The Birth of Arale! (アラレ誕生！ Arare Tanjō, lit. "Arale's Birth!") is the first volume of the Dr. Slump manga series written by Akira Toriyama. It was released on August 9, 1980 in Japan and in May 10, 2005 for the English version. Set in 1980, this volume most notably deals with the creation of Arale Norimaki, the beginning of her school life in Penguin Village Middle School and the birth of Gatchan.
Volume Introduction by Akira Toriyama[]
The cover flap image
"Woo! Hoo! The book version of Dr. Slump is out! Yaaay! It's been a long time coming, and it's thanks to you fans! yaaay! At last, Arale gets to say "N'cha!" in the book! Thanks for reading, good little boys and girls. Now, go have fun in Penguin Village!"
Summary[]
After Senbei Norimaki creates Arale, the "perfect humanoid robot", Penguin Village is in awe of his new "little sister", who just so happens to have superhuman abilities, and no concept of normality whatsoever. Senbei continues to create wondrous new inventions, and Arale makes many new friends before a trip to the time of dinosaurs leaves the Norimakis with a new member of the family: a winged baby named Gatchan.
Characters[]
Main characters[]
Supporting characters[]
Chapters[]
| Chapter # | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | "The Birth of Arale!" |
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In Penguin Village, Senbei Norimaki finishes his creation of the world's first perfect android. However, as a testament to Senbei's stupidity, the android ends up being incredibly nearsighted, and is utterly goofy in its lack of understanding of humanity. Senbei goes to The Store to buy clothes for her before taking her on a walk to see if anyone can tell she is not human. They meet Senbei's friend Aoi, to whom Senbei introduces the robot as Arale Norimaki, before she walks into traffic and accidentally smashes a car.
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| 2 | "Here Comes Arale!" |
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The next day, Senbei takes Arale to Penguin Village Middle School and gets the principal to enroll her. However, on meeting Arale's teacher, Midori Yamabuki, Senbei instantly falls for her, and begins his lifelong quest to get her to date him. In class, Arale is seated next to Akane Kimidori who Arale decides is her friend, despite her obvious lack of interest. After school, Arale follows Akane to meet up with Peasuke Soramame and his brother Taro who tries to scare Arale off, but instead gain her respect when she breaks down a phone pole with her bare hands.
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| 3 | "Something's Missing!" |
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One day Arale comes home from school claiming to be missing an important part of her anatomy. Senbei, realizing his mistake, quickly invents a pair of See-Thru Glasses, and embarks on a quest to see a woman's vulva, telling himself it was to provide for Arale. On his lecherous journey, he is constantly thwrted, until he runs into traffic in an attempt to glimpse Ms. Yamabuki's naked body, and is hit by her motorcycle, at which point, Arale reveals that what she had been missing was not a vulva, but rather a bellybutton.
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| 4 | "Dr. Monster" |
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After finding a book on monsters to be too expensive for him to afford, Dr. Monster plans to kidnap a child and use the ransom to purchase it. However, he makes a mistake in kidnapping Arale, who thinks it is all a game, and asks him for Gamera. He purchases her a baby turtle, and he attempts to tie her up as he calls Senbei for ransom. However, during this time she runs out of power and he is nearly arrested for her murder. Luckily Senbei arrives with Robovita-A, and takes her home. As a thanks for their day of play, sends him a lizard, which she believes is a "baby Godzilla".
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| 5 | "Which Will It Be?" |
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Arale is sought out by all the school's sports teams for her superhuman strength, and so with Akane acting as her manager, she tries them all, and eventually, to the astonishment of the rest of Penguin Village, settles on joining Akane in her TV fan club.
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| 6 | "Bearly Friends!" |
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After Aoi shows Arale a captive bear, she takes pity on it and devises a plan to set it free. After nursing it back to health and releasing it into the wild, it is shot by hunters, but using Arale's body, Senbei converts it into a Cy-Bear.
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| 7 | "Arale is Akane!?" |
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In a joke on Akira Toriyama's female characters all looking alike, Arale and Akane disguise themselves as one another, and enjoy a day of making mischief.
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| 8 | "The Big-Small Gun!" |
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The Doctor invents a ray gun to turn objects and people to be larger or smaller. Arale runs amok with this new fantastic invention
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| 9 | "1980: Living For Tomorrow!" |
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Arale discovers the Doctor's Future Camera, and antics ensue as she reveals the future to her Penguin Village playmates.
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| 10 | "The Time Slipper" |
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Arale and The Doctor have adventures with Mr. Time.
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| 11 | "The Mysterious Egg" |
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While taking the Time Slipper to prehistoric times, the Doctor, Arale, and Peasuke take home a mysterious egg, which hatches into Gatchan
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| 12 | "Is It a Girl? Is It a Boy!?" |
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While getting used to Gatchan's presence in the Norimaki household, Arale and the Doctor discover its gender.
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Anime Differences[]
In both anime adaptations, the Time Slipper arc is directly after the Arale's school club adventures while in the manga there is a short string of one-off chapters in between the two arcs.
Dr. Slump & Arale-chan[]
- The series opens with showing Tori's creation.
- Gala and Pagos meet Arale when she leaves the Coffee Pot crashing their car instead of in the manga which was just a normal citizens car.
- The See-Thru glasses episode ends up being after the school clubs episode in the anime when in the manga the See-Thru glasses part was first.
- The episode Dr. Monster first shows up in which is "The Mysterious Dr. Monster?!" does not happen in Dr. Slump & Arale-chan's version of this arc and instead doesn't happen until way later as a one-off episode with Gatchan being present.
- Akane doesn't meet Gatchan during Senbei's creation of the Cola Plane like in the manga and instead meets Gatchan earlier.
- The Gatchan the Courier episode is not part of this arc in the manga and instead was a one-off chapter later on in the series.
- Arale's time-traveling adventure while on the Time Slipper was actually shown unlike the manga where it was off screen.
1997 Anime[]
- Arale's creation ends up being an accident due to a lighting storm as Senbei originally intended her to be an older looking servant girl.
- Arale is first seen by many of the villagers when she runs wild across town while Senbei is off to buy her clothes.
- Arale trying out for all the different clubs ends up being on the same day as her first day of school.
- Arale does not meet Dr. Monster.
- Senbei creating the See-Thru glasses does not happen in this arc and instead the episode ends up being a one-off story after Gatchan is born.
[]
| Dr. Slump Volume 1: The Birth of Arale | ||
| Manga | The Birth of Arale! · Here Comes Arale! · Something's Missing! · Dr. Monster · Which Will It Be? · Bearly Friends! · Arale is Akane!? · The Big-Small Gun! · 1980: Living For Tomorrow! · The Time Slipper · The Mysterious Egg · Is It a Girl? Is It a Boy!? | |
| Dr. Slump Arale-chan | Arale-chan's Birth • Hey! Friends • Arale-chan Goes to School • It is! ...not there • Great Adventure with the Time Slipper • What's with the Egg?! • Huh?! Is it a Boy? Is it a Girl? • My Friend, Mr. Bear!! • New Invention! The Big-Small Ray Gun • Living for Tomorrow! • Arale is Akane!? • The Mysterious Dr. Monster?! | |
| 1997 Anime | Arale is Born!! • Let's Go to School • Time Slipper! • The Strange Baby • Arale's Missing Thing... • Dekachibi Ray Gun! • Bear in the Cage | |
| Dr. Slump manga series | ||
| 1980 Arc | The Birth of Arale • Arale on the Loose • Earth S.O.S.! • The Happy Doctor | |
| 1981 Arc | Monsters' Night • Dr. Mashirito's Ambition | |
| 1982 Arc | My Toilet Paper • Penguin Grand Prix | |
| 1983 Arc | The Crazy Honeymoon • Here Comes the Tsun • Gatchan - Gatchan • Go! Go! Nikochan! | |
| 1984 Arc | I am Obotchaman • The Indestructible Caramel Man 007! • Happy Birthday, Turbo! • Who's the Strongest in the World!! | |
| 1985 Arc | God Gets Even! • Grand Finale! Invention Explosion! | |