Ask John: What’s the Background on Dr. Slump?

Question:
I’m a big fan of Akira Toriyama’s work, and I found out about Dr Slump recently, a title that he worked on before Dragonball. I was wondering if Dr. Slump had its own show, or was it just a Japanese comic? If it did have its own show, how many episodes were there, and is there anywhere that I could possibly purchase episodes, imported or not?

Answer:
Dr. Slump has been extremely successful in Japan, although little known in the rest of the world. Originating in a manga series that has amassed 18 collected tankouban volumes, the first Dr. Slump TV series premiered on April 8, 1981 and lasted for 243 episodes and, if I’m not mistaken, 8 theatrical movies. After the ignominious conclusion of Dragonball GT, Dr. Slump was revived in 1997 for 74 episode second series. The 1997 TV series also spawned a 3D Playstation action game in 1999. The series has never made it to America (notwithstanding Arale’s appearance in the third Dragonball movie, which is available in America), and doesn’t seem likely to come to America largely due to its excessive amount of lowbrow toilet humor, distinctly Japanese comedy, and parodies of Western conventions including Superman. Unfortunately, like Dragonball, no Dr. Slump TV episodes from either series have ever been released on Japanese home video. Much of both TV series has been released in China and Asia, and a handful of the movies are available fansubbed in the US if you really hunt for them.

Dr. Slump is a wacky comedy about a small, super strong but not-too-bright robot girl named Arale, who lives in Penguin Village with her father/creator Dr. Slump and her collection of assorted bizarre neighbors. Because Arale-chan is a robot, she doesn’t defecate; therefore she finds excrement fascinating, leading to lots of scatological jokes including walking, talking poo.