Dr. Slump #1-12

Dr. Slump #1-12

Originally released in 1980

Written by Akira Toriyama

Art by Akira Toriyama

When Shonen Jump had physical magazines being released in North America, they generally stuck to a reliable set of action series (Naruto, Dragon Ball, One Piece, Yu Yu Hakusho...), some less action-heavy series like Hikaru no Go and Yu-Gi-Oh, and previews of series that Viz had just translated.  One of those previews was my first and basically only exposure to Dr. Slump, Akira Toriyama's pre-Dragon Ball hit. (the characters from that show also appeared briefly in Dragon Ball)

Dr. Slump is a gag manga, with Senbei Norimaki allegedly as the lead and titular character.  A scientist whose experiments often fail in some way (hence the nickname Dr. Slump - for example, when he builds a robot, the robot is nearsighted and requires glasses), Senbei claims to be 28 years old despite looking middle-aged.  I'm not sure if this is editorially-enforced (in my experience with Shonen Jump manga, 28 seems to be the oldest that a lead character can start the series out as, though time-skips can age the character beyond that) or a joke that Senbei's lying about his age, though it could go either way.

However, Senbei is overshadowed by his robot creation, Arale. (for all intents and purposes, Arale is like his daughter, though Senbei claims that Arale is his younger sister to make it seem like he's not too old)  Arale's definitely the highlight of this series, with her lack of understanding over basic concepts and her absurd capabilities (as an allegedly 13 year old girl who's supposedly a normal human) driving the plot and a lot of the gags.

It's interesting to see how things have changed with Shonen Jump over the decades in terms of content.  Some of the plotlines felt like something that wouldn't be included in manga nowadays - at one point, Arale complains that she's not an exact replica of a human, so Senbei sets out to use what's basically X-ray goggles to do some "research." (Senbei can be a pervert)  It turns out that Arale was complaining about missing a belly button, and nothing explicit is shown on Senbei's misadventures, but I'm surprised they could get away with that much.

The series has a loose relationship with the fourth wall, fitting a gag manga.  There's not much emphasis on continuity, as one would expect from a series like this, and the whole thing is pretty episodic, though there are some changes to the status quo. (a trip to the time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth leads to Arale and Senbei finding an egg that contains an angel-like baby, who becomes part of the main cast)

There are plenty of pop culture references, with Godzilla and Gamera getting multiple shout-outs. (the angel baby was named Gatchan by Arale, which is short for Gadzilla, a mix between the two names - I'm assuming the reasoning was changed for the anime)  This is something that's pretty common in Akira Toriyama's works - the entire Android saga in Dragon Ball was heavily inspired by the Terminator movies.

The family-like relationship between Senbei and Arale is goofy but also occasionally heartwarming.  Arale's antics were consistently entertaining, and the isolated nature of each chapter kept things from feeling repetitive or stale.  Also, the series contains the best example of A.I.-generated art that I've seen.

Toriyama gets to demonstrate a few different art styles - mostly sticking to his goofy-looking characters, but occasionally having Senbei's appearance change considerably as he goes into "suave mode" and, at one point, a bear changes to a semi-realistic art style for no particular reason.

I had a good time with reading the first volume of this series.  For whatever reason, comedy manga tend to be shorter in Shonen Jump (either that or Toriyama felt like 15 pages was enough; I'm not sure), so the chapters went by quickly, even if at least one of them ended kind of abruptly.  Still, the chapters that I read were comforting, in a way, with its depictions of Arale and Senbei's small town life, and I found it to be a refreshing change from the action-focused manga series that I had been reading.