In Japan, it's hard to say which is the bigger anime franchise, Doraemon or Crayon Shin-Chan. The former is Toho's most lucrative movie property having sold over 100 million film tickets since the first film was released in 1980. This November's Stand by Me Doraemon 2, a sequel to 2014's Stand by Me Doraemon looks to add to increase the robot cat's lead over Toho's second biggest IP, Godzilla after a delay from the film's original August release date due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The cg sequel anime film is part of the 50th Anniversary celebration for the franchise which published its first manga in January 1970 (although the blue mascot appeared in advertising campaigns in 1969).
The duo of Ryuichi Yagi and Takashi Yamazaki are returning from the 2014 film for the sequel with Yamazaki penning the script. The cg film series is largely an expanded, more emotional remake of the 2000 short film Doraemon: Obāchan no Omoide.
Though Doreamon got its start as a manga series in 1970 from Fujiko Fujio (the pen name of the duo Hiroshi Fujimoto and Motoo Abiko) and had a popular TV anime series that started in 1979 and concluded in March 2005 at 1,787 episodes, the franchise enjoys its most success as an anime film series. Stand by Me Doraemon 2 will mark the 42nd Doreamon film released though Japan divides the franchise's anime films into the 25 films released while the original 1979 TV anime was ongoing and the 15 that have been released since the 2005 reboot started. The two cg films are considered special projects, separate from those two runs.