YMMV / Doctor Slump

• Adorkable:
  • Arale. The small, cute-like appearance, huge glasses, along with her perpetually bubbly and innocent personality make her very endearing.
  • Obotchaman is shy, romantic and so smitten with Arale that he gets adorably awkward when talking to or about her.
• Americans Hate Tingle: While the series is considered a cultural icon in its home country, rivaling successor series Dragon Ball, in much of the rest of the world, it's a Cult Classic at best. Part of this might have to do with the lack of international distribution, not helped by the fact that bringing it over to the west nowadays would mean having to break it out of the shadows of both Dragon Ball and modern anime, what with it being much more flippant and child-friendly than the typical image of Japanese animation. Ironically, it's likely that Dr. Slump would've had more luck cracking the western market had it been released there when anime was still under the thrall of the Animation Age Ghetto.
• Awesome Music:
  • The opening theme. A cute song that makes you drop your guard from all the wackiness installed.
  • The theme song from the remake.
  • The German theme song from the remake is even better.
  • The Latin-American Spanish version of the original OP is very cute too.
  • The Italian opening for the 1997 anime remake.
• Crazy Is Cool: It's Arale's hyperactive craziness that makes her so cool and popular as well as one of funniest Memetic Badass anime characters. That little girl can literally punch the world in half when she's just playing around!
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Shortly after making his manga debut, Tsun Tsukutsun proved to be rather popular, especially with the girls. Though, having the ability to kick Arale's ass when provoked kind of helps.
  • Suppaman, as many fans remember him as one of the funniest characters. Other similarly pathetic characters like King Nikochan and his unnamed servant get this as well, to a lesser extent.
  • If there's something everyone remembers about this series, it's the sentient pink poop.
• Fridge Brilliance: The "angel" twins are found from an egg left by "God" to halt the progression of technology after seeing the disasters it caused on other planets. This makes a lot of sense in retrospect when one reads Dragon Ball, where Goku and General Blue go to Penguin Village and Senbei expresses relief to be in a Shonen Jump again. It is later revealed in Dragon Ball that "God" and "The Devil" are two aspects of the same being and that "The Devil" can hatch "Demonic" offspring from eggs he produces. Later still, it is revealed several planets have their own "God", meaning the god who tried to stop the advancement of Earth was likely the same one later seen in Dragon Ball, which also explains the angel eggs (never mind the fact that God in Dr. Slump bears a closer resemblance to Master Roshi, though one could just consider this a case of Toriyama's typically heavy retconning). They were probably birthed by Earth's god the same way Earth's devil birthed demons.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • It's popular in Hong Kong and especially in Guangzhou, where the theme song was made into the unofficial anthem of the Cantonese language.
  • While not iconic as Dragon Ball, "Arale" is still a popular and well-known series in Italy, and the anime, remake, and all the movies have been dubbed in Italian. In fact, many Italians love Toriyama for both "Arale" and Dragon Ball, though the latter is obviously much more famous.
  • It used to have a following in Mexico and even in Spain (especially Catalonia, where it gets its own Catalan dub). Lately it has become relevant again in the first one more than anything to the recent distribution of the manga in the country.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • When Arale meets Donbe, a transforming fox, she claims that she can transform as well, and promptly spends the entire afternoon changing into an Ultraman costume. This almost feels like a retroactive parody of the Transformation Sequence scenes in Dragon Ball.
  • A chapter set ten years into the future depicts Toriyama as a Future Loser. Little did he know that his manga becomes a pop culture phenomenon.
  • Tsun Tsukutsun's design was the basis for Yamcha. This becomes funny when you realize that while Tsun is potentially the most powerful character in the series, Yamcha ends up becoming a Memetic Loser.
  • In one episode Arale has an Identical Stranger in Anko who looks like her, but she has brown hair. In the remake, Arale will be a brunette.
• I Am Not Shazam: Nobody is named Dr. Slump; it is Senbei's infrequently-used nickname. Furthermore, Senbei isn't even the main character, a fact lampshaded numerous times. Subverted in the unaired Harmony Gold English Dub where Senbei's name is changed to Dr. Slump. Also in the Italian Dub of the first anime, where he's only called Dr. Slump, and his real name is never mentioned.
• Iconic Character, Forgotten Title: The series is commonly referred to as "Arale".
• Memetic Badass: Arale obviously. She's capable of splitting the Earth in half and accidentally tackling her creator into the moon, and since her series is in a Shared Universe with Dragon Ball, this means her feats are comparable to planet-busters like Frieza, Cell, Buu, and so on. And she's a near-sighted android built by a perverted scientist! She gained an even greater status after her crossover episode in Dragon Ball Super where she curb-stomped Vegeta, who by this point is a Physical God in his base form.
• Memetic Mutation: A popular reaction image of a bear in awed tears is from chapter 6 of the manga, when the bear that Arale and Senbei set free sees the mountains.
• Moe: Arale in the first few chapters, she looks like a realistic 13 year old Meganekko and is extremely cute. She's still cute in her smaller childlike form (the one everyone remembers) but more in a "chubby little kid" way. Her innocence also helps.
• One True Pairing: Arale and Obotchaman is considered the best couple in history, and all those who are fans of Dr. Slump it is almost a fact that they like this couple.
• Quirky Work: Dr. Slump is a very surreal series which may explain why it hasn't reached Dragonball's level of popularity in the Western world.
• The Scrappy: Tsun Tsuruten. He can best be described as a heavily Flanderized version of Senbei, but with none of the traits that made him an entertaining character. He is shown to perv on his wife and even his daughter, and can be a Toxic Friend Influence to Senbei when he tried to revert from his perverted behavior after marrying Midori.
• Squick: Bubibinman eats poop. Yes, he's part fly, but still!
• Tear Jerker: The scene where Arale realises that she will never grow up can be seen as this. Even if it lasts for few minutes, it can bring severe Mood Whiplash.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: How some people feel about the remake, especially because they made Arale a brunette and how Taro, Akane, and Midori are completely unrecognizable.
• Tough Act to Follow: Although the notion seems hilariously quaint now, at the time Dr. Slump was very much seen as this. During the first story arc, Dragon Ball was actually seen as somewhat of a disappointment, or at the very least a step down. Of course, once the first Tournament Arc began, this attitude didn’t last long.
• Unpopular Popular Character: In-universe, Suppaman is hated by everyone (except Arale). However many fans like him because of how entertaining he is, even though he has no redeeming qualities.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Gatchan.
• Woolseyism: The Mexican Spanish dub changes Arale's famous N'cha! with ¡Que Onda!, who is the Mexican slang version of Wazzup!

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