It’s a sad day for many Indonesians who grew up watching the hugely popular Japanese anime series Doraemon with the news that the Indonesian voice for the smart and kindhearted character Shizuka, Prabawati Sukarta, passed away earlier this week.
The news of Prabawati’s death was first announced to the public by voice over talent community, Indonesia Voice Talent, on an Instagram post yesterday. In the caption, the community said that they were first informed by Prabawati’s son.
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Prabawati reportedly died at the age of 64 in her home in Bekasi due to kidney failure, after suffering from kidney disease for the last seven years.
Prabawati began her career as an announcer at state-owned public radio network, Radio of the Republic of Indonesia (RRI), in the ‘80s. She became the Indonesian voice of Shizuka Minamoto, best friend and love interest of Doraemon protagonist Nobita Nobi, since the series was first broadcasted by RCTI in 1988. It was only in 2006 that she left the post, when voice actor Nurul Ulfah took over. In total, there have been four Indonesian dubbers for Shizuka.
Shizuka is one of the main characters in Doraemon by Fujiko Fujio, the pen name of manga artists Hiroshi Fujimoto and Motoo Abiko. Nobita, as the underdog of the story, has a crush on Shizuka, who treated him kindly when other characters like Suneo and Gian kept bullying him. Throughout the story, Nobita always asks the robot cat Doraemon for his magical futuristic gadgets to help him in life, including getting the attention of Shizuka. Nobita and Shizuka eventually married in the future.
The first Doraemon manga series was published in January 1970, and the anime adaptation was produced in 1979. The popular anime series, which propelled the male robotic cat with the fourth-dimensional pocket to iconic status in Japanese pop culture, ended in March 2005 with a total of 1,787 episodes.
To celebrate the anniversary of the Doraemon franchise, the new animated series began airing in 2005 with updated character designs as well as new dubbers and staff.
