is a fictional character

Character (arts)

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 and the main protagonist

Protagonist

A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...

 in the anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 and manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 series Dr. Slump created by Akira Toriyama

Akira Toriyama

is a Japanese manga artist and game artist known mostly for his creation of Dragon Ball in 1984. Toriyama admires Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy and was impressed by Walt Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmatians, which he remembers for the great art...

. She is voiced by Mami Koyama

Mami Koyama

Mami Koyama is a veteran seiyū and J-pop vocalist who was born in Nishio, Aichi. She was once married to fellow seiyū Tōru Furuya, her co-star in Mobile Suit Gundam, Urusei Yatsura, Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, and Casshern Sins...

 in the first anime and Taeko Kawata

Taeko Kawata

is a Japanese voice actress who was born in Tokyo. She is employed by 81 Produce. Her name is sometimes misromanized as Taeko Kawada.-TV Anime:*Azuki-chan *Cardcaptor Sakura *Casshern Sins...

 in the second. In the Funimation dub of Dragon Ball, she is played by Meredith McCoy

Meredith McCoy

Meredith McCoy Mauldin is an American actress, singer, and voice actress who has worked for Funimation Entertainment. Meredith has done national commercials for Radio Shack, AT&T, 7-Eleven, and Chevrolet. Her father Jaan McCoy is a longtime radio personality in the Dallas/Forth Worth area...

 for her cameo in the movie and her appearances in the DB TV Series, and by Brina Palencia

Brina Palencia

Brina Michelle Palencia is an American voice actress, singer, and ADR director who works for Funimation Entertainment. She has provided voices for a number of English language versions of Japanese anime films and television series.Apart from her adult female voices, she has been cast in younger...

 as a playable character in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3. Cheryl Chase

Cheryl Chase

Cheryl Chase is an American voice actress best known as the voice of Angelica Pickles on Rugrats, All Grown Up! and Angelica and Susie's Pre-School Daze...

 voiced her in the Harmony Gold USA

Harmony Gold USA

Harmony Gold is a television production and distribution company established in 1983. It is best known as the “creator” and main distributor of the anime series Robotech. It also partially dubbed the Dragon Ball series in the late 1980s....

 dub of Episode 1 of Dr. Slump.

Arale is a robot built by Senbei Norimaki that looks like a little girl. She is known for her naivety, energetic personality, lack of common sense, and amazingly unbelievable strength. Among her strength she can use abilities that range from the terrain splitting Earth Breaker (in Japan) to the beam-like N'cha Cannon (Japanese: ). She is nearsighted and needs to wear glasses. This is probably a play on how perfectly human she is meant to be. She has long, bluish-purple hair in the original manga and anime series, but has dark-brown hair in the 1997 Dr. Slump anime.

Arale is a pun on the Japanese word for a small rice cracker

Senbei

are a type of Japanese rice crackers. They come in various shapes, sizes, and flavors, usually savory but sometimes sweet. Senbei are often eaten with green tea as a casual snack and offered to visiting house guests as a courtesy refreshment....

. Senbei Norimaki's mission is to convince the other citizens of Penguin Village that she is just a normal human girl. It seems to work, despite her superhuman

Superhuman

Superhuman can mean an improved human, for example, by genetic modification, cybernetic implants, or as what humans might evolve into, in the near or distant future...

 athletic ability.

Fictional character biography

Arale is the creation of Senbei Norimaki. Arale poses as Senbei's sister or daughter, depending on who Senbei is talking to. The Norimaki family only grows from there when Arale and Senbei discover an egg when traveling to the past. The egg hatches into a small winged creature that they named "Gadzilla" or "Gatchan" for short. Then Senbei marries the girl of his dreams (Midori Yamabuki) and they have a baby named Turbo. As if the house was not full enough, Gatchan inexplicably splits into two separate entities (the Gatchan-tachi, who love to eat metal objects).

Dr. Slump

The Dr. Slump series is a self-proclaimed gag manga with an ongoing plot. The entire series is about Arale's humorous exploration of the dynamics of life and the adventures Senbei and his inventions send them on. It is also about Senbei's romantic advances that usually end in failure (that is, until he finally gets married to Ms. Yamabuki in Volume 9.)

Appearances in Dragon Ball

She shows up in the series when Goku

Son Goku (Dragon Ball)

Goku, known as in the English-language manga and original Japanese-language version, is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Dragon Ball franchise created by Akira Toriyama. He is loosely based on Sun Wukong, a central character in Journey to the West...

 chases General Blue all the way to Penguin Village, she then defeats Blue with one kick and two headbutts after he paralyzes Goku. She was also able to ride on the Kinto'un (Flying Nimbus in the U.S. anime), which indicates her as being pure of heart. She appears in both anime and manga versions. She also appears in the Mystical Adventure

Mystical Adventure

, is the third Dragon Ball feature film, originally released in Japan on July 9, 1988 at the "Toei Manga Matsuri" film festival as part of a quadruple feature along with the second Bikkuriman movie, the movie version of Tatakae!! Ramenman, and the second Kamen Rider Black movie.Unlike the previous...

 film of the original Dragon Ball series, and appears on a poster in Gohan's

Son Gohan

is a fictional character from the Dragon Ball universe created by Akira Toriyama as a protagonist for the media franchise, which consists of a series of manga, anime, soundtracks, movies, television specials, video games, and other collectibles...

 bedroom in Dragon Ball Z and her face was shown on the 8th movie

Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan

Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan, known in Japan as , is the eighth Dragon Ball Z feature movie. It is also the longest Dragonball Z film and second longest film of the franchise...

 of the Dragon Ball Z series, titled Broly: the Legendary Super Saiyan. She also appears in Episode 2 of the original Dragon Ball, in a picture on the wall of the capsule house Bulma creates.

Video games

She is also a playable character in the Japanese video games Jump Super Stars

Jump Super Stars

is a 2D fighting game for the Nintendo DS. It was developed by Ganbarion and published by Nintendo. The game was released on August 8, 2005 in Japan and accompanied the release of a red Nintendo DS...

and Jump Ultimate Stars

Jump Ultimate Stars

is a fighting video game developed by Ganbarion and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. It is the sequel to Jump Super Stars, also released for the DS. The game was released in Japan on November 23, 2006...

, both for the Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS

The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...

. Recently, she appeared as a playable character in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo

Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo

Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo, released in Japan as , is a video game based on the anime and manga series Dragon Ball. It was developed by Media.Vision and published by Namco Bandai under the Bandai label...

and Dragon Ball: Origins 2

Dragon Ball: Origins 2

Dragon Ball: Origins 2, known as in Japan, is a video game for the Nintendo DS based on the manga/anime franchise Dragon Ball created by Akira Toriyama. It is a follow up the 2008 game Dragon Ball: Origins...

. Yuko Hara

Yuko Hara

Yuko Hara plays the keyboards for Southern All Stars. She is an accomplished vocalist, and writes many of her own songs....

voiced her in the radio drama in 1981.