Synopsis: General Blue comes to the realization that the only way he's going to put an end to Goku's meddling for sure is to kill him, a fact that gets verified when he soon sees Goku overhead in the sky, searching for him yet again. As Goku spots the crash site and hopes the Dragon Balls didn't get broken as well, Blue quickly hides himself behind part of the mountain. He decides that, for the time being, the best thing to do would be to get back to Red Ribbon HQ with the Dragon Balls in tow, and runs off to find a way to get back there.
As Goku digs through the wreckage of Blue's rocket, he's disappointed to find no trace of the Dragon Balls. He then realizes that Blue isn't there either, so he must have survived and taken them with him. Before Goku can renew his search, Arale and the Gatchans show up behind him. Goku is amazed and asks Arale if she just ran all the way there, which she confirms, as that means she's almost as fast as kinto'un! Goku asks her where she trained, but Arale is confused and says they didn't come by train. Arale asks Goku what he's playing now and Goku says he isn't playing, he's looking for a bad guy. He calls back down kinto'un and takes to the sky, but no matter where he looks, he doesn't see Blue anywhere. In Penguin Village, Blue comes across a telephone booth but still can't figure out a way to get back to HQ. Just then, he spots a car coming his way, so he walks in front of it to force it to stop. The driver, Kuraaku Kenta, loudly lambasts him for standing in the road, but Blue simply tells him to get out of the car. Realizing that Blue must be a criminal, Kenta laughs and says it's Blue's bad luck that they happen to be near a phone booth. Running into the phone booth, much to Blue's confusion, Kenta steps back out in his true form – Supaman, a superhero from the planet Okakaumeboshi, who now calls Pengin Village his home. He transforms into his true form every time he eats an umeboshi (or sour plum, 'supa' being the Japanese word for 'sour'). Blue is nonplussed however and asks him what umeboshi have to do with anything. Supaman realizes that Blue must be from out of town and that's the only reason he's not terrified at the sight of such a mighty warrior, so he vows to demonstrate his power. His demonstration turns out to be scowling angrily at Blue, who just keeps staring at him. Supaman says since Blue is new in town he'll let him off easy just this once, so if he wants to run, he'd better take this chance. Blue smiles and walks over to the phone booth and, much to Supaman's horror, crushes it between his arms. After seeing this, Supaman laughs and becomes much more polite, asking Blue how he may help him today. Blue asks him if he has any airplane capsules or the like, but Supaman has no idea what a 'capsule' is. Blue realizes he really is in the middle of nowhere, with Supaman confirming that Penguin Village really is quite rural. Blue asks if anyone in the town owns a plane and after thinking on it, Supaman says that Senbei Norimaki should have one and points Blue in the direction of his house. Blue takes Supaman's car, and Supaman gladly sees him off. As soon as Blue is out of earshot however, Supaman becomes smug once more and says that he'll go easy on Blue just this one time. Having landed on the ground again, Goku still can't find Blue anywhere, with Arale wondering if Goku is playing hide-and-seek with someone. Goku suddenly remembers he has the dragon radar and that wherever it shows three Dragon Balls together nearby, that should be Blue. To his disappointment however, the radar appears to be broken again. Goku thinks he has no choice but to go to Bulma to fix it again, only to suddenly realize he has no idea where he is. He asks Arale where they are, and Arale says Penguin Village, which doesn't help Goku very much. Arale asks Goku if his toy is broken, and says that the doctor can fix it for sure. Goku asks Arale to take him to this doctor, and she agrees, provided Goku lets her and the Gatchans ride on kinto'un too. Goku says that kinto'un only lets those pure of heart ride, but Arale and the Gatchans get on no problem, proving to Goku that they must be good people. Arale points towards he home and Goku flies kinto'un in that direction. Once back at the Norimaki residence, Goku and Arale's return catches the attention of Senbei as he works on his plane. Senbei wonders who the new kid is, and his wife Midori says she doesn't think he's from the village. Arale introduces Goku to the Norimakis (including their baby, Turbo, who floats in the air between them) and says that Goku needs Senbei to fix his toy. Senbei asks what it is and Goku explains that it's a dragon radar that shows you where the Dragon Balls are, but Senbei has no idea what any of that means. Turbo says it appears to be a device that picks up a particular sort of energy, which still doesn't mean much to Senbei, but if it's broken all he has to do is fix it. As he opens it up however, he finds that the device is far more complicated than any electronic device he's ever seen. He asks who could have made such a thing, and Goku simply says 'a girl named Bulma'. Senbei is mortified to realize that there might actually be someone smarter than him out there in the world... A short distance away, Blue sees the Norimaki house as he drives Supaman's car, and says that must be where he can get a plane. Review: While this chapter is still full to the brim of Dr. Slump, it actually feels more like a chapter of Dragon Ball that happens to be in Penguin Village this time rather than the opposite like last time. As much fun as Slump gags are, this is probably a good thing, as it allows the story to keep moving even as we have fun with the zaniness of these characters. Linger too long and it could start to feel a little too exploitative, after all. There are a few new characters and concepts from Slump introduced in this chapter that weren't really in the last one though, so let's have another brief Dr. Slump primer before we get further into this. A major part of the Dr. Slump interaction in this chapter comes in the form of Kuraaku Kenta, AKA Supaman. He technically appeared in the last chapter in the background of a panel, but I thought it would be best to wait and talk about him here where he actually got some focus (that and there was already way too much to go over last time). As you might have guessed, Supaman is a thinly veiled parody of DC's Superman, right down to his fake human name – Kuraaku Kenta is just a Japanese reading for Clark Kent, shocking, right? Much like Superman, Supaman was sent to Earth from his home planet, and even takes a job as a reporter just like Clark Kent does. The similarities end there however, as Supaman lacks any real sense of power at all, pretends to fly by rolling around on his stomach via skateboard, and generally has a bad attitude and will actually cause crimes or chaos just to pretend to have people to save from it, and then he'll hit them or throw a grenade or something at them if they're ungrateful for his help. All in all, he's a really terrible guy honestly, which is why he's completely hilarious in my opinion. The second new Slump interaction comes when we meet the rest of the Norimaki family. Senbei's wife Midori was originally known as Midori Yamabuki and was one of Arale's teachers originally. For a good chunk of Dr. Slump, Senbei had an unrequited crush on her, eventually opining from a toilet stall that he wished he could marry her. Cue her hearing that from another stall and agreeing, and they're married by the very next panel. If that doesn't clue you in on the sort of series Dr. Slump is, I don't know what will. It also shows that Toriyama actually got BETTER at writing relationships by the time Dragon Ball got to the point that it needed them. Now that's just scary. Midori has a few character quirks of her own but is largely a happy housewife by this point in time, and that's all we really get of her in this crossover too. Finally, there's Turbo, Senbei and Midori's baby boy. Seeing as how he floats in the air much like the Gatchan, fans unfamiliar with Slump would be forgiven for mistaking him as a third Gatchan of some sort. In the case of Turbo however, he really is a normal human baby – or at least, he was, until an alien spaceship crashed into his crib, and the aliens panicked when realizing they'd just killed a baby, so they quickly used some of their technology to revive him, resulting in the baby gaining powers like teleportation, telekinesis, and flight, as well as making him a super genius that's way smarter than his father. Suddenly Blue doesn't seem so special after all, actually. In-between all of the insanity with these two Toriyama works intermingling, we do get a few humorous jokes at the expense of how this all even works. See, while Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump seem to exist in the same world according to this crossover, that doesn't really work on the surface. From smaller things like Slump using yen while Dragon Ball uses zeni for currency, or the fact that Slump uses a calendar system not unlike our own whereas Dragon Ball will later be revealed to use an Age system, to bigger things like the Dragon Ball world having a normal sun and moon whereas in Dr. Slump, they're uh...alive, seemingly. Or even the fact that the Kami-sama we see in Dr. Slump looks like Roshi and is not at all similar to the Kami-sama we later meet in Dragon Ball. There's really no way to make these two things work together, and Toriyama doesn't really go out of his way to make them do so either, so it's really one of those things that it's best not to overthink and just roll with it. And in a lot of those cases, such as the Age system, that problem didn't yet exist at the time of this chapter's publication. The main example of the former comes when Blue asks Supaman for some capsules and he has no idea what those are. Capsules were an idea that didn't come to Toriyama until Dragon Ball, and the technology in Dr. Slump, while still incredible and fantastic, generally erred on the side of being either more realistic in it's design, or just plain goofy. When Blue surmises that they've never heard of capsules because of how in the sticks Penguin Village is, Supaman doesn't correct him either. Ignoring the clashing world-builds, that actually does work as an explanation on it's own, as Penguin Village is constantly described as being a little town in the middle of nowhere, as Toriyama has never been shy at admitting to being a country bumpkin at heart. Seeing Goku and Arale interact is really fun, as even Goku is taken aback by the young robot's nature, though he's pretty impressed to see someone else who's able to ride kinto'un. Let's see, counting filler, I think that now makes five with him, Chi Chi, good Lunch, Namu, and now Arale? Seven technically I guess, what with the two Gatchan and all. Senbei's horror at someone possibly being smarter than him is a small but fun moment, given how arrogant and sure of himself he constantly is. It makes you wonder just how well he would have gotten along with Bulma if he'd met her at this point. Probably...not well, all things considered. Until next time! Favorite Panel:
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About the AuthorAspiring author and big anime/manga fan, just trying to do my best in the world. For more details, go to About Me. Archives
September 2022
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