Doraemon: A Grandmother's Recollections

Doraemon: A Grandmother's Recollections
DVD Cover
Kanji	ドラえもん おばあちゃんの思い出
Revised Hepburn	Doraemon Obāchan no Omoide
Directed by	Ayumu Watanabe
Screenplay by	Nobuyuki Fujimoto
Based on	Doraemon by Fujiko F. Fujio
Starring	Nobuyo Ōyama Noriko Ohara Michiko Nomura Kaneta Kimotsuki Kazuya Tatekabe
Music by	Shunsuke Kikuchi
Production company	Shin-Ei Animation
Distributed by	Toho
Release date	March 7, 2000 (2000-03-07) (Japan)
Running time	30 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Doraemon: A Grandmother's Recollections (ドラえもん おばあちゃんの思い出, Doraemon Obāchan no Omoide) is a 2000 Japanese animated science fiction comedy-drama short film. It won the Animation Film Award at the 55th Mainichi Film Awards. It is largely an expanded version of the 1970 chapter "Memories of Grandma".

Parts of Stand by Me Doraemon 2 are largely based on this short film.

Plot

After a highly unsuccessful baseball game against an opposing team ending with an attack from Gian and a talk with Shizuka on the way back home, Nobita finds his old stuffed teddy bear among the trash his mother Tamako had thrown out while cleaning out the backyard shed. He confronts her about this and tells her not to throw it away before heading into his room.

Doraemon follows him behind with a first aid kit in his hands and gives him a bandage for his bruised knee. Nobita explains that the stuffed teddy bear was a precious gift from his deceased grandmother. After reminiscing about his memories with his grandmother, Nobita gets an idea and asks Doraemon if he could take him back in time to when he was three years old and his grandmother was still alive.

They arrive to the past and head over to Nobita's house. They sneak inside the house, where upon entering the past version of his bedroom, they see that a younger version of his mom is cleaning it. Nobita expresses surprise at how much younger she used to be before then telling her that in a few years she'll end up becoming old and wrinkly, causing both he and Doraemon to have to run out of the house in order to avoid getting hurt.

Back outside again, they encounter the younger version of Nobita, who ends up having the lolipop he was licking taken away from him by the younger versions of Gian and Suneo, who still seem to have enjoyed bullying him often even back then. Nobita gets very angry at this and swipes the lolipop away before hitting both the younger Gian and Suneo on the head, causing them to start crying in pain. Doraemon steps in to calm Nobita down and apologizes to the younger Gian and Suneo for what his friend did before they end up sticking their tongues out and leaving.

Nobita and Doraemon then hear and see the younger version of Shizuka comforting the younger Nobita before gently walking with him back home again. Nobita and Doraemon then finally see Nobita's grandmother, who is walking back to Nobita's house, where the younger Nobita is waiting for her to arrive with fireworks. She tells him that she wasn't able to find any, causing the young Nobita to cry and tell his grandmother that he hates her.

After seeing this, Nobita gets extremely angry at his younger self for shouting at his grandmother for not getting him the stuff that he wanted, which similar to Gian and Suneo, causes the younger Nobita to start crying. His mom hears this and comes outside to see what's going on. Nobita tries to explain what's going on, but she thinks he's a weirdo and she, with her son the younger Nobita, head inside.

Remembering more past memories with his grandmother, Nobita sits inside one of the pipes at the empty lot, crying with regret over what he said to his grandmother as a younger kid. Sitting on the outside of the pipe Nobita's in, Doraemon peeks in and tells him that they should probably head back to the present day again, but Nobita continues to express regret and guilt over what he said to her. Doraemon tells him that they came back to the past for a reason, that reason being to see his grandmother again and that he only said what he said because he didn't understand her as a younger kid.

Doraemon ends up seeing both the younger Nobita and his grandmother walking together nearby. Nobita and Doraemon end up following both his grandmother and the younger Nobita around as they go from place to place around town, where it seems like they are looking for something still even despite what younger Nobita had said to her earlier.

After nearly a day's worth of walking around and searching around from place to place, Nobita's grandmother and the younger Nobita end up sitting at a bench at the park. The younger Nobita, who had fallen asleep at some point during the walking, wakes up again and asks if she had gotten the fireworks, to which his grandmother apologizes and tells him that the bosses of every store they went to told her that they don't sell them until the summertime. Upset by this, the younger Nobita ends up dropping the toy stuffed bear and cries some more over not having fireworks.

Both Doraemon and Nobita both watch on from afar, seeing the events further increases the emotional guilt Nobita is feeling over the hurtful words and attitude he had towards his grandmother back then. Nobita's grandmother walks over to where both Doraemon and Nobita are hiding at to sit down for a bit. At huge risk of being spotted, Doraemon quickly grabs Nobita and moves them both somewhere else at the playground area to hide at from view. While the younger Nobita cries more, Nobita expresses more guilt at how selfish he was towards his grandmother over mere fireworks of all things.

Suddenly a growling black dog shows up and takes away the stuffed bear. Nobita immediately runs after it, while Doraemon ends up getting his head stuck in the process of trying to follow suit. Nobita finds the dog with the stuffed bear after climbing over a gate, but is quick to find that there is also an entire group of other black dogs. He nearly gives up to flee, but immediately thinking of past memories, especially those of which he shared with his grandmother, makes him change his mind. Nobita narrowly avoids being attacked by each of the dogs as Doraemon is still stuck. He manages to grab the bear and outsmart the dogs, who fall face first and run off.

Nobita returns back to where Doraemon is still currently at and before trying help to him get his head unstuck, the younger versions of Gian and Suneo show up. They aim to get payback for him hurting them earlier and to also return the younger Nobita's stuffed toy bear to him when they see Nobita holding it. They successfully retrieve the bear after pouncing on both Nobita and Doraemon.

As Doraemon and Nobita are about to return to the present day, as they walk in the same location they had first encountered her at, Nobita looks back and remembers his grandmother again. He begs Doraemon to let him go and see her before dashing off to his younger self's house. Nobita quietly sneaks from the house's back door again and as he is about to open the living room sliding door, the younger Nobita walks out the bathroom door and ends up spotting him.

In a hurry to avoid getting caught or being seen any further, Nobita quickly opens and enters the living room, where his grandmother is able to see him. Nobita's mom enters the room soon after and asks Nobita's grandmother if she's seen a kid enter in there, to which she tells her that she hasn't. After his mother leaves the room, Nobita comes out of the closet and thanks his grandmother for covering for him. He is about to leave, but after getting confirmation from her that she isn't scared of him, decides to stay and talk.

They start conversating and as she answers any questions he gives her regarding his younger self, the heavy emotional guilt of his actions and words towards her start weighing in, causing him to choke up. Nobita's grandmother not only wishes she could live longer to stay by his side for the rest of her life, but also wishes to see Nobita in his elementary school years, wearing his school backpack and grown. Hearing this, Nobita decides to not only grant that wish but also to tell her the truth in that he's the future/present version of her little grandson Nobita. Doraemon retrieves Nobita's backpack for him and he goes back inside with his grandmother.

Wearing the backpack, he tells his grandmother that he is Nobita, to which she simply smiles at and tells him that she had a feeling that it was him the whole time, as she knows she can believe in it coming from him. Delighted and surprised, Nobita lays on his grandmother's lap and embraces her. He finally breaks down in tears from everything and profusely apologizes for being selfish and inconsiderate of her feelings as a little kid. She comforts Nobita, telling him that it's okay, as she despite how heavily flawed he is, she still loves him with all of her heart and is just happy to see him. He embraces her lap again in tears and cries as she thanks him in tears herself.

Doraemon and Nobita return back to the present day, where they see that the current day stuffed bear now has sewn on pink material on the parts that were previously fixed with tape earlier. It is discovered that Nobita's mom was the one who had done so while he and Doraemon were gone. He thanks her for doing so in earnest and after telling him you're welcome, asks him why he's wearing his backpack. He and Doraemon don't end up telling her why directly and keep to themselves before laughing.

In the credits, it's shown that Nobita's bruised knee eventually heals, the stuffed bear is shown to Nobita's father at a family dinner, Nobita keeps the stuffed bear with him even at bedtime, and Nobita is finally able to successfully catch the incoming baseball in a future baseball game, winning the game for the Giants.

Cast

Further information: List of Doraemon characters

Character	Japanese voice actor
Nobita Nobi	Noriko Ohara
Doraemon	Nobuyo Ōyama
Nobita's grandmother	Akiko Takamura
Shizuka Minamoto	Michiko Nomura
Suneo Honekawa	Kaneta Kimotsuki
Takeshi "Gian" Gōda	Kazuya Tatekabe
Tamako Nobi	Sachiko Chijimatsu
Young Nobita Nobi	Makiko Ohmoto
Young Shizuka Minamoto	Rei Sakuma
Young Suneo Honekawa	Tomokazu Seki
Young Takeshi "Gian" Gōda	Kujira

External links

Doraemon: A Grandmother's Recollections (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia