Arale Norimaki is an android built by Senbei Norimaki in Penguin Village, crafted as the world's first perfect humanoid robot. She poses as Senbei's sister or daughter to locals. Her design includes purple hair and corrective glasses for nearsightedness, though later adaptations show brown hair. Her stature gradually becomes shorter and more childlike, eventually attributed to multiple interchangeable bodies.

She displays a childlike, naive demeanor despite advanced intelligence enabling academic excellence and complex math. Her personality features boundless curiosity, absent common sense, and signature quirks: running with arms outstretched while yelling "Kiiin," using greetings like "N'cha" and "Bye'cha," and exclaiming "Hoyoyo" in confusion. She adores Japanese superhero programs, monster films, and exhibits a peculiar obsession with poking feces using sticks. Beneath her innocence, she shows kindness, fiercely protects animals and friends, and occasionally displays maternal instincts toward her robotic sibling Turbo and the creature Gatchan.

Arale wields immense superhuman strength and durability, demonstrated through techniques like the Chikyūwari ("Earth Splitter")—splitting the planet with one punch—and the N'chahō ("N'cha Cannon"), a mouth-fired energy beam. Other abilities include the Rocket Punch and surviving dismemberment by reattaching her own head. Her power lets her effortlessly overpower foes, such as defeating General Blue via kick and headbutt in a crossover. Later appearances confirm she can challenge fighters like Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Vegeta.

Her story begins with activation in Senbei's lab, followed by enrollment at Penguin Village Middle School. There, she befriends Akane Kimidori, Peasuke Soramame, and Taro Soramame after revealing her capabilities. Key events involve time-travel mishaps using Senbei's inventions, rescuing and adopting the alien-angel hybrid Gatchan from a prehistoric egg, and misadventures like accidentally enlarging the moon or unintentionally thwarting a bank robbery through chaotic intimidation.

Antagonists like Dr. Mashirito and alien King Nikochan repeatedly confront her, with conflicts resolved through her strength or Gatchan's actions—such as Gatchan devouring King Nikochan's spaceship to save Earth. Later developments include marriage to fellow robot Obotchaman and, in spin-offs like "Dr. Slump Returns," temporary adult transformation via Turbo's watch, which draws romantic attention.

Arale appears beyond her series in films and crossovers, including aiding Son Goku against the Red Ribbon Army and battling Goku and Vegeta in "Dragon Ball Super." These reinforce her comedic invincibility and role as a gag-character foil, exemplified when Vegeta refuses to fight her due to her unpredictability.

Her creation began when Akira Toriyama reworked a doctor-themed manga by adding a robot at his editor's suggestion. Panel size constraints led to revising initial large-robot plans, opting for a girl design for appeal. Though Senbei was meant as protagonist, Arale's centrality improved the series, with her glasses retained due to positive feedback from bespectacled readers.