Akira Toriyama kickstarted
the 80s with a one-two manga punch of (1) wonderfully round cartoony
characters squirrelling around a fully realized universe of
pint-sized automobiles, fat little sunglass-wearing pigs, and the
simple yet busy landscape of the best Richard Scarry book ever, and
(2) poop jokes. Premiering in January 1980's Jump, Dr. Slump was an
instant hit, winning awards, making an ink-stained superstar out of
Toriyama, being collected into 18 tankubon collections, and starring
in 284 episodes of TV anime from Toei on FUJI-TV. Oh, and eleven
films.
As an 80s anime nerd I knew of Dr. Slump thanks to Ardith Carlton namechecking the show in
her seminal Comics Collector piece (Summer 1984 issue); soon afterwards I spotted the
first tankubon on sale at the local Japanese grocery store, at a
nostalgia-inducing yen-to-dollar exchange rate. It got got before
you could say "N'cha!" and even though I couldn't read
enough Japanese to find a toilet, Dr. Slump featured plenty of
toilets and toilet humor and lots of other goofy SF comedy, universal
enough to get laughs around the world, and I was a Dr. Slump fan but good. Viz would later publish the Slump manga in fine English
editions, but apart from subtitled Japanese-language TV broadcasts in
North American cultural markets and an abortive Harmony Gold pilot,
Dr. Slump's animated output wouldn't get a proper English release
until 2014's Discotek Media release of the first five Slump films in a two DVD set. Which is what we're talking about here, Akira
Toriyama's Dr. Slump (Arale) The Movies.
These Dr. Slump films all
feature our Dr. Slump heroes; the inept genius Doctor "Slump"
Senbei, his creation the super-robot girl Arale, Arale's inhuman
toddler pal Gatchan, Penguin Village juvenile delinquents Taro,
Akane, and Peasuke, and their glamorous, slightly scatterbrained
teacher Midori Yamabuki as they deal with making demons cry to create
love potions (the secret ingredient is boogers), racing around the
world with marriage as the prize, being kidnapped by the
mecha-wonderland Mechapolis, escaping the clutches of the evil Black
Dragon Society somewhere in the 1930s, and outwitting Senbei's
arch-rival, the insane super genius Dr. Mashirito, as he bends time
and space itself for the hand of the lovely Midori. Filled with
secondary and tertiary characters, these Dr. Slump films swarm with
cameos by Ultramen, kaiju, Star Wars stormtroopers, droids, and
aliens, as well as more familiar faces like Soramame the Clint
Eastwood inspired barber and the inept, hateful "superhero" Suppaman.
Produced for various
seasonal Toei Manga Matsuri screenings, these short films were
originally meant to be enjoyed by cinemas filled with noisy,
popcorn-huffing Japanese schoolchildren. How entertaining are they
for 21st century, non-Japanese-schoolchild audiences? Your mileage
may vary. Let's run down these movies in order of their entertainment
value:
 |
| Farewell To Space Battleship Slump: Soldiers Of Poop |
Mashirito's star turn is in Space Adventure, the best film of the bunch, which brings
the full power of Toei's SF animation department to bear on bringing
this space opera to thrilling, laser-blasting, star-destroying life.
Midori's secret life as alien royalty is revealed and Senbei launches
his own outer space battleship into the galaxy to rescue her from a
fate worse than death, which is to say life with galactic emperor Dr.
Mashirito, voiced by Yasuo "Lupin III" Yamada, taking the
insane space dictator / momma's boy role to new heights of glam rock
weirdness.
Lampooning Star Wars and Arcadia Of My Youth in equal
measure, Space Adventure is required viewing for anyone who's watched
Be Forever Yamato, Towards The Terra or Queen Millennia and wondered
what those movies would be like with more jokes. I know I have.
The Great Race Around The
World is just as satisfying; yes, it's Wacky Races, Dr. Slump style
as everybody takes to the open road in a wide variety of improbable
vehicles, taking an erratic route around the globe with the hand of
the beautiful Princess Front of the Radial Kingdom – who, strangely
enough, bears a startling resemblance to Midori Yamabuki – as the
prize! Will the evil Dr. Mashirito and his evil supercars defeat our
heroes? Will Princess Front be forced to marry someone she can't
stand? Will Dr. Slump's depressed kei-class minivan stave off
crippling self-doubt long enough to carry Arale across the finish
line?
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| Go Speed Kinoko Go |
The City Of Dreams
Mechapolis is a curiousity; light on plot, it screens like it was
poured right out of the wishes of its ten year old target audience.
Penguin Village's kids are all sucked into outer space to Mechapolis,
a mechanized-planet wonderland Disney World even more robot-filled than the actual Disney World, where everyone's dreams
come true thanks to robots. Its hazy futurism recalls other dazed
and confused anime masterpieces like, say, Noel's Fantastic Trip, and
the addition of a painfully long scene involving closeups of
Peasuke's prepubescent junk moves from comedy to cringedy with
remarkable speed.
 |
| the city of dreams and punching |
Luckily, our peek into the childrens' id helps the
film recover its humor and we're treated to all sorts of
robot-enabled dream scenarios, including idol singing, riding on
rollercoasters until you puke, eating lots of food, zapping
spaceships, and cosplaying as Ken from fellow Toei anime series Fist Of The North Star. When the surprising ruler of Mechapolis decides
to turn this wonderland into a nightmare, things backfire and are only
made worse by the addition of that universal Dr. Slump ingredient,
poop.
 |
| H.P. Lovecraft's "The Doom That Came To Mechapolis" |
Hello Wonder Island is an
expanded TV episode, itself an expanded manga chapter, in which
Senbei journeys to Wonder Island to gather the ingredients for a love
potion, the details of which are revealed to him on a videotape
recorded by his late father, who knew Senbei would have trouble with
girls. It's an earlier Slump story and you can see the characters
settling into their roles and the show reaching its sweet spot in
terms of crazy inventions and a sexually frustrated Senbei.
The Secret Of Nanaba Castle,
on the other hand, is late-period Dr. Slump, with all the signifiers
that entails – the Tsun family, two Gatchans, and storylines that
begin to resemble the episodic adventures of Toriyama's next series
Dragon Ball. The action starts to overpower the goof as Arane and
Akane, embedded in a fantasy 30s' Indiana Jones setting as the Hoyoyo
Gang of Robin Hood style ninjas, steal not only sweet potatoes (as
seen in the original manga story) but an amazing wish-fulfilling gem
called the Rainbow Eye from, who else, the dapper millionaire Senbei
Norimaki. Their midnight theft is hijacked by the evil super genius
and zeppelin enthusiast The Great Bisma of the Black Dragon society
(of Count Dante fame, obvs). The Hoyoyo Gang, Police Detective Taro,
and various Penguin Villagers endure aerial battles, submarine
adventures, and a lava-filled confrontation with the Genie Of The
Rainbow Eye in their quest to recover the gem and fill 45 minutes of
a film that, in spite of its action trappings, feels longer.
 |
| ninjas and blimps; two tastes that taste great together |
Discotek's two-disc set
looks great, is only occasionally doing a little judicious zooming to
turn some of the non-anamorphic films into HDTV-friendly widescreen,
and you get all five films with English subtitles and trailers for
each of the movies, perfect for dropping in before a screening of a
more serious 80s anime film. Which was most of them. As an antidote
to Japanese animation's 80s aesthetic, which, let's face it, was
heavy on long, draggy films full of planetary destruction, brave
sacrifices, and Kitaro music, these Dr. Slump shorts are guaranteed
filled with laughs and pep. Not to mention poop.
 |
| buy her DVD or she'll destroy you, cutely |
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