BACKGROUND OF
DR. SLUMP

General info

Arale, the main character DDr. Slump is the name of a manga (Japanese comic) drawn by the mega-famous Japanese artist Akira Toriyama. If this name does not sound a bell, it is certain that the name of the other series by the same author, which has acquired more relevance than Dr. Slump all over the world will sound a bell. We are speaking, of course, about Dragon Ball.
Dr. Slump began to appear weekly in the Japanese manga magazine Shônen Jump in January 1980. The month of august of 1984 the series was finished in its manga version, which was reedited in 18 manga volumes of about 200 pages each one.
The enormous success that this series had in Japan gave way to the production of a TV series, which, with the same name as the manga, was broadcasted for the first time in TV Tokyo, the 8th of April, 1981, and which lasted until the 19th of February, 1986. Moreover, 6 films which had a duration of approximately 1 hour were produced in order to take profit of the popularity of the TV series. In Catalonia we have been able to watch the series dubbed in Catalan since some years ago in TV3 and all the generation which are now in their 20's will be familiar with the words "ohio!" or "kupipi".
Since 1993 the Japanese can enjoy a new set of episodes about the adventures of Arale & Co., but these episodes have not the magical hand of Akira Toriyama behind.

Plot

Superman, a strange character Dr. Slump, whose actual name is Senbee Norimaki, is a great scientist who lives in a very little village of the most rural Japan, which is called Penguin Village. This village has almost no contact with the rest of Japan. Tough he is a great scientist, Senbee is a little stupid, sexual pervert but most important of all, he is very funny. The story begins when this doctor invents in his home a robot which has the perfect appearance of a 13-year-old girl. This girl has an enormous strenght and an enormous naivety as well. This robot has been given the name of Arale (Arare, in Japanese, is the name of a kind of cookie, and senbei is also a name of cookie, bigger that the arare ones) and she is the main character of the story since the first episode.
The series is only aimed at telling the adventures of Arale and her friends, whitout any predetermined plot, that is to say, the episodes have nothing in common with each other, this is not a series which has a linear plot but every episode is a different story.

Setting

All is possible in Penguin Village We have already said that the action of the series takes place in a little Japanese village in the country, what we have not said is that in this village everything is very peculiar: the sun brushes its teeth every morning just when it sets out, there is a little pig with a mike who announces us that the day has already begun in Penguin Village, the crows fly as they say "stupid, stupid", the peasants are hypos and the mountains are able to speak.
Moreover, the shits talk and walk, Senbee is able to create the stranger inventions and there are aliens who walk along the village as if it was their planet.

Arale's powers

Arale playing as Ultraman Arale has an enormous strenght and she can run very very fast, as fast that she uses to blow up the police patrol car when it is trudging the road... Moreover, she is able to throw up fire by her mouth (ncha! cannon), cut the Earth in half with a single punch and make any silly thing, as wanting to buy bras, make the moon grow with a pistol of growing rays, or tickle a Tiranosaurus Rex. Gatchan can throw up an electric ray for electrocutating her enemies and she can eat anything except rubber.



Senbee's inventions

One of Senbee's inventions: the robot esthéticien Senbee, apart from Arale, has been able to create lots of inverosimile things during the series. Some examples may be:
-A machine which is able to copy anything (people, things...)
-A pistol to change the size of anything.
-A time machine
-X-ray glasses
-Any type of means of transportation.
-A pistol to make somebody invisible.
And much more things. The funny thing is that all of his inventions are able to speak and walk and make fun of their creator telling him he is a stupid.

This is the kitsch universe of Doctor Slump, directly sprung from the sick mind of Toriyama-sensei. It is impossible to resist the absurd, stupid and idiot humour of the series and be able not to throw the guts laughing every time you watch an episode on TV. We hope that you will like the site and that you have a good time!!


Send me your oppinion to: Sembei@abonados.cplus.es