Actor Shun Oguri (Hana Yori Dango, Hana-Kimi, Detective Conan, Uchū Kyōdai, Arakawa under the bridge) will play a mega-popular idol named "Shun Amaguri" in an episode of Doraemon on Friday. Oguri describes himself as a huge fan of Doraemon, so when he heard that a fictional Doraemon character would be based on his image, he volunteered to voice the character himself. Oguri added, "Doraemon remains an eternal hero for me."
When the program staff members created the "Shun Amaguri" (literally, "sweet chestnut season") character in Oguri's image, they contacted representatives of Oguri to receive his consent. Not only did Oguri give his okay, but he added that it would be a huge honor. When he was young, he saw almost all of the Doraemon films, and he saw 1982's Doraemon: Nobita's Great Demon in particular more times than he can remember. His favorite character is Gian.
Oguri has recorded dialogue for anime films and other works before, so he handled sudden dialgoue changes in the middle of Doraemon's recording without problems. Doraemon's sound director, a professional known for strictness, even complimented Oguri for his enthusiastic performance.
In the slapstick comedy story "Yon-Jigen Pocket ni wa Spare ga Atta no da" ("I've Got a Spare Four-Dimensional Pocket"), Doraemon's owner Nobita takes the cat's spare magical pocket without telling Doraemon. Nobita's rich classmate Suneo had boasted about getting Amaguri's autograph, so Nobita and his friend Shizuka use Doraemon's spare pocket to break into Amaguri's home to get an autograph — but not everything goes as planned. Another story, "Nobi-ke no Kyodai Maguro" ("The Nobi Family's Giant Tuna"), will also air on Friday.