MANILA — Doraemon, the titular robot cat of the well-loved anime series, was also a casualty of the ABS-CBN franchise denial in mid-2020.

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Doraemon became a Kapamilya in March 2019, when ABS-CBN signed a partnership with distributors Animation Intl. Ltd., ShoPro, and ADK Emoticons, Inc.

After two months, the series started airing on the ABS-CBN cable channel Yey! in May. An animation channel for children, Yey! was also among the channels available on ABS-CBN TVPlus.

However, “Doraemon’s” broadcast was cut short in July 2020, when ABS-CBN was denied a broadcast franchise by a congressional panel, affecting its TVPlus offerings.

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Aside from its widescale migration to digital amid the broadcast crisis, ABS-CBN also inked blocktime partnerships, including with Zoe Broadcasting Network’s Channel 11.

The channel, which currently houses most of ABS-CBN’s programs, was rebranded and relaunched as A2Z in October 2020.

A year since Doraemon’s Kapamilya run came to a halt, the character is finally set to return via A2Z, the channel teased last week.

On Wednesday, A2Z announced the schedule of “Doraemon” under its Kidz Weekend block. The series will air back-to-back episodes every Saturday, 8 a.m., starting July 10.

“DIS IS IT dahil narito na ang trenDing na pagbabalik ng ating best frienD from the future sa bago niyang tahanan!” A2Z said.

Created by Fujiko F. Fujio, “Doraemon” was first released as a manga series in 1969, and then became an anime TV series in 1973. Its popularity has since spawned a media franchise, with an international fanbase.