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Dr. Slump
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is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. The title was serialized in Shueisha's anthology comic Weekly Shonen Jump from 1980 to 1984, eventually compiled into 18 tankobon. The series helped launched Toriyama's career and was awarded the Shogakukan Manga Award for shonen and shojo manga in 1982.
Dr. Slump is a gag manga, and bears little resemblance to Toriyama's following series Dragon Ball, though the early Dragon Ball manga chapters are much closer to Dr. Slump in its style and humour.
r. Slump is filled with puns and bathroom jokes, and parodies of both Japanese and American culture.
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Encyclopedia
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. The title was serialized in Shueisha's anthology comic Weekly Shonen Jump from 1980 to 1984, eventually compiled into 18 tankobon. The series helped launched Toriyama's career and was awarded the Shogakukan Manga Award for shonen and shojo manga in 1982.
Dr. Slump is a gag manga, and bears little resemblance to Toriyama's following series Dragon Ball, though the early Dragon Ball manga chapters are much closer to Dr. Slump in its style and humour.
Themes
Dr. Slump is filled with puns and bathroom jokes, and parodies of both Japanese and American culture. For example, one of the recurring characters is "Suppaman", a short, fat, pompous buffoon who changes into a Superman-like costume by eating a sour-tasting ("suppai" in Japanese) umeboshi. Unlike Superman, Suppaman can't fly well, and instead pretends to fly by lying belly down on a skateboard and scooting through the streets. In the PS2 game Super Dragon Ball Z, in the city level, by breaking the porta-potty, Suppaman (with the hiragana "su" character on his chest) will roll off on his skateboard. Also, a policeman in Dr. Slump can be seen wearing a Star Wars-style storm trooper helmet, just as in the American movies.
Plot
Dr. Slump is set in , a place where humans co-exist with all sorts of anthropomorphic animals and other objects. In this village lives Senbei Norimaki, an inventor (his name is a pun on a kind of rice cracker). His nickname is "Dr. Slump" (a joke that can be seen as similar to nicknaming an author "Writer's Block.") In the first issue, he builds what he hopes will be the world's most perfect little girl robot, named Arale Norimaki, a pun on another kind of rice cracker), in scenes obviously parodying the Italian children's classic Pinocchio (note: "Arale" is Toriyama's official romanized spelling of her name). Because Senbei is a lousy inventor, she soon turns out to be in severe need of eyeglasses. She is also very naďve, and in later issues she has adventures such as bringing a huge bear home, having mistaken it for a pet. To Senbei's credit, she does have super-strength (and, in a Dragonball crossover she proved to be genuinely stronger than the young Son Goku, prompting him to train harder). In general, the manga focuses on Arale's misunderstandings of humanity and Senbei's inventions, rivalries, and romantic misadventures. In the middle of the series, a continuously-appearing villain shows up, based on Toriyama's editor at the time.
Characters
Names are in the Western order, with the family name after the given name.
The Norimaki family
- Penguin Village's goofy and lecherous genius inventor. Arale calls him . He can also transform into a more handsome, taller version of himself (for a very brief period of three minutes). When in this state he very strongly resembles Tony Stark, the billionaire inventor of Iron Man.
- Senbei's myopic "sister," is actually a robot created by Senbei. Arale is very naďve but extremely powerful, with abilities like and
/ Gadzilla "Gatchan" Norimaki
- (Anime 1), Chie Sawaguchi (Anime 2)
- A green-haired, cherub-like creature with wings, hatched from an egg brought home by Senbei from a time traveling trip; later s/he (it) inexplicably replicates into twins. Gatchan eats almost anything, except for rubber, and particularly likes to eat metal; s/he can also shoot rays from his/her antennae. Gatchan speaks in his/her own language consisting primarily of sounds like "pupipopipi" that Arale somehow seems to understand. In Volume 17, it is revealed that Gatchan is actually an angel sent by God to prevent further development of the human civilization. After seeing that other civilizations eventually destroyed themselves and the planets they lived on, God placed an angel's egg on Earth. Gatchan's ability to replicate as well as his/her fondness of metal should have ensured that humanity would remain primitive and innocent. Seeing that Gatchan failed in the mission (due to Senbei's time traveling intervention), God was about to destroy humanity. However, after seeing the life of Penguin village, he changed his mind and left the earth as it is. Gatchan's real name is a combination of the names of Gamera and Gojira, who is known as Godzilla in the West; hence s/he is known as "Gadzilla" in the English version. Oddly, she is not called this again until volume 16, being called Gajira before that. Gajira's name is occasionally translated as "Gazira."
- Senbei and Midori's first son, who is nearly killed by aliens and then revived by them, in the process imbuing him with many super powers including teleportation, flight, and telekinesis. Also a genius surpassing his father.
- (Anime 1), Yuko Minaguchi (Anime 2)
- Arale's beautiful teacher and Senbei's dream girl. After a long period of unrequited love and nervous misunderstandings, Senbei proposes to her while thinking she is out of earshot. Surprisingly, she accepts immediately (while on the toilet, no less) and they are married in the next manga panel, becoming Mrs. Midori Norimaki.
- (Anime 1), Motoko Kumai (Anime 2)
- Robot built by Dr Mashirito using the plans for Arale, but male. Arale calls him . Extremely polite and well-mannered. He later becomes a love interest for Arale. Initially dubbed "Caramelman #4" by Dr Mashirito, his creator.
The Kimidori family
- (Anime 1), Hiroko Konishi (Anime 2)
- Arale's "bad girl" friend. She is called "Akani-chin" by Arale instead of "Akane-chan".
- (Anime 1), Hiroko Emori (Anime 2)
- Akane's older sister, who works at the coffee shop.
- (Anime 1), Hideyuki Tanaka (Anime 2)
- Akane and Aoi's father.
- Akane and Aoi's mother, who is always wiggling her butt and acting bubbly. Actually, she is the younger sister of Taro and Peasuke's mother (below).
The Soramame family
- (Anime 1), Shinichiro Ota (Anime 2)
- Arale's "bad boy" friend at school who tries to act cool. After graduating from high school, he becomes a police officer (because he is allowed to carry a gun and wear dark glasses all the time).
- (Anime 1), Megumi Urawa (Anime 2)
- Taro's little brother who always wears an animal hat. At one point, he saved a girl named Hiyoko from a beetle. Of course, this wouldn't have been necessary if not for Arale; when she saw that Peasuke had fallen in love with a girl much taller than he, she used the Big-Small Gun to shrink Hiyoko to insect size.
- (Anime 1), Nobuaki Kanemitsu (Anime 2)
- The father of the Soramame family and a barber. Looks similar to Clint Eastwood.
- Taro and Peasuke's mother, who also wears an animal cap like Peasuke.
The Tsun family
A Chinese family whose spaceship crash landed in Penguin Village. In the manga, their (Japanese) speech is shown in the text balloons as written entirely in kanji (including "ateji": kanji used for pronunciation of foreign words), and as such, would make no sense to Chinese readers; e.g. "anata" (you) is rendered as ??, laughter ("hahaha") is written as ???.
- (Anime 1), Houko Kuwashima (Anime 2)
- The daughter. Has various powers, including telekinesis and teleportation and later starts dating Taro.
- (Anime 1), Ryoutarou Okiayu (Anime 2)
- The son, who practices kung fu (including taijiquan). Although normally not as strong as the powerful Arale or Gatchan(s), when extremely angry he becomes more powerful than both. For some reason, whenever he is touched by a girl he turns into a tiger and cannot change back unless touched by a guy. To his confusion, Arale does not trigger this transformation since she is not a real girl. He later starts dating Akane.
- (Anime 1), Kouji Yada (Anime 2)
- The father. Built the spaceship that crashed in Penguin Village. He is an even worse pervert than Senbei and the two of them become friends.
- (Anime 1), Michie Tomizawa (Anime 2)
- The mother, who also practices kung fu, like her son. Tends to beat up her perverted husband. Her name comes from an old marketing jingle of the Japanese bicycle manufacturer Tsunoda.
Penguin Village Police Force
(Note that none of the police force are given names in the comics, except for Charmy Yamada, although Gara and Pagos' names appear on a banner attached to a motor scooter they ride together early in the comics series.)
- (Anime 1), Michio Nakao (Anime 2)
- The tall patrolman. He and his partner Gara constantly have their car destroyed (accidentally) by an excited running Arale. This character's first appearance was in the second half of the 1979 one-shot Wonder Island, also as a policeman, though the setting was entirely different. Gara and Pagos were named after Galápagos Islands ("garapagosu shotou").
- (Anime 1), Nobuhiko Kazama (Anime 2)
- The shorter patrolman. Also appeared on Wonder Island; as hinted there, his name is likely a pun on the movie monster Garamon, who he somewhat resembles.
- (Anime 1), Bin Shimada (Anime 2)
- The police chief.
- (Anime 1), Masako Katsuki (Anime 2)
- The gun-toting lady cop. The name is from police and "poribaketsu" (poly (polyethylene, polypropylene and so on) + bucket).
- (Anime 1)
- A very dedicated cop who joins the force later in the series.
Other recurring characters
Dr
- ? Keiichi Noda (Anime 1), Yasuo Yamada (Anime 1 movies), Akira Kamiya (1992 movie), Ryoutarou Okiayu (Anime 2)
- Senbei's evil mad scientist rival; who is slowly converted into a cyborg over time. He was modeled after Toriyama's editor at the time, Kazuhiko Torishima.
- (Anime 1), Toru Furuya (Anime 2)
- A Superman parody from a far away planet, who unfortunately has no super powers or sense of justice; rolls around with his belly on a skateboard, throws grenades, and changes his clothes in a phone booth, eating an umeboshi to transform. Suppaman works as a reporter when in disguise as , which is a Japanese pun on the name Clark Kent (when pronounced in the "surname given name" order).
- (Anime 1), Bin Shimada (Anime 2)
- The king of an alien planet. His race have their butts on their heads, their nostrils on the tips of their antennae, and their ears on their feet. He wishes to take over the Earth but his ship always breaks down (plus, he's kind of an ill-tempered idiot). In the manga, he speaks in Central Nagoya dialect, in which a native speaker of the dialect will find distinct from the author's Northern Nagoya dialect. In the anime, he speaks in a false Nagoya dialect.
- (Anime 1), Ryou Horikawa (Anime 2)
- King Nikochan's unnamed sunglasses-wearing servant. He always comes to Earth with his master. He seems to be much smarter/sensible than the King.(He does not speak in Nagoya dialect.)
- (Anime 1), Minori Matsushima (Anime 2)
- Tarzan hero wannabe with almost exactly the same face as Suppaman; shares a mutual dislike with Suppaman.
- Hero-wannabe from Suppaman's planet, who came to Earth after hearing that Suppaman (whom he perceives as a weakling) had become a hero here, using his powers of flight and superhuman strength; ultimately, he is side-tracked by his fly tendencies (and resulting diet).
- (Anime 1), Noriko Uemura (Anime 2)
- A toddler who lives in Penguin Village and spends her days riding her tricycle and laughing at others for not keeping up with fashion.
- (Anime 1), Nobuo Tobita (Anime 2)
- Arale's high school teacher. He has a huge head which is shaped like a chestnut. (The "kuri" in his name means "chestnut" and "-gashira" (kashira) means "head". "Dai" is "big", and "Daigorou" is also the Japanese given name of Takamiyama, a popular former Sumo wrestler from Hawaii.) His character style was used as model of Kurita Ryokan.
- (Anime 1), Kappei Yamaguchi (Anime 2)
- A fox who likes to transform into things and scare people.
- (Anime 1), Houko Kuwashima (Anime 2)
- Peasuke's (taller) girlfriend whom he saved from a bug after she was hit by Senbei's shrink gun.
- (Anime 1), Chika Sakamoto (Anime 2)
- One of several coiled poos (much like soft ice cream) that appears occasionally, tends to have a sense of justice in general, has feet to run around with (in Japanese children's books, a similar character with the same name appears to teach children potty training)
- (bird, robot) and Hideyuki Tanaka (human) (Anime 1)
- A self-caricature of the manga's author Akira Toriyama, who is depicted as a mountain-like bird (the name Toriyama means bird mountain), a robot, or a man wearing a surgical mask. In vol. 8, he challenges Arale to a race. Arale seems to have won, but Toriyama claims otherwise, and was most likely banned from the town.
- Toriyama's 2nd assistant.
-
- Takoyaki cook, the model of this character is Akira Sakuma, a notable game designer and a co-author of Toriyama's book.
Fictional crossovers
After the original manga ended, the characters of Dr. Slump returned for an extended cameo in Toriyama's next manga and anime series Dragon Ball, (chapters 70-73, or volume 7 of the Jump Comics edition.) Arale and Goku briefly team up to help Goku defeat General Blue during the General Blue Saga. Arale also makes a smaller cameo in the third Dragon Ball movie, Mystical Adventure and in the fourth Dragon Ball Z movie, Lord Slug, as a picture on Son Gohan's wall. Because of these cameos (and other similarities), many fans consider the two series as taking place in a shared universe. The manga cameo showed a distinct change in the author's art style by that time, making Arale and the gang look somewhat bloated. Suppaman also makes a brief cameo, trying to stop General Blue. When Blue proves his strength Suppaman promptly begs for forgiveness for his earlier taunts (he tried to show off being strong by breaking 3 bricks with one punch, which also hurts his hand. Blue then promptly lifts and crushes a phone booth effortlessly). The Dr. Slump characters later appeared in the third manga called "Chotto Kaettekita Dr. Slump" (loosely translated: "Dr. Slump Returns, But Only For a Little While"). Goku also makes a brief cameo, trying to stop Mashirito.
Influence on Japanese culture
Trademark expressions from the manga include:
- "N-cha" (Senbei's greeting and apparently a truncation of "konnichiwa"; also used by Arale)
- "Bye-cha"
- "Hoyoyo" (an expression used by Arale to signify bewilderment or mild confusion)
- "Kiiiiiin" (Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound of an airplane engine)
These expressions had gone on to become part of Japanese culture. In addition, the round glasses Arale wears have inspired the Japanese phrase "arare megane" (Arale glasses).
In the manga, Toriyama himself has been portrayed as a bird (the "tori" in his last name means "bird", hence the name of his production studio Bird Studio), although Toriyama actually based the design of Senbei on himself (as a number of American comic strip artists have been known to do). He has also portrayed himself as a small robot with dark goggles, and simply a middle-aged man with dark sunglasses and contagion mask (signifying anonymity). In addition, other real people made appearances as well, such as Toriyama's bosses (like Torishima), assistants, and wife, Toriyama's colleague friends (like Masakazu Katsura), and others.
Media
Manga
Dr. Slump was originally serialized in the Weekly Shonen Jump from issue 5/6 of 1980 to issue 39 of 1984 and subsequently collected in 18 tankobon volumes under the Jump Comics imprint. It was reassembled as a 9-volume aizoban edition in 1990, a 9-volume Bunkokan edition in 1995 and a 15-volume Kanzenban edition in 2006.
Viz Media has been published an English adaptation of Dr. Slump since 2005 with a translation by Alexander O. Smith. As of January 6, 2009, 17 of the 18 volumes have been published.
Spin-offs
A Dr. Slump follow-up was serialized in V Jump from 1994 to 1996 titled , which was collected in four tankobon volumes. It was written by Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru and illustrated by Takao Koyama for Bird Studio.
To promote the release of the first Dr. Slump & Arale-chan DVD-Box set, Akira Toriyama illustrated a special one-shot spin-off titled Dr. Mashirito & Abale-chan published in the fourth 2007 issue of the Weekly Shonen Jump. The story centers around an evil counterpart of Arale created by Dr. Mashirito named Abale. Dr. Mashirito & Abale-chan was adapted into a five-minute short shown theatrically alongside the One Piece feature film Episode of Alabasta: The Desert Princess and the Pirates.
Anime
The Dr. Slump manga was made into two separate anime TV series; the first, Dr. Slump & Arale-chan (Japanese: Dr.???? ??????) ran from 1981 to 1986 and spanned 243 episodes and the second anime ran from 1997 to 1999 and lasted 74 episodes. In addition to the series, 11 animated films have been made.
Staff
- Director: Minoru Okazaki, Yoshiki Shibata, Daisuke Nishio, Akinori Nagaoka
- Script: Masaki Tsuji, Shun'ichi Yukimuro, Tomoko Konparu, Michiru Shimada
- Character Designs: Shinji Koike
- Animation Director: Shinji Koike
- Music: Takeo Watanabe
Movies
- (1981)
- (1982)
- (1983)
- (1984)
- (1985)
- (1993)
- (1993)
- (1994)
- (1994)
- (1999)
- (March 3, 2007) - A five-minute short shown alongside the theatrical release of One Piece Episode of Alabasta: The Desert Princess and the Pirates. It was later included in Dr. Slump Movie Box.
Video games
In Jump Super Stars, Arale and Mashirito are battle koma (playable characters), with the latter as the game's main antagonist. They both return in the sequel, Jump Ultimate Stars, in the exact same roles. Senbei Norimaki isn't playable but is a Help Koma that can strengthen Arale if his Koma is adjacent to Arale's Koma.
In Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, Arale appears as a playable character.
A Dr. Slump video game for Nintendo DS was released on October 30, 2008.
External links
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