Shizuka Minamoto

Shizuka Minamoto is the tritagonist of the Doraemon franchise, being the only main female character.

Appearance

Shizuka's appearance has changed little over the years of the Doraemon franchise, she is slim, has a light skin color, black eyes and her hair is usually dark in color and tied up in short pigtails. She usually wears a pink dress.

During the first few seasons of the 1979 anime, Shizuka had more of a cartoonish-look to her, with oval-shaped eyes like in the later episodes of the anime, and has mild-colored skin. Shizuka's brown hair was carried over in the 1979 anime (though it became light brown, while in the 2005 anime, Shizuka has black hair like most of the other characters) and her appearance is mostly the same as before, except she is a little taller, as an adult she has her hair tied in a bun, and some of the episodes had her wearing different colored shoes. Also, in some episodes, wore outfits other than her pink dress (for example, a red dress, or a white shirt with a brown skirt and beige sweater, or a shirt and green overalls)

In the 2005 anime, Shizuka's height was shortened and her hair was changed to black to match the artwork in the manga, and mostly wore a pink shirt and a dark blue skirt, in some episodes she would wear a dress. In recent movies, Shizuka has brown eyes. Overall, much of Shizuka's appearance has remained the same over the years, with some small and sometimes unnoticeable changes.

Personality

Shizuka is a smart and kind neighbourhood girl. She is, unlike Nobita, a quick-witted and very studious child. Shizuka loves to bathe and does it several times a day passionately. Unlike Nobita, Suneo, and Gian, she is not a fan of video games for the most part.

She cares for weaker people, abused animals and neglected dolls. She wishes to be a nurse or an air-hostess when she grows up. Both jobs reflect her kind nature. Shizuka loves her dolls a lot, to the extent that she loves them more than her own friends. She once freed a little bird from a bundle of strings it got caught in. She also cares deeply for the Grandfather Tree. When she was unable to save the Grandfather Tree, she was devastated but later felt relieved when she saw a little sprout from the Grandfather Tree stump. In one episode, Doraemon, Nobita, and Shizuka put her dolls in Nobita's race cars and started racing. Nobita's car crashed and the doll fell out, and she began to cry and get angry at him. But when she sees Nobita doing the right thing or a good thing for others, it would be enough to make her genuinely forgive Nobita.

She is known to love cartoons, especially the ones which save people (Magical Girl Shizu-chan).

She is also known for sometimes taking piano lessons, which she dislikes because she likes the violin better. Her true passions are sweet potatoes and, again, the violin, in which her playing is comparable to Gian's singing in terms of how bad they are at it. Like Gian, she is also tone deaf to this horrendous violin playing. Sometimes, Shizuka's practicing disturbs the neighbors, which is why her mother would get mad at her.

Shizuka has a split personality, which is mostly shown in the 1973 anime and very early episodes of the 1979 anime. There are scenes that show her sleeping and eating at the same time, stealing her mother's lipstick for her to play with, swallowing an expensive opal (Fairly explaining, going by the 2005 anime, it's safe to assume she was too distracted by the TV to notice that her mother had left it in her peanut bowl. Her swallowing it in the first place in the 1979 anime is never explained.), and slipping over a banana peel. Also, in the episode Magical Girl Shizu-chan, she stayed outside so late at night that her mother locked her out. However, in the later episodes of the 1979 anime, she is portrayed as more "girly" and ladylike. In the 2005 anime, she is still "girly-ish" and sweet and kind, but not to the extent of the 1979 anime. In the English dub, her personality has been almost completely rewritten as a more tomboyish and athletic girl (albeit retaining her kind and sweet nature). This is a result of a screen test where American kids did not quite understand her original personality and her love of bathing has also been removed.

Trivia

• Whenever she is described or dresses up as a bird, she is always a swan, which represents her beauty.
• Shizuka resembles Yumeko Kawai from Ninja Hattori-kun and Miyoko Nonohana from Kiteretsu, which are other works by Fujiko F. Fujio.
• In the original manga, Shizuka had black hair, but in the 1973 and 1979 anime (except for pilot episode), her hair was brown. Her hair was changed back to black in the 2005 anime.
• According to a side material, her parents named her "Shizuka" because they want her to grow up and be a proper lady.
• In the American English manga, Shizuka's name isn't changed, but in the English anime dub, her name is changed to Sue. This is a shortening of the name Susan.
• In the earlier Malay adaptation for the manga and anime, Shizuka's name is misspelled and mispronounced as "Sizuka".
• Her counterpart in the Mirror World from Parallel Planet is tomboyish and rude. Coincidentally, Shizuka in the English dub is somewhat tomboyish.
• In Stand by Me Doraemon, the grown-up Dekisugi says that he proposed to Shizuka, but she refused since Dekisugi can do everything on his own so Shizuka chooses to marry Nobita who saves her from a snowstorm.
• In the 1973 anime and early episodes of the 1979 anime, Shizuka addresses Nobita as "Nobita-kun" instead of "Nobita-san".
• In the original timeline (without Doraemon's interference) where Nobita didn't marry her, Shizuka's specific spouse is unknown.
• In a test where the American kids watched the original Japanese dub of Doraemon, Shizuka's personality wasn't too good for American kids to understand, so they had to alter her personality slightly, making her personality slightly more tomboyish and took out her love for bathing, but still being a kind-natured girl.
• Shizuka has the least appearances in the manga.
• In the manga, Shizuka hardly makes any angry facial expression at all for unknown reasons. This makes it difficult for readers to tell if she was actually enraged unless there were fumes coming out of her head.
• Shizuka has kissed Nobita on the cheek in some episodes.
• Dorami, Jaiko, Aron, Carla, Luna, Piina, and Rokoroko refers to her as "Shizuka-san".
• Nobita refers to her as "Shizuka-san" instead of "Shizuka-chan" when disguise as Sensei.

Etymology

• The name Shizuka means "quiet" (静) (shizu) and "fragrance, fragrant" (香) (ka).
  • Shizuka (しずか, シズカ) is a Japanese word meaning "quiet" or "calm" (静か). It is also a Japanese given name. Though the name is unisex, it is mostly used by females.
• Shizuka's surname Minamoto means "source, origin" (源).
  • Minamoto is also one of the three most prominent clans in Japanese history. It is listed in the Shinsen Shojiroku.

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