If you've ever read the Japanese comic "Doraemon" about a robot cat that's always pulling gadgets out of his pocket, you may have wondered just how many gizmos the futuristic feline has.
The answer is 1,963, according to Yasuyuki Yokoyama, a professor of education at Toyama University. Yokoyama recently announced he has collected all 1,344 Doraemon comics written by cartoonist Fujiko F. Fujio (1933-1996) and counted all the devices that appeared.
Doraemon, or Ding Dong as he is also known overseas, is a robot cat with a pocket to the fourth dimension. He is arguably the most famous and certainly the most enduring Japanese cartoon character worldwide.
Doraemon first appeared in the December 1969 edition of the monthly Shogaku Yonensei (Elementary School Grade 4), published by Shogakukan Inc., and has since been featured in other magazines.
Doraemon, whose name derives from "doraneko," meaning "stray cat" and "-aemon," an old suffix for Japanese boys' names, is an underachieving cat from the 22nd century who travels through time to 20th century Tokyo to help Nobita, a fourth-grader, and change the present to improve the future.
The futuristic gadgets include the Wherever Door, a teleportation device; Personal Copter, a cap that allows the wearer to fly; What If Phone Booth, a door to an alternate world; and Gulliver Tunnel, a miniaturization device.
The first gadget Doraemon used was the Time Machine, which was actually set in the drawer of Nobita's desk, Yokoyama said.
Although they are supposed to be expensive machines from the 2120s, the gadgets break down or go haywire from time to time.
"That is the very message of the cartoonist," Yokoyama said. "The gadgets give children big dreams and tell them that you cannot get a life just by using gadgets."