Dr. Slump

AUTHOR: Toriyama, Akira

ARTIST: Akira Toriyama (illustrator)

PUBLISHER: Shueisha (Japanese); VIZ Media (English)

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION:Dokuta Suranpu, 1980-1984

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 1980-1985 (English translation, 2005-2009)

Publication History

From 1980 to 1984, Akira Toriyama’s Dr. Slump was serialized in the Japanese comic magazine Weekly Shonen Jump, beginning in issue 5 and concluding in issue 39. It was Toriyama’s first breakout hit, inspiring a 243-episode animated series, a series of animated films and direct-to-video specials, and a vast array of merchandise, including toys and video games. The cast appeared briefly in Toriyama’s even more successful follow-up, Dragon Ball (1984-1995). Other than Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump is the work most identified with Toriyama.

The series was originally collected in eighteen volumes by Shueisha, with a nine-volume collector’s edition released in 1990, a nine-volume novel-quality edition in 1995, and a fifteen-volume “complete collection” in 2006. Beginning in 2005, the series was translated into English and published by VIZ Media. Volume 18, matching the original Japanese collection of the series, was released in 2009.

Plot

Dr. Slump is a humorous science-fiction comic originally intended for the elementary-to-young-adult audience of Japan’s Weekly Shonen Jump comic magazine. The story follows Dr. Senbei Norimaki, an inventor whose perpetual personal and professional failures have earned him the nickname “Dr. Slump.” Senbei lives in Penguin Village, a bizarre town occupied by humans and humanoid animals as well as robots, aliens, superheroes, and monsters. One of Senbei’s few successes has been building a robot girl named Arale; however, though an undeniable technical achievement, Arale is inexplicably nearsighted and prone to inadvertently causing mayhem with the combination of her enthusiastic nature and prodigious robot strength.

Following his creation of Arale, Senbei spends a significant portion of the series trying halfheartedly and unsuccessfully to teach her to pass as a normal human girl. What time Senbei does not spend humanizing Arale is spent inventing ambitious but unusable devices and trying unsuccessfully to woo attractive women such as Arale’s schoolteacher, Ms. Yamabuki.

Arale, meanwhile, splits her time between attending school and getting into mischief or going on adventures with her friends: bored delinquent Akane Kimidori, harmless loudmouth Taro Soramame, and Taro’s genial younger brother Peasuke. Arale is also frequently accompanied by Gatchan, a green-haired cherubic creature hatched from an egg she finds early in the series.

The series is episodic. Most stories are stand-alone installments built around a humorous situation or adventure usually involving Arale’s misunderstanding of normal human behavior, Senbei’s limited experience with women, or one of Senbei’s inventions. Later adventures revolve around new additions to the cast, including the Tsun family and the mad scientist Dr. Mashirito. The latter frequently plots to destroy Arale, going so far as to build a male copy of her named Caramel Man 004.

The biggest change in the series comes when Senbei finally proposes marriage to Ms. Yamabuki, thinking she is out of earshot. Predictably, this is not the case, and she hears him. Unpredictably, she agrees; the two marry and start a family, having the superpowered baby Turbo. Turbo takes the spotlight as the main character for several chapters before the story returns to featuring Arale and Senbei. With the title character’s central problem, bachelorhood, resolved, the series advances to features such as a metafictional question-and-answer session between Toriyama and his readers before finally concluding with a massive motorcycle race.

Volumes

• Dr. Slump, Volume 1 (2005). Dr. Senbei Norimaki struggles to pass off Arale as a human girl. Meanwhile, Arale makes friends in Penguin Village.

• Dr. Slump, Volume 2 (2005). Arale unintentionally terrorizes a bank robber who thinks he has taken her hostage. When Arale complains about not having something all the other girls have (a belly button), Senbei goes on a “research trip” with a pair of X-ray glasses.

• Dr. Slump, Volume 3 (2005). Arale deals with an alien invasion and a short circuit in her brain that makes her act like a normal girl. Upon recovering, she begins her strange fascination with the occasionally alive piles of feces that litter Penguin Village.

• Dr. Slump, Volume 4 (2005). Toriyama appears in the story to challenge his creations to a game of “kick the can” and promises to grant a wish for the winner.

• Dr. Slump, Volume 5 (2006). Peasuke meets the girl of his dreams but almost loses her when Arale fires a shrink ray at her to make her Peasuke’s size.

• Dr. Slump, Volume 6 (2006). Senbei has a feces-based nightmare, and recurring mad scientist villain Dr. Mashirito makes his first appearance.

• Dr. Slump, Volume 7 (2006). Senbei stars in a production of Cinderella that is hindered when Toriyama runs out of pages. Meanwhile, Arale discovers the simple joy of poking toothpicks into snacks and applies it to all sorts of objects around the village.

• Dr. Slump, Volume 8 (2006). Alien invaders and a megalomaniac armed with robotic feces face Arale and friends in the “Penguin Village Wars.”

• Dr. Slump, Volume 9 (2006). Senbei proposes to Ms. Yamabuki; a panel later, they are a married couple facing a genuinely bizarre honeymoon and multiple kidnappings of the new bride.

• Dr. Slump, Volume 10 (2006). The Tsun family is introduced when they crash their rocket in Penguin Village. The Tsun children quickly acclimate themselves to life in the village when they compete in the Penguin Village High School Olympics.

• Dr. Slump, Volume 11 (2007). Senbei and his new friend Tsuru-Ten Tsun go to the village bathhouse to peep on girls with X-ray glasses, forgetting that everyone there is already naked. Later, Senbei tries to explain Arale’s existence to his grandfather.

• Dr. Slump, Volume 12 (2007). Senbei fixes the antigravity devices of both the Tsuns and the alien invaders from Volume 8, enabling both groups to leave. Arale and the Gatchans stow away on the invaders’ ship.

• Dr. Slump, Volume 13 (2007). Dr. Mashirito builds Caramel Man 004 to destroy Arale and is forced to build models 005, 006, and 007 when 004 falls in love with her.

• Dr. Slump, Volume 14 (2008). Dr. Mashirito and his creation Caramel Man 007 finally succeed in destroying Arale, but her death is temporary.

• Dr. Slump, Volume 15 (2008) The Norimakis’ child, Turbo, is born. Senbei finds it hard to deal with the normal stresses of new parenting, let alone Turbo’s superpowers.

• Dr. Slump, Volume 16 (2008). Toriyama runs an extensive question-and-answer session, fielding questions from both his readers and his characters. Meanwhile, Dr. Mashirito’s latest plot involves impersonating Santa Claus.

• Dr. Slump, Volume 17 (2009). God reveals the Gatchans to be angels, and only Arale and friends stand between God and his wrath toward his cherubic creations.

• Dr. Slump, Volume 18 (2009). Toriyama indulges his love of motorcycles by throwing the characters into a massive motorcycle race.

Characters

• Dr. Senbei Norimaki, a.k.a. Dr. Slump,the protagonist, is a squat, husky man in his early thirties with curly black hair and a mustache that never seems to grow in fully or remain shaven for more than a few minutes. While he is technically skilled as an inventor, his inventions are usually flawed or unsuccessful. He is the inventor and “father” of Arale.

• Arale Norimaki, a.k.a. Arale-chan,is a robot girl designed to look roughly thirteen years old. She has straight purple hair and wears large glasses. She is a friendly, high-spirited girl and a bit of a tomboy.

• Gadzilla Norimaki, a.k.a. Gatchan,is a flying, green-haired cherub who speaks in a bubbling baby language that only Arale and Turbo Norimaki can understand. It is able to eat almost any material, clone itself, and shoot rays from its antennae. Gatchan is Arale’s companion and is revealed late in the series to be an angel sent by God to keep human development under control.

• Dr. Mashirito becomes the recurring antagonist midway through the series. He is a lean, squinty-eyed man with sunken cheeks and an immense Afro hairstyle. His repeated failure to destroy Arale and the Norimakis forces him to replace his body parts with cybernetic ones.

• Caramel Man 004 is an invention of Dr. Mashirito, based on stolen plans for Arale and without those aspects of Arale that Mashirito finds annoying. Caramel Man 004 appears to be a neatly dressed, bespectacled boy about Arale’s age. Though created as part of the Caramel Man series of robots, 004 falls immediately in love with Arale instead of destroying her as intended.

Artistic Style

Dr. Slump is drawn in a distinct visual style: Characters and settings are drawn squat and clear-lined, in what is known as the “super-deformed style.” The characters have rounded, potbellied bodies, overly large heads, and detailed features. There is a touch of American cartooning style to the art, evident in the rounded, soft forms of the characters. Despite the cartooniness of the characters and setting, Toriyama occasionally draws in a more traditional or realistic style for comedic effect.

The chief Artistic appeal of Dr. Slump is Toriyama’s “anything goes” sense of visual inventiveness. Each chapter is packed not only with deliberate gags that drive the story but also with numerous background jokes, asides, and sequences that break the fourth wall. The line work of the series clearly evolves from a more gag-based cartooning style to that of a skilled illustrator working in a deliberately funny style. This stylistic growth paid off in Toriyama’s subsequent series, Dragon Ball.

Toriyama also begins a trend in Dr. Slump that would follow him throughout the rest of his career and become one of the most lauded aspects of his work: an attention to technical detail paid to even the most fantastic machine. Toriyama has stated that when drawing machinery, no matter how exaggerated or unreplicable in the real world, he always considers practical details such as how someone would climb aboard it, where someone would sit, and how the machine would move without falling over.

Themes

As a series primarily concerned with humor, Dr. Slump includes themes generally related to whatever amused or interested Toriyama when he sat down at the drawing table. While the initial story stemmed from a riff on the seminal manga series Astro Boy (1952-1968), the series is filtered through Toriyama’s own experiences. Toriyama based Senbei on himself, and considering that Toriyama accumulated five hundred pages of rejected comics before hitting on Dr. Slump, one can infer a self-deprecating humor in naming an authorial doppelgänger “Dr. Slump.” One can also infer that when Senbei settles down and starts a family, Toriyama is again drawing on his own experiences. Primarily, however, Dr. Slump seems to be a vehicle through which Toriyama explores his thoughts on popular culture and passing interests in a humorous manner, poking fun at himself and his editors, honing his craft, and delighting in “playing around” in his chosen profession.

Impact

For what is essentially a loose autobiographical parody of Astro Boy, Dr. Slump remains something of a phenomenon. The series is a popular “classic,” with merchandise still produced decades after the series’ conclusion. In addition to inspiring toys, animated series, and video games, Dr. Slump has influenced Japanese culture in at least one enduring way: The style of large glasses Arale wears in the series has come to be widely associated with her.

Ending in 1984, Dr. Slump helped to usher in the “Golden Age of Jump” that took place from roughly 1985 to 1995 and saw Weekly Shonen Jump’s subscription numbers hit 6.5 million. Dr. Slump made a name for Toriyama and paved the way for his follow-up manga, Dragon Ball, one of the megahit series that contributed to the Golden Age. While Dr. Slump is dwarfed in popularity by the more story- and action-oriented Dragon Ball, its inventiveness is rarely matched. Dr. Slump’s absurdist humor is echoed in later series such as One Piece (1997- ) and Gin Tama (2003- ).

Films

Dr. Slump and Arale-chan: Hello! Wonder Land! Directed by Minoru Okazaki. Toei Animation, 1982. This film adaptation stars the cartoon’s regular voice actors, Kenji Utsumi (Senbei Norimaki) and Mami Koyama (Arale Norimaki). The film adapts the series installments “Hello, Wonder Island” and “The Ogre-King Gyaska,” wherein Senbei finds a videotape from his father detailing how to make a love potion.

Dr. Slump: “Hoyoyo!” Space Adventure. Directed by Akinori Nagaoka. Toei Animation, 1982. This film adaptation stars Utsumi and Koyama; Mariko Mukai plays Yamashita-sensei, a teacher whom Arale discovers is, in fact, an alien.

Dr. Slump and Arale-chan: The Great Race Around the World. Directed by Minoru Okazaki. Toei Animation, 1983. This film adaptation stars Utsumi and Koyama and revolves around a cross-continent race that Arale and Senbei enter. Oddly enough, the film was released before Toriyama concluded the manga series with his own massive race.

Dr. Slump and Arale-chan: Hoyoyo! The Secret of the Nanaba Castle. Directed by Hiroki Shibata. Toei Animation, 1984. This film adaptation stars Utsumi and Koyama and follows a series of thefts and counterthefts of the Eye of the Rainbow, a magical stone.

Dr. Slump and Arale-chan: Hoyoyo! The City of Dream, Mechapolis. Directed by Kazuhisa Takenouchi and Toyoo Ashida. Toei Animation, 1985. This film adaptation stars Utsumi and Koyama. Arale, the Gatchans, Akane, and Tsukutsun Tsun have an adventure in the Mechapolis and contend with the Mecha Police.

Dr. Slump and Arale-chan: Sunny Penguin Village. Directed by Yukio Kaizawa. Toei Animation, 1993. This film adaptation features Utsumi and Koyama and acts as a series reboot, reiterating the creation of Arale and adapting a Volume 4 story in which the Penguin Village police are caught between a giant monster attack and a “helpful” Arale.

Dr. Slump and Arale-chan: N-cha! From Penguin Village with Love. Directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto. Toei Animation, 1993. This film adaptation features Utsumi and Koyama. This second “reboot” film features numerous cameos from Dragon Ball characters and the first appearance of Nitro Norimaki, a second Norimaki child who only appears in the 1990’s films. Unlike older sibling Turbo, Nitro has no superpowers.

Dr. Slump and Arale-chan: Hoyoyo!! Follow the Rescued Shark. Directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto. Toei Animation, 1994. This film adaptation features voice actors Utsumi and Koyama. Arale rescues a baby shark from some chains, and the Norimakis follow it on an undersea adventure.

Dr. Slump and Arale-chan: N-cha!! Trembling Heart of the Summer. Directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto. Toei Animation, 1994. This film features Utsumi and Koyama and is the fourth in the reboot series. Arale’s summer vacation involves dealing with a group of supernatural creatures.

Dr. Slump: Arale’s Surprising Burn! Directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi. Toei Animation, 1999. This film adaptation stars Yuusaku Yara as Senbei and Taeko Kawata as Arale. Technically, this film could be considered a third reboot, as it uses the designs and voice cast from the second television series. Arale and company find a mysterious magic stone on a picnic and have to defend it from a sudden attack by pirates and magical creatures.

Television Series

Dr. Slump. Directed by Minoru Okazaki. Toei Animation, 1981-1986. This 243-episode series stars Utsumi and Koyama. It is a fairly straight adaptation of the comic, albeit with the necessary padding and extra jokes required to turn an eighteen-page comic into a half-hour program. The series was dubbed in French, Italian, and Spanish. The first episode was dubbed by Harmony Gold for American distribution; however, the pilot was never picked up.

Dr. Slump. Directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi. Toei Animation, 1997-1999. This 74-episode series stars Yara and Kawata and adapts the original manga story, with some story changes. It was dubbed into Italian, Spanish, and German.

Further Reading

Graham, Brandon. King City (2007-2010).

Oda, Eiichiro One Piece (2003- ).

Toriyama, Akira. Dragon Ball (1985-1989).

Bibliography

Oda, Eiichiro, and Akira Toriyama. “Monochrome Talk: Eiichiro Oda X Akira Toriyama.” In One Piece: Color Walk 1—Art of Shonen Jump, edited by Elizabeth Kowasaki. San Francisco, Calif.: VIZ Media, 2005.

Toriyama, Akira, and Rumiko Takahashi. “Toriyama/Takahashi Interview.” Translated by Toshiaki Yamada. Rumic World. http://www.furinkan.com/takahashi/takahashi4.html.