Dr. Slump vol. 1

Creator: Akira Toriyama

Publisher: Viz Media

Pages: 192 

Really charming comedy series, with a memorable cast of characters. Senbei Norimaki is a quirky scientist that one day builds an android of a small girl to see if he can fool the villagerss into believing she is a real girl. Arale as she is named, has to learn how to behave as a normal human girl, and Senbei then have to adjust to his new role as a father. This also often includes involving Arale and her friends in weird experiments with his new inventions.

Dr. Slump has the same charm and childish sense of wonder and imagination that you find in the early days of Dragon Ball, and i love that. Many of the chapters serve as closed stories that does not advance a overarching plotline which is very normal for a gag manga like this, but can still get a bit tedious if you read larger amounts of the series in a single sitting. The short stories, on the other hand, does contain quite a bit of variety and several new characters are introduced in a timely fashion throughout the book, so that it still feels fresh and exciting all the way through.

The humour is often very low-brow and childish, but Toriyama still manages to pull it off in a very funny and endearing way. Though sometimes there is also jokes about looking at girls panties and other stereotypical manga tropes that can be a bit weird for a western audience. Sadly a lot of the smaller jokes, like the puns can get lost in translation, and there seems to be quite a bit of those. It does still feels pretty jam-packed with fun despite of that. Luckily, one of Toriyamas strengths is the gags done via physcial comedy, and a lot of the laughs can come from just looking at the expressive faces and movements of the characters.

A very colourful black and white manga.

Pros:

• Childish fun
• Charming characters
• Funny visual gags

Cons:

• Jokes lost in translation
• Lowbrow humour

7/10 Very good