DR. SLUMP

is a popular manga series, authored by Akira Toriyama. The first issue was published in 1980 by Shueisha's anthology comic ''Weekly Shonen Jump'', and the issues after it quickly launched Toriyama's career. It received the Shogakukan Manga Award in 1982.

Contents

History

Plot

Characters

The Norimaki Family

The Kimidori Family

The Soramame Family

The Tsun Family

Penguin Village Police Force

Other recurring characters

Movies

In-Universe Crossovers

Influence on Japanese Culture

External links

History

The initial run of the manga ended in 1984 and it was later compiled into 18 tankōbon. ''Dr. Slump'' is a gag manga, and bears little resemblance to the extremely popular Toriyama manga based anime ''Dragon Ball Z'', though the original ''Dragon Ball'' anime and manga are much closer to ''Dr. Slump'' in its style and humor.
The ''Dr. Slump'' manga was made into two separate anime. The first, ''Dr. Slump & Arale-chan'' (Japanese: Dr.スランプ アラレちゃん) ran from 1981 to 1986 and spanned 243 episodes. The second anime ran from 1997 to 1999 and featured 74 episodes. In addition to the series, 11 animated movies have been made.
The original 1980s series ("Dr. Slump and Arale-chan") will be released on Region 2 DVD in Japan in two parts. The "N'cha collection" was released in March 2007. [1] The "Hoyoyo Collection" will be released in September.
It is unknown if the anime will be translated in the English language, even though it was licensed by Harmony Gold, but never dubbed, for the company lost the rights shortly after.

Plot

''Dr. Slump'' is filled with puns, sexual references, 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 and eats a sour-tasting ("suppai" in Japanese) umeboshi. Unlike Superman, Suppaman can't fly, and instead pretends to fly by lying belly down on a skateboard and scooting through the streets. In the Playstation 2 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, an obvious parody. Also, a policeman in ''Dr. Slump'' can be seen wearing a ''Star Wars''-style storm trooper helmet, just as in the American movies. The Dr. Slump manga has been licensed by Viz Media and is currently being published in graphic novel form. ''Dr. Slump'' and the anime based on it have been run in almost everywhere else in the West; for example, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico and Spain.
''Dr. Slump'' is set in ''Penguin Village'' (ペンギン村 ''Pengin Mura''), a place where humans co-exist with all sorts of anthropomorphic animals and other objects. In this village lives Senbei Norimaki (則巻千兵衛 ''Norimaki Senbei''), 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 a little robot girl he names Arale Norimaki (則巻アラレ ''Norimaki Arare'', 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 naïve, 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. In general, the manga focuses on Arale's misunderstandings of humanity and Senbei's inventions, rivalries, and romantic misadventures.

Characters

Names are in the Western order, with the family name after the given name. If the name is different in the English releases, the English name is to the right of the Japanese name''.

The Norimaki Family

★ 'Senbei Norimaki' (則巻千兵衛 ''Norimaki Senbei'', "Seaweed-wrapped Rice cracker"), Penguin Village's goofy, and lecherous genius inventor. When Arale calls him, she says "''Hakase''" (博士, doctor). 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.

★ 'Arale Norimaki' (則巻アラレ ''Norimaki Arare'', "Seaweed-wrapped Mini-rice cracker"), Senbei's myopic "sister," actually a robot created by Senbei. Arale is very naïve but extremely powerful, with techniques like Chikyuwari (地球割り, Earth Chop) and Nchaho (んちゃ砲, Ncha Cannon)

★ 'Gajira "Gatchan" Norimaki' (則巻ガジラ ''Norimaki Gajira'') / 'Gadzilla "Gatchan" Norimaki', a green-haired, cherub-like creature with wings, which follows Senbei home 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 that sounds like "pupipopipi" that Arale somehow seems to understand. In a later installment, it was revealed that Gatchan is actually an angel sent by God (or Kami if this story connects with Dragon Ball) 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 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 pun on Gamera and Gojira, who is known as Godzilla in the West; hence he is known as "Gadzilla" in the English version.
:Seiyuus: Seiko Nakano (Anime 1), Chie Sawaguchi (Anime 2)

★ 'Turbo Norimaki' (則巻ターボ ''Norimaki Tābo'') (Seaweed-wrapped Turbo, "Turbomaru" was the name of the author's dog at the time), Senbei and Midori's first son, who is nearly killed by aliens and then revived by them, simultaneously imbuing him with many super powers, including teleportation, flight, and telekinesis. Also a genius surpassing his father.
:Seiyuus: Yuuko Mita

★ 'Midori Yamabuki' (山吹みどり ''Yamabuki Midori'', "Orange-yellow Green" ), 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, resulting in a name change.
:Seiyuus: Mariko Mukai (Anime 1), Yuko Minaguchi (Anime 2)

★ 'Obotchaman' (オボッチャマン Well-mannered boy raised in a good environment+Man), robot made by Mashirito with the same plans as Arale, but male. Arale calls him ''Obotchiman-kun'' (おぼっちまん君). Extremely polite and well-mannered, and Arale becomes a later love interest. Originally named "Caramelman #4."
:Seiyuus: Mitsuko Horie (Anime 1), Motoko Kumai (Anime 2)

The Kimidori Family

★ 'Akane Kimidori' (木緑あかね ''Kimidori Akane'', "Yellow-green Red"), Arale's "bad girl" friend. She is called ''Akane-chin'' by Arale instead of ''Akane-chan''.
:Seiyuus: Kazuko Sugiyama (Anime 1), Hiroko Konishi (Anime 2)

★ 'Aoi Kimidori' (木緑葵 ''Kimidori Aoi'', "Yellow-green Blue"), Akane's older sister, who works at the coffee shop
:Seiyuus: Naomi Jinbo (Anime 1), Hiroko Emori (Anime 2)

★ 'Kon Kimidori' (木緑紺 ''Kimidori Kon'', "Yellow-green Navy-blue"), Akane and Aoi's father
:Seiyuus: Banjou Ginga (Anime 1), Hideyuki Tanaka (Anime 2)

★ 'Murasaki Kimidori' (木緑紫 ''Kimidori Murasaki'', "Yellow-green Purple"), Akane and Aoi's mother, who is always wiggling her butt and acting bubbly; actually the younger sister of Peasuke's mother (below).

The Soramame Family

★ 'Taro Soramame' (空豆タロウ ''Soramame Tarou''), 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).
:Seiyuus: Toshio Furukawa (Anime 1), Shinichirou Ohta (Anime 2)

★ 'Peasuke Soramame' (空豆ピースケ ''Soramame Piisuke'', Broad bean Pea+common male name ending, "Peasuke" in the English translation), 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. :Seiyuus: Naomi Jinbo (Anime 1), Megumi Urawa (Anime 2)

★ 'Kurikinton Soramame' (空豆クリキントン ''Soramame Kurikinton'', Broad bean Sweet chestnut paste (also sort of sounds like Clint or Clinton), the father of the Soramame family and a barber. Looks similar to Clint Eastwood.
:Seiyuus: Kouji Totani (Anime 1), Nobuaki Kanemitsu (Anime 2)

★ 'Mame Soramame' (空豆まめ ''Soramame Mame'', Broad bean Bean), Taro and Peasuke's mother, who also wears an animal cap like Peasuke.

The Tsun Family

A family of Chinese whose spaceship crash landed in Penguin Village.

★ 'Tsururin Tsun' (摘鶴燐 ''Tsun Tsururin'', The sound of something shiny and smooth (such as a bald head)), the daughter. Has various powers, including telekinesis and teleportation, and later starts dating Taro.
:Seiyuus: Yuuko Mita (Anime 1), Houko Kuwashima (Anime 2)

★ 'Tsukutsun Tsun' (摘突詰 ''Tsun Tsukutsun'', The sound of poking something (such as poop)), 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 even 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. He later starts dating Akane.
:Seiyuus: Shigeru Chiba (Anime 1), Ryoutarou Okiayu (Anime 2)

★ 'Tsuruten Tsun' (摘鶴天 ''Tsun Tsuruten''), 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.
:Seiyuus: Hiroshi Ohtake (Anime 1), Kouji Yada (Anime 2)

★ 'Tsuntsunodanoteiyugo Tsun' (摘詰角田野廷遊豪 ''Tsun Tsuntsunodanoteiyūgō''), the mother, who also practices kung fu, like her son. Tends to beat up her perverted husband. Her name comes from the commercial song of old days of Japanese bicycle manufacturer Tsunoda.
:Seiyuus: Mitsuko Horie (Anime 1), Michie Tomizawa (Anime 2)

Penguin Village Police Force

(Note that none of the police force are given names in the comics, except for Charmy Yamada.)

★ 'Pagos' (パゴス ''Pagosu''), 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 on 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'').
:Seiyuus: Masaharu Satou (Anime 1), Michio Nakao (Anime 2)

★ 'Gara' (ガラ), 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.
:Seiyuus: Isamu Tanonaka (Anime 1), Nobuhiko Kazama (Anime 2)

★ 'Gyaosu' (ギャオス), the police chief.
:Seiyuus: Kouji Totani (Anime 1), Bin Shimada (Anime 2)

★ 'Polly Bakettsu' (ポリー・バケッツ ''Porī Bakettsu''), the gun-toting lady cop. The name is from police and ''poribaketsu'' (poly (polyethylene, polypropylene and so on) + bucket).
:Seiyuus: Toshiko Fujita (Anime 1), Masako Katsuki (Anime 2)

★ 'Charmy Yamada' (チャーミー山田 ''Chāmī Yamada''), a very dedicated cop who joins the force later in the series.
:Seiyuus: Ryou Horikawa (Anime 1)

Other recurring characters

★ 'Mashirito' (マシリト the family name of the author's editor at the time, Kazuhiko Torishima, reversed), Senbei's evil mad scientist rival; he looks strangely similar to the author's boss.
:Seiyuus: Nachi Nozawa→ Keiichi Noda (Anime 1), Yasuo Yamada (Anime 1 movies), Akira Kamiya (1992 movie), Ryoutarou Okiayu (Anime 2)

★ 'Suppaman' (スッパマン Sour+Man, sounds like Superman), hero-wannabe 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 Kenta Kuraaku (暗悪健太 ''Kuraaku Kenta'', Dark-and-Evil Bob (or any other typical male name)) note that ''Kuraaku Kenta'' sounds like ''Clark Kent''.
:Seiyuus: Tessho Genda (Anime 1), Toru Furuya (Anime 2)

★ 'King Nikochan' (ニコチャン大王 ''Nikochan Daiō''), 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, which a native speaker of the dialect can find some difference between the author's Northern Nagoya dialect. In the anime, he speaks in false Nagoya dialect.
:Seiyuus: Hiroshi Ohtake (Anime 1), Bin Shimada (Anime 2)

★ 'Nikochan's Servant' (ニコチャン家来 ''Nikochan Kerai''), 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.)
:Seiyuus: Shigeru Chiba (Anime 1), Ryou Horikawa (Anime 2)

★ 'Parzan' (パーザン ''Paazan'', Fool+Zan, parody of "Tarzan"), Tarzan hero wannabe with almost exactly the same face as Suppaman; shares a mutual dislike with Suppaman.
:Seiyuus: Kouji Totani (Anime 1), Minori Matsushima (Anime 2)

★ 'Bubibinman' (ブビビンマン Sound of a fly buzzing+Man), hero-wannabe from Superman's planet, who came to Earth after hearing that Superman (the 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).
:Seiyuus: Mugihito

★ 'Kinoko Sarada' (皿田きのこ ''Sarada Kinoko'', Salad Mushroom), a toddler who lives in Penguin Village and spends her days riding her tricycle and laughing at others for not keeping up with fashion.
:Seiyuus: Kazuko Sugiyama (Anime 1), Noriko Uemura (Anime 2)

★ 'Daigoro Kurigashira' (栗頭大五郎 ''Kurigashira Daigorō'', Chestnut-head ''Daigorou''), 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.
:Seiyuus: Tetsuo Mizutori (Anime 1), Nobuo Tobita (Anime 2)

★ 'Donbe' (ドンベ), a fox who likes to transform into things and scare people.
:Seiyuus: Shigeru Chiba (Anime 1), Kappei Yamaguchi (Anime 2)

★ 'Hiyoko' (ヒヨコ Chick), Peasuke's (taller) girlfriend whom he saved from a bug after she was hit by Senbei's shrink gun.
:Seiyuus: Saeko Shimazu (Anime 1), Houko Kuwashima (Anime 2)

★ 'Unchi-kun' (うんち君 Mr. Poop), 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)
:Seiyuus: Keiko Yamamoto (Anime 1), Chika Sakamoto (Anime 2)

★ 'Toriyama' (トリヤマ), the creator of the series, he frequently appears as in the story, usually represented by a bird (the ''tori'' in ''Toriyama'' means ''bird''), a robot, or a man wearing a surgical mask.
:Seiyuus: Isamu Tanonaka (bird, robot) and Hideyuki Tanaka (human) (Anime 1)

★ 'Matsuyama' (松山), Toriyama's 2nd assistant.
:Seiyuus: Shigeru Chiba

★ 'Makusa' (マクサ), Takoyaki cook, the model of this character is Akira Sakuma, a notable game designer and a co-author of Toriyama's book.

Movies

#'' (1981)
#'' (1982)
#'' (1983)
#'' (1984)
#'' (1985)
#'' (1993)
#'' (1993)
#'' (1994)
#'' (1994)
#'' (1999)
#'' (March 3rd, 2007) [2]

In-Universe 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 manga volume 7.) Arale and Son 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'' (Japanese: Makafushigi Dai-Bōken). Because of these cameos (and other similarities), many fans consider the two series as taking place in the same fictional 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. The characters later appeared in the third manga called "Chotto Kaettekita Dr. Slump" (loosely translated: "Dr. Slump Returns, But Only For a Little While"). 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). Goku also makes a brief cameo, trying to stop Mashirito ( in the manga and anime ).

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.
The English language version of the manga is translated by noted game translator Alexander O. Smith.
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.

External links

★ Official Site

★ Doctor Slump Polish Site

★ http://the.animearchive.org/drslump/1/

★ Dr. Slump

★ Arale's Jumpstation Dr Slump Fan site

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