Dr. Slump
Dr. Slump (Japanese: Dr. スランプ) is one of the most popular manga (Japanese comic books) of Akira Toriyama. The first issue was published in 1980 by the anthology comic Weekly Shonen Jump, and the issues after it quickly launched Toriyama's career (he is currently one of the most famous and beloved manga artist in Japan).
The initial run of the comic ended in 1984 and it was later compiled into 18 tankoubons. Dr. Slump is a gag comic, and bears little resemblance to the extremely popular Toriyama 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 animes. 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 1990 and only featured 74 episodes. In addition to the series, 10 animated movies have featured the Dr. Slump characters.
Dr. Slump is filled with puns, scatalogical jokes, and parodies of both Japanese and American culture. For example, one of the recurring characters is "Suppaman", a short, fat, pompous buffoon who transforms into a Superman-like costume by eating a sour ("suppa" in Japanese) pickle. Unlike Superman, Suppaman can't fly, and instead pretends to fly by lying belly down on a skateboard and skooting through the streets. Also, the policemen in Dr. Slump can be seen wearing Star Wars-style storm trooper helmets, just as in the American movies. Ironically, Dr. Slump has never been published in any form in the United States, because the humor is said to be "too Japanese". However, Dr. Slump and the anime based on it have been run in almost everywhere else in the West; for example, France, Germany, Italy, and Mexico.
Dr. Slump is set in Penguin Village, a place where humans co-exist with the sort of talking animals found in Donald Duck comics. In this village lives Senbei Norimaki, an inventor (his name is a pun on a brand of rice cracker). His nickname is "Dr. Slump", kind of like nicknaming an author "Writer's Block". In the first issue, he builds a little robot girl he names Arale Norimaki (a pun on a smaller kind of rice cracker), in scenes obviously parodying the Italian children's classic Pinocchio. Because she is Senbei the lousy inventor's creation, she soon turns out to be in severe need of eyeglasses. She is also very naive, 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.
The manga focuses on Arale's misunderstandings of humanity and Senbei's inventions, rivalries, and romantic misadventures. Other characters include Midori Yamabuki, Arale's teacher and Senbei's future wife, Akane Kimidori, a "bad girl", and Ga-chan Norimaki, a green-haired, cherub-like creature which follows Senbei home from a time traveling trip.
After the original manga ended, the characters of Dr. Slump returned for an extended cameo in the Dragon Ball manga (and anime), also by Akira Toriyama, in issues 81-83. (These issues are collected in volume 7 of the Dragon Ball compilations.) Arale and Son Goku briefly team up to help Goku defeat General Blue during the Red Ribbon Army Saga. Arale also makes a smaller cameo in the third Dragon Ball movie, Mystical Adventure (Japanese: Makafushigi Dai-Bôken). Because of these cameos (and other similiarities), may fans consider the two series as taking place in the same fictional universe.