though he initially put on a penguin hat as a mistake) as a disguise there.
• Arc Number: According to official stats, Doraemon is 129.3 cm tall and weighs 129.3 kg, his head and body are both 129.3 cm in circumference, his legs are 129.3 mm long, he produces 129.3 horsepower, he can jump his own height and run at 129.3 km/h when frightened by a mouse, and his birthday is 2112/9/3. This number was apparently chosen because 129.3 cm was the average height of a Japanese fourth grader when the manga was written. (Ironically, Doraemon is drawn to be shorter than the main human characters, who are actual fourth graders.)
• Ax-Crazy: Played for Laughs example. Sometimes his fear of mice and his hatred for people who eat his dorayaki without his permission make him snap so hard, he retaliates by using murder of all things (or at least, the implication of it).
• Badass Adorable: A Ridiculously Cute Critter with a fourth-dimensional pocket who has pretty much unlimited powers thanks to his reality warping gadgets. He is portrayed by Jean Reno in several Toyota commercials, so you know Doraemon has a ton of badass cred.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: This is the reason why Doraemon is willing to stick around with Nobita despite his flaws and overall incompetence in life, as the latter's kindness touched him. Not to mention the countless times Nobita saved his life when he's in trouble or when Nobita stands up for him.
• Berserk Button:
  • Unless you have his permission, DON'T....EAT...OR...RUIN...HIS...DORAYAKI..OR ELSE.
  • He quickly snaps whenever being called as another animal, especially Tanuki/Raccoon, which happens with a lot of people. He's a cat and he really hates to be mistaken for those stinking animals. Well, except in Doraemon: Nobita and the Animal Planet, where his being upset ends up upsetting a tanuki guy.
  • He's scared of and absolutely detests rats/mice for what they did to his ears, to the extent he will hunt them down and eliminate them if they are in the house (he is a cat, after all). There are occasions where he would literally nuke the house to eradicate those pests, but thankfully Nobita is there to stop him.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • He's usually endlessly patient and tries to be helpful, but when Nobita goes too far, he won't hesitate to punish him.
  • He's also rather scary if his Berserk Button is pushed too hard, sometimes to Ax-Crazy levels.
• Beware the Silly Ones: For all the silliness of the series and the character in general, Doraemon falls along Cosmic Weight in the Super Weight scale. Even when they're all granted by items rather than inherent powers and have some limitations, they allow him to (among other things) stop time, travel across time, bend reality, travel to different reality, and even create a new universe. As a school project.
• Big Brother Instinct: Literally to Dorami and figuratively to Nobita.
  • Towards Nobita, especially in early stories. However, as time went on, the robot gets increasingly more annoyed with Nobita's tendency to depend too much on his tools. This results in him becoming more apathetic to Nobita and only helping him when it is really necessary.
  • He does not take it well when Gian insults Dorami, claiming that his own sister Jaiko is much better than Doraemon's sister. The result is a Volleying Insults exchange between him and Gian.
• Big Eater: Never get between him and his yummy dorayaki buns.
• Big Fun: Has a noticeably plumpier body for the first few chapters (as adapted to the first volume of the manga).
• Blue Is Heroic: A blue robotic cat, even if it's not his original color, and the title character.
• Brutal Honesty: Usually very blunt when it comes to Nobita. He gives him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech at one point.
• Butt-Monkey: From time to time, especially around the time the series started, though he still has his moments even currently.
• Cats Are Snarkers: Although he's a robot cat, he's still a Deadpan Snarker.
• Characterization Marches On: Initially, he's a lot more awkward, more cooperative and more protective of Nobita, but as times went on, he has become a Deadpan Snarker and a Moral Guardian. His more iconic personality carries over even in the most recent Compilation Movie.
• Chick Magnet: He managed to capture many cats' hearts.
• Closet Sublet: He sleeps in Nobita's closet.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: To Nobita. Well, he tries but Nobita usually doesn't listen to him.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Often represented by blue.
• The Conscience: To Nobita.
• Covert Pervert: Anytime that Shizuka is shown in stripperiffic outfit, you can expect that the boys will be quite eager to see it. Yes, including Doraemon.
• Cute Machines: A very cute-looking robotic cat.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • There are rare episodes that focus on him instead of Nobita, especially about his love life with female cats. There's also a very weird (but hilarious) Lower-Deck Episode about him, Nobita's mom, and Suneo's mom getting stuck in a surreal situation, which is also a rare case of Nobita being Out of Focus in most of the episode.
  • Doraemon: Nobita's Sky Utopia movie mostly focused on his bond with Sonya due to being a fellow robot cat and has a much closer relationship with him compared to Nobita, which made the latter's Heroic Sacrifice affect him the most.
• Deadpan Snarker: Being around Nobita all the time, he has no other choice. He often concludes the episode with a snarky line (sometimes combined with Fade to Black). He's not above snarking at other characters either.
• Depending on the Writer: Whether he behaves more like a guardian to Nobita or is treated as One of the Kids varies from story to story. The former tends to come out more in movies and specials.
• Despair Event Horizon: It doesn't happen very often, but when he's losing hope, especially regarding the possibility of Nobita ever dying on their adventure, which in Doraemon: Nobita's Chronicles of the Moon Exploration, he contempts to destroy himself out of despair.
• Ditzy Genius: Although he's the smartest of the main five and seems to have a vast knowledge of many different subjects, he ended up the clumsiest of his kind due to a problem during his production, and will rarely get anything done when he's nervous.
• Do-Anything Robot: This was Doraemon's gimmick, though because it was partly a commentary at the time on people relying too much on technology, nearly every gadget ended up causing more problems.
• Dreadful Musician: In the spinoff manga The Doraemons and the early portrayal of the character. In one episode where Doraemon starts to malfunction and act like Gian, his singing become so horrendous that, as Nobita himself point it out, it sounds even worse than Gian's.
• Dumbass No More: He used to be Book Dumb and one of the worst students in the Robot Academy. However, he probably got better from his early years, since nowadays he can quote many facts about different subjects and is easily the most knowledgeable of the main cast (unless Dekisugi is around), sometimes bordering on The Omniscient. That said, he still retains his clumsiness.
• Ear Ache: The reason why he is deathly afraid of rats is because one bit his ears off.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Doraemon's tail initially functioned to make him invisible whenever it pulled. Later on, it's replaced with his on and off switch instead with the gadgets that make its user invisible being introduced.
• Eating Machine: He needs to eat to function like a human (as fuel) and his favorite food is dorayaki. Since he can taste, he's occasionally shown scarfing down or refusing food accordingly. His internal furnace can fully convert anything he eats into energy, so he usually does not need the restroom, though he is shown visiting it at least once. Official sources like the Doraemon Fukayomi Guide suggest that as a caretaker robot, he goes to the restroom before bed to model good behavior for children.
• Encyclopaedic Knowledge: He has a vast knowledge about many topics, from science to literature to history, and often provides relevant background information needed to understand how certain gadgets work or respond to the situations that the main characters encounter.
• Extreme Doormat: When Nobita cries because he has a problem (all the time), Doraemon usually makes a small attempt to talk some sense into him, but eventually ends up pitying him and giving one of his gadgets, even if he knows Nobita always uses his gadgets for selfish reasons and gets into even more trouble, in nearly every episode.
• Flanderization: Quite a huge one in the Disney XD American Dub. In most incarnations, he’s a Nice Guy who, despite sometimes being rude to Nobita, still means well and has a reason to be mad at him. In the Disney XD American dub, while he is still kind at best, he becomes flanderized into an absolute jerk to Nobita and shows No Indoor Voice whatsoever, and scolds him for causing too much problems, and although this is still understandable, he is MUCH harsher to him than in the original versions. This is more downplayed in season 2, although not by much and is still a total Jerkass at worst. Stand By Me Doraemon also showcases this and retains his original personality by the sequel.
• Failure Hero: Due to an accident during his production, Doraemon became defective upon his activation and turned out to be the clumsiest robot compared to his friends. And if it wasn't for Sewashi who picked him up as his owner when he was still a baby, Doraemon would be left without an owner.
• Fingerless Hands: Doraemon doesn't have any visible fingers, yet he is able to do most things normal people can do with their hands. That's because each of his hands has a sticky-thing^note It's an extremely localized magnetic field, apparently. Some shots also seem to show his hands morphing slightly when he holds objects, creating what looks like a thumb. However, he hates the fact that he can only play rock in rock, paper, scissors.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Foolish to Dorami's Responsible, being more clumsy and less wise than her.
• Furry Reminder: He is a very human-like robot overall, but there are times when he moves or behaves like a cat, like curling up to sleep or scrambling up curtains when terrified. Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum shows that losing his bell brings his cat instincts to the fore. He can also communicate with cats without the help of his gadgets and is more romantically interested in cats (whether real or robotic) than in people.
• God: Not literally, but he has so many reality warping gadgets and even gadgets that can create entirely new universes (that a movie made clear continue to live on even when they're done playing with them) that it's clear that if he used them correctly he could essentially become an omniscient omnipotent God. In more than one movie and a few episodes, he is believed to be a god by the locals.
• Hammerspace: His four-dimensional pocket. It's shown to be larger on the inside and can store all manner of things including a telephone booth twice as tall as Doraemon.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Has a very bad case of this in the American dub. The fact he’s more of a hot-headed jerk with No Indoor Voice in said dub doesn’t help.
• The Heart: Among the Doraemons, Doraemon is the most considerate of others and is willing to sacrifice himself to keep his friends happy and hold their friendship together. His dedication to his friends is part of the reason why the group is named after him even though he lacks his other friends' special skills.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Nobita, despite their occasional disagreements. They can't stay away from each other for too long. When Suneo tries to steal Doraemon from Nobita because he wants a real "best friend" and doesn't want to be Gian's lackey anymore, Doraemon tells him that Nobita is his only best friend, and obviously, the feelings are mutual.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Often serves as this to Nobita.
• I Am Not Weasel:
  • Don't call him a raccoon/tanuki/seal. In fact, don't call him anything that's not a cat.
  • He himself has a habit of mistaking other rodents (aside from squirrels and chipmunks) or rodent-like animals for mice, though this is because he's too scared to properly identify them.
• Innocently Insensitive: Sometimes. His Brutal Honesty to Nobita is often used intentionally as a form of Tough Love, but there are times when he unintentionally insults him and feels bad about it afterwards (he usually gives him a gadget to make it up).
• Ironic Fear: He is a cat who is afraid of mice. Justified in that he had a traumatic experience with a robotic mouse that bit his ears off.
• Jerkass Ball: Generally friendly but he can also be rather mean depending on the episode, though not as frequently as the other boys, although this is played straighter in the American dub.
• The Lancer: To Nobita, despite being the title character. In the movies and in The Doraemons on the other hand, he's usually The Leader.
• Locked into Strangeness: According to 2112: The Birth of Doraemon, Doraemon was originally yellow-colored like his sister and the other Doraemons. After he lost his ears, he became depressed and unwittingly drank a "sadness" potion, which turned his body blue and his voice become raspier in the process.
• Mascot's Name Goes Unchanged: In later official Doraemon translations, many characters (including Nobita) get renamed; Doraemon himself, however, retains his name.
• Master of None: Due to The Doraemons being a showcase of "main character of the arc", Doraemon ends up as mundane compared to his friends and is often Demoted to Extra.
• Mechanical Lifeform: A cat-like robot who otherwise thinks and lives like a normal human being.
• Mirror Character: In a way, Doraemon is just as much as a failure as Nobita in life due to him being defective when compared to the other robots of his kind who are far more efficient and less prone to make mistakes. His blue body, as opposed to the usual yellow color of the others, and lack of ears just evidence this status even further. Not to mention he's also reckless like Nobita on occasion and a particularly bad student like him back when he was in Robot Academy.
• Monster Roommate: He lives in Nobita's closet.
• Mr. Exposition: He provides Infodumps, especially when it comes to explaining the use of his gadgets and occasionally adding many science/history/geography details. It's almost a force of habit, the others sometimes have to remind him to save the explanations for later in tense situations.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Throughout the series, Doraemon has many variation of gadgets for almost any situations on his sleeves that he mostly never brought up again after their introduction outside the recurring ones like Anywhere Door or Take-copter.
• Nice Guy: Most of the time he is friendly, lovable, and well-meaning. On occasion he's pretty harsh to Nobita but when it happens, you really can't blame him... for the most part at least.
• No Indoor Voice: You'd be hard-pressed finding an entire episode of the Disney XD American Dub where he doesn't scream half of his lines.
• No Sympathy: Sometimes, he actually smiles at Nobita being in pain or getting a punishment, usually when he deserves it. Other times, he just looks annoyed, resigned, or even apathetic.
• Non-Human Sidekick: To Nobita, sometimes becoming a Snarky Non-Human Sidekick.
• Non-Indicative Name: His name roughly means "stray cat", but he isn't actually stray.
• Not So Above It All:
  • While he normally serves as the voice of reason for Nobita, there are several times where he can be just as thoughtless or immature as him. He can't think rationally when there's the possibility to eat dorayaki, or when mice are involved or mentioned. He also tends to panic during emergencies.
  • At times, he only agrees to give Nobita the gadget for his own self interest (e.g. "Without this gadget I will be punished and mom won't buy the dorayaki for us next week!").
• Only Sane Man: Not without his quirks and flaws, but he's usually one of the most reasonable characters (not to mention long-suffering because of Nobita's antics).
• Overshadowed by Awesome: In The Doraemons Special series, it's quite inevitable considering his super teammates such as the genius martial artist, cowboy and werewolf. He still gets some time to shine though... rarely.
• Parental Substitute: To Nobita. Because Adults Are Useless most of the time, he acts more of a parental figure to him than his actual parents, who barely know anything about their son aside from his bad grades. The way Nobita begs for his gadgets also resembles a spoiled child who wants to get something from his mom.
• Reality Warper: With his gadgets, he can warp reality to it's full extent. Check out the "what if" phone booth. It's able to create a whole new world based on the wish.
• Really 700 Years Old: The 2005 special edition episode Doraemon: The Genius Nobita's Airship Amusement Park have the entire gang going to the future to celebrate Doraemon's 903rd b-day.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Usually the reasonable Blue Oni to Nobita's impulsive Red Oni. When Dorami appears, he becomes the Red Oni compared to his wiser and more level-headed sister.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: The cute robot cat from the future.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: A ridiculously Cat-like robot: He can eat, breathe, bleed, blush, and maybe even pee. Must be really advanced technology! Official sources like the Doraemon Fukayomi Guide have suggested that he was designed to be so human-like to function in his role as a companion and caretaker for children.
• Robot Buddy: The Trope Codifier in Japan.
• Rummage Fail: A Running Gag is that he would rummage through his pocket in a state of panic, often taking out the wrong stuff.
• Secondary Character Title:
  • Despite being the title character, Nobita is usually the main protagonist with Doraemon only existing to assist his daily life. In many episodes, Doraemon only appears in a couple of scenes: to give Nobita the gadget, and later to get angry when Nobita misuses the gadget. Downplayed in the 2005 anime, where Doraemon follows Nobita around more often, instead of staying at home.
  • This is espectially apparent in the movies (Which is emphasized by having Nobita's name in their different titles). While Doraemon is the one who leads the adventure, the story often focuses on Nobita and his character arc instead as well as his bonds with the new character who is introduced there.
• Secretly Wealthy: In one manga story, Doraemon steals the family's savings to deposit in the bank, then goes 100 years into the future to collect the interest (according to his own calculation, would be 1024 times what was put in). The Nobi family now not only has their savings intact (since Doraemon gives back everything plus more), but they also unknowingly have a saving account (presumably in Doraemon's name) that will appreciate in value over the next 100 years (which he already collects and is presumably keeping somewhere). Due to the Negative Continuity nature of the series, this is never brought up again, however.
• Shipper on Deck: For Nobita/Shizuka, mostly because he knows how much Nobita loves her. In Stand by Me Doraemon, Doraemon is the one who suggest Nobita that he should marry Shizuka in the future so the former can be fully happy.
• Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: He was designed to take care of children, but with his arsenal of gadgets, he has held off or averted world-ending threats, often backed up by only a few grade schoolers. He also has gadgets that could cause the end of the world if he wanted to. Even without his gadgets, he comes with a very hard head, Super-Strength, Super-Toughness, Super-Senses, and, when frightened, Super-Speed, though this is downplayed in that most of his sensory parts are defective and his programming normally restricts his use of Super-Strength to handling gadgets.
• Super-Strength: He can produce 129.3 horsepower, making him much stronger than a human. However, he rarely seems to use his superhuman strength for anything except handling larger gadgets. Official guidebooks state that since he's a caretaker robot, his programming usually stops him from using his full strength. Once when he malfunctioned, he was able to easily beat Gian to a bloody pulp. A similar instance in the 1979 anime had him squeeze a soccer ball with his bare hands until it popped.
• Super-Toughness: While he can be injured, his machinery is very resistant to physical impacts and they rarely do any irreversible damage to him. He can also function normally in the deep sea and outer space without special equipment.
• Supporting Protagonist: He's the title character, but he's just there for the sake of helping Nobita and that's his entire purpose in the story most of the time. In fact, that was the stated reason he went back in time to meet Nobita in the first place; to help him out in his daily life to prevent a future where he's basically a loser.
• Team Dad: Especially in the movies, he's often the closest thing the kids have to an authority figure in their group. He takes it upon himself to make sure they're safe and cared for on their adventures, and will reprimand them for poor behavior. He's also the one the kids tend to call for when they get in over their heads.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: He's finally identified as a cat by strangers in Nobita and the Winged Braves, much to his joy. Unfortunately, the first time it's humanoid crows who hate cats. A friendly ostrich also identifies him as a cat later on, while they're running from the crows. Alas, this doesn't last when Professor Hoot mistakes him for a tanuki.
• Token Robot: Being a robot cat and the only non-human character in the main cast.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Justified and downplayed. He starts off as very kind and protective of Nobita, but over time, he becomes more snarky and dismissive of him, due to Nobita misusing his gadgets all the time. Though this is kept in check by a number of Pet the Dog moments and his genuine friendship with him.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Doraemon loves dorayaki (called "yummy buns" by Nobita in the English dub), a kind of pancake filled with a sweet red bean paste.
• Undying Loyalty:
  • To Nobita, despite their occasional disagreements and bickering with each other. It certainly says a lot.
    • When Suneo asks him to leave Nobita and move to Suneo's house, offering him hundreds of dorayakis in exchange, he straight up refuses without thinking twice (though he does it after gobbling up all those dorayakis).
    • In one episode, in attempt to eradicate all the mice in Tokyo with his gadget, his clumsiness made him accidentally turn all the living beings in town into mice except him instead. He does everything possible to find Nobita (now a mouse as well) among all the other mice, overcoming his crippling fear. That's saying a lot, because Doraemon hates mice more than anything else.
  • He was also loyal to Sewashi during his days with him since Sewashi picked him as his owner when he was still a baby, to the point of accepting to be sent back in time by him to help fixing the life of his grandfather, Nobita.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: A lot of bad things happen to Doraemon in the Disney XD American dub, but it's not easy to feel bad for him due to how much of a prick he has became in said dub.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Most regular episodes follow Nobita's daily life in a mundane setting. The main characters know that Doraemon comes from the future but all the other people don't seem to think there's anything strange about a blue robotic cat hanging out with humans. Or living in their house for whatever reason, in the case of Nobita's parents. People don't seem to find anything odd about his futuristic gadgets either most of the time. Justified because Doraemon shares universe with many other works of Fujiko F. Fujio, most of which are bizarre in their own right.
• Use Your Head: His skull roof is very hard, to the point it can be weaponized and knock out larger opponents, or be used to punch through walls. Some slapstick gags, on the other hand, imply he has a more malleable head, though Rule of Funny could be at play. Official sources have suggested that his body is generally soft as a default state, but can be hardened when he is tense.
• Vocal Evolution:
  • In-Universe, Doraemon's voice starts out being more child-like sounding, until he loses his ears and cries so hard about it to the point that his voice becomes raspier. The 2005 anime downplays this as his voice more or less remains the same after his breakdown.
  • The 1979 anime, while not In-Universe, has Doraemon starting out as loud, whiny and raspy. As the anime progresses he sounds calmer and less whiny.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • He is really afraid of mice, because a robot mouse bit his ears off when he was young. He's also scared of most rodents, which he always mistakes for mice. Squirrels and chipmunks are fine to him, though.
  • On lesser degree, he's scared of going to the hospital for check-ups as Dorami needs to drag him there almost every time. This is explained in the 2112: The Birth of Doraemon short movie, as he ultimately lost his damaged ears accidentally when the robot doctor was trying to fix the damage the robot mouse has done.
  • In his early years, he was deadly afraid of the industrial furnace of the company, as he almost died on his first day of live by being accidentally disposed alongside the dump.

Nobita Nobi (Noby)

Voiced in Japanese by: Yoshiko Ota (1973), Noriko Ohara (1979 - 2005), Megumi Oohara (2005 - present),

Voiced in English by: Johnny Yong Bosch

Voiced in Arabic by: Amnah Omar (1979 - 2005), Kresten Shahood (2005 - present)

Voiced in European Spanish by: Assumpta Navascués (1st dub), Nuria Marín Picó (2nd dub and 2005 series)

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Araceli de León (Movie 1 and 1979 - 2005 series/second voice), Laura Torres (1979 - 2005 series/1st voice), Ariadna Rivas (1979 - 2005 series/third voice), Rommy Mendoza (1979 - 2005 series/fourth voice)

The main protagonist of the story. A young, loser boy who is always on the receiving end of bullying, jealousy, or his own selfishness, and always relies on Doraemon's gadgets as his solution to a problem rather than improving himself. However, he is notably kinder and more heroic than the rest of the gang when the situation calls for it.

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• Accidental Pervert: Often with Shizuka. See the Running Gag in the original series of using the Anywhere Door to go to Shizuka's house and finding her bathing in the tub. In other occasions, Nobita accidentally sees under her skirt.
• Adaptational Badass: In the movies, where he is shown to be quite brave in dangerous situations.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: All the movies and specials tend to emphasize his kindness more. Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum even explores this aspect as the reason why Doraemon had befriended him in the first place despite all the flaws he has.
• Aesop Amnesia: All the time. He never learns not to abuse Doraemon's gadgets. Early on in the manga's life-cycle, there was a story intended to be the very last of the series. During it, Nobita is shown to have grown enough from his time with Doraemon to start standing up for himself, culminating in him fighting Gian to prove that he no longer needs Doraemon and winning. Of course, since the series eventually proves popular enough to warrant continuation, this character development doesn't stick and he just starts being a wimpy idiot again (the next story even features a scene of him trying to attack Gian and Suneo only to be casually pushed aside to hammer the point home).
• Always Late: A Running Gag is that he's almost always late for school. The teacher usually punishes him, forcing him to stand outside of the classroom.
• Animal Motif:
  • Dogs, as he depends on others and tends to be very opportunistic.
  • Due to his slowness, both mentally and physically, he's often called a turtle, and he's turned into a turtle when traveling to the Amusement Park in Fairy Tale Land. However, he wears a bear hat (which gives him physical endurance against powerful substances) as a disguise in the Doraemon: Nobita and the Animal Planet movie.
  • When the gang ends up in Birdopia in the Doraemon: Nobita and the Winged Braves movie, he wears a duck hat as a disguise there.
• Alliterative Name: Nobita Nobi.
• Anti-Role Model: He's a good example of how children shouldn't behave. His laziness and relying on other people (or gadgets) to solve his problems constantly get him into trouble. Subverted in the movies, where he's a genuinely good role model for children, only occasionally displaying flaws and incompetence.
• Athletically Challenged: He is hopeless at sports and is the most unathletic guy around. In Dream Bell, he uses a gadget to challenge the other kids in the neighborhood to a sumo competition while they're asleep, and he still loses to all of them (even Shizuka). The Correct Graph in Graphs Don't Lie is a gadget that produces always-accurate bar charts and also confirms that he is physically the weakest out of the main cast. This trope does not apply, however, when it comes to his skill with firearms.
• Big Fun: His future, adult self is noticeably big bodied compared to the thin Bad Future adult self shown in the first chapter.
• Book Dumb: Exaggerated. Due to not studying, always using Doreamon's gadgets and idling about, Nobita often gets a 0 for his school tests (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. On the other hand, he's proven to be quite creative in coming up with application of Doraemon's gadgets, not to mention he's an expert marksman.
• Born in the Wrong Century: In the wrong nation, even. Nobita would have been a legendary Wild West gunslinger if he was born in the era. One manga story has him traveling to the Wild West and literally becoming a local legend overnight. If he can take out an entire 30-man gang as a kid, what can't he take out as an adult growing up in the American Frontier?
• Born Unlucky: Getting beaten by Gian, scolded by the teacher and by his mother, bitten by a dog and falling into a ditch. An ordinary day for Nobita. That said, just the fact that he has Doraemon and manages to marry Shizuka in the future downplays this.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Despite being extremely lazy and a horrible student most of the time, he's smarter than he looks and is often able to come up with creative ideas and outside-the-box thinking. He also can get good grades when he actually studies, and even got a 100/100 on a test without cheating at least once.
• Bully Magnet: Him being bullied (both physically and emotionally) by Gian and Suneo provides the plot of roughly 70% of the episodes, but he still hangs out with them. Sometimes, the other kids of the baseball team join in on bullying him as well.
• Butt-Monkey: So much that one of his descendants has to send him his robot to help deal with that. Not that it's getting any better.
• Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: In Worries about 7 Years Later, he's shown to feel this way towards Dekisugi. When there's the chance of the latter moving out, Nobita is at first ecstatic, but after having some flashbacks and being encouraged by Dekisugi. Nobita summates at the end, that despite sometimes wanting to get rid of him, deep down, he considers him a friend and wouldn't want to do anything that changes that.
• The Chew Toy: Always getting the worst of the humiliations. So much so that 90% of the TV episodes end with him being humiliated or beaten up, and suffering the consequences of his own actions. And while the 2005 series toned this down considerably, it's not by much.
• Childhood Friend Romance: He will eventually marry Shizuka in the future. If Doraemon had not interfered, he would have married Gian's sister, Jaiko.
• Classical Anti-Hero: A classic Japanese example. Nobita is a total loser, a crybaby, and a lazy bum who prefers using tools to cheat than trying to improve himself, but he is naturally a kid with a gentle heart who can be brave and reliable when he needs to.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He sincerely believes in outlandish things such as that the dinosaurs are still alive ^note The non-avian kind, at least. Of course, he is right "every" time...somewhat.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Often represented by yellow, though later this became less clear once the show started using Limited Wardrobe less.
• Cowardly Lion: One of his defining traits, which is mostly emphasized in the movies and specials, is that he's willing to throw himself into danger and face against formidable adversaries to help the ones he cares about. However, he can also be brave in normal episodes as well if the situation really calls for it.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Shizuka's closeness to Dekisugi causes Nobita intense jealousy, and is the plot for many episodes, where he tries to separate them, and fails.
• Crocodile Tears: One of his methods to get gadgets from Doraemon. He often starts crying loudly until Doraemon pities him and gives him a gadget. The second this happens, he stops crying and gets all excited at the idea of using the brand-new gadget.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite being a wimpy kid on the surface, Nobita often risked his life to help save others or even entire civilizations in the specials and movies. Furthermore, usually when the situation gets really bad, the gang often counts on him as their last hope. It helps that one of the few things he's very good at is shooting, which doesn't come up much in his daily life but becomes very useful when they go on adventures.
  • Despite being a constant fodder for bullying, it's shown in several stories like The World is Full of Lies that Nobita is fully capable of beating up Gian and Suneo once motivated enough; he's just too much of a coward to try most of the time. The same story also reveals that Nobita is at least smarter than Gian if he actually focuses on something that's really important to him.
• Determinator:
  • He usually completely inverts the trope (he gives up very easily especially when he promises to focus on his homework). But when he has a clear goal in mind, his determination is pretty impressive. For example, in the famous episode of Goodbye, Doraemon, he stands up to Gian, despite being beaten down constantly, vowing to stand up to the bully on his own as Doraemon is leaving him for good. It's so effective that Gian gets scared and runs away.
  • Additionally, when his friends (or even innocent strangers and creatures) are in trouble, Nobita doesn't hesitate to do everything in his power to help them no matter what, even when he's scared, especially in the movies and specials.
• Dirty Kid: Depending on the Writer. In a few episodes, he likes to take a peek at Shizuka's panties or when she showers. In others, he doesn't act perverted towards her.
• Distressed Dude: Many times, he gets in trouble and needs to be rescued by Doraemon. The troubles usually involves violent bullies or unexpected (sometimes dangerous) consequences of a gadget backfiring.
• Dogged Nice Guy: He pines after his future wife Shizuka and is always trying to get on her good side. Shizuka accepts him as a friend but, sometimes, she seems to prefer Dekisugi, and her romantic feelings are not clear, however in the 1979 anime, the episode Two Shizukas confirms that Shizuka secretly likes him back.
• Dreadful Musician: Whenever he sings, he's shown to be not very good; like most of the things he does. At least it's still tolerable compared to Gian's. Ironically, in Doraemon: Nobita and The Space Heroes, all the main characters sing a part of the theme song, and he probably has the most pleasant singing voice in the main cast, along with Shizuka.
• Driven by Envy: One of various reasons to get a gadget from Doraemon. Whenever Suneo flaunts his material wealth with everyone or Shizuka hanging out with Dekisugi, Nobita's jealousy is very easily provoked.
• Dumbass Has a Point: While he's not academically smart, many of his opinions turn out to be right, to the point he's something of an Only Sane Man around Gian and Suneo. Even Doraemon occasionally agrees with him.
  • In one episode, Gian brags about not being scared of anything, and Nobita points out that it's not true because Gian is scared of his mother, to the other kids' amusement.
  • When Suneo invites everyone except him to his family vacations, using lame excuses to leave him out, Nobita already knows these vacations are just a pretense to exclude him, as he often complains to Doraemon.
  • He doesn't even want to play baseball with the other boys most of the time, because he already knows he can't play, but Gian and Suneo always force him to play with them. And then they get angry when their team loses points because of him.
• Dumber Than They Look: He has almost all the traits of the Stereotypical Nerd (glasses, Geek Physique, insecure, socially inept, a wimpy Nervous Wreck, physically weak, unpopular, bad at sports, and a Bully Magnet). In most cases, his character would be also a stereotypically Book Smart nerd, but he's actually the opposite: he's easily the worst student in his class, as being Book Dumb is part of his Loser Protagonist characterization. That said, he does have plenty of moments of being smart on occasions (see Brilliant, but Lazy above).
• Dumb Is Good: He is a foolish Idiot Hero who has the lowest grade in his classes, but is generally a kind-hearted kid (although with a bratty Jerk with a Heart of Gold streak).
• Earn Your Happy Ending: When he meets Doraemon for the first time, he was destined to be an even bigger loser in the future, marrying his bully's fat and ugly sister and going bankrupt with a debt that lasts for decades even after his death. Within the series, his future was somehow changed and it's revealed he will marry his dream girl, Shizuka, and lead a middle-class life.
• Embarrassing First Name: While it's hardly ever an issue with other people, he hates his first name. When he whines about his parents, he also says that they should have never chose such an ugly name for him, and that he has probably been adopted, which is obviously not true.
• Expert in Underwater Basket Weaving:
  • Nobita can create shapes with strings and rubber bands (called ayatori). It's one of the few things he can do well, and the fact it never sees any meaningful use is usually Played for Laughs. And to add the insult, this particular skill also serves as his superhero power in Doraemon: Nobita and The Space Heroes movie, which is just as useless compared to his friends' power. At least, the string that he unintentionally created help Aron to locate him when the two got separated. On the bigger scale and with enough courage, Nobita manages to properly use it to make a powerful net and defeat the weakened Big Bad Icaros in one swoop. It's just too bad that nobody saw this when it happened.
  • Interestingly, this trope also applies to his other main skill, shooting, which would otherwise be extremely useful in a more actionized setting. Naturally, it comes in handy more often in the movies and specials.
• Expy: He bears a strong resemblance to Fujio Akatsuka's Osomatsu-kun brothers.
• Extreme Doormat: Due to being one of the weakest kids around, he can't stand up for himself at all and his "friends" Gian and Suneo constantly walk all over him. Then again, standing up for others is a different story.
• Failure Hero: He's a big loser who fails at everything, including life. In fact, he would become an even bigger loser in the future if Doraemon had not interfered with it.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Whenever Nobita attempt to mess around with Dekisugi or trying to separate Shizuka away from him when they're together with one of Doraemon's gadgets, expect his plan to not work accordingly to his favor, indirectly helping Dekisugi to succeed instead or even backfire at him.
• Flanderization:
  • His Jerkass tendencies and idiocy, especially in the spinoff material where he's relegated to supporting roles. Also, while he still has some competence in the earlier stories, such as being able to swim and flying a kite properly, the later ones strip him all of it, and only give him marksmanship skills as if to compensate. Additionally, his tendency to cry is cranked up in 1979 series.
  • Subverted in the movies, which tend to emphasize his good and heroic traits and portray him as an All-Loving Hero.
• Formerly Fat: One early manga short story shows that Nobita's future self will become very chubby when he reaches grade 12. By the time we see his future self again at 23 years old, he's fit again.
• Freudian Excuse: He's Born Unlucky, has been bullied for being a loser since he was born, and has very strict parents who were always oblivious about all the bullying. No wonder he's a vengeful and resentful kid who relies on dirty tricks (or gadgets) to succeed and get what he wants.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: He's a friend to the other main characters through Seniority, Proximity, Pity, Supervision (in Doraemon's case), Abuse (in Gian and Suneo's case), sometimes Necessity (because he has Doraemon) and deep down Caring. He's often bullied and ostracized by two of his friends (Suneo and Gian like to gang up on him all the time). Doraemon and Shizuka are much nicer to him in comparison, but even they often lose patience with him, and with good reason for the most part.
• Friend to All Children: He's often very nice to little kids, and is also willing to help them. In Doraemon: Nobita and The Space Heroes, he's seen teaching how to make string figures to a group of younger children. In one episode, he gives up a comic book he has always wanted, to buy a toy for a little girl who was crying.
• Friend to All Living Things: Several stories, usually the most emotional, involve him befriending an animal (in some cases, even an alien or another creature). Animals love him, except the dog that constantly bites him on the streets and the alley cat who also hates him. This actually seems to vary according to the story, as some depict him as being hated by animals.
• Future Loser: His future without Doraemon was as much a Downer Ending as it could get. He married his bully's fat sister, established his own corporation (which went down in flames), and he was eventually swimming in debt.
• Genius Ditz: He is bad at almost everything, however he is excellent at shooting as well as Cat's Cradle.
• Heavy Sleeper: He has the habit of sleeping a lot, and this is the activity that he usually engages 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.
• Hero Protagonist: Despite Doraemon being the title character, Nobita is the overall focus of the series as a whole with the movies even complementing this by adding his name to their subtitle.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Doraemon, despite their occasional disagreements. They can't stay away from each other for too long. When Suneo tries to steal Doraemon from Nobita because he wants a real "best friend" and doesn't want to be Gian's lackey anymore, Doraemon tells him that Nobita is his only best friend, and obviously, the feelings are mutual.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Despite his bad grades, he shows intelligence when trying to outsmart Doraemon to get his hands on the gadget of the week, and his ways of using are usually pretty creative. One time, he tied a string to one of Doraemon's tools, so that he can pull it out of his pocket. Another 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.
  • When he studies seriously, he is able to get decent grades. It only happens very rarely, unfortunately.
  • Nobita usually prefers manga over any complex literature. However, Sherlock Holmes novels are exception of this, as in one episode Nobita aspires to be a great detective because he admires Holmes' deduction skills. In another episode, Nobita actually shows legitimate interest in classic literature after Dekisugi read about half of the story for him and Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum movie specifically put Nobita into detective's case.
• His Own Worst Enemy: So much. Nobita's everyday problems (or rather, the problems he needs to solve to succeed in life) stem from his own refusal to learn from his mistakes, laziness, lack of commitment, ineptitude, Extreme Doormat tendencies, and overdependence on gadgets, to the point where he mostly chooses them over making an effort himself. Even Doraemon has to admit Nobita brings upon himself most of his problems.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Nobita always misuses the gadgets to show off and trouble his friends. This generally ends up with Gian or Suneo stealing the gadgets, misusing them even more, and thus getting both themselves and Nobita into bigger trouble than before.
• Hypocrite:
  • Frequently complains when Suneo is bragging about his money and possessions. Yet, he often brags about Doraemon's gadgets to impress Shizuka or spite Gian and/or Suneo.
  • Sometimes, his complaints about other people (such as Gian and Suneo, or the authorial figures in his life) would end up fitting him instead.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In the episode Goodbye, Shizuka, feeling hopeless with his life, he purposely starts avoiding Shizuka (destined to be his bride in the future) because he doesn't want her to be unhappy with him for the rest of her life.
• Idiot Hero: Book Dumb and generally not very smart, though he can get pretty crafty when it comes to Doraemon's gadgets.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: He can shoot anything, too bad that it's one of the few things he is good at. It's actually stated by Doraemon that if he had lived in the Wild West, he would have been a quickdraw hero.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: It's shown several times that he prefers girly hobbies over sports, gets along better with girls than with boys, and would like his life better if he was a girl (even asking Doraemon to give him gadgets to become a girl or swap bodies with Shizuka). He's a huge fan of a Magical Girl anime and this makes him bond with the girls of his class, but obviously Gian and Suneo tease him about it.
• Innocently Insensitive: More often than not, he tends to say things that upset other people without realizing it, especially with Shizuka. In Human Manufacturing Machine, he asks Shizuka whether he'll help him make a baby (he is actually trying to ask her for the necessary raw materials he needs in order to create an Artificial Human), unaware of the dirty implications of that statement, resulting in Shizuka beating him up and him wondering why she got so upset.
• Insecure Love Interest: Sometimes, he thinks he will never be good enough for Shizuka, especially compared to his romantic rival, Dekisugi.
• Iron Butt Monkey: He is surprisingly durable, despite all of the physical abuse he has to endure and being a regular victim of No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
• It's All About Me: Much of the time he's very selfish, though he has enough Pet the Dog moments to keep him likable. Subverted in the movies, where he's a completely selfless character.
• Jerkass Realization: On occasions, he'll accept that he went too far with his careless and irresponsible actions, seeking to fix them and make up for them.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a self-centered brat in most episodes and the power of the gadgets usually gets to his head. And yet, Nobita is actually a nice person who always looks up to others and stands up for them, which the movies & specials tend to show. His kindness is also the reason why Doraemon befriends him in the first place and Shizuka always likes him for it, to the point that she eventually marries him in the future.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey: He always steals Doraemon's gadgets and uses them for selfish reasons. As always, the gadgets turn against him which result in him getting a Humiliation Conga (and an I Warned You from Doraemon).
• Karmic Jackpot: He purposely started avoiding Shizuka because he didn't want her to be unhappy with him for the rest of her life, thinking Dekisugi was better for her. Years later, she rejects a proposal from Dekisugi (albeit gently) in favor of marrying him, and Dekisugi becomes the one who encourages him to make Shizuka happy.
• Landing in Someone's Bathtub: There's a Running Gag of him landing in Shizuka's bathtub (mostly in the old anime) with Doraemon's Everywhere's Door.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He suffers from this constantly, anytime he misuses Doraemon's gadgets.
• Lazy Bum: Nobita is a very lazy person. He normally wakes up late for school and often dozes off in class. He naps almost every day after school, making him unable to sleep at night and wake up late the next morning. This creates an endless cycle of laziness.
• Leitmotif:
  • The 1979 anime sometimes plays an instrumental version of Nonki na Nobita-kun (Carefree Nobita-kun), mostly when things start going well for him. There's a vocal version that doubles as Image Song, performed by his seiyuu, he very seldom sings it as well.
  • The movie Doraemon: Nobita and the Knights on Dinosaurs uses Ashita Asatte Shiasatte (Tomorrow, the day after and the one after that) instead, also sung by Noriko Ohara, that was contained in that film ending song record.
• Lethal Chef: As shown in some episodes of the anime; even Gian thinks it looks horrible and can't stomach his cooking, though unlike Gian, he's at least self-aware of it and it's not as terrible as Gian's cooking. On the other hand, in the second part of Winning Back Shizuka-chan, Shizuka doesn't hesitate to finish a whole plate of his cooking compared to anyone else who can't even stand it because while admitting that it's not really delicious, she believes that Nobita had been working hard to make it, and appreciates his effort.
• Loser Protagonist: Doraemon is sent back in time to change Nobita's life — namely, he turns out to be such a loser that his entire family tree is ruined because of it.
• Magnetic Hero: Surprisingly. Outside of the regular episodes, he's usually the one who is easily bonding with strangers along the way, much more than the rest of the group. In the TV special, Doraemon's Long Day, Denja, the Robot Criminal who swapped bodies with Doraemon to escape, even ends up having a Heel–Face Turn because of Nobita's friendship after spending time with him and eventually becoming willing to surrender himself to the police.
• My Future Self and Me: Peeks into his own future self's activities at least twice. Stand by Me Doraemon also has him interact with his future self.
• Never My Fault: When he abuses gadgets for his personal gain and indirectly causes problems, sometimes Nobita will blame Doraemon for said gadget he borrowed, much to the latter's annoyance.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Nobita's clumsiness sometimes causes trouble in some of the stories, prompting him to make up for it, which is something that the gang occasionally points out when it happens.
• Ocular Gushers: When something bad happens to him, he tends to cry like this, often combined with hysterical Inelegant Blubbering.
• Official Couple: With Shizuka in the future. They proved it with Time Travel.
• Older and Wiser: While he's still awkward in his adulthood, he's occasionally the one who gives advice to his past self.
• Older Than They Look: In Nobita Spends 3000 Days on a Deserted Island, Nobita is trapped on a deserted island before eventually getting rescued. Doraemon turns him back into a child and makes it as though he never left, but chronologically, Nobita is still a young adult from that point onwards. But given the Negative Continuity nature of the series, this is ultimately averted.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: In the English version, "Noby" is officially a nickname for "Nobita" according to his character entry on Doraemon.com. In Japanese, he's called "Nobi-chan" by his mother.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: If he turns down a chance to spend time with Shizuka, it's usually a sign he has some deeply serious worries on his mind.
• The Peeping Tom: Sometimes, he has used a few of Doraemon's gadgets to peep at Shizuka in the bath.
• Potty Emergency: This happens a lot to Nobita in the show. The episode Malicious of the Demon has this trope as a major plot point.
• Prone to Tears: A big crybaby and it's Played for Laughs. He cries hysterically in every episode, every time something bad happens to him, which happens regularly. Especially at the beginning of the episode (when he complains about his problems to Doraemon) and at the end of the episode (when he's Hoist by His Own Petard).
• Really Fond of Sleeping: Sleeping is his favorite hobby, and he's so good at naps that Dorameon once used a gadget to turn it into a talent.
• Repetitive Name: Like his father and most people in his family.
• Revenge: He begs Doraemon for many things, but often to have vengeance on Gian and Suneo.
• Self-Deprecation: In contrast to the overconfident Gian and Suneo, he's incredibly insecure and well aware of all his flaws. He knows he's terrible at everything (especially compared to Dekisugi), too bad he can't do anything about it, except complaining and crying to Doraemon.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Sensitive Guy to Gian's Manly Man. He's weak, submissive, and cries all the time, Gian is a big, strong, athletic bully.
• Spoiled Brat: In a different way from Suneo. He's not spoiled by his parents, but he acts whiny and bratty when he wants Doraemon to give him one of his gadgets.
• Stalker with a Crush: Sometimes, his crush on Shizuka borders on obsession, and he often uses Doraemon's gadgets to spy on her.
• Super Drowning Skills: He is hopeless at swimming 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. He can drown in puddles.
• Super Gullible: On numerous occasions, Nobita gets tricked by Suneo for the latter's own purposes.
• Terrible Artist: Drawing is one of the many things he is terrible at, and sometimes it even provides a plot point.
• This Loser Is You: Pretty much the entire point of the series.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: He gets a happy ending now and then at the end of some episodes, and even a reward, usually in the rare occasions when he uses Doraemon´s gadgets to perform good deeds and help people. Also, while in the 1979 anime, he's the one who suffers the humiliating Downer Ending in the vast majority of episodes, it gets more balanced in the 2005 anime: sometimes, it happens to him, but almost as often, it may happen to Gian, Suneo, or both of them.
• Too Dumb to Live: Has a few moments of this, with him jumping into dangerous situations out of negligence. Although, this is entirely averted in the movies.
• Took a Level in Kindness:
  • While portrayed the same, he gets more chances to show his nicer side in the Long Tales series, alongside the movies in the 1979 and 2005 series.
  • In-Universe wise, his future, adult self is considerably nicer as well.
• Toy-Based Characterization: Most of his toys are BB Guns and he's known for being The Gunslinger on adventures, complete with Improbable Aiming Skills.
• Troll: His usual way of using the gadgets is to mess with other people.
• Turn the Other Cheek: Zig-Zagged. As mentioned below, Nobita has a disturbing tendency to get downright vindictive when getting back at Gian and Suneo, but he nonetheless considers them his friends and cares about them despite all the bullying he suffers at their hands.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: With Shizuka in the future.
• Unknown Rival: To Dekisugi. He despises him because Shizuka always prefers to hang out with him. Despite that, Dekisugi is never aware of it and Nobita himself doesn't always act hostile towards him all the time.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: In most of the short stories, he tends to misuse Doraemon's gadgets for his own benefits, but things usually backfire on him, and hilariously so. Despite being the main character, the Japanese audience considers him to be a bigger Jerkass than both Gian and Suneo, despite his occasional likable moments (and Incorruptible Pure Pureness in the movies).
• What You Are in the Dark: He may get vindictive, come up with perverted ideas, abuse Doraemon's gadgets and all, but at the core of his character, he's genuinely a Nice Guy. Best shown in the Satan's Passport story, where a device allows anyone to be a Karma Houdini. After a field day of mischief, ultimately, Nobita can't bear it all on his conscience and decides to make amends.
• Who's Laughing Now?: Nobita has a disturbing frequent tendency to get vengeful and downright vindictive when he finally gets to get back at the people who bully him all the time.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Nobita ends up wearing dresses quite a bit, for various reasons. He even comes up with an alias "Nobiko" to accompany it.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Often. If he seems satisfied near the end of an episode, at the very last minute, something bad will happen to him. Sometimes, it's due to bad luck, and other times, it's due to him being Hoist by His Own Petard.

Shizuka Minamoto (Sue)

Voiced in Japanese by: Masako Ebisu (1973), Michiko Nomura (1979 - 2005), Yumi Kakazu (2005 - present)

Voiced in English by: Cassandra Lee Morris

Voiced in Arabic by: Bouthayna Shaya (1979 - 2005)

Voiced in European Spanish by: Laura del Bas (1st dub, 1st voice), Olga Supervia (1st dub, 2nd voice), Sonia Torrecilla (2nd dub, 1st and 4th voice and 2005 series), Fátima Casado (2nd dub, 2nd voice), Eba Ojanguren (2nd dub, 3rd voice)

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Patricia Acevedo (Movie 1), Cristina Hernández (1979 - 2005 series), Vanessa Garcel (1979 - 2005 series/some episodes)

The local Love Interest who is popular among every boy in town. Has stereotypical Yamato Nadeshiko characteristics: kind, caring, and feminine. Perhaps the only flaw about her is her dreadful violin skills. She loves bathing.

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• The Ace: She excels at everything except playing the violin. This was toned down in the 1973 anime and the early episodes of the 1979 anime, which depict her as being more fallible. Zig-Zagged in the English dub, which also makes her good at sports (see Informed Ability), while the original Shizuka was never known as a particularly athletic character.
• Action Girl: Although she's sometimes the Damsel in Distress, she's no less capable than the boys at using weapon gadgets when she gets the chance to. On some adventures, she even uses Super Gloves as her weapon of choice while her friends use ranged gadgets, inverting Guys Smash, Girls Shoot.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Zig-Zagged. In the original manga, Shizuka had black hair, but in the 1973 and 1979 anime, her hair was dyed brown. Her hair eventually dyed back to black in the 2005 anime.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Downplayed. Although she and Nobita are confirmed to be an Official Couple in the future, in the original manga, it is usually ambiguous at best whether she sees him as anything more than a close friend while they are still children. The 1979 anime adds more overt hints that she may have feelings for him, including more frequent occurrences of Shizuka reacting with jealousy when Nobita expresses attraction towards other girls, several anime-original stories where she kisses him after he does something nice for her (once shortly after they met as kindergarteners), and the episode Two Shizukas (showing her blushing and refusing to answer when Nobita, stuck in a Spot the Imposter situation, asks her if she likes him).
• Adaptational Achilles Heel: Her baking skills are almost always praised in the manga but much less consistent in the 1979 anime, which has multiple cases of her burning pastries or mixing up ingredients. These often are revealed as embarassing incidents that she doesn't want the others to know about.
• Affectionate Nickname: In the manga, her friends usually call her "Shizu-chan" ("Shizuka-chan" in the anime, while Dekisugi calls her "Shizuka-kun" in the 2005 anime).
• All Girls Like Ponies: She likes horses and dreams of horseback riding.
• All-Loving Hero: Unless you push her Berserk Buttons, she's always nice to everyone and genuinely likes hanging out with Nobita, despite his many flaws. She also has no problem with Gian, even if she doesn't like his singing and disapproves of his bullying.
• Animal Motif:
  • She's turned into a rabbit when traveling to the Amusement Park in Fairy Tale Land, and she wears a rabbit hat (which gives her superior hearing) as a disguise in the Doraemon: Nobita and the Animal Planet movie.
  • When the gang ends up in Birdopia in the Doraemon: Nobita and the Winged Braves movie, she wears a swan hat as a disguise there.
• The B Grade: She struggles with this sometimes, once getting scolded by her mother for scoring 85% on a test. In some episodes, she scores 90% or 95% on school tests, and is somewhat disappointed, telling Dekisugi she wishes she was as good as him.
• Badass Adorable: She goes from The Cutie to this in the adventure movies. Despite being often the Damsel in Distress, she's usually brave and helps her friends save many people's lives.
• Bathing Beauty: She seems to spend much of her free time bathing. And almost every time she gets in the bath, Nobita, Doraemon, Gian or Suneo ends up accidentally walking in thanks to Doraemon's gadgets.
• Beautiful Singing Voice: She is good at singing, like she is at most things. This is played up more in the 2005 anime series: while in the 1979 anime adaptation of "Eating, Singing, and Bio Flower Gazing", she is clearly better than Doraemon and Nobita and they visibly enjoy her singing, in the 2005 series they are downright flabbergasted by how good she is.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: The other kids of the group are gonky, plain-looking, and often jerks, while she's the pretty and attractive Token Good Teammate.
• Berserk Button:
  • She becomes quickly angry if a boy flips her skirt. She will likely slap him and call him a pervert.
  • Walking in on her while she taking a bath in the bathtub.
  • Insulting her violin skills.
  • Mentioning her love for sweet potatoes in front of other people (see Not So Above It All).
• Beware the Nice Ones: Usually sweet and kind, but she's not a pushover and can be very violent if a boy acts like a pervert. Nobita, Doraemon, Gian and Suneo learn this the hard way in some of the stories.
• Book Smart: She gets better grades than the other main characters and is implied to be only second to Dekisugi in her class (or maybe third, after Dekisugi and One-Shot Character Gariben, the "number 2 in class", according to the episode "It's Solved! The Dekisugi Case"). A gadget that produces always-accurate bar charts also confirmed that she is smarter than Nobita, Gian, and Suneo by a large margin, and the boys tend to go to her when they need help with homework. Despite this, her main role in the group is often closer to The Heart than The Smart Girl (with Doraemon being generally more knowledgeable and Suneo more tech-savvy), though she does get to contribute with her intelligence occasionally.
• Brainwashed and Crazy:
  • In the Nobita Meets The Masked Queen special. Nobita planned to go back to the paleolithic era using the time machine with Shizuka together so they could see the wearer of the ancient necklace they have found at the museum, only for him to accidentally send her there alone. Worse yet, she knocked unconscious and unintentionally sniffed too much forgetting flower, effectively losing her whole memories. So upon being stranded there, she was easily manipulated by the recently banished witch doctor, Shamate, to create masked tribe under her command and made Shizuka as their leader under alias Red Mask, the titular masked queen herself. All that as she became The Stoic and ruthless in the process to the point that she doesn't even hesitate to attack the gang when they discover her. Thankfully, Nobita managed to snap her out of it before she able to kill him at the last second. Also crossed with Create Your Own Villain.
  • On the flip side, this is subverted in The Great Pirate Decisive Battle ~Love Romance of the Southern Sea~ special, where Nobita and her friends end up brainwashed instead by Mokke as he turns them into his minions, leaving both Shizuka and Dorami to save them. And while he attempts to do the same on Shizuka, she's resistant enough to fight his influence and break his pendant, freeing everyone from his control in the process.
• Brainy Brunette: She has brown hair in the 1973 and 1979 series, and unlike Nobita, she is quick-witted and very good at studying.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • In the start of the story, Shizuka mostly laughs at Nobita and hardly believes him. Notable in the first Doraemon movie that at the start she laughs at Nobita for telling that he has a dinosaur ^note Technically not a dinosaur, but a plesiosaur as a pet. In later stories, while she's not above chuckling about Nobita's more foolish moments and delivering the occasional dose of Brutal Honesty, she's usually nice to him and encouraging of his aspirations. One manga story, Pirarucu in the Puddle, was even partially redrawn between its original magazine run and its compilation in the print volumes to show Shizuka being more supportive of Nobita.
  • While always the nicest and most well-adjusted character, in early stories she's not immune to little quirks, getting slapstick like the boys, and is a borderline Bitch in Sheep's Clothing at times. She eventually evolves into a flawless, mature, perfectly sweet girl who is always the voice of reason, is much more Immune to Slapstick than the rest of the cast, and her only real "flaws" are her inability to play violin and (in the 1979 anime) sometimes failing at baking. Some anime episodes even remove or downplay her Not So Above It All moments and Amusing Injuries that were present in the original manga.
  • Her poor violin skills were introduced in the manga in the 1980s. In earlier appearances, she was able to play the violin with no apparent issue.
• Childhood Friend Romance: She will eventually marry Nobita in the future.
• Class Princess: Very pretty, well-mannered, sweet to everyone, and the most popular girl in her class.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Often represented by pink, though later this became less clear once the show started using Limited Wardrobe less.
• Damsel in Distress: She usually becomes victim of this in some of the movies (and in specials and normal episodes to lesser degree), prompting Nobita and co. to rescue her.
• Deuteragonist: She occasionally given this role in some movies and specials, with Doraemon: Nobita and the Steel Troops and Doraemon: Nobita's Treasure Island being shining examples.
• Dreadful Musician: The sound she produces with her violin is the only thing rivals Gian's singing voice in destructive power.
• Dude Magnet: Nobita and Dekisugi love her. Gian and Suneo clearly think she is very pretty, and sometimes they are amazed by her beauty along with all the other kids when She Cleans Up Nicely. There is a moment where even Doraemon blushes after seeing her in a pretty dress.
• Expy: She bears a strong resemblance to Fujio Akatsuka's Osomatsu-kun's Totoko as well as Akko from Himitsu no Akko-chan, the heroine of one of Akatsuka's other work whom Totoko bears a physical resemblance to her.
• Extreme Doormat: While she doesn't like Gian and Suneo bullying Nobita, she often does little to defend him, or sometimes nothing at all. They also easily persuade her to ditch him or exclude him, even if she's not ok with it. Averted occasionally, when she actually stands up for Nobita and tells them off.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: A few stories like "Real Ghosts!" have her cooking for her friends when no adults are present (and Doraemon isn't using one of his food-making gadgets). She's also seen practicing cooking and baking sweets in her spare time.
• Flanderization: She goes from a realistic Girl Next Door to a flawless Yamato Nadeshiko who is perfect in every way, in contrast to her very flawed Anti-Hero friends. However, unlike Dekisugi, Shizuka does have some (very rare) Not So Above It All moments to remind that she's not always perfect.
• Friend to All Living Things: Shizuka is an animal lover and keeps two pets at home: a dog named Pero, who is saved from succumbing to illness by Nobita and Doraemon in one story, and a canary. Even Dekisugi doesn't display her level of kindness towards nature and animals. However, she does get frightened by "creepy" animals like frogs, spiders, and caterpillars.
• Girl Next Door: To all three boys, but especially Nobita.
• Girliness Upgrade: In the manga, 1973 anime and very early episodes of the 1979 anime, there are scenes that show her sleeping and eating at the same time, stealing her mom's lipstick for her to play with, swallowing an opal, and slipping over a banana peel. Later on, she is always portrayed as an impeccably ladylike Girly Girl and Yamato Nadeshiko.
• Girlish Pigtails: Her regular hairstyle.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: She loves plushies and has a prized collection of them.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Mildly. She's known for being a proper and ladylike sweet girl whose favorite hobbies are bathing, baking sweets, and playing piano and violin, and she usually wears pink dresses and cute skirts. "Tomboy" is probably the last word you'd use to describe her. However, all her best friends are boys, and while she's not as into reading comic books or playing video games as Nobita and the others, it's shown a few times that she doesn't mind doing those activities with them. She also expresses boyish interests at times like climbing trees, but was forbidden from doing so by her mother. Occasionally, she has shown interest in playing male roles for school plays, like at the end of Nobita and the Legend of the Sun King. And when she and Nobita swap bodies, she actually starts enjoying his rough, boyish lifestyle, to the point where she refuses to switch back despite Nobita being miserable in her body. She only changes her mind after realizing that Nobita will see her body naked when he takes a bath. The American dub even gives her a Tomboyness Upgrade, partially rewriting her personality to be more tomboyish and athletic.
• The Heart: Shizuka often serves as this to the gang, especially in the movies and specials where she keeps them together from falling apart during the tense moments. She usually also bonds easily with strangers in the movies, and even inspires a Heel–Face Turn in a few antagonists (notably Riruru).
• House Wife: In the future. Ironically, several chapters and episodes have her state that she wants to be either an air hostess or a kindergarten teacher.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Shizuka is kindness personified, very selfless and an animal lover. She's the only member of the group who never does morally ambiguous deeds.
• Informed Ability: For the USA release, her official bio states that she can often be found playing sports and is known to be athletic. In reality, she's almost never involved in athletic activities. The rare times she plays sports with the boys, she's only better than Nobita but still not as good as the others. With that said, The Substitution Rope Story shows Shizuka enjoying baseball while body-swapped with Nobita and doing pretty well for someone who doesn't play often (even hitting a home run), so the Tomboyness Upgrade is not completely without basis. It is implied that her lack of sports participation in the original work is partly because her mother would disapprove of her partaking in stereotypically masculine activities.
• Innocently Insensitive: Her actions occasionally do Nobita more harm than good, albeit unwittingly. She sometimes (though not always) accepts Suneo's invitations even when they're a pretense to exclude Nobita, and has been known to ditch Nobita to hang out with other people right after Nobita helps her out. She can also let loose with Brutal Honesty at times, once telling Nobita to his face that he is not a good study partner.
• Leitmotif:
  • In 2005 series, her appearance is occasionally accompanied with Otonari no Princess (Princess Next Door) tune as it describes her Yamato Nadeshiko nature.
  • The 1979 anime had 'Shizuka-chan no Uta', used rarely as an insert song, the premise is very similar to the one above. But subverting Image Song; as it's performed by Kumiko Kaori, an anime theme tune singer. Shizuka is the only main character whose seiyuu doesn't sing their own character song. However, Shizuka does sing a small snippet of the song in "Horizon Tape".
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: The Light Feminine to her future mother-in-law Tamako's Dark Feminine.
• Little Miss Badass: She's ten years old, and is occasionally involved in action scenes in the adventure movies. For example, in Doraemon: Nobita and The Space Heroes, she's a competent member of a superhero team along with the other main characters.
• Love Interest: Nobita loves her, and most of the time, he uses Doraemon's gadgets to get on her good side.
• Loved by All: The only character who is always loved by everyone around her (Dekisugi is disliked by Nobita, and has other jealous rivals at times). The other main characters are Vitriolic Best Buds who often tease and insult each other, but Shizuka is constantly praised and respected by everyone, and rarely does anyone ever dare to make fun of her.
• Magic Skirt: In the 2005 series.
• Magnetic Hero: While not as prominent as Nobita with how it depends on the story and only noticeable in few of the movies, Shizuka is the secondary character who most easily bonds with strangers she meets due to her kind nature. For example in Doraemon: Nobita and the Steel Troops remake movie, while Nobita is close with Pippo/Juudo, Shizuka bonds with Riruru despite the two robots initially being enemies to them.
• Morality Pet: Mostly to Nobita, but she really can be considered this to the entire main cast. Even Gian and Suneo usually show their nicer sides to Shizuka. She is one of the few people who can talk Gian out of using violence, even if temporarily.
• Ms. Fanservice: She gets too many Panty Shots to count and her infamous Furo Scenes become a lampshaded Running Gag later on. Averted in the 2005 series where the fanservice is totally Downplayed.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Thousand Needles Trout is one rare April Fools themed chapter/episode where Shizuka attempts to prank Nobita after knowing that Gian and Suneo made their pranks beforehand. Whereas Suneo's relatively harmless lie is about giving Nobita his stamp collection and Gian's typically obvious lie is about giving Nobita a cake, she tells Nobita that his house is on fire. This is because she considers giving him a quick fright to be less cruel than raising his hopes only to dash them later. However, Shizuka doesn't know that Nobita is using an anti-lying device called "Thousand Needles Trout" that eventually forces her hand to light a matchstick. Her horrified face shows that she doesn't mean any ill will regarding her April Fools lie.
• Naked People Are Funny: She is often the victim to this in various gags and frankly, can't even get a break from it.
• Nice Girl: She cares for weaker people and neglected dolls. She wishes to be a nurse or an air-hostess when she grows up. Both jobs reflect her kind nature.
• Not So Above It All: Shizuka might be the most well-adjusted character compared to her friends, but while she may act mature for her age, she's still a kid, and therefore, is not as infallible as she seems.
  • For a long time in the 1979 anime, there was a Running Gag about her spending too much time in the bathtub, even many hours a day. For a girl who is supposed to be hard-working, bathing is actually a lazy hobby just as much as Nobita's love for napping. Her love for bathing also gives her Skewed Priorities at times. In Nobita and the Haunts of Evil, when everyone is puzzling over the appearance of a mysterious hologram, all she wants to know is whether the Kingdom of Bauwan has a shower.
  • She's been seen playing with her mom's lipstick secretly, munching on snacks while half asleep, trying to sneak stray animals into her home, and getting cavities from eating too many sweets. One chapter shows that when she's home alone, she takes the chance to stay up and watch television late at night.
  • Like the other kids, she feels resentful of her Education Mama sometimes, which leads to her agreeing to temporarily switch parents with Suneo and Nobita in one story, and running away to prehistoric times with the others in another.
  • She sometimes laughs at Nobita's humiliations along with Gian and Suneo and she can be unwittingly mean, especially in early stories. In the 1979 anime's adaptation of "The Jack in the Box Stick", her laughter bothers Nobita enough that he actually tries to get back at both her and Suneo (who was the one who pranked him in the first place).^note This does not happen in the manga or the 2005 series, in which Shizuka seems mildly amused at most and Nobita holds nothing against her.
  • She can sometimes be unreasonable when she gets angry. Especially the way she reacts to Nobita and Doraemon's gift for her birthday. It was sweet potatoes because they found out she loves them and didn't know she was also ashamed of it. However, she starts screaming and kicks them out of her house.
  • She can come across as shallow, seeing how quickly Suneo convinces her to ditch Nobita during activities at times. On different occasions, Suneo and Nobita are easily able to get into her good graces by flattering her, in hopes that she'll help them with homework (though both times, gadgets give away their true intentions).
  • She's not above playing pranks on other people occasionally. In one April Fools story, she tells Nobita that his house is on fire, and she once threw a 3D copy of herself (made with Doraemon's Dimensional Copy gadget) out of her bedroom window to scare her mother. She also laughs along when the others use the Echo Mountain gadget to record insults towards Gian as part of an attempted prank on him, and in a similar plotline featuring the Kettle Recorder gadget, she even joins in on recording the insults. Several times in the 2005 series, she teams up with others to trick Nobita into learning a lesson if she feels he deserves it.
  • She has been shown coveting some gadgets (like the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Real Things and a sales catalog for a future department store) along with everyone else, even joining the resulting Big Ball of Violence to try and get her hands on them.
  • It only happens very rarely, but she can't think rationally when she's fangirling over one of her idols.
  • She doesn't like piano lessons because her teacher is too strict and once she pretends to be sick to skip a lesson. Unfortunately, she gets punished for it by a Moral Guardian gadget who thinks All Crimes Are Equal and ends up punishing the entire town even for minor misdeeds… except for Dekisugi, the only one in town who didn't do anything wrong.
  • One time when Nobita was threatened into selling tickets for one of Gian's concerts, she gets out of buying one by guilt tripping him, saying that she can't believe Nobita would do such a thing to her.
  • A few isolated incidents seem to show her feeling jealous when Nobita takes an interest in other girls. Once she walks in on Nobita using a gadget to view his own memories, which she mistakes for a video recording, and gets upset at him for only "filming" her female cousin who she introduced him to yesterday. The 1979 anime series was especially prone to adding these moments, showing Shizuka reciprocating Roboko's Death Glare (to the point of Lightning Glare) when the latter gets jealous of her talking to Nobita, and protesting when Nobita expresses admiration of Miyoko and Roo.
• Official Couple: With Nobita. They proved it with Time Travel.
• One of the Boys: Subverted. While she usually hangs out with a bunch of boys, she never joins them in their rough antics and always remains extremely feminine and graceful. In some episodes she's also shown to have female friends.
• Only Sane Woman: She's calmer and more mature than the rest of the cast, along with being the Token Good Teammate.
• Oral Fixation: She chews on her pencils while studying.
• Pink Means Feminine: Shizuka's signature colour is pink, and in most places she is represented by the colour pink. Also her regular dress is pink.
• Silk Hiding Steel: She is calm, sweet, and beloved by everyone, but also brave and determined in the face of adversity, and while she prefers when conflicts are resolved through diplomacy rather than violence, she is not afraid to fight when her Berserk Buttons are pushed or when the group faces off against villains.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Done mutually. Nobita's attracted to her due to her kindness and beauty, but Shizuka also likes and admires Nobita's kind heart, and eventually marries him in the future.
• The Smurfette Principle: The only girl in the main cast.
• Supreme Chef: She's sometimes shown to be a great cook.
• Sweet Baker: A kindhearted girl who loves to bake cakes and cookies for her friends, and is usually very good at it.
• Token Good Teammate: Out of the main characters, she's the only constantly sweet and nice person (she has her Berserk Buttons though). Doraemon is a Deadpan Snarker and can be quite moody and stubborn, and the other boys are sort of jerks.
• Tomboyness Upgrade: In the English dub. As seen in Informed Attribute below, her personality has been partially rewritten as more tomboyish and athletic (although her kind and sweet nature remains), because during a screen test American kids didn't quite understand her original personality, believing no one could be that infallible.
• Took a Level in Kindness: While always a saint compared to Gian and Suneo, in early stories, she was more snippy, sometimes unfair, and more willing to laugh at Nobita along with the others. She eventually becomes much sweeter, with her Not So Above It All moments being much rarer, and is also less touchy than before, unless you press her Berserk Buttons. Even more so in the 2005 anime, since the Running Gags of her skirt being flipped or being caught bathing are more rarely seen, especially compared to the original anime.
• Toy-Based Characterization: As the Girly Girl of the group, she likes her dolls and plushies, and her bedroom is filled with stuffed toys.
• Trademark Favorite Food: She likes sweet potatoes, which she would rather keep to herself out of the knowledge of others. She also tends to ask for pancakes when given a choice of food during mealtimes.
• Tsundere: Type B, with a sweet default mood. She is one of the nicer characters, but if Nobita does something stupid or tactless, she won't hesitate to punish him.
• Undying Loyalty: Occasional annoyance toward him aside, Shizuka is always nice and supportive toward Nobita despite his flaws, to the point of being willing to marry him in the future.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: With Nobita in the future.
• What Does She See in Him?: Lampshaded by Gian during Nobita's bachelor party as adults in the future, when he says Nobita is lucky and Shizuka is out of his league.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She is afraid of frogs and caterpillars.
• Wise Beyond Her Years: She's not even a pre-teen yet and gives out a lot of wise life advice.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: A prime example. She's a soft-spoken, nature-loving, and caring girly-girl who addresses the Failure Hero Nobita with honorifics. She's shown to be pretty good at almost everything except the violin.

Takeshi "Gian" Goda (Big G)

Voiced in Japanese by: Kaneta Kimotsuki (1973), Kazuya Tatekabe (1979 - 2005), Subaru Kimura (April 2005 - present)

Voiced in English by: Kaiji Tang

Voiced in Arabic by: Adel Abo Hassoon (1979 - 2005), Mohja Alsheak (2005 - present)

Voiced in European Spanish by: Nacho de Porrata (1st dub), Alberto Escobal García (2nd dub and 2005 series)

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Alfonso Obregón Inclán (Movie 1), Luis Daniel Ramírez (1979 - 2005 series)

The local big, bad bully who is known for his brawn, his dreadful singing ability, and his tendency to get things by his ways. Acts as The Big Guy of the gang. The only person Gian is truly afraid of is his mother. Like Nobita, he is a more honorable person when the situation calls for it.

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• Acrofatic: The fattest kid in the neighborhood, and the most athletic.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Like Nobita, his kind and heroic side are more emphasized in the movies & specials than in the normal episodes. The only exception is the movie Stand by Me Doraemon, which mostly focuses on the Nobita/Doraemon and Nobita/Shizuka relationships and only shows Gian and Suneo at their most antagonistic, since it is based on the short stories.
  • He tends to be more mellow in the 2005 series and later episodes of the 1979 series compared to the original manga, though it still varies Depending on the Writer. For example, in 2001's 1 Punch = 100 Yen, both Nobita and Shizuka agree that Gian would never try to hit Shizuka, while in the original manga, he wasn't above threatening her occasionally (but rarely acted on it) and she was visibly scared of him getting angry. In 2003's Helping Disc, Gian actually sheepishly agrees to stop singing when Shizuka yells at him. In the original manga, the only person who could usually stop him singing was his mother.
• Animal Motif:
  • He's turned into a gorilla when traveling to the Amusement Park in Fairy Tale Land, mistaken by a gorilla as his son in the Doraemon: Nobita and the Animal Planet movie (getting slapped in the face twice due to this confusion), and wears a gorilla hat (which gives him mad gorilla strength) as a disguise too.
  • When the gang ends up in Birdopia in the Doraemon: Nobita and the Winged Braves movie, he wears an albatross hat as a disguise there.
• Barbaric Bully: In real life, Nobita and Suneo probably wouldn't be alive anymore after all the attacks they received from this guy.
• Batter Up!: He's often seen carrying his prized baseball bat, and in the manga shorts he wouldn't hesitate using it to beat up Nobita or Suneo. But his skills with a bat actually save everyone in a few long stories, notably in Doraemon: The Record of Nobita : Spaceblazer and Doraemon: Nobita and the Tin Labyrinth.
• Berserk Button: There's a lot of things that can easily trigger this guy, but the most notable one is that he's quickly enraged by people who insult his singing and cooking skills, even just as little as doubting them.
• Big Brother Instinct: Don't mess around with his sister. And he will be the first to stand up for his friends and helpless innocents, especially in the movie-specials.
• Big Eater: Eats good, but cooks poorly.
• The Big Guy: The strongest of the main group. He actively plays this role, especially in the movies.
• Big Guy, Little Guy: Big Guy to Suneo's Little Guy, although he's definitely The Leader of the duo.
• Boisterous Bruiser: He's big, loud, and Hot-Blooded, and the strongest fighter of the group.
• Book Dumb: His grades are almost as bad as Nobita's.
• Brown Note: His singing is so awful, it sends sirens running in fear and knocks out a demon whale. Even when they go to an Alternate Universe where there is no sound in "A World Without Sound", just seeing the lyrics to his music can nauseate people.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: He may be the neighborhood tough kid, but he's very sensitive and sheds Manly Tears at touching moments.
• The Brute: When he plays an antagonistic role.
• The Bully: Probably the most well-known bully character in Japanese anime society. His victims are every boy in his neighborhood, though he picks on Nobita the most. Later appearances tended to make him more of an On-and-Off friend or even a Gentle Giant.
• Bully and Wimp Pairing: Often appears alongside Suneo, who's the target of his bullying.
• Bully Hunter: Parodied in one episode where, following his idealistic uncle's advice, he decides to stop bullying others and to start instead to use his strength to defend the weaklings (like Nobita) against bullies. Sadly, he didn't understand the concept. Since no one was actually bullying Nobita, he forces him to provoke other kids (like Suneo, who merely irritates Nobita when Gian is not around) repeatedly in order to get a reaction and then attack them to "protect" him. The funny thing is that he really believed he was doing something heroic.
• The Chew Toy:
  • When Doraemon accidentally spilled a whole bottle of Super Gourmet Spice that made anything yummy on Gian, everyone goes nuts and desperate to take a bite of him. It would be horrifying if it wasn't Played for Laughs.
  • Whenever Nobita or Suneo get a gadget on their hand to stand a chance against Gian, they often tend to go overboard with it and unnecessarily torment the heck out of him.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Ofter represented with orange, though later this became less clear once the show started using Limited Wardrobe less.
• Cool Big Bro: For all his flaws, he really loves his younger sister Jaiko and is willing to support her and help her anytime when she has trouble (even if he menaces the other kids of the neighborhood to make her happy).
• Disproportionate Retribution: He often beats up Nobita or Suneo for inane reasons. For example, in one episode he punches Suneo in the head repeatedly just because he heard him say Gian's name while he was talking to someone else.
• The Dreaded: He's the most feared bully in the neighborhood, due to having a very short temper alongside poor cooking and singing skills to match.
• Dreadful Musician: Exaggerated. Gian has such a horrendous singing voice that it can be (and has been) weaponized. It's so potent, even Sirens and a demon-whale actually ran away in fear, and Suneo once theorized it could be an instrument of murder.
• Dumb Muscle: He's the strongest of the group, and while not as dumb as Nobita, he's not exactly smart either and is a terrible student.
• Everyone Has Standards: While he is the closest the series has to a regular antagonist, he does have standards.
  • When Suneo brags about his 'Koinobori' ^note Japanese windsock that shaped like Koi, usually flown at May 5th, the Children's Day and feels "pity" for kids that their parents doesn't buy one for them. A kid who happens to be one hears him and runs up crying to beg his mother buy one for him, but unfortunately, since the family is poor they can't afford to buy one. Gian (who usually sides with Suneo) is not even amused and scolds Suneo for being so heartless.
  • While he bullies Nobita, he seems to worry about him when his life is in danger.
• Fat Bastard: An obese, violent bully.
• Fat Best Friend: To Suneo (and sometimes Nobita), mostly the brash and confrontational type. His weight is not treated as a weakness, because it only makes him bigger and stronger.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Foolish to Jaiko's Responsible, being more irresponsible than her.
• Freudian Excuse: He has an abusive mother who uses Corporal Punishment on him and often forces him to work, even if he's just a kid. As a result, he's a violent bully who bosses the other kids around.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: He's a friend to the other main characters through Seniority, Proximity, Fear, and deep down Caring. Being a bully, it's easy to see why the others tolerate him, sometimes it seems even his sidekick Suneo just puts up with Gian because he fears him and doesn't want to be beaten up. He often makes everyone, including Shizuka, tremble in fear, especially when he forces them to come to his singing concerts. It gets to the point where his friends are reluctant even to celebrate his birthday, and when Gian makes them come to his party using one of Doraemon's gadgets, his own mother is surprised that they showed up. There are also times when the other children exclude him from activities because they think having him around will ruin the fun.
• Friendly Enemy: He's pretty friendly to Nobita whenever he's not bullying him. In fact, the two consider each other friends.
• Gentle Giant: When he is in his better moods and not beating Nobita or Suneo senseless, he can be this, especially when Yahiko or a girl he has a crush on is around.
• Giftedly Bad: His songs are so terrible they are legitimately Brown Note. His cooking skills are just as bad. This doesn't stop him from thinking he's a great singer and a Supreme Chef, often forcing the other kids to attend his concerts, and no one dares to point out how bad he is because he's The Bully. Whenever he tries to cook something, the effect is similar.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: The reason why he's The Dreaded.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: He can go from an antagonistic bully to a Jerk with a Heart of Gold to being a bully again depending on the story.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Suneo, as they are usually inseparable and spend most of their time together. Sometimes they have a shallow bully/henchman relationship with Suneo secretly hating Gian, other times they are just close friends who genuinely like each other, depending on the story.
• Hidden Depths: Though a Barbaric Bully to other neighborhood kids, he is a protective older brother to Jaiko and has some stereotypically feminine interests like playing with dolls. He is also a decent artist, as his use of color was once praised by a professional art critic and Suneo thinks he's good enough to help out when he wants to make his own cartoon animation. His artwork noticeably isn't shown with the Stylistic Suck that Nobita's drawings usually are.
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: A recurring gag in is that Gian is a terrible singer. One time he was on TV, his singing voice was so bad that it actually hospitalized several people across the entire country.
• Honor Before Reason: Gian respects bravery and loyalty above all else, and will stick by those live by these principles even in the face of certain death.
• Hypocrite:
  • He loves to laugh at Nobita's bad grades alongside Suneo despite being a terrible student himself. That said, Nobita is even worse, which makes him feel better about himself, since Nobita is the only student in the class who gets even lower grades than him.
  • He's disgusted by Nobita's cooking in one episode, while he considers himself a good cook. In reality, Nobita is a Lethal Chef to realistic levels, but he's not as bad as Gian. Gian tends to use all the most random and questionable ingredients, his dishes are apparently so atrocious that people run away rather than trying to taste them, and one episode about Gian's cooking is structured like a parody of a horror movie.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: While he mocks, insults, and beats up Nobita on a daily basis, he comes to his defense when there are strangers who are bullying him, especially if the strangers are older.
• "I Am Great!" Song: Many of his terrible songs are about himself, often bragging about being big and strong.
• In Vino Veritas: Boisterous as he may be when he's sober, he actually displays a very emotional and sensitive side once he's drunk, as seen in a story where he uses a gadget to get drunk off soda. By contrast, Suneo becomes more aggressive and bullies Gian into submission.
• Inconsistent Spelling: So is it Giant, Gian, Jaian, or Jayen?
• Jerkass Realization: It admittedly doesn't happen very often, but there have been occasions where he felt bad about his bullying tendencies and genuinely sought to make up for them.
• Jerkass to One: None of the neighborhood boys are spared from his wrath, but is especially a bully to Nobita. In several episodes, even his sidekick Suneo is an easy target for him, although still less so than Nobita.
• Jerk Jock: The captain of the local baseball team, and usually very rude and abusive to his teammates, especially Nobita. Although he somewhat borders along this and Lovable Jock.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Gian is normally a bully (especially to Nobita) but he wouldn't hesitate to help his friends when they're in real danger and usually shows the most concern. He is even able to mellow down and be nice around his friends when he's in a better mood.
• Karma Houdini: Many times he bullies Nobita and gets away with it.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Sometimes, like when he's punished by his mother. He doesn't get away with everything all the time.
• Kick the Morality Pet: He usually treats Shizuka better than he does the other boys and is willing to hear her out when she protests his rough behavior, but even she isn't safe from his bullying. At times he takes her belongings with no intention of returning them, tries pulling frightening pranks on her, and coerces her into attending his concerts and tasting his cooking like he does with everyone else. There's even a scene in the 1979 anime where he pushes her aside◊ when she tries to stop him from bullying Nobita.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: To Jaiko. Gian is very protective of his little sister. If you even think about messing up with Jaiko, you're dead.
• Large and in Charge: He is much bigger than the other kids, who are all terrified of him.
• Leitmotif: In the 2005 series, he's often accompanied by a menacing tune.
• Lethal Chef: Just the smell of it is considered ominous enough. His friends are spared the agony when he collapses from tasting his own cooking.
• Mirror Character:
  • To Nobita. They may seem opposites, but both are selfish, Book Dumb, prefer reading manga to studying, and are afraid of their strict mothers. Both are also terrible at cooking, although Nobita is at least aware of it. On the positive side, both can be very determined when helping others in need, as the movies and specials show.
  • To Doraemon, which occasionally causes arguments. Both are the most powerful members of the group (for different reasons), both are gluttonous Big Eaters, both show their Big Brother Instinct towards their respective little sisters, and sometimes in the movies they argue because they both want to be The Leader.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Called Gian by most people. His real name Takeshi is mostly used by Shizuka and the adults.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: If he stops being his Hot-Blooded self and opts for a more cool and calm attitude, you know something's up.
• Pet the Dog: He's been shown to play wrestle with Nobita and Suneo, with none of them being injured. So, yeah, he can play nice if he wants to. Altogether, he becomes a bit nicer over the years.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Meet Takeshi Goda, the toughest kid in the neighborhood. His hobbies include singing and cooking, though he's terrible at both. He also plays with dolls when he thinks no one is looking and plants flower seeds around town to beautify the neighborhood.
• Red Baron: His real name is actually Takeshi.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red Oni to Suneo's Blue Oni. He's more Hot-Blooded and uses brute force to solve his problems, while Suneo is usually more collected and uses cunning rather than brute force.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Manly Man to Nobita's Sensitive Guy. Being polar opposites, Gian is a big, strong, athletic bully, while Nobita is weak, submissive, and cries all the time.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He has an over-inflated view of his cooking and singing skills.
• Stout Strength: A very big and strong boy, feared by all the other kids.
• Too Dumb to Live: In a few of the Non-Serial Movie(s), Gian's lack of common sense ends up screwing over the rest of the heroes. He does make up for it in the aftermath, but even then...
  • Doraemon: Nobita and the Haunts of Evil (manga, original anime and remake) have Gian, complaining that their adventure in Africa is "too easy and unchallenging" requesting for Doraemon to leave behind several of their gadgets - the Momotaro pills, Shrink Light, Super Gloves, Air Cannons and various useful stuff - behind as they go into Africa unarmed. Later on after the gang escapes a crocodile attack thanks to being saved by a friendly local tribe, Gian's loose tongue ends up pissing off the tribespeople who then chased the heroes out of their village.
  • Doraemon: Nobita's Dorabian Nights have the gang and their new friend, Sinbad, captured alive and imprisoned in a cellar by the villains. Just then, the gang's genie sidekick, Mikujin, comes to their rescue by knocking out the guard (an obnoxious genie) and releases everyone, only for Gian to kick the unconscious guard on the way out. This ends up causing the guard to regain consciousness and raise the alarm.
  • Doraemon: Nobita and the Tin Labyrinth have Suneo and Gian infiltrating Mechatopia, a city populated by robots who enslaved their human creators, by donning robot disguises. Unfortunately Gian blows their cover by dragging Suneo into a diner owned by the robots and asking the robot chef if they serve katsu-don, causing the robot to enquire why they're asking for human food.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Gian was a massive and violent jerk most of the time in the older episodes. In the 2005 anime, he became calmer and kinder, picking on Nobita less often and mostly beating him up when he presses his Berserk Button, although it still varies Depending on the Writer.
• Toy-Based Characterization: He is The Big Guy and The Bully among the cast who's a fan of baseball. He's frequently seen carrying a baseball bat around - and in occasions where he's in a bullying mood, using it to beat up Nobita, Suneo and the other neighborhood boys.
• Trademark Favorite Food: In the adventure stories, he always orders Katsudon during mealtimes.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Sometimes he and Suneo turn against Nobita even after the latter does something nice for them. They appear grateful at first, but later find another way to humiliate him at the end due to Rule of Funny.
• Vocal Dissonance:
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, he has a high-pitched voice. He sounds more like Elmo than he sounds like a menacing bully.
  • His voice in Disney Channel India's English dub is also surprisingly high-pitched for a tough guy like him.
• Would Hit a Girl: Although he picks on other boys much more often and is usually reluctant to hurt girls, he's still not above threatening girls with physical violence on occasion. Even Sue/Shizuka wouldn't be safe from his wrath if his threats in "Big G: Master Chef" are anything to go by, and Shizuka's general reactions when he is angry indicate that she at least worries about what he might do to her. Not to mention that sometimes his singing concerts include female audiences as well and he doesn't hesitate to menace them once in a while. With that said, it's very rare for him to actually follow up on those threats. One of the few times that he tries to, Shizuka had borrowed a gadget from Doraemon and easily beats him with it.

Suneo Honekawa (Sneech)

Voiced in Japanese by: Shun Yashiro (1973), Kaneta Kimotsuki (1979 - 2005), Tomokazu Seki (April 2005 - present)

Voiced in English by: Brian Beacock

Voiced in Arabic by: Amal Hwijeh (1979 - 2005), Raghda Khateb (2005 - present)

Voiced in European Spanish by: Noemí Bayarri (1st dub), Antón Palomar (2nd dub, 1st and 3rd voice and 2005 series), Jaime de Diego (2nd dub, 2nd voice)

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Ariadna Rivas (Movie 1), Irwin Daayán (1979 - 2005 series)

A son of a rich family, who never runs short of showing off his wealth. Usually finds enjoyment in bullying Nobita, as he intentionally doesn't invite him to several of his family vacations. Though rich and tricky, he is physically very short and is a coward.

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• Adaptational Nice Guy: Not as much as Nobita and Gian, but he also tends to become nicer in the movies.
• Always Someone Better: To Nobita, and he is aware of it. Nobita desperately wants anything Suneo already has, like receiving expensive toys, making nice trips, and meeting celebrities. Also combined with Mutual Envy in early stories, where Suneo wants Doraemon for himself and unsuccessfully tries to steal him from Nobita.
• Ambiguously Bi: He has occasional crushes on girls, but also the most not-so-ambiguous moments with boys.
  • In a Halloween episode, Nobita reluctantly kissed both Gian and Suneo on the lips (he had to in order to make a gadget work). While Gian had a normal angry reaction, Suneo apparently liked the kiss and blushed.
  • When Nobita tried to give Suneo a choco heart that would make everyone follow his heart content, Suneo initially compared his action to a girl who attempt to confess her feeling to the man she love with a gift right next to them and actually thought that Nobita is trying to do the same thing to him with that chocolate as well.
• Animal Motif:
  • Foxes due to his sneaky nature and his (by extension his entire family) rather unique looking snout. Though said "snout" looks more like a chicken's beak instead. He turned into a fox when traveling to the Amusement Park in Fairy Tale Land, and wears a fox hat (which gives him a superior sense of smell) as a disguise in the Doraemon: Nobita and the Animal Planet movie.
  • When the gang ends up in Birdopia in the Doraemon: Nobita and the Winged Braves movie, he wears a woodpecker hat as a disguise there.
• Big Guy, Little Guy: Little Guy to Gian's Big Guy, although Gian is The Leader of the duo.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: To get his usual way, at least. Suneo's tendency to act ridiculously nice in front of the adults and his friends, as well as his penchant for manipulation, can put him into this territory.
• Blue Blood: His ancestors are shown to be Samurai in several stories, implying that the Honekawa used to be a very prominent Samurai clan. Judging from his family's riches, they probably held enough lands to be compensated very handsomely in return for giving up their status during the Meiji Restoration.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: He's much smarter than Nobita and Gian, but he's not a particularly good student most of the time (see Depending on the Writer). That's because he clearly prefers spending his time with Gian, reading comics, or playing with his expensive toys rather than studying.
• The Bully: Only to Nobita and in a less physical sense than Gian (though he's not above joining in the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown), as Suneo prefers to torment him verbally and emotionally. When it comes to other people, he's mostly harmless, unlike Gian who is The Dreaded to all the boys in the neighborhood.
• Bully and Wimp Pairing: Often appears alongside Gian, with Suneo serving as the kiss-ass lackey.
• Butt-Monkey: While he usually suffers this to a somewhat lesser degree than Nobita, he's one of the characters who gets mistreated by Gian more often. Even more so in the movies, where if something embarrassing or painful is happening to somebody, you can bet that it's Suneo (although Nobita still ain't safe from this, even in the movies, especially Doraemon: Nobita and The Space Heroes).
• Characterization Marches On: One of the early shorts (when the comic's volume is still in single digits) have Suneo challenging Nobita to win over Shizuka's affections, seemingly setting up a Love Triangle for the trio. That subplot was quickly dropped and for the rest of the franchise at no point did Suneo actually shows intentions of having Shizuka as a Love Interest.
• The Chew Toy: If it's not Nobita, then Suneo is the secondary character who usually being the butt of the joke.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Often represented with green, though later this became less clear once the show started using Limited Wardrobe less.
• Consummate Liar: Lying is second nature to Suneo. He literally cannot go a day without lying about something, which bites him in the ass when he was given a device that makes all his lies come true.
• Cowardly Lion: Slightly Downplayed. Despite being often the token Dirty Coward of the movies & specials where even Nobita Took a Level in Badass, he can be rather brave just like him. While many movies portray him as the most selfish and the least courageous of the group, he will eventually do the right thing and risk his life for others along his friends on top of having moments of bravery on his own.
• Deadpan Snarker: He's often sarcastic in a condescending manner, especially towards Nobita. Not so much when he's around Gian mainly because he's afraid of Gian's reactions.
• Delusions of Beauty: Despite his short height and weird-looking face (his mouth looks like a beak), he believes himself to be handsome. At some point, he states he doesn't need anything because he already has money, intelligence, and beauty. When Doraemon creates an Alternate Universe without mirrors, his reaction after seeing himself in the mirror for the first time is asking who is "that ugly kid", but changes his mind after learning it's his own reflection.
• Demonic Possession: In two of the movies, Doraemon: Nobita and the Galaxy Super-express and Doraemon: Nobita and the Windmasters, he gets used as a vessel by the villains.
• Depending on the Writer:
  • In some stories, he's portrayed as very Book Smart, but other times, he's a mediocre student who is only slightly better than Nobita and Gian. On at least one occasion, the teacher even stated that Gian and Suneo are the two worst students besides Nobita (at least when it comes to math).
  • He often switches between Jerk with a Heart of Gold and Jerk with a Heart of Jerk, depending on the story.
  • In some stories, he actively hates Nobita, but other times, he's shown to be Nobita's good friend who just likes to tease him. Likewise, sometimes, he and Gian are genuine best friends, but other times, he dislikes Gian and only follows him for his personal gain. And there are stories where he gets bullied and taken advantage of by Gian just as badly as anyone else.
• Despair Event Horizon: Whenever a situation worsens, he is the first to lose hope.
• Dirty Coward: Suneo is even more visibly afraid of Gian than Nobita. And whenever the gang is at some place far away, he will be the one who almost always suggests going back home.
• Dirty Kid: Sometimes with Shizuka. In Special Effects Ultra Dora-Man, Suneo designs a Stripperiffic costume for her and comes up with this. Shizuka doesn't take it well.
• The Dog Bites Back: He will torment Gian when given the chance (namely when he gets a hold of Doraemon's gadgets).
• The Dragon: Whenever Gian is the main antagonist, sometimes he serves as his right-hand man. While he sucks up to Gian, he's also smarter than him and often gives him ideas. That said, this doesn't make him immune to Gian's bullying all the time.
• Everyone Has Standards: Like Gian, he bullies Nobita but occasionally worries about him when his life is in danger.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Responsible to Sunetsugu's Foolish, as his brother is far more naive than him.
• For the Evulz: He enjoys being cruel to Nobita for the sake of it.
  • One episode has him secretly videotaping Nobita without telling him (even at his house!), just to record all his embarrassing moments and then showing the tape to many other classmates.
  • When Gian and Suneo steal a Doraemon gadget that makes wishes come true, Suneo doesn't allow Nobita to write his own wish and instead he writes one wish on behalf of him: being unhappy and miserable forever. At least, he and Gian get their own comeuppance by the end of the episode.
  • The Running Gag of always excluding Nobita, inviting all his friends except him. On rare occasions, after inviting Gian and Shizuka on a cruise with his family, he even goes as far as continuously sending Nobita several postcards which were pictures of himself, Gian, and Shizuka having fun on vacation or calling Nobita on the phone to brag about it.
• Freudian Excuse: His arrogant behavior stems from how much his family spoil him.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: He's a friend to the other main characters through Seniority, Proximity, Necessity (because he's very rich), and deep down Caring. He's less disliked than Gian or even Nobita, but he still qualifies. Nobita strongly dislikes him most of the time, Doraemon doesn't think too highly of him, and Gian often gets mad at him and abuses him. Shizuka is usually the only one who doesn't have a problem with him, but even she doesn't approve some of his actions, especially towards Nobita. Some episodes show that not even the other kids of the baseball team like him that much.
• Friendly Enemy: Just like Gian, Suneo can be friendly to Nobita despite his constant antagonism towards him.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Along with Gian, to the point that it might be more fit to say that they're Nobita's frenemies rather than his friends.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Gian, as they are usually inseparable and spend most of their time together. Sometimes they have a shallow bully/henchman relationship with Suneo secretly hating Gian, other times they are just close friends who genuinely like each other, depending on the story.
• Height Angst: He's very self-conscious about his height, being the shortest kid in his class.
• Humiliation Conga: Like Nobita, when using Doraemon's gadgets for selfish purposes, they tend to backfire at him, badly, especially if he steals them from Nobita.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: Along with Gian, he mocks, insults, and bullies Nobita on a daily basis, but he comes to his defense when there are strangers who are bullying him, especially if the strangers are older.
• "I Am Great!" Song: Invoked. With the help of Doraemon's gadget, Gian specifically creates a song for Suneo called The Rich Kid Mambo, which describes how rich and great his life is. It has become something like his secondary Leitmotif ever since.
• I Want My Mommy!: Would cry "Mama!" whenever he's in trouble. Though this is often played dramatically especially in the movies.
• Inconsistent Spelling: His name would usually be spelled Tsuneo, but the creators decided to leave out the "t".
• Innocently Insensitive: He's so proud to show off his stuff that sometimes he looks down on others without realizing, especially in "Suneo's Luxuriously Poor Birthday", where he thanks his friends for his birthday presents, while also saying he already owns similar things of higher quality. By the end of the episode, even Shizuka was pissed at him, and Suneo didn't even realize that he was offending his friends (except maybe Gian, as Suneo deliberately starts insulting him, when the latter promises him to not hurt him on his birthday) to the point of Nobita and Gian decide to beat him up for it.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Suneo definitely isn't the nicest person out there, and a lot of his interactions with Nobita (and less often Gian) somewhat comes across as him being a bad friend, but he is correct about Nobita's ineptitude and Gian's bullying and horrid singing, even raising quite reasonable complaints about the latter. He's also not wrong about his doubts on how he and his friends can fight villains and save worlds when they are just normal kids and a robot cat.
• Jerkass Realization: It doesn't happen often, but there are occasions where a certain situation will genuinely make him feel bad about his unkind ways.
• Jerkass to One: It's part of the "excluding Nobita" Kick the Dog act. He shares his stuff with all his friends except him and always invites all his friends to his family vacations except him. And he always does it in front of Shizuka and Gian, just to make him feel excluded. This is easily the most blatant example of With Friends Like These... from this series, even more so than all his teasing of Nobita and Gian's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While not to the extent of Nobita or Gian, he does have his appreciative and nice moments.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey: Not as much as Nobita, but when things do bite him back, it's usually more cathartic compared to Nobita due to his antagonism.
• Kick the Dog: Suneo often calls Nobita (along with Shizuka and Gian) over to announce something fun (e.g. one of his family vacations), only to invite only Gian and Shizuka and tell Nobita that he's not invited. At his worst, even both Shizuka and Gian are victim to this alongside Nobita.
• Lack of Empathy: In contrast to Gian, Suneo is more prone to insensitivity and often hesitant in helping out even in serious matters due to cowardice.
• Leitmotif: A situational example. Whenever he brags about something in the Japanese version, a certain melody plays in the background.
• Manipulative Bastard: By far the most manipulative of the gang, striving to make things go his way.
• Momma's Boy: A Running Gag in the series is that he cries for his "Mama" in every bad situation.
• Morality Chain: His friends are this to him in the movies and specials, as they encourage him to be brave and do the right thing alongside them where he usually being Dirty Coward otherwise.
• Mouthy Kid: The snarkiest of the group.
• The Napoleon: He's short, and also quite aggressive and sensitive about his height.
• Narcissist: Particularly he thinks that he's "handsome", and loves to stare at himself in the mirror.
• Never My Fault: Even more so than Nobita due to his lack of guilt as he always blames everyone else but himself when things get worse.
• Odd Name Out: In the English dub, he gets the strangest name out of the main kids.
• Only Sane Man: He'll sometimes serve as this to Nobita and Gian, due to their thoughtless decisions.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Both Nobita and Gian shine in the movies which evidence all their selflessness, bravery, and heroism. While Suneo is also more sympathetic in the movies compared to his usual character in the show and is an important member of the Kid Hero team, he still pales compares to them, as he keeps part of his selfish Dirty Coward tendencies and rarely has heroic moments on his own.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Similar to Gian, he has a soft spot toward Nobita despite his constant bullying and can play nice with him once in a while. A great example is in an episode when Nobita used a gadget to convince everyone that he and his family were going to go to the United States to test how they would react. Suneo feels guilty and pays a visit to Nobita to tell him tearfully that he feels guitly because he thinks that Nobita wants to go away due to his bullying, Suneo even gives him a lot of his toys as an apology.
  • He is also occasionally willing to invite Nobita to his family vacation or show his things to him alongside his other friends without strings attached.
• Potty Failure: Still a bedwetter. In the episode "The Grass Of Forgetfulness", Suneo wets himself at the park.
• Professional Butt-Kisser: Mostly in his relationship with Gian. This also helps him easily fool the adults.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue Oni to Gian's Red Oni. Gian is more Hot-Blooded and uses brute force to solve his problems, while Suneo is usually more collected and uses cunning rather than brute force.
• Rich Bastard: An arrogant jerk who likes to show off his material wealth with everyone.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: He often thinks he can get away with his actions because he hails from a rich family, though it usually bites him back in the end.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Unironically thinks that he is good-looking, despite being the exact opposite.
• The Smart Guy: He's usually average academically, but he's your go-to guy when it comes to occult, arcane or encyclopedic knowledge, and he's often the one who connects the dots in the adventure stories. He also tends to be the one the gang turns to when they need someone to operate fine machinery, due to his experience in playing with robots and remote-controlled vehicles.
• Smug Snake: He often acts all smug whenever he's bragging about something and it's usually Played for Laughs.
• Sociopathic Hero: Suneo displays an amount of sociopathic tendencies, which can come across as disturbing considering his age. He's cunning, manipulative, a compulsive liar, likes to look good in front of people, has a Lack of Empathy, and a lack of guilt or shame. Thankfully, Nobita and Doraemon time travelling to the future shows that he's mostly grown out of it as an adult.
• Spoiled Brat: He gets everything he wants from his mom and his rich family.
• Tiny Schoolboy: Much shorter than all his classmates. He fits the aggressive Attention Whore type and has a Dumb Muscle as best friend (although Gian is not his passive sidekick, if anything Suneo is Gian's sidekick).
• Token Rich Student: He's always showing off his family's wealth and possessions, and goes to the same school as his middle-class friends.
• Toy-Based Characterization: As an expert builder of models and an artist, he owns various remote-controlled toys and model kits to highlight his creativity.
• Trademark Favorite Food: He is used to eating fancy, and tends to order steak when given a choice at mealtimes.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Sometimes, he and Gian turn against Nobita even after the latter does something nice for them. They appear grateful at first, but later find another way to humiliate him at the end due to Rule of Funny.
• With Friends Like These...: Although he and Gian are friends and gang up on Nobita, Gian doesn't hesitate to beat Suneo up when he is in a bad mood, and he also has the habit of stealing and breaking Suneo's toys, which is why he trembles in fear when Gian pays him a visit. Sometimes Suneo will even resort to teaming up with Nobita to get back at Gian.
• Would Hit a Girl: It's exceedingly rare, but he has been known to pick on girls when accompanied by Gian. However, in one of the very few times when they escalate to violence towards Shizuka, she had borrowed a gadget from Doraemon and easily beats them with it. The anime adaptation of this story Zig-Zags the trope, as Suneo and Gian deliberately avoid using violence against girls at first. They still try to attack Shizuka when she punishes them with Doraemon's gadget, but only after it is clear that she is strong enough to fight back, and throughout all this they are unaware of who she is, as she has hidden her identity (though not her gender) using a disguise.

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