Original episode aired in April 1979, remake airs on April 5

TV Asahi 's official website for the current Doraemon television anime announced on Thursday that the anime's first episode will have a remake. The premiere "Yume no Machi, Nobita Land" (Dream Town, Nobita Land) episode aired on April 2, 1979, and the remake celebrates the airing's 40th anniversary. The remade episode will air on April 5.

The episode centers on Doraemon's "Instant Miniature-Making Camera," which can create real miniatures from photos of objects. The episode begins when Nobita's mother scolds Nobita and Doraemon for practicing roller skates inside the house. However, they also cannot practice outside due to dangerous traffic. They decide to play dodge-ball with Shizuka and Suneo in an empty lot, but find that it is now off-limits. When Nobita returns home, he says that he wants his own town and world where he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, without anyone saying anything about it. Doraemon presents the Camera, and Nobita takes all sorts of pictures for his plan to make his own "Nobita Land."

The manga creator duo Fujiko Fujio debuted their famous robot cat manga in 1969. The manga inspired three television anime series that have collectively lasted over four decades, television specials, and yearly anime films. The third series, which debuted in April 2005 with a new main voice cast, is regularly among the highest rated animation programs in Japan every week. (The anime is celebrating its 40th anniversary by also counting the 26-year run of the second anime series. The second series premiered in April 1979 and ended in March 2005, one month before the third series premiered.)

Eiga Doraemon no Nobita no Getsumen Tansaki (Doraemon the Movie: Chronicle of the Moon Exploration), the franchise 's 39th film, sold 645,000 tickets for 757 million yen (about US$6.77 million) to top the Japanese box office in its opening weekend. The film opened on 382 screens in Japan on March 1.

Sources: TV Asahi, The Mainchi Shimbun's Mantan Web