Akira Toriyama Super Database: Dr. Slump
The Story of Dr. Slump
Dr. Slump is a gag manga by Akira
Toriyama. It starts with Senbe Norimaki, a brilliant if erratic inventor,
building a robot in the shape of a young girl. He names the robot "Arale"
("senbe norimaki" is a kind of rice cracker; "arale" is a smaller rice
cracker. Dr. Slump is full of these kinds of puns.) Arale is enrolled
in an elementary school, as a test to see if she is designed well enough
to fit in with the rest of society. Arale actually is very strange -- being
super strong, and liking to play to dog turds -- but the rest of Penguin
Village is just as weird, and no one complains about her.
The succeeding stories are mainly parodies of various movies and Japanese
TV shows. But, there is also a sort of unfolding drama, as Senbe falls
in love with Arale's teacher, and eventually marries her. They even have
a son, named Turbo. In the final volumes, Toriyama throws in more, longer
multi-part stories, that always have some stupid joke at the end.
With the creation of the video game magazine "V-Jump", Toriyama revived
his characters with a continuing serial manga in V-Jump. However, most
of the new stories were written by Toriyama's studio staff, and are not
as good as the originals. Sometime in 1996, the New Dr. Slump disappeared
from the pages of V-Jump.
The Dr. Slump TV series ran from April, 1981, to Feb., 1986.
During the revival of the story in V-Jump, there were a few short movies
released to the theaters (as part of a triple-feature.) Each of the movies
have seen print in the form of Jump Anime Comics.
As with Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump has been translated into many
different languages, and has appeared in quite a few different countries.
Beginning with January 1997, an Italian version of the manga has apeared
in print. Dr. Slump is not as popular on Internet as Dragon Ball is, but
there are a few web pages geared to this manga, with most of the current
interest being in Europe.
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Revision History
- 03/14/97
Created this file.
People who helped me on these files:
- Mike Laughead,
who reviewed the Dr. Slump net sites, and who provided the image I use
for the Akira Toriyama Super Database logo.
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This Section of the Akira Toriyama Super Database is maintained by
Curtis H. Hoffmann.
Go to the
Akira Toriyama Super Database Home Page.
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