[Meeting…] Arale

Akira Toriyama is a name known to almost all anime and manga fans thanks to Dragon Ball, however the Japanese author had already achieved fame years before creating Son Goku, with a work called Dr. Slump, which starred a girl named Arale Norimaki.

So, after having introduced you to the mischievous vampire-koala Paifu and his friend José Rodríguez and the powerful but naive Kajika, it's time to meet this nice and crazy robot girl that many of us enjoyed in the 90s thanks to her animated series.

THE HARD LIFE OF A SINGLE

I have said before that Arale is the protagonist of Dr. Slump, something true in practice but not in theory, since the name of the work refers to Sembei Norimaki, a scientist who lives in Penguin Village, a remote and apparently quiet place populated by beings of all kinds.

Sembei is a genius as demonstrated by his inventions, but he is also a disheveled, clumsy and perverted man, which does not make him very popular among the women of his small town, thus prolonging his status as a bachelor. Tired of that situation, Sembei decides to use his skills in the field of robotics to create a little sister to do his housework, encourage him, take care of him and improve his quality of life. The result of that idea was Arale Norimaki.

However, Arale It turns out to be the complete opposite of what Sembei expected., since she is completely crazy and has an enormous destructive capacity due to her enormous strength (which she has to recharge by drinking Robobita A), so Sembei sees how her monotonous life becomes crazy, thanks to her beloved little sister and her crazy ideas.

No one doubts that Arale is completely crazy, every day she dresses up as something different, she loves touching poop with a stick (or throwing it at people), fighting monsters (Gamera and Godzilla included), running at full speed through Penguin Village crashing into everything in front of her (usually the police car), and there are many times that she has split the earth in half with a single punch.

As if that were not enough, Sembei's efforts to make Arale look like a person and no one suspects that she is a robot are useless, since the crazy girl enjoys throwing her head in the air and using her superhuman abilities (like shooting through her mouth) in front of everyone, something that her crazy friends see as something normal for her.

It is clear that Sembei made some mistake when creating her (well, more than one) but now it is too late to do anything, his sister is the complete opposite of what he was looking for, but she is still his sister and her crazy character has made the townspeople adore her (well, more or less) also increasing the fame of the scruffy doctor, who thanks to Arale manages to get closer to his platonic love, Miss Yamabuki, a teacher at the Penguin Village school.

Precisely At school, Arale will meet her main friends. Pisuke (an indecisive and fearful boy), Taro (a rebel without a cause) and Akane (a problematic girl) with whom the robot girl will live many adventures. Over time, Arale will also meet the rest of the inhabitants of Penguin Village and finally meet a kind of prehistoric angel called Gatchan (Gajira) who will become his best friend (or friends, since Gatchan multiplies). Unfortunately for Sembei, Gatchan will live at home with them, which will multiply the crazy situations in the long-suffering scientist's home.

METAL BODY, HEART OF GOLD

It is worth clarifying that despite the enormous strength and crazy hobbies that Arale has, she is tremendously kind, what happens is that due to her lack of education (or due to some programming error) sees normal things that are not (well, in Penguin Town maybe they are) but the young girl never does anything with bad intentions. In fact, he is a character who does not possess any malice.

However, this lack of malice can take its toll on her in moments of life or death, such as those she experiences when she is attacked by Sembei's archenemy, Dr. Mashirito, who sees how all his evil plans are thwarted by Arale, so he decides to create his own robots to eliminate it. These creations are usually called “Candy Man” and their version number and generally have nothing to do with each other, with one being a giant robot and the next a mask to fool the naive Arale.

After many defeats at the hands of Arale, Mashirito decides to create his own robot based on her, resulting in Candy Man number 8, a being as strong as Arale, but much more evil and obedient. Unfortunately Mashirito's luck is similar to Sembei's so that his killing machine turns out to be an extremely polite and kind boy who ends up falling in love with the crazy Arale, which causes him to betray his creator to live peacefully in Penguin Village.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Arale is tremendously fun and adorable, her naivety and tremendous strength make her an unpredictable character, something that fits very well in Penguin Village, as it is a place full of strange beings and creatures (including cartoon versions of Ultraman, Superman, Tarzan, Frankenstein's monster and a thousand other fictional characters).

Anyone who wants to enjoy Arale's adventures has it very easy, because they only have to look for the manga and the original series of Dr. Slump, which has been published several times and is quite easy to find, I also consider that this work is one of the best things Toriyama has done.

There is also a new version of the manga and the series made with Toriyama's consent but without his participation, a kind of updated version known as New Dr. Slump with episodes similar to the old ones and completely new ones, but I don't think it's even half as good as the original..

It is possible that some people who have never seen Dr. Slump recognize Arale from another work by Toriyama, and that is that in the first stage of dragonball, Son Goku traveled to Penguin Village, causing a crossover between both series. This tribute was repeated on several occasions, since Arale and his friends also appeared in the film  Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure and Son Goku appeared in New Dr Slump, situación en la cual por fin sabemos la respuesta a una pregunta que muchos nos hicimos durante los años 90 ¿puede Arale derrotar a Son Goku?