It's always been a past-time anime fans to discuss different characters' power levels. Many a forum thread or online article has been devoted to those sorts of inquiries. And perhaps no series is more famous for this sort of debate than Dragon Ball, which introduced power levels as a concept in the first place. In debating the strongest character in Dragon Ball, it's perhaps somewhat ironic that one of the strongest contenders on that list is originally from another series entirely.

Arale Norimaki, an innocent-seeming robot girl with long purple hair and big glasses, is still seriously considered to be one of the strongest of Akira Toriyama's creations. But perhaps what truly sets her apart is she was also one of his first. Arale is one of the main characters of Dr. Slump, Toriyama's first successful manga, which ran for 18 volumes from 1978 to 1984. Unfortunately, that success has been muted in the west to the extent that most fans outside Japan only know of Arale thanks to her appearances in Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Super, along with a few video games.

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Who is this "Dr. Slump"?

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The title character of Dr. Slump is actually not Arale, but Senbei Norimaki, the man that created her, and has since claimed her to be his younger sister. The elder Norimaki is a genius inventor not unlike Bulma, but with the perversion of Master Roshi and the occasional thick headedness of Goku. He pines after Arale's schoolteacher, Midori Yamabuki, who he eventually marries. Arale is chaos and childish energy embodied, made even more dangerous by the fact that she's insanely strong. In fact, she's strong enough to split the Earth in half with a punch. The characters all live in Penguin Village, a remote and rural town filled with all sorts of strange inhabitants, many of them not human.

Chapters of Dr. Slump follow a few different patterns. Many focus on Senbei debuting a new invention which has disastrous ramifications when Arale invariably abuses it. Other chapters rely on Arale's uncanny ability to annoy or even drive insane various other characters with her shenanigans. In one chapter, she exasperates a robber to the point that he turns himself in to get away from her (two police officers named Gala and Pagos are also frequently victims of Arale's escapades). Another chapter sees her effortlessly beat Suppaman/Sourman (a short, pudgy parody of Superman) in various contests of strength, his arrogance failing to mask the abject fear he feels.

As Dr. Slump progresses, two things happen: Arale gradually displaces Senbei to become the series' mascot and main character, and the ensemble cast grows steadily, to the point that describing every supporting character here would be a strenuous task. That said, highlights among the supporting cast include Arale's friend Akane, an eighth grader with a penchant for getting in trouble, Tsukutsun Tsun, a Chinese boy that turns into a tiger whenever a woman touches him, and the high school delinquent Taro Soramame.

Dr. Slump's Legacy

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At first glance, Dr. Slump is almost nothing like Dragon Ball. It's an episodic gag manga without a major narrative. Other than fighting the occasional robot created by the villainous Dr. Mashirito (a pastiche of Toriyama's editor Kazuhiko Torishima), there's hardly any stakes. In many ways Dr. Slump takes more of a page from the equally important Doraemon or even Western newspaper comics in its premise and tone than early shonen manga like those of Osamu Tezuka. Dr. Slump is less concerned with telling a compelling story than making its reader laugh as often as possible, and it is in Dr. Slump that Toriyama's talent as a humorist shines best (and consequently is largely ignored). If Dr. Slump gave anything to the biggest manga that followed it, it wasn't plot but its comedic spirit. After reading through it, it's easy to see how Dr. Slump played a role in Dragon Ball's funnier moments, and onwards to One Piece and Naruto.

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Both Eiichiro Oda and Masashi Kishimoto have directly cited Dr. Slump as inspirations for their work, and were fans of the series growing up (in addition to Dragon Ball, of course). Senbei's exasperation at Arale and the cherub-like Gatchans (short for Gajira or Godzilla) is highly reminiscent of the angry straight man routine between Nami and Usopp or Luffy in One Piece or Sakura with Naruto. Senbei's love for dirty magazines is echoed in Kakashi's love for erotic novels. The list could go on indefinitely.

Why Dr. Slump Is Forgotten

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It may seem strange that series by such an iconic author is basically unknown in the West aside from Arale's two forays into the Dragon Ball franchise. A lot of longtime Dragon Ball fans were probably surprised to see her literally headbutt base form Vegeta around the planet, and to fight evenly with SSGSS Goku. It's a shame that the context is lacking, but there's a good reason why.

Dr. Slump was a major success in Japan, but for the longest time, that's where it stayed. The Dr. Slump manga wasn't serialized by Viz for western audiences until 2005, over 2 decades after its completion in Japan. Dr. Slump also received two anime adaptations. The first, Dr. Slump - Arale-chan ran in the mid-1980s for 243 episodes and has never received an official release overseas. The second, a 1997 revival simply called Doctor Slump with wildly different-looking characters and a total of 74 episodes, remained unreleased in the west until Tubi began to stream it with English subtitles last year.

That neglect is tragic, because Dr. Slump's footprint on manga and anime is indisputable. Not only that, it's genuinely one of the funniest pieces of fiction ever conceived, and is rife with references to American pop culture including Superman and Star Wars which western audiences would love. Thankfully, while its original anime remains inaccessible through legal means, those curious can read the Dr. Slump manga through the Shonen Jump website or app, or order the paperback volumes through various sites. And indeed they should, because this series is one that shouldn't be overlooked.

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