Dragon Ball-ism Toriyama Showcase #8: Dr. Mashirito & Abale!
Welcome back to Dragon Ball-ism: Toriyama Showcase—the series where we discuss Akira Toriyama's various short stories and one-shot works. For entry number eight, we're introducing Toriyama's one-shot manga starring a robot troublemaker called Abale, Dr. Mashirito & Abale!
Dr. Slump 2007 Special Edition "Dr. Mashirito & Abale"
Published in the April 2007 edition of Monthly Shonen Jump.
As you might guess from the similar names of its main characters, this one-shot is a spinoff of Dr. Slump, Toriyama's hit manga series in Weekly Shonen Jump that preceded Dragon Ball.
Dr. Mashirito & Abale even got made into a short movie that played in cinemas at the same time as fellow Jump title One Piece's feature film "The Desert Princess and the Pirates: Adventures in Alabasta".
Arale's Evil Replica?! The Mechanical Menace Abale!
She may not be the star of the show, but Dr. Slump protagonist Arale shows up right from the start of Dr. Mashirito & Abale! You might remember her as the robot girl who sent the Red Ribbon Army's General Blue flying off into the distance with a devastating headbutt in Dragon Ball.
The first we see of her in this one-shot is when she uses a similarly devastating headbutt to destroy a robot Dr Mashirito Jr. created to defeat her.
(Dragon Ball Tale 80)
Dr. Mashirito Sr. is an evil scientist and the primary villain of the original Dr. Slump series.
He devoted his life to creating robot after robot in repeated attempts to destroy Arale, even going so far as to turn himself into one!
When you think about it, Dr. Mashirito's genius intellect and self-destructive obsession with defeating his rival makes him quite similar to Dr. Gero from Dragon Ball!
And here's a bit of trivia for you: his appearance is actually based on the editor for Dr. Slump and the early serialization of Dragon Ball, Kazuhiko Torishima!
(Dr. Slump - Who's the Strongest in the World? Part 2)
Fast-forward to Dr. Mashirito & Abale and the mad doctor's son is following in his footsteps!
To finish what his father started, Dr. Mashirito Jr. creates Abale, a fearsome new robot with all the same specs as Arale but with a serious chip on her shoulder!
At the same time, however, aliens of an unknown origin have begun their invasion of Earth!
They've determined that the only one powerful enough to stand in the way of their world domination is Arale, and so enact a plot to get her off world to open the proverbial floodgates for their attack.
In a show of force, the aliens unleash a gigantic bioweapon called Choki!
The way the aliens sit back and have other lifeforms do their dirty work is pretty similar to how Frieza commands the Frieza Force when conquering planets!
With Arale out of the picture and Earth facing the threat of destruction or subjugation, who should step up to the plate but Abale!
The aliens get on her bad side with their trash talk, and she responds by taking out Choki with a mighty headbutt!
Wait a sec... Doesn't Choki look a lot like the monster that attacked a city in Dragon Ball Super?!
In Super, this Choki lookalike appeared in Universe 11 but was promptly dealt with by Jiren and the Pride Troopers.
(Dragon Ball Super Chapter 30)
Dr. Mashirito & Abale was never released as a stand-alone comic, so it can be pretty hard to come across these days, but if you ever get the rare chance to read it, we highly recommend you do so!
As one last little surprising tidbit, the Dr. Mashirito & Abale short movie was actually directed by Tatsuya Nagamine, who was also involved in the direction of Dragon Ball Super: Broly!
All in all, Dr. Mashirito & Abale is certainly a work that you can enjoy a lot of Dragon Ball-ism while either reading or watching, so be sure to check it out if you can!
And if you're interested in the origins of Dr. Mashirito & Abale, you can check out Dr. Slump from the link below!
https://www.s-manga.net/search/search.html?seriesid=34911
*All comic images are from the Japanese version.
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This site includes machine-translated texts. Please be aware that you might find some unusual expressions that are difficult to understand.
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