Gelzo "reads" Dr. Slump

Gelzo · 2012-04-30 04:55:56

So I was going around Kobe with some people from the dorm. To be honest, it was on the whole boring as shit, and too tiring to be worth doing on 4 hours of sleep.

This nerdy French guy I was talking to decided to split off to check out manga when the group was heading to do shopping at the direction of the two girls in the group. Manga > shoes, so I went with.

I thought I would try to make the trip somewhat worthwhile, so I decided I wanted some sort of comic to practice my Japanese. There were way too many choices and I didn't know what I wanted other than something I hadn't read and had some significance as a manga. Frenchy recommended something called Dr. Slump, which was written by the same guy who did Dragonball before he wrote Dragonball.

It's something that children should be able to read, so I think I can stumble through the general point of it. I've only tried reading the first few pages, so this is mostly blind. Not that that matters. I think for the hell of it, I'm going to try reading without consulting a dictionary.

Chances are good that I'll lose interest in doing this. I just thought making a thread for doing this would be entertaining to me.

Gelzo · 2012-04-30 05:44:28

Okay, first page sets the scene at this doctor's place. The mailbox says Dr. something or other, but it doesn't say "Slump". He's working on the robotic innards of this mostly decapitated loli android as her disembodied head is waking up and looks on.

There's some standard manga onomatopoeic shit, and the head says some shit to him that I don't understand. I think she's asking him to work more quietly or something.

Next page, the guy seems to be asking her to try moving her right hand. Next panel, she absentmindedly slams her iron robot fist dickward. The man displays the corresponding level of pain. Then he screams something at the robot head, but she's apparently more interested in how much his eyes are bulging.

He continues working, this time stuffing the robot body into some sort of skin. He mutters some comment about how he thought he was going to die or something. When it comes time to put the head on her shoulders, the robot laments "Oppai pettanko..." and the doctor responds with "Urusai!" If you've been on the internet long enough, I probably don't need to translate that exchange.

Now she's messing about in oversized PJ top and slippers and making faces. Dr. Whatevs is talking to himself about something about his robot being scary. This gets interrupted first by his negative reaction to the silly face being made, and again by the robot sticking her arms out the window and saying "Professor, I'm not flying!" He says something seemingly to the effect of "Nevermind that." albeit in a more exasperated way. She understands now that she can't fly, and trying to bargain some other cool robot thing out of the situation, she pulls up the shirt she's wearing and asks about missiles. The dude keeps getting distraught at the questions, so it doesn't look like she has any more bonus features.

Then she points to his face in confusion. She seems to be having a hard time making out his face, so she thinks her vision is poor. There's another scene change and he's pointing at an eye exam chart. The characters are Japanese, which is mildly amusing to me. She totally fucks up the exam, being unable to read even the largest character on the chart correctly. He's incredulous, and ends up getting her a pair of glasses. Why a robot would need glasses, I have no idea. She puts them on and says she can see really well. Turning to him, she says "Ah! It's King Kong!"

Unknown · 2012-04-30 13:23:37

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Misery · 2012-04-30 13:25:31

It's older than Chobits.

ProfessorGator · 2012-04-30 13:25:35

Wasn't there a cameo of the Dr. Slump characters in one of the chapters of Dragonball? I remember there being one in a video game adaptation, at least.

Justice4243 · 2012-04-30 15:42:56

There's an extended cameo in both the manga and anime with lots and lots of characters. Arale also shows up from time to time in the anime series of Dragon Ball Z.

Gelzo · 2012-04-30 19:29:47

Is this as uninteresting to you guys as it seemed to me in retrospect?

Justice4243 · 2012-04-30 19:37:49

Not necessarily.

I've always kind of wondered what Dr. Slump was like, given that it was made by Akira Toriyama.

This gives me a pretty good idea of what the manga is like.

Gelzo · 2012-04-30 19:42:51

Okay.

Maybe I'll keep doing it. I guess I just felt a little embarrassed at typing so much without any response for several hours.

Justice4243 · 2012-04-30 19:50:29

The fora's not very active at 2-3 AM PST. :P

Gelzo · 2012-04-30 19:51:15

Yeah, so's your mum.

Justice4243 · 2012-04-30 19:51:59

Oh snap!

Smugleaf · 2012-05-02 05:04:05

And again, I got hit right in the nostalgia bone. Dr. Slump was pretty much my first manga and a favorite for a long time. I still like it and think it's the best work of Toriyama (then again, I only know like four of him). It's likely that I'll follow this.

If I remember correctly (and the translators didn't screw up), Arale initially thought that she was supposed to fight against evil, which is why she was confused that she doesn't have any special powers.

Also, in a later volume Toriyama revealed that he only gave her glasses as a small joke, but didn't get an opportunity to take them away again. Which is why she remains a robot with glasses.

Gelzo · 2012-05-11 01:44:33

The good doctor is putting his shoes on getting ready to head out, and little lady robot is asking him where he's going. He's saying she can't keep wearing his pajamas forever, so he's going to buy her some clothes. Looks like he's asking her what kind she wants, and she tries asking for a mink coat. I can't figure out exactly what he says in response, but the facial expression certainly says "no dice".

We see a department store with a sign saying "THE デパート", which translates into "The Department Store". Nice marketing, there. They're also having a 50% off sale. Inside we see him with some purchases counting on his fingers, he comes to the unpleasant conclusion that he's going to have to buy underwear next. He's nervous about going up there and buying some, but he then has some idea. He buys some makeup and a dress, heads into a bathroom to change, and tries to pass himself off as a woman. I guess that's supposed to be less embarrassing than buying children's underwear? Anyway, he makes an awkward attempt at asking the woman at the counter for panties, and she makes a suggestion of these big ol' granny panties with an elephant face printed on the front. He flips out in anger, but tries to salvage it by laughing it off and apologizing in a sort of womanly way. Nevertheless, we see a cut back to the house with him still stressed out and the android in overalls asking him something along the lines of why she looks like a boy.

Next panel has his speech bubble featuring the kanji for death a couple times. Not sure what that means. Maybe he's saying he almost died. He says some other shit, which apparently prompted her to decapitate herself at him, which freaks him out.

Justice4243 · 2012-05-11 13:09:14

...So Chobits frikin' STOLE "the dude has to buy underwear for a female robot" gag!

I wonder how much effort it would take Dr. Slump to make some of these clothes himself, he did build a robot.

Not saying the means he knows how to make clothing, but if he make artificial skin their should be SOMETHING that translate to the ability to make some sort of clothing.

Gelzo · 2012-05-12 06:31:16

Next we're at a coffee place called the "Coffee Pot" in English. The building is shaped like one, and the spout is a chimney. He enters the building and waves a greeting, to which the nearby waitress responds "Well if it isn't Dr. Skank." to which he responds "Who's the skank?!" Then the kid shows up with a greeting mimicking her creator's. The waitress asks if she's Senbee's kid. Realizing he doesn't have an explanation for why an underage girl is suddenly under his care, he stumbles to give an excuse and says that she's his little sister or something. She asks her for her name, which she doesn't yet have, so she turns to ask the professor for her own name. Again flustered, he picks "Arare". The waitress doesn't seem shy in saying that the name seems like a joke, which causes him to wig out again and yell at her. They sit down at the counter, and the waitress takes their orders. He orders coffee, and Arare orders oil. He freaks out again and says that juice would be fine, they get their orders and he then sighs in relief as if her cover was nearly blown. The waitress asks Arare how old she is, and she responds by saying she was made today, causing the doctor to do a spit take with his coffee. He nervously laughs it off and corrects her saying that she's 13 years old. The waitress mentions that she has a hard time seeing her as a middle school student. He tries to get her to stop asking questions, but she ignores him and tells her not to mind the doctor. Then the waitress suddenly realizes something about Arare, it's hard for me to tell what it is, but I think she might have noticed some robotic feature. The doctor flips out and apparently tells her that they aren't in a manga. They pay and leave, and Arare runs out playfully, and gets hit by a car. Or rather, the car gets hit by her. She's without a scratch aside from a couple pieces of her clothes being a little damaged, which she laments. She hasn't even been knocked over. The driver and bystanders look on in awe.

And that's the end of the first chapter. It was only 14 pages.

Justice4243 · 2012-05-12 07:03:42

"The doctor flips out and apparently tells her that they aren't in a manga"

Heh.

Smugleaf · 2012-05-12 14:41:29

The odd thing is that the fourth wall in Dr. Slump is very thin, so they are often actually aware that they are in a manga, making such comments rather odd. Althought I can't remember whether "we are not in a manga" actually still appear later.

Then again, making sense wasn't Toriyama's highest priority.

Gelzo · 2012-05-12 15:08:29

I could have translated it wrong, but I didn't bother checking it. It shouldn't be hard to find a faithful translation, so I just figured what I can do is make honest mistakes that are hopefully a bit entertaining.

Let's see, the exact text is "おのれだってないだろがっ！！　マンガなんだぞマンガ！"

Google's translation is "Even would not want yourself! ! We've only cartooncartoon"

Using a dictionary... I'm coming up with something closer to... "Even you wouldn't think so!! It's certainly manga... Manga!"

Yeah, I don't really get it. I can't figure out definitively whether or not he's saying that that stuff only exists in manga or that he's saying that they're in a manga for some reason.

ProfessorGator · 2012-05-12 15:13:09

If he was saying that stuff like this only happens in manga, that would make a bit more sense to me. But then again, I've never really studied Japanese, so I couldn't tell you for certain.

Unknown · 2012-05-12 15:27:13

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Gelzo · 2012-05-12 16:24:47

Well, of course. I think ones for younger readers use them more sparingly, and when more difficult kanji are used, there's a pronunciation guide next to them. This is the case for this manga.

Unknown · 2012-05-12 17:11:16

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Justice4243 · 2012-05-12 17:14:18

Well, you only have so many bits to work with in those cases. So they probably would reach a coding limit if they tried to program thousands and thousands of kanji.

Unknown · 2012-05-12 17:19:43

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Gelzo · 2012-05-13 00:44:32

The more complicated kanji can also be really hard to read if the resolution is bad.

For example: 鑑

lee4hmz · 2012-05-13 00:54:26

I cheated and used Rikaikun. It reads "kagami". XD

Gelzo "reads" Dr. Slump

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