Yojo Peninsula Makes Its Debut!! 'How to Walk on the Seafloor Without Entering the Sea' / How to do △△ without doing ○○ Part 4

One of the classic patterns in Doraemon is the sequence where Nobita gets jealous of Suneo's bragging and asks Doraemon for a gadget to resolve that jealousy.

Among Suneo's boasts, there is a pattern where he invites Shizuka and Gian to go to a wonderful place, leaving Nobita out, and in this case, Nobita becomes absolutely furious with regret.

The Honekawa family owns vacation homes in Yojo Peninsula, Karuizawa, and some other coast (Hayama?), and they also own luxury cars and yachts. It is shocking to have Shizuka taken out to such glamorous places, and above all, it is painful to be the only one left out.

In this article, we will look at a story where Nobita suffers from his most regrettable pattern: being left out of a trip to Suneo's vacation home.

Furthermore, this work is also the first appearance of the legendary "Yojo Peninsula". Yojo Peninsula is a play on the real-life "Hachijo Island" and is one of the best-named remote islands in the history of Fujiko manga.

For Doraemon fans, "Yojo Peninsula" and Suneo's vacation home are a set, and the term also encompasses the development where Nobita is left out. Starting with this work, "Yojo Peninsula" will appear many times, but I would like to summarize that in another article.

Note that there is a work from much earlier than this one, "Let's Go to the Sea in a Submarine" (August '71), where they were not invited to the Suneo family's private boat, and it is possible that this was Yojo Peninsula.

However, given the characteristics of the "submarine" that jumps (teleports) short distances from water to water, it is hard to imagine that they went to a remote island, so I did not count it as an appearance of "Yojo Peninsula".

"How to do △△ without doing ○○" is the title under which I have collected and introduced titles with similar contexts, but there is one thing common to all four works included this time. That is the point that they were retitled from the time of their initial magazine publication to their inclusion in the collected volumes.

Past articles can be found here.

The initial titles of the four works above are often just the names of the secret gadgets. After that, it seems that they were changed to titles that delve into the content of the work when they were retitled.

When lined up like this, you can see something like a "habit" in Fujiko-sensei's title conception, but if you think about it further, he might have had something like a "template" at the stage of conceiving the story.

Let's look at the contents.

A moment during summer vacation. A heavy envelope arrives from Suneo. Nobita exclaims, "It's finally here. I don't even need to look inside to know what it is!"

Suneo is using his summer vacation to go to his villa on Yojohan Peninsula, and Nobita predicts that it is filled with long-winded bragging and lots of souvenir photos. (→ His prediction is spot on)

Furthermore, the point is that Suneo is not going to the villa alone, but has invited Shizuka and Gian. For some reason, only Nobita was left out.

From here, Nobita clearly lets his frustration explode.

Nobita is a brave (?), admirable boy who tries to act tough even when he can't quite pull it off.

Doraemon takes Nobita's feelings head-on and comforts him, saying, "You really want to go, don't you? There, there." The scene here that shows their friendship is a little tear-jerking.

However, just as the moment is touching, Doraemon stands up to try and do something about it, but Nobita easily deflates him.

Doraemon suggests they go right away using the "Anywhere Door," but Nobita shows a hesitant reaction, saying, "Even if I go, I can't swim, and I can't dive..."

"Then, let's not go," Doraemon says as he pulls back the Anywhere Door, and Nobita starts sniffling, "The beautiful seabed, the freshly caught turban shells, the delicious abalone..." Nobita's usual dilemma is revealed: he has the desire to do it, but lacks the ability to do so.

And so, the difficult request Nobita makes is, "I want to take a walk on the seabed without entering the water"...

"You're asking for the impossible," Doraemon says, perplexed, but immediately adds with conviction, "Alright, let's find a way to make that impossible thing come true!!" Nobita, who knows full well he is asking for the impossible, hugs Doraemon for being willing to do it for him. Their friendship is indeed strong.

Doraemon then slowly takes out a secret gadget called "Water-Repellent Rope", saying he wants to test if it's broken first.

He cuts a long rope and ties it into a circle. Doraemon stands inside it and has Nobita pour water on it. Then, miraculously, it's as if an invisible cylindrical barrier has been created from the circle placed on the ground, repelling the water.

The experiment is a great success. They immediately head to Yojohan Peninsula using the "Anywhere Door." Suneo's villa is right under their noses, and Suneo, Shizuka, and Gian come out in their swimsuits. They say they are going to go boating and have fun again today.

And Suneo, as if he knows Nobita is listening, boasts, "Nobita would be so jealous if he saw this." And just as Suneo said, in the shade of the grass, Nobita is feeling jealous with an expression that looks like it's not of this world.

This time, Doraemon prepares a water-repellent rope about 30 meters long and makes an oval shape. Nobita and Doraemon step inside the loop of rope. Like a game of playing train, Doraemon and Nobita, holding the loop, head into the sea.

Then, they enter the sea, but surprisingly, the water-repellent rope prevents the seawater from entering, making it look as if a hole has opened up in the ocean. They continue to the deeper parts, but they are completely unaffected by the seawater.

This is the moment when Nobita's impossible request to 'go to the seafloor without entering the sea' was solved.

Now, since they are here, it's time for a commemorative photo. Since the area outside the ring is the sea, you can swim there if you step out of the ring. Nobita enters the seawater and has them take a photo of him swimming, but since he can't swim in the first place, the result is a perfect photo of him drowning.

So this time, instead of entering the sea, he jumps up inside the rope. If you take a picture of this moment, there are fish swimming in the background, so it creates a perfect photo that looks like he is floating on the seafloor.

Now that they have a photo of him swimming, it's time to have some seafood delicacies. There are turban shells and abalone scattered all over the seafloor, so they pick them up and grill them right there. While eating on the sea is common, eating grilled turban shells inside the sea is quite a unique experience.

Since they grilled the turban shells while creating smoke underwater, from Suneo's boat on the surface, it looks like smoke is rising from inside the sea. Wondering what it is, Suneo and the others rush to the location of the smoke.

Meanwhile, Nobita and Doraemon, now full of seafood, use the water-repellent rope to start a game of seafloor tag. The two of them are thoroughly enjoying the seafloor.

While they are busy playing tag, Suneo's boat falls into the hole in the sea created by the water-repellent rope. Suneo, Shizuka, and the others are all knocked unconscious by the impact.

The boat is wrecked and doesn't look like it can be easily repaired. So, as a first-aid measure, Doraemon takes a giant piece of paper out of his pocket. Then, he makes a large origami boat and puts Suneo and the others on it.

When they wake up, everyone is shocked to find themselves on an origami boat and hold their heads in shame, saying, 'How embarrassing!' Doraemon and Nobita are secretly watching them from inside the sea with a smile.

Suneo acted heartlessly by leaving Nobita out of the group and then sending him a fun commemorative photo to make him jealous. Thinking about his nasty personality, I think it's only fair that his boat ended up broken in the end.

However, there is one thing.

The cause of the boat's breakdown was that Doraemon and his friends left the hole in the seafloor unattended. Since everyone on board was knocked unconscious, if something had gone wrong, it could have led to a serious accident.

So, in my case, when I read this story, I feel that Doraemon is a bit cruel, and I also think that using a water-repellent rope on the seafloor is extremely dangerous.