Doraemon: Nobita's Chronicle of the Moon Exploration

Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Chronicle of the Moon Exploration
Theatrical release poster
Japanese name
Kanji	映画ドラえもん のび太の月面探査記
Literal meaning	Doraemon: Nobita's Chronicle of the Moon Exploration
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn Eiga Doraemon Nobita no Getsumen Tansa-ki
Directed by	Shinnosuke Yakuwa
Written by	Fujiko F. Fujio
Screenplay by	Mizuki Tsujimura
Based on	Doraemon by Fujiko F. Fujio
Starring	Wasabi Mizuta Megumi Ōhara Yumi Kakazu Subaru Kimura Tomokazu Seki Junko Minagawa Alice Hirose Sōichi Nakaoka Shigeo Takahashi Yūya Yagira Kōtarō Yoshida
Music by	Takayuki Hattori
Production company	Shin-Ei Animation
Distributed by	Toho
Release date	March 1, 2019 (2019-03-01) (Japan)
Running time	111 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Box office	$65.4 million

Doraemon: Nobita's Chronicle of the Moon Exploration (ドラえもん のび太の月面探査記, Doraemon: Nobita no Getsumen Tansa-ki) is an anime epic science fiction film directed by Shinnosuke Yakuwa and screenplay provided by Mizuki Tsujimura. It was premiered in Japan on 1 March 2019.

The film was later premiered on Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan on 25 March 2020, and in India on 22 January 2023. It marks the very final and last Heisei-era Doraemon film released two months before the 2019 Japanese imperial transition.

Plot

One morning, Nobita learns about the mysterious happenings on the Moon, where he tells his classmates that it was the Moon Rabbit, but nobody believes him. He tries to prove this by imitating the rabbits by making rice cakes and hits his teacher in the process, where he gets punished. When Nobita tells Doraemon about this, he reluctantly takes out the "Divergent View Badge" gadget and creates an atmosphere on the Moon. Using the animal clay, they create Moonbit and return to their home. Later, Nobita's mother tells him to bring Susuki grass for the Moon Viewing Ceremony, where he sees a boy and calls him, but the boy suddenly disappears. The next day, a new student named Luca arrives, and Nobita is surprised to know that it is the same boy he had seen yesterday.

When Nobita reaches home, he asks Doraemon to take him to the Kingdom. Upon reaching there, they found the bamboo plants glowing, which was the effect of the "Shining Moss" they spread earlier. Nobita is in the playground with Shizuka, Gian, and Suneo, where he gives them the badge and invites them to the Kingdom. Luca joins them, giving them a grand welcome at the rabbit kingdom. They meet a rabbit that looks like Nobita and named it Nobit, and they tease Nobita. Shizuka requests Nobit to give them a good tour of the place. Doraemon reveals that they can see this kingdom because of the badge they are wearing and warns them not to remove it as it is only due to the badge they can breathe. A huge rabbit monster (made by Nobita while making Moonbit) arrives within a few seconds and wreaks havoc.

Nobita chases him and later falls into a deep abyss without the badge. Soon, the group arrives, and Nobit, who has seen everything, tells them that Nobita has fallen. Doraemon gets worried about Nobita but hears Nobita's voice from below ring out, and the group discovers that Nobita is safe and soon learns that Luca is not an Earthling but an Espal from the planet Kaguya who has special powers, known as Ether. Luca introduced his friends to his sister Luna, but suddenly, they heard a loud noise. They headed towards the place and discovered it was his little brother Al's song. Luca tells everyone that his power is quite different from the other Espal's and that Al can see the future. The group holds a Space Kart Race on the Moon's surface. Gian, Suneo, and Al are in the lead. When their cart is about to crash with a huge rock, Al uses its power to destroy it.

The others arrive there, and Luca reveals that they are trying to hide from the people of Kaguya planet and that Diabolo had previously used the Ether power to destroy the Moon of the Kaguya planet to show off his power. Still, the particles of the Moon covered the whole Kaguya Planet, and it had become a dark planet. Due to this, his parents used a ship to send all the Espal to space to avoid being taken advantage of doing disastrous things again. Suddenly, an unknown raid force arrives and tries to capture Espal, where the other Espal also comes out from hiding and to the surface to enquire about the explosion. The Kaguya beings use "Ether Distortion" to weaken the Espal. The Kaguya beings captured all of Espal except Luca, while Doraemon told everyone to run towards the "Anywhere Door" to escape, but Luca was kidnapped.

The anywhere door explodes due to the attack of the Kaguya beings. Nobita tells Doraemon to use a "Bamboo Copter" to fly to the Moon, but Doraemon denies this. Mozo, the Kaguya turtle, comes out of Shizuka's shirt and tells them to use the emergency ship he and Luca used to go to Earth. Doraemon tells everyone to gather here at 7 pm. At 7 pm, the group flies towards the Moon. Upon reaching there, they find Moonbit, who is trying to say something; they decide to follow him and see Luna, who reveals that Luca had given his badge to her, which is why she managed to escape. Nobita, Doraemon, Suneo, Mozo, and Gian leave for Kaguya, and Doraemon gives Shizuka his spare pocket and the "Danger Alarm".

Meanwhile, Commander Godat takes Luca to Diabolo, who reveals his plans to leave Kaguya and attack Earth. Later, Godat frees Luca from the handcuffs and is filled with rage to know he is being used. The royal servants reach there and arrest Godat and Luca. Upon arriving there, the friends decide to ask the residents of the planet about the Espal. The residents reveal that they do not know anything about them, but all the essential people on the planet live in the Royal Palace. The gang enters the palace and starts searching for Luca and his friends. In the prison, Godat reveals to Luca that he is the descendant of Dr. Godal (who created Espal) and gives him a blue orb, which he inherited from his ancestors, which Luca kept in his pocket. The gang arrives there and frees the Espal. Luca tells them that Godat is their ally.

Gian and Suneo decide to handle the royal soldiers while Godat, Luca, Nobita, and Doraemon advance to fight Diabolo, whose true form is revealed to be a robot. Diabolo attacks the four and becomes unconscious while Gian and Suneo's guns are finished and are also captured. On the Moon, Shizuka sees Nobit working on something, and she starts thinking that as soon as she removes the badge, Nobit and all of the Rabbit Kingdom will vanish. She removes it and is shocked to be still able to see Nobit. It is because of the Reality Badge made by Nobit. Nobita and the team wake up and find themselves in a cage. Diabolo tells them that he will use the Ether to become young again. Soon after, he becomes a bit young. Nobita provokes him to take out a gadget, but Doraemon says his pocket is not there.

Diabolo had taken his pocket away when he was unconscious. Suddenly, Shizuka and Luna, along with the Moonbit, come out of Doraemon's pocket, and they free the Espal, where they tell them that it was due to Nobit's badge. The tables have turned against Diabolo, and he is about to be destroyed, but he manages to capture Luna and escape. He says that he is going to Earth and will destroy it. Mozo tells that his shell is the hardest in the universe and they put it in the Air Cannon. Luca gives a Power Boost to Nobita, and Mozo goes straight through the ship, destroying it completely. Suneo catches Luna and saves her from falling. Suddenly, the blue orb starts shining and the light of the planet is restored. Doraemon investigates the orb and tells them that it is a kind of Shining Moss that was built to multiply and explode, when in contact with Ether.

Nobita tells that Luca's ancestors knew that he would come back and restore the light of the planet. Godat requests Luca to stay with him, but refuses to say that for a peaceful life, it would be better than Espal remains a myth. Back on Moon, Luca requests Doraemon to create a theory that Espal are just normal beings and the rabbit ears vanish off, where they become normal beings. Doraemon and their friends arrive back to earth, where they bury their badges, to ensure a peaceful life for the Espal.

Soundtrack

The theme song is "THE GIFT" by Dai Hirai.

A separate soundtrack was released on February 27, 2019, with music composed by Takayuki Hattori.

Cast

Character	Japanese voice actor
Doraemon	Wasabi Mizuta
Nobita	Megumi Ōhara
Shizuka	Yumi Kakazu
Suneo	Tomokazu Seki
Gian	Subaru Kimura
Luca	Junko Minagawa
Luna	Alice Hirose
Dr. Godal	Yuya Yagira
Dr. Godal's Wife	Akeno Watanabe
Cancer	Sōichi Nakaoka, Shigeo Takahashi
Crab	Shigeo Takahashi
Goddard	Yūya Yagira
Diabolo	Kōtarō Yoshida
Moobit	Akeno Watanabe
Tamako Nobi	Kotono Mitsuishi
Nobisuke Nobi	Yasunori Matsumoto
Dekisugi	Shihoko Hagino
Sensei	Wataru Takagi
Yasuo	Yuka Keicho
Haruo	Asami Yaguchi
Aru	Ikue Ōtani
Mozo	Yukiji
Kaia	Ai Sakai
Nuru	Michiyo Murase
Moru	Noriaki Kimiko
Rukoru	Hitomi Nabatame
Horuru
Runi
Tsukkuru
Beru

Box office

Debuting on 383 screens with Toho distributing, Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Chronicle of the Moon Exploration earned $6.2 million on 586,000 admissions in its first weekend and ranked number-one on Japanese box office. The film has grossed ¥5.02 billion ($45,740,319) in Japan, and $19,855,318 in China and Vietnam, for a total box office of $65,140,056 in Asia.

The film was released in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan on 5 February 2019 marking Chinese New Year and in Japan on 1 March 2019.

Here is a table which shows the box office of this movie of all the weekends in Japan:

#	Rank	Weekend	Weekend gross	Total gross till current weekend
1	1	March 2–3	¥695,700,000 ($6.2 million)	¥757,437,800 ($6.8 million)
2	1	March 9–10	¥612,046,700 ($5.5 million)	¥1,491,610,300 ($13.5 million)
3	1	March 16–17	¥437,689,000 ($3.9 million)	¥2,057,055,800 ($18.6 million)
4	1	March 23–24	¥310,745,700 ($2.8 million)	¥2,866,733,800 ($26.0 million)
5	1	March 30–31	¥323,763,200 ($2.9 million)	¥3,826,872,100 ($34.8 million)
6	1	April 6–7	¥174,742,000 ($1.6 million)	¥4,532,025,400 ($41.0 million)
7	2	April 13–14	¥97,795,500 ($873,000)	¥4,684,036,700 ($42.4 million)
8	8	April 20–21	¥41,445,900 ($370,000)	¥4,739,882,100 ($43.0 million)
9	9	April 27–28	¥27,000,000 ($250,000)	¥4,768,000,000 ($43.4 million)
10	10	May 4–5	¥27,888,400 ($252,000)	¥4,945,496,100 ($44.9 million)
11	-	May 11–12	¥7,000,000 ($64,000)	¥4,960,000,000 ($45.0 million)
FINAL TOTAL	-	-	-	¥5,020,000,000 ($45.6 million)

External links

• Official website
• Doraemon: Nobita's Chronicle of the Moon Exploration at IMDb
• Doraemon: Nobita's Chronicle of the Moon Exploration (anime film) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Official movie : Nobita's Chronicle of the Moon Exploration