Like the names of many other characters, Arale is a pun on the name for a bite-sized rice cracker (arare), and with the family name ("Norimaki Arale") it refers to a sort of arare wrapped with nori seaweed. Initially, her glasses were just a gag, with Toriyama wanting to remove them as they made her more difficult to draw. However, they became a trademark of Arale's and readers who had to wear glasses wrote him saying that by Arale having them it made them feel better about themselves, so he ended up keeping them. Arale is usually shown with purple hair, although it is dark brown in the 1997 anime.