Episode 56 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on March 25, 1987 and known in the English dub as Strange Visitor, is a vacation in the world of Dr. Slump. Goku makes friends with Arale Norimaki, the strongest and spaciest girl in Penguin Village, while the dreaded General Blue discovers that nobody there is afraid of the Red Ribbon Army, or almost nobody. The Japanese title describes the signature scene: Arale riding the cloud.
Summary
Goku has just tumbled down in front of Arale, who immediately asks him to play. He is in a hurry, though: he has to get the Dragon Balls back. He calls the Flying Nimbus and flies to the mountain where Blue's jet crashed, but the general has already slipped away and the bag with the balls is gone. Arale catches up on foot in no time, offers to help and asks to try the cloud. Goku warns her that only the pure of heart can ride it: she hops on without any trouble, Gatchans included.
Blue, meanwhile, needs a ride. He stops a car whose driver turns out to be Suppaman, who changes in a phone booth, reappears in a superhero costume and breaks a tile with a karate chop. Blue crushes the booth with his bare hands, and Suppaman suddenly becomes very helpful: he lends him the car and points him to the house of Dr. Senbei Norimaki, who owns an airplane.
Goku looks for help in town. He runs into Akane, just ticketed for speeding, and asks the policeman to arrest a Red Ribbon soldier: the officer goes pale and drives off. Blue, stranded by a breakdown, is helped by Obotchaman, who fixes the car in a flash and then heads back to his deliveries despite the general's awkward attempts to make him stay. Soon after, the police pull Blue over without a license: he snaps the handcuffs, disarms the officers, dents their car and takes it.
The getaway does not last. Arale, running at full tilt, slams into the car and sends it flying; when Blue comes to, the Gatchans are eating it. She wants to be friends and shows him her poop on a stick, and that is too much for Blue: he runs for his life. Goku, out of leads, finds that the Dragon Radar is broken. He does not even know where he is, so he cannot fly back to Bulma. Arale takes him home to Senbei and Midori, but the doctor has no clue how to fix it. And Blue is heading for that very house.
Our take
This is almost entirely an anime original, and it shows: the plot barely moves, but Toei has fun parading the Dr. Slump cast, one cameo after another. It works because it has a clear comic idea: Blue, who seemed unbeatable against Goku, is humiliated by people who refuse to take him seriously. The general who terrorized his own soldiers gets swallowed whole by the village's madness.
Arale on the cloud is an image worth the whole episode. She and Goku are two versions of the same character, superstrong and naive kids, and seeing them side by side explains better than any interview how Toriyama thought about his heroes.
Trivia
- The episode adapts page 14 of chapter 81 and chapter 82 of Akira Toriyama's manga, with a lot of original material. It drew a 29.2% ratings share in Japan, the highest among Episodes 49 to 68.
- The policeman fleeing at the mention of the Red Ribbon Army, Akane failing to ride the cloud, Obotchaman's repair job, the fight with the police and Arale crashing into Blue's car are all anime-only.
- In the manga Goku gives Arale and the Gatchans a ride after the Suppaman scene; the anime swaps the order.
- Suppaman, called Sourman in the English dub, is a Superman parody: when he reveals his costume, an off-key take on the famous theme plays. The dub title Strange Visitor echoes the old Adventures of Superman intro.
Did you know? The English dub rewrote Blue's encounter with Obotchaman: the general mistakes the boy for his long-lost little brother, Samuel.
Characters
- Goku
- Arale Norimaki and the Gatchans
- General Blue
- Suppaman
- Akane and Obotchaman
- Senbei and Midori Norimaki
- The Penguin Village police