# Stand by Me Doraemon 2 (STAND BY ME ドラえもん 2)
**Stand by Me Doraemon 2** (STAND BY ME ドラえもん 2) is a 2020 Japanese 3DCG animated film and the sequel to the 2014 hit *Stand by Me Doraemon*, following Nobita and Doraemon as they travel between past, present, and future to fulfill the dying wish of Nobita's grandmother to see his bride. It was released in Japan by Toho on November 20, 2020, as the franchise's 50th-anniversary film.[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9120) • [2](https://shin-ei-animation.jp/works/sbm2/) • [3](https://doraemon-3d.com/press/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Japanese release | November 20, 2020, distributed by Toho; 96 minutes[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9120) |
| Directors | Ryuichi Yagi (director); Takashi Yamazaki (co-director and screenplay); original story by Fujiko F. Fujio[2](https://shin-ei-animation.jp/works/sbm2/) |
| Basis | Built on the original episode "Grandma's Memories" (おばあちゃんのおもいで) with new original elements, set on the wedding day following the first film's "The Night Before Nobita's Wedding"[3](https://doraemon-3d.com/press/) |
| Predecessor | *Stand by Me Doraemon* (2014), the first 3DCG Doraemon film, earned 8.38 billion yen at the Japanese box office[3](https://doraemon-3d.com/press/) |
| Theme song | "Niji" (虹) by Masaki Suda, lyrics and music by Hyuui Ishizaki[3](https://doraemon-3d.com/press/) |
| Voice cast | Wasabi Mizuta (Doraemon), Megumi Ohara (Nobita), Yumi Kakazu (Shizuka), Subaru Kimura (Gian), Tomokazu Seki (Suneo), Nobuko Miyamoto (Grandma), Satoshi Tsumabuki (adult Nobita)[4](https://www.scifijapan.com/godzilla-toho/stand-by-me-doraemon-2-press-notes-and-image-gallery-from-toho) |
| Award | Excellence Award, Animation, at the 44th Japan Academy Prize (2021)[5](https://eiga.com/movie/92349/) |
## Spoilers
### Story and source material
The film adapts one of the most celebrated episodes of Fujiko F. Fujio's original manga, "Grandma's Memories," and combines it with wedding-themed material to form a new story.[3](https://doraemon-3d.com/press/) Nobita finds an old teddy bear hand-sewn by his grandmother, who died when he was in kindergarten, and overcome with memories he persuades a reluctant Doraemon to take the time machine to the past, on the condition that he only watch her from a distance and return at once.[3](https://doraemon-3d.com/press/) • [1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9120) The grandmother accepts the schoolboy who suddenly appears as Nobita and says she wants to see his bride, which sends Nobita and Doraemon to the future to show her the wedding.[3](https://doraemon-3d.com/press/)
There the story takes its central turn: on the wedding day itself, the adult groom Nobita flees before the ceremony, and Gian and Suneo set out to find him while Shizuka waits.[2](https://shin-ei-animation.jp/works/sbm2/) The official synopsis frames marriage as "a time machine connecting past and future," and the film presents itself as a story of tears and bonds linking past, present, and future.[2](https://shin-ei-animation.jp/works/sbm2/) • [4](https://www.scifijapan.com/godzilla-toho/stand-by-me-doraemon-2-press-notes-and-image-gallery-from-toho) The screenplay incorporated the grandmother episode together with two additional episodes from the original work.[3](https://doraemon-3d.com/press/)
## Production
The film reunites the team from the first *Stand by Me Doraemon*: director Ryuichi Yagi and co-director and screenwriter Takashi Yamazaki, both affiliated with the CG studio Shirogumi, with music by Naoki Sato.[2](https://shin-ei-animation.jp/works/sbm2/) • [3](https://doraemon-3d.com/press/) According to a CG World production report, planning began at the end of 2018, when the two directors wrote the scenario and storyboards as an upstream process while still in the late stages of another 3DCG film; actual 3DCG production started in early 2019 and the film was completed around May 2020, leaving a little over a year to make the movie.[6](https://cgworld.jp/feature/202101-cgw269t2dora.html) Oricon News, by contrast, states that production started at the beginning of 2015.[7](https://www.oricon.co.jp/special/55613/)
**Asset reuse and rework.** The team had planned to shorten the schedule by reusing the main character assets from the first film, but CG supervisor Kenyuki Suzuki of Shirogumi said full reuse proved difficult because of compatibility problems, and the sequel also needed visually new elements, so the assets were reworked.[6](https://cgworld.jp/feature/202101-cgw269t2dora.html) Main characters received proportion adjustments such as shorter necks and changed leg lengths, and rendering moved from the first film's hair method, which used Scanline rendering composited in a later pass, to consistent [V-Ray](https://www.edgepedia.org/v-ray) rendering.[6](https://cgworld.jp/feature/202101-cgw269t2dora.html) The workflow was also reorganized: lighting and compositing, which the first film's shot team had handled together for the final look, were split into separate teams working with Nuke, each applying its own specialty.[6](https://cgworld.jp/feature/202101-cgw269t2dora.html) Art director Makoto Hanafusa's design work, particularly on backgrounds, continued intermittently through the late stages of production.[6](https://cgworld.jp/feature/202101-cgw269t2dora.html)
## Release
The film was scheduled for August 7, 2020, alongside *Eiga Doraemon: [Nobita's New Dinosaur](https://www.edgepedia.org/doraemon-nobitas-new-dinosaur)*. On March 19, 2020, the production committees and Toho announced that, in view of the COVID-19 situation, *Stand by Me Doraemon 2* would also be postponed, with a new date to be announced later.[8](https://dora-world.com/contents/1378) It eventually opened nationwide on Toho screens on November 20, 2020.[9](https://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/1290265.html)
The marketing leaned on the "Dora-cry" (ドラ泣き) slogan inherited from the first film, with IMAX screenings branded "Naki-Max" (泣きマックス); Oricon News reported that the tear-focused copy drew both support and criticism, and interviewed director Yagi about it.[7](https://www.oricon.co.jp/special/55613/) Masaki Suda performed the theme song "Niji," written and composed by Hyuui Ishizaki and released on November 25, 2020.[3](https://doraemon-3d.com/press/) Novelizations of both *Stand by Me* films, written by Yamazaki himself, were published simultaneously on November 6, 2020, by [Shogakukan](https://www.edgepedia.org/shogakukan).[10](https://dora-world.com/contents/1666) In English-speaking markets the film later streamed on Netflix, with a streaming release date of December 24, 2021 listed by Rotten Tomatoes.[11](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stand_by_me_doraemon_2)
## Reception
At the 44th Japan Academy Prize in 2021 the film received the Excellence Award for Animation; the first film had won the top Outstanding Animation Work Award at the 38th ceremony.[5](https://eiga.com/movie/92349/) • [3](https://doraemon-3d.com/press/)
Audience scores on Japanese review aggregators were moderate rather than rapturous. Filmarks recorded an average of 3.6 out of 5 from 30,673 user reviews, with 62 percent of ratings in the 3.1 to 4.0 band, and Eiga.com showed 3.2 out of 5 across 260 reviews.[12](https://filmarks.com/movies/88343) • [5](https://eiga.com/movie/92349/) Rotten Tomatoes listed a Tomatometer of 89 percent from a single reviewed critic, with a Times of India review by Ronak Kotecha scoring it 3.5 out of 5 and calling it a sequel that "marches on with conviction" on themes of love, friendship, and childhood innocence.[11](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stand_by_me_doraemon_2)
Recurring points in viewer commentary cut both ways. Many reviews praised the grandmother storyline and the film's emotional weight; Filmarks users wrote that the time-leap structure lets an older Nobita appreciate his parents and grandmother in ways he could not as a child.[12](https://filmarks.com/movies/88343) Critics of the film focused on the characterization of adult Nobita: an ITmedia Netlab review asked whether the "childish good-for-nothing adult Nobita" was a misreading of the character, while some Eiga.com reviewers found the middle section scattered as the characters shuttle between eras, though several conceded that the finale comes together effectively.[13](https://nlab.itmedia.co.jp/cont/articles/3313511/) • [14](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/92349/review/) On Rotten Tomatoes, audience reviewers frequently ranked it above the first film for handling Nobita's recklessness with more nuance.[11](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stand_by_me_doraemon_2)
## References
1. [Stand By Me Doraemon 2, Japanese Film Database (JFDB)](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9120)
2. [STAND BY ME ドラえもん 2, Shin-Ei Animation works page](https://shin-ei-animation.jp/works/sbm2/)
3. [映画『STAND BY ME ドラえもん 2』公式サイト プレスリリース](https://doraemon-3d.com/press/)
4. [STAND BY ME DORAEMON 2 Press Notes and Image Gallery From Toho, SciFi Japan](https://www.scifijapan.com/godzilla-toho/stand-by-me-doraemon-2-press-notes-and-image-gallery-from-toho)
5. [STAND BY ME ドラえもん2, 映画.com](https://eiga.com/movie/92349/)
6. [続編制作における戦略の要！ 映画『STAND BY ME ドラえもん 2』のワークフローと制作環境, CGWORLD (2021/01/26)](https://cgworld.jp/feature/202101-cgw269t2dora.html)
7. [『ドラ泣き』コピーに賛否、ドラえもん50周年記念作品を"泣ける"映画にした理由とは, ORICON NEWS (2020-12-20)](https://www.oricon.co.jp/special/55613/)
8. [『映画ドラえもん のび太の新恐竜』『STAND BY ME ドラえもん 2』公開日についてのお知らせ, ドラえもんチャンネル (2020.03.19)](https://dora-world.com/contents/1378)
9. [ドラ泣きふたたび。映画「STAND BY ME ドラえもん 2」、本日11月20日より全国東宝系にて公開！, GAME Watch](https://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/1290265.html)
10. [小説「STAND BY ME ドラえもん」「STAND BY ME ドラえもん 2」同時発売！, ドラえもんチャンネル (2020.11.06)](https://dora-world.com/contents/1666)
11. [Stand by Me Doraemon 2, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stand_by_me_doraemon_2)
12. [STAND BY ME ドラえもん2, Filmarks映画](https://filmarks.com/movies/88343)
13. [「STAND BY ME ドラえもん2」ネタバレレビュー, ねとらぼ (ITmedia)](https://nlab.itmedia.co.jp/cont/articles/3313511/)
14. [STAND BY ME ドラえもん2のレビュー・感想・評価, 映画.com](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/92349/review/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Animated and short films › Japanese anime features › Released 2014 to 2026*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license