Senbei Norimaki
From Dragon Ball Encyclopedia
Senbei Norimaki (のりまき センベイ, Norimaki Senbei; FUNimation "Senbei Norimaki", Viz "Senbei Norimaki") is Penguin Village's goofy and lecherous genius inventor. His greatest accomplishment is the creation of a powerful Android in the guise of a little girl whom he adopts as his daughter, Arale Norimaki. She often simply calls him Hakase (博士, Hakase; Literally meaning "Doctor").
Contents
Personality
He can also transform into a more handsome, taller version of himself (for a very brief period of three minutes). When in this state, he strongly resembles Tony Stark – the billionaire inventor of Iron Man. Senbei Norimaki's name is from Senbei Norimaki (a kind of Japanese rice cracker), whereas Arale Norimaki's name is from Arale, a different kind of rice cracker. "Norimaki" means "wrapped" and refers to a specific type of each respective kind of rice cracker.
Though Toriyama often draws most of the characters short and chubby, especially Senbei Norimaki, there are times Senbei Norimaki becomes more "realistic" seeming quite tall and rugged-looking. Usually this is when he puts on the best face he can for a pretty girl, such as Midori.
Biography
Early life
At some point when Senbei was young, his parents passed away.
Dr. Slump Arale-chan
Senbei's life changed when he created an Android, whom he adopted as his daughter, named Arale. In many episodes, he invents something and Arale calls him "Doraemon". When first asked if Arale was his daughter, he said he was only 28 years old and that she was his sister. When he enrolled Arale into school, he told the principal that he was her brother. The principal asked how that could be if his parents died when he was young. He then replied that he was really her father. After meeting a teacher, he switched back to saying he was Arale's brother and told the principal that he was joking before. He developed a huge crush on the Penguin Village Junior High School teacher, Yamabuki Midori, whom he dreams about a lot.
In one episode, he actually gets a date with Midori and goes into space. On the way back, Arale's friends play a prank on them for leaving them behind. They dress up like old people and say that the year is 2030 A.D. (the year in the manga being 1981.) Senbei finally marries Midori when he proposes to her while she was on the toilet. A year later, they had a son named Turbo.
Dragon Ball
When Goku was chasing General Blue in the skies of Penguin Village, Senbei constantly made peace signs in front of the screen since it had been the way he had been shown on TV. Akane yells at him for being stupid. Son Goku and Arale later show up at his house and ask if he could fix the Dragon Radar in order to find General Blue. Senbei was confused of its really advanced technology and was even more put down when Goku said a girl made it. Turbo secretly saved him from looking like an idiot by fixing it behind his back using his powers. General Blue showed up at his house and attempted to kill Goku and steal Senbei's airplane but Arale defeated him. While General Blue got away with the radar, Senbei let Turbo take his airplane apart to make Goku a new radar.
Dr. Slump
In the 1997 remake, Senbei's face and hair was changed a bit. His intentions for creating Arale were changed as well. He originally intended to make an attractive maid for himself, but it went wrong with Arale ending up being an accident. When Goku shows up in the remake, Senbei is forced to spend days trying to fix the radar (Turbo was not born yet in the remake to fix it for him).
Films
Senbei appeared in Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure.
Inventions
- Arale Norimaki – The first known perfect Android, although a flaw is that she is near-sighted and needs glasses.
- See-Thru Glasses – A pair of glasses that can see through anything non-organic. Senbei tries to use it to see girls naked, but they are destroyed when Midori accidently hits him with her scooter.
- Cyborg Bear – He transformed a Bear that was shot by a hunter into a cyborg to save its life.
- Big-Small Gun – A gun that can shrink or enlarge anything.
- Future Camera – A camera that takes a picture and shows what whatever is in the picture will look like in the future. A dial changes how far in the future this picture is shown.
- The Time Slipper – A flat board that travels through time when Mister Time, a talking clock, slips on it. If the board is missing, any flat, smooth surface can substitute it.
- Numb Ray Gun – A ray gun that freezes anything in place. It failed when Senbei used it against a Dinosaur.
- Robot Dog – Built to quickly track Arale when she was lost, it has an extremely acute sense of smell. It is apparently rather realistic as it thinks freely and urinates at some points.
- Plane – A round airplane powered by the fizz from a giant can of cola. It runs out of fuel rather quickly.
- Reality Machine – A talking rice cooker that generates a real copy of whatever was on a picture that was put inside of it.
- Barberman – A robotic hairdresser. It has an odd style of humor, a love for singing, and a Self-Destruct mechanism. It actually cannot cut hair very well though.
- Ponpoko Morph Gun – A transformation ray modeled after tanuki of Japanese mythology. The user points at whatever or whoever they wish to transform, says what they want it/he/she to become using a microphone at the back, and a ray transforms the object/person. For them to return to normal, the user must say "Turn back!". Senbei says this invention is "Sold in manga only!"
- Car – He built a car for Nikochan and his servant to get them back home because Senbei did not know that they were aliens.
Voice actors
- Japanese dub: Kenji Utsumi (Dr. Slump Arale-chan); Yūsaku Yara (Dr. Slump)
- Harmony Gold dub: ??
- Blue Water dub: Adam Hunter
- FUNimation dub: Brice Armstrong
Trivia
- It seems people can see Senbei's "serious face" since Goku asks how he does it.
- Senbei can hold his "serious face" for only 3 minutes.
