Good amongst Evil

As much as I love Doraemon, there's a time when I couldn't help feeling how kids-oriented it is. In fact, it is, but does it have to be that naive? The sentiment is more pronounced every time I read Dai-Chohen Doraemon (Doraemon Great Story). For who knows what reason, the series often present stories about aliens, extra or intraterrestrial, trying to seize the earth from evil clutches of humankind. "Evil clutches", that's the keyword. And then Doraemon, Nobita, and company would prove them wrong, showing that good humans--them--still existed on the face of earth. Seeing this, the aliens would always call off their plans eventually and then everyone would live happily ever after.

Even though I enjoyed the stories, I always wonder why this topic emerges again and again. That "evil clutches" thing. Why not use motives like aliens being greedy that it's natural for them to try rule the universe or their having the desire to take control of earth's natural resources? I mean, they're much more "real", considering that you can draw the parallels between them and events that had happened in the world. Isn't it an obvious fact that good humans are still to be found everywhere? Did they have to emphasize it continuously through the series?

It's only recently that I realized how true those stories are. Yes, good humans still exist in this world. But once you look around, check out the paper or turn on the TV, you get the feeling that it's the bad ones that dominate this planet. It's the bad ones that produce the most prominent impacts. Wars, terrorism, the rich getting richer by trampling on the poor, destruction of natural world, and so forth. If aliens were watching us right now, they would laugh at humankind for the damage that they have caused upon themselves. Or probably they would arrange an emergency meeting to save the earth from evil clutches of humankind, like aliens in Dai-Chohen Doraemon did.

And as the idea of choosing a tyrant and asking him to vanquish all darned men started to seem less ruthless to me, it's impossible for me to not admire the writers of Dai-Chohen Doraemon for their positive way of thinking. As one gets older, she's more prone to the "been there, done that" attitude that makes her cynical about the world, about people. Yet, they didn't lose their faith in humans; thus, the stories.

In Nobita's world, the task to save the world from fellow humans' wickedness upon returning to his day-to-day life was made easier by Doraemon. When developer planned on turning the hill at the back of his school into a new building site, Doraemon came with his sophisticated gizmo and scared the hell out of the developer, keeping them away for good. In the real world however, we don't have Doraemon to lend a helping hand. Hence, we have no choice but believe that human kindness would eventually prevail, like the series' writers did. I really wish I could do so.