Fujiko F. Fujio is a legendary name associated with the 8X, 9X and 10X generations now. Doraemon – a cute owl cat has become a cultural representative of Japan, a close friend of all children in Asia. The “father” of Doraemon has dedicated his life to the career of creating manga.
The original Doraemon failed
Fujiko F. Fujio was born on December 1, 1933 in Toyama Prefecture. His real name is Hiroshi Fujimoto. In elementary school, he got to know Motoo Abiko – who later accompanied him in creating manga. Since high school, Hiroshi and Motoo have drawn manga for magazines and made their debuts.
After graduating from high school in 1952, the provincial boy Hiroshi then went to work at a confectionery company because of the fact that rice and money, temporarily putting aside the dream of a manga artist at that time, seemed very vain. . But he quickly had to quit his job because of a work accident. Together with his close friend Motoo, Fujiko F. Fujio is still drawing manga under the common pseudonym Ashizuka Fujio.
Artist duo Fujiko Fujio
Hiroshi and Motoo’s manga dream grew so big that they went to Tokyo together to find opportunities and draw day and night. They later changed their pseudonym to Fujiko Fujio. Thanks to their persistent efforts, their works were gradually received. But this journey is not all sweet and still precarious. At one point, they lost their jobs because they didn’t finish the manuscript in time and wandered around many provinces in Japan. In 1962, Hiroshi married Masako Fujimoto. They have three daughters.
In 1970, Fujiko F. Fujio started writing Doraemon without thinking that the earless blue cat would become a legend. The idea was born by Fujiko F. Fujio “after tripping over a little girl’s toy, hearing the neighborhood cats fight, and wishing I had a machine to create a new comic concept” . Inspired by the shape of the toy, the sound of a cat, and the desire for a machine to solve his problems, the artist came up with a robotic cat with a pouch containing all kinds of magical treasures. And so Doraemon was born.
Fujiko F. Fujio devoted nearly 30 years of his life to Doraemon
But at first, Doraemon did not attract much attention from children. It wasn’t until 3 years later, when Doraemon was turned into an animated movie on TV, that it became a nationally famous character.
Thanks to cartoons, Doraemon became famous
In 1988, Hiroshi and Motoo ended their cooperation and after that, they operated independently. Fujiko F. Fujio is considered the “father” of Doraemon because this is his idea and he is the main author, Motoo – who goes by the pseudonym Fujiko A. Fujio only works as a supplement to this series.
From 1980 until his death, Fujiko F. Fujio focused on Doraemon. He drew both a collection of short stories and a long series of Doraemon manga. Comics are brought to the screen and animated films every year are a “gold mine” for the film industry in Japan. In 1989, he won two awards for the film Doraemon (Film Special Merit Prize and Golden Gloss Prize).
The last unfinished Doraemon manga
On September 23, 1996, at the age of 62, the famous painter died of long-standing liver cancer. Fujiko F. Fujio’s last days were of course not easy when she had to fight illness, hospitals and the smell of medicine. However, he held a pen to draw Doraemon until the last day, for his own dream, for the dreams of millions of children.
According to the daughter of the late painter and assistant Shintaro Mugiwara, in the last days of his life, despite his very poor health, he still worked hard at composing. On the day of his last breath, on the desk of Fujiko F. Fujio was the unfinished draft of the long story collection “Nobita in the Wind-Up City”. His assistants and students then tried to finish this story to pay tribute to their teacher.
Although like Doraemon brings joy and dreams to readers, Fujiko F. Fujio considers himself a Nobita character: “I am Nobita. His weak personality is exactly the same as mine when he was in elementary school. Almost every child has a Nobita in them. I think that’s why readers sympathize when reading Doraemon. But there is something very admirable about that boy. Nobita is not good, or causing trouble, but he knows how to reflect on his mistakes. Nobita often thinks he’s still not good enough. The boy aspires to become a better person, no matter how many times he fails. I think that’s great.”
Doraemon succeeds because it touches every child’s heart
In honor of Fujiko F. Fujio, in 2012, the Kawasaki city government, the Fujiko manufacturing company and his widow jointly carried out a project to build the Fujiko F. Fujio Museum in his hometown. This museum currently displays more than 40,000 artifacts related to the late author Doraemon. It has become the city’s tourist attraction and the dream destination of every cat fan.
The last anime episode came out 1 year after Fujiko F. Fujio passed away
Although Fujiko F. Fujio is gone and will never finish the manga, it also helps Doraemon never end. The beautiful world of Nobita, Doraemon, Shizuka, Suneo, Jaian,… still lives and lasts forever in the hearts of every child, and everyone who was once a child.
Doraemon is everyone’s best friend
Source: Ddnavi