As previously reported last March, Philippine media conglomerate ABS-CBN has acquired the popular comedy anime series Doraemon, 20 years after it first aired on Philippine television.
YeY, the company’s kids channel on digital terrestrial TV, has officially announced on Thursday that the popular series will premiere on May 27, airing every Monday to Friday afternoons from 05:00pm to 06:00pm.
The kids channel has also started airing an advertisement for the anime series on Saturday.
The 2005 version of the anime series will be airing for the first time, in contrast with the 1979 version, which was aired on GMA-7, the company’s main competitor, from 1999 to 2016.
Doraemon was a Japanese manga series created by Fujiko Fujio, which is the pen name of the mangaka pair Hiroshi Fujimoto and Motoo Abiko, and published in several Shogakukan’s kids magazines from from December 1969 to June 1996.
The popular comedy franchise tells the story of a robotic cat named Doraemon, who was sent by the grandson of the lead character Nobita from the future to help his woeful grandfather. The running theme of the series is Doraemon’s numerous devices, which should supposedly save Nobita from his everyday troubles, but eventually make things worse for the bespectacled boy.
The series has three television anime adaptations, the 26-episode 1973 series, the much-successful 1979 series & the most recent 2005 series, as well as several feature films, video games, a musical and a very popular merchandise line.
GMA Network, the main competitor of ABS-CBN, first aired the 1979 anime adaptation of Doraemon in Filipino dubbing on its flagship free-to-air channel in late-December of 1999. The show was aired on a seasonal basis, with its last run on the network from mid to late-2016.
The broadcaster had also aired several film adaptations of the franchise, starting with the 11th feature film, Doraemon: Nobita and the Animal Planet, in 2012.
The latest film aired on the channel was the 33rd film, Doraemon: Nobita’s Secret Gadget Museum, in 2015, while the last film aired was the 29th film, Doraemon the Movie: Nobita’s Spaceblazer, in March last year.
ABS-CBN previously aired the franchise’s 3D movie, Stand by Me Doraemon, for the first time in Filipino dubbing in March of 2016.
YeY is one of the digital terrestrial sub-channels of ABS-CBN, and the second animation channel of the network after the now-defunct anime channel HEROtv.
Previous anime titles also aired on the digital TV channel include Kirarin Revolution, Rental Magica, Tears to Tiara, and Ace of Diamond.
YeY can be seen on digital terrestrial TV exclusively on ABS-CBN TVplus set-top boxes, as well as SKYcable Channel 01 (Metro Manila, CAMANAVA / Rizal, Cavite, and Laguna) and SKYdirect Channel 03.
