Review: Dr. Slump

Continuing my look at only-from-Japan manga reading from last weekend:

On the nearly completely opposite end of the manga spectrum from Project X: Cup Noodle is Dr. Slump vols. 1 & 2 (Viz, $7.99 ea.). Created in the early 1980s by Akira Toriyama (who would later go on to produce the ultra-popular Dragonball manga), the basic premise of Dr. Slump is that scientist Senbei Norimaki creates Arale, a girl robot. Hilarity ensues.

The art, plot, characters, etc. in Dr. Slump all point to it being a comic for ten-year-old boys, which in fact was its target market in Japan. So why does Viz rate it as T for Teen? Cultural differences. Despite a certain amount of editing, there are still plenty of scatalogical and sexual references at a level that can be appreciated by ten-year-old boys but which certain segments of American society think they shouldn't be exposed to. For instance, the plot of one early chapter involves the fact that Senbei failed to provide Arale with a vagina, since he has no idea what one actually looks like.

That's not to say that Dr. Slump is all sex & poop. There's plenty of other wacky hi-jinks and flights of whimsy, puns and pop-culture references, and even an occasional insight or two. The characters in Dr. Slump are also frequently aware that they are characters in a manga and provide some meta-commentary. One favorite episode in vol. 2 has Senbei creating a reality machine: any picture placed in the machine is turned into an actual thing. Akane--one of Arale's friends--decides to place a photo of the universe inside the machine. Then Arale cuts off a page of their own manga and places it in the machine too.

As I mentioned, Dr. Slump is a manga that appeals to ten-year-old boys; but then we all have a ten-year-old boy inside of us. I'm not sure I'll want to read more than a couple of volume before it gets old, but it's a good way to regress.

Rating: 3 (of 5)

New Library Comics: Week of March 19, 2007

Here's a list of the comics we added to our library collection last week:


Blab! (Princeton, Wis.) Blab! /[Chicago, IL : Monte Comix Productions, c1986- no. 16

Centrifugal bumble-puppy. /Agoura, CA : Fantagraphics Books, 1987-1988. nos. 1-7

Horne, Joyce. A softer world : truth and beauty bombs /Vancouver, BC : Loose Teeth Press, 2006.

Jones, Keith. Bacter-area /Montreal, Quebec : Drawn and Quarterly, 2005.

Max, 1956- Hechos, dichos, occurrencias y andanzas de Bardín el Superrealista /Barcelona : Ediciones la Cúpula, c2006.

Subliminal tattoos. /Vancouver, WA : Robert DuPree, c1994- no. 2

Review: Project X: Cup Noodle

Three different manga read over the weekend, each quite different from each other and at the same time the sort of comics that you just don't see being produced on this side of the ocean. I'll be spreading out the reviews over the week.

First up is Project X: Cup Noodle (DMP, $12.95).

I'd heard that one popular manga category in Japan is salaryman manga, i.e. manga intended to appeal to Japan's white collar work force. I'm not sure if Project X: Cup Noodle is explicitly a salaryman manga, but I imagine that it's close.

Adapted by Tadashi Katoh from an episode of a television program, it relates the more-or-less true story of how the Nissin Foods Corporation developed the extremely popular Cup Noodle product. During an economic downturn in the 1970s, Nissin President Momofuku Andou came up with the idea for a portable version of their popular Ramen instant noodles. He assembled a team of engineers and set them to the task.

While the manga does a good job of telling the story and presenting the facts, it is mostly absent of any sort of narrative drive or emotion. Will the engineers develop a cup design that will insulate and allow for the noodles to be cooked all the way through? Will they find a shrimp that stays red through the freeze-drying process? Will they convince a skeptical public of the superiority of the Cup Noodle, even though it costs 100 yen? The answer of course is yes to all of those questions, and the outcome is never in doubt. Despite a couple of attempts to show the home lives of the engineers, an emotional connection is never formed.

Katoh's art and storytelling is workmanlike, fine but uninspiring; it gets the job done.

I suppose that one's ultimate reaction to the story will depend on one's opinion of the role of large corporations in the capitalist system. Some will read the story as a triumph of work and ideas in bringing a product to market and creating wealth for the corporation. Others will feel a bit sad and sorry for the engineers who labor under the direction of the management, and upon succeeding are happy to receive only a salary increase.

Project X: Cup Noodle achieves its basic aims; after reading it I knew about how the Cup Noodle was developed. But as an enjoyable story experience it falls short.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)

Monkey Covers

Sunday is Monkey Covers day here at YACB. Because there's nothing better than a comic with a monkey on the cover.

A golden monkey reads the news on Steve Lafler's 1987 cover to Out the Next #1.

Image courtesy of the GCD. Click on the image for a larger version.

New Library Comics: Week of March 12, 2007

Casas, Mariano. Historias de Mariano : una inquietante recopilicion de algunas historias que fueron verdad y otras que no /Mariano Casas, 2006.

Cat Chow. Struggles, triumphs, and tender moments of Cat Chow : A B C. /[United States?] : Cat Chow, c2006.

Entrialgo, Mauro. Drugos el acumulador /Barcelona : Ediciones la Cupula, c2003.

Johnson, Dave. The Johnson sketchbook /[United States?] : Atomeka, c2004- vol. 1

Mackey, James T. Pfc. Ernest J. Mackey, A. F. 15343898 : 1603rd A. B. G. 1603rd M/S Sqdn. : A. P. O. 231 % Postmaster : New York, N. Y. /[United States] : A.L.F.T., c2005.

Morrison, Grant. Doom patrol : magic bus /New York : D.C. Comics Inc., c2007.

Solís, Fermín. El año que vimos nevar /Bilbao : Astiberri, 2005.

Vanyda. The building opposite /[London?] : Fanfare ; [Spain?] : Ponet Mon, c2006- vol. 1

Chris Ware Animation

Cartoonist Chris Ware animates a segment on the premiere of the new This American Life television show tonight. Don't have Showtime? Watch Ware's segment here.

(via TV Squad)

YACB Bulletins

ITEM! There's still time remaining to enter TangognaT's Free Manga Contest; but hurry, entries are due by midnight the 22nd.

ITEM! Opening chapters of the comics blogosphere's favorite OEL whipping child, Avril Lavigne's Make 5 Wishes, are available as a free podcast.

ITEM! If you're at the Boston Zine Fair this coming weekend you'll be one of the first to get the new issue of Cathy Leamy's Geraniums and Bacon; if not, you'll have to wait a little while longer to order it through her Website.