Anime World Offers Condolences After Voice Actor Nobuyo Oyama’s Passing, Part III – Interest

There’s a well-known story about Nobuyo Ōyama-san. When she was walking down the street, she saw some delinquents littering, and she instinctively shouted, “That’s not right!” And just as she thought the delinquents would get angry, they said, “Doraemon?” and quickly picked up the trash they had littered and went home. lol

Nobuyo Ōyama-san has a strong sense of justice, or chivalry, and even Doraemon‘s lines were “a bit too strong” even at the time the anime was broadcast, because the original manga had already been around for quite some time.

And as she was an actor and also wrote some scripts herself, she was sensitive to strong “words.” And with the consent of Fujiko-sensei, the original creator(s), she said, “We should change what needs to be changed for the sake of today’s children,” and several lines were tuned to be warmer.

To be honest, people around her thought she was overthinking things. But when she “went off on the delinquents without thinking,” the delinquents said, “We can’t help it if Doraemon tells us.”

The delinquents usually say nasty things to their parents, teachers, and even the police. But Doraemon is their “friend.” Throughout the film, Dora scolds Nobita, saying, “Don’t do that.” So, behind Nobita are children from all over Japan.

Through Dora, through Nobita, to the children of Japan on the other side of the TV screen, that “voice” saying “That’s not right” was sincerely “the voice of a friend speaking for me.”

So they probably heard, “We can’t ignore this.”

Nobuyo-san’s thoughts reached them.