# Japanese manga artist Akira Toriyama parodied Superman in his first series Dr. Slump, in the form of "Suppaman" (slightly different from Supaman, the way that Superman is written in Japanese katakana), a short, fat, pompous buffoon who transforms into a Superman-like costume by eating a sour (or "suppai" in Japanese) pickled ume fruit (umeboshi). Unlike Superman, Suppaman can't fly, and instead pretends to fly by lying belly down on a skateboard and scooting through the streets. The Dr. Slump characters appeared in an episode of Dragon Ball where in the English dubbed version, Suppaman was renamed "Sourman".
# Toriyama's later series Dragon Ball Z paid homage to Superman as well. The hero, Goku, was sent to Earth to destroy it shortly before his home planet was destroyed. Like Jor-El, his father Burdock also tried to warn his people of their imminent destruction, in the TV movie Bardock: The Father of Goku. Goku's powers are in some ways similar to those of Superman, and similarly large-scale. His mild-mannered son, Gohan, eventually takes a superhero identity as the "Great Saiyaman," while attempting to hide his identity from the tough-as-nails Videl.
And is there any history between the characters?
