Reviews for Dr. Slump, Volume 1

The average rating for Dr. Slump, Volume 1 based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-03-07 00:00:00 Even Chris It's weird that I've never read anything else by Akira Toriyama considering Dragon Ball might be my favourite comic ever. So I picked up the first volume of Dr Slump, the series he did before Dragon Ball, annnnddd… it's ok but definitely not of the same quality. Dr Senbei Norimaki creates a realistic robot girl called Arale and the two have adventures. The Doc creates wacky gadgets, they time-travel, slapstick (sometimes strangely bawdy) comedy abounds; it's readable but nothing inspired. As a huge Dragon Ball fan, it's interesting to see the genesis of a lot of that series here. Arale, an innocent young child with super-strength, is clearly a proto-Son Goku, as well as looking like a tiny Bulma; Dr Slump and his inventions (like the Shrink Ray) is part Dr Briefs and part Kame-Sennin; and Penguin Village, with its anthropomorphic animals, is much like Dragon Ball's fantastical world. I also enjoyed seeing Toriyama's cute art style again - everyone's chibi in this series! But I wasn't grabbed by the episodic, meandering stories and would've preferred a more focused, longer narrative instead. It's a fine lil' kiddie manga but not a patch on the brilliance of Dragon Ball so I'll leave the title here. Some creators are one-hit wonders but sometimes one is all they need, especially when it's a mega-hit!

Review # 2 was written on 2017-05-20 00:00:00 Emmanuelle Oppeneau Hilariously charming and clever, Dr Slump is an unforgettable journey into the wonderful and bizarre, with some delightful companionship on the way. Picking up each wacky volume of Toriyama's is like taking an adventure into childhood again, only with a whole lot more laughs. I am a huge fan of Osamu Tezuka, especially his Mighty Atom series, and Dr Slump's premise is pretty much a huge Astro Boy parody, which I love. There's a ton of references to Japanese/Western TV shows and characters within, and you can tell Toriyama is an unapologetic nerd at heart. It's wonderful. I'm not a huge fan of Dragonball but now this might just be one of my favorite manga series in existence.