Tomato, Girl Detective
Tomato, Girl Detective (ギャル刑事トマト) is a one-shot by Akira Toriyama, first published on August 15, 1979 in a special issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump. It is also featured in Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater Vol. 1. The main characters, Akai Tomato and Slump, make a brief cameo in the fifth Dr. Slump chapter, "Which Will It Be?". This manga also marks the first appearance of Kenta Kuraaku, a recurring character in Dr. Slump who makes a few appearances in Dragon Ball media.
Overview
At the Yoikora Police Station, the Commissioner and his men await the arrival of a new recruit, the very young Akai Tomato, 18, who is assigned there as an inspector. The girl arrives late at her first day, still wearing her pajamas. We quickly see that she is not very serious: she was about to change in front of her colleagues, who are all men, and later plays with her gun and shoots the Commissioner, narrowly missing him. Fortunately for her, and as her colleagues think, she is rather pretty. Slump is responsible to show her the neighborhood. During their walk, he keeps rolling on the floor laughing at the stupidities of Tomato. She sings at the internal radio, and she wants to impose a fine on a civilian in order to pay a dress. Slump tells her about a wanted criminal named Kenta Kuraaku. Soon, Akai Tomato meets Kenta Kuraaku in the streets. The man takes hostages: first a baby who was doing a bike ride, then a cockroach he finds on the floor and ants. The young detective manages to make Kenta Kuraaku release them and catches him, winning the respect of her partners.
This manga is the first success of Toriyama. It was made from a solicitation by Kazuhiko Torishima, Toriyama's editor. Shortly after the failure of Today's Highlight Island, Kazuhiko Torishima asked Toriyama to write a story with a girl as the main character. The manga artist was in a dark period and could have ended his ambitions, but the little success of Tomato, the first manga by Toriyama that ended well ranked in the Shōnen Jump polls, gave him hopes. Tomato marked a turning point in Akira Toriyama's career. He decided to continue on the theme of the naive girl that provokes disasters every time she does something and, a few months later, he made his first great success, Dr. Slump.