Review: DR. SLUMP

 Once again we're looking at a month of Weekly Shonen Jump titles, starting with one of the oldest titles from the magazine to ever see print here from one of its best-known creators.

DR. SLUMP (Dokuta Suranpu), by Akira Toriyama.  First published in 1980 and first published in North America in 2005.

PLOT:

Dr. Senbei Norikami has finally put the finishing touches on his greatest creation: Arale, a super-strong android girl.  He tries to pass her off as just an ordinary girl, but thanks to her strength, her curiosity, her willingness to make new friends, and some of Senbei's other inventions, her life is anything but normal.

STORY:

While Akira Toriyama's career has been dominated by all things Dragon Ball, that's not what made him famous in the first place.  This was his break-out series, and it's one that plays to his greatest strength: comedy.

Good gag manga are hard to pull off.  Most only have a suggestion of a plot and the characters tend to be pretty simple, so most depend on offering up as many jokes as fast as possible to keep going.  Dr. Slump has some noticeable differences and they got a long way towards keeping the gags and the story (such as it is) fresh.  One of them is Arale herself.  She's an immensely versatile character, possessing both the willfullness, curiosity, and innocence of a child but the strength to get herself out of any serious trouble.  This gives her all the movation she needs to explore (and misunderstand) the world, creating lots of chaos and comedy in the process.

It also helps that while Toriyama keeps the jokes coming fast, he varies up the type of jokes to keep things feeling fresh.  There's plenty of physical comedy and wild takes, of course, but there's also wordplay and bodily function jokes.  Characters can break the fourth wall and interact with the panel borders like a physical object.  Sometimes the punchline comes right away, and sometimes it takes an entire chapter to build up to it (like the time Arale asks for a belly button, by far my favorite part of the volume).  There's no reliance on pop culture references, so even over 40 years later the jokes are still timely.  It's an approach that takes a little extra work, but the payoff is invaluable for keeping this series going.

ART:

Again, if you're used to nothing but pointy-haired Seiyans, Toriyama's art style here will seem...well, goofy.  The characters are squat and childlike, with giant heads that make them look like classic bobblehead figures, regardless if they are humanoid or animal people.  That includes Toriyama himself, who cameos here and there as an anthropomorphic bird.  The world around them is much the same: cutesy, but goony enough that it works as its own little reality.  You can tell just from looking at it how much fun Toriyama is having drawing it, be it Senbei's wacky faces or just the little weird jokes crammed into the margins.

RATING:

Dr. Slump is the rare gag manga that holds up, thanks to its flexible premise, well-paced humor, and playfully cartoony art.  It's one of the few WSJ manga of its era that's stayed readily available in English, and may be the only one you could recommend to kids.

This series is published by Viz.  This series is complete in Japan with 18 volumes available.  All 18 have been published and are currently in print.