Keroro Gunsou VS Shinryaku! Ika Musume

What is it about planet Earth that makes it interested to other life forms to want to invade it? From Hollywood movies to Japanese animes, I’m sure that issue has been tackled and most of the time us humans have come out ‘victorious’. In today’s little blog, we’re going to take a look at a couple of anime series that involve certain creatures trying to invade humanity. It is Keroro Gunsou (Keroro) and Shinryaku! Ika Musume (Ika). And boy, don’t they look cute too? Can they withstand the cruelty and truthful injustice that they’ll find about humans? Who says being an invader is easy?

English name
The name of the series in English.
Keroro: Sgt Frog.
Ika: Squid Girl.

Seiyuu
The voice behind the invader.
Keroro: Kumiko Watanabe.
Ika: Hisako Kanemoto.

Type of life form
Keroro: Frog.
Ika: Squid.

Origins
Keroro: Planet Keron.
Ika: Within the deep ocean.

Reason for invading humanity
Keroro: Part of his mission.
Ika: As revenge against humans for polluting the ocean.

Physical appearance
Keroro: Green body wearing a yellow headgear with a red star in the middle.
Ika: Wears a white knee-length dress, white shoes and erm… that white cap/fins over her head.

Personality
Keroro: As observed in most times: Selfish, lazy, a coward though at certain times regards the value of friendship.
Ika: Naive, easily manipulated though at certain times shows that she cares for those around her.

Currently living with
As we know, both of them failed miserably and multiple times in their effort to complete their mission thanks to a certain ‘brute force’. Therefore, they are ‘forced’ to live within this family as a way to keep them in check.
Keroro: The Hinata family.
Ika: The Aizawa family.
So who is the one getting invaded in the end?

The brute girl
Ah yes. The one that keeps our failed invader in line. Violent and brutish, you don’t want to mess with her.
Keroro: Natsumi.
Ika: Eiko.

What the invader ends up doing.
Keroro: Cleaning the house.
Ika: Serving customers at Lemon Beach House.

Other family members
In reference to the family members of the family the invaders are living with.
Keroro: Fuyuki (Natsumi’s little brother).
Ika: Chizuru (Eiko’s older sister) and Takeru (Eiko’s little brother).
Note how the invader always gets along well with the little brother.

Relatives
In reference to blood related members of the invader.
Keroro: Angol Moa.
Ika: Not known at this point.

Platoon members
You can’t take over the world by yourself, can’t you.
Keroro: Giroro, Kururu, Dororo and Tamama.
Ika: Nil. Okay, so maybe she really thought she could invade the world just by herself.

Favourite person to pick on
Keroro: Not sure. But if I had to guess it’ll be Natsumi.
Ika: Nagisa Saitou.

Special abilities
Keroro: Throwing a Keropa energy ball when he is in his competent and former form and piloting mechas.
Ika: Just about anything from drumming to solving maths equations. Everything except taking over the world.

Other physical abilities
Keroro: Resonate with his other mates and due to his stay in the Hinatas, has become quite a good cleaner and curler.
Ika: Her multi-tasking and multi-talented tentacles, spitting out squid ink, illumination and erm… Whatever those fin on her head does.

Favourite stuff
Which somehow also turns out to be their weakness.
Keroro: Gunpla models.
Ika: Shrimps.

Natural enemy
Keroro: Cobra-like aliens called Vipers.
Ika: Killer whales.

Other rivals
Keroro: (Selected) Garuru’s platoon that includes team leader Garuru, Taruru, Tororo, Zaruru and Pururu.
Ika: The Minamikaze beach house that consists of the Owner and his shy daughter Ayumi. Cindy Campbell and her MIT underlings.

Sentence ending phrase
Keroro: “~de arimasu”.
Ika: “~geso”.

Laughter
Keroro: “Gero, Gero, Gero~”.
Ika: “Huhuhu~”.

Invasion record
Some of the selected (read: those I can remember) attempts that these invaders try to put into action but failed miserably/pathetically/ridiculously. Maybe they should take up a workshop in invasion after all.
Keroro: Trying to take over the world via forced purchase of vending machine drinks, substituting Valentine Day’s chocolates with dango and sweet potato snacks, using furniture (so that everyone will have a painful time when they accidentally hit their little toes in it), channelling all the lazy energy of the life forms against the humans, taking a trip around the world to various wonders of the world in hopes of learning advance alien technologies from it and a desperate last ditch attempt to create a fake baby planet by stealing garbage and water.
Ika: Trying to take over the world via invading a school thought to be a military base, getting those around her to be her servants and planning on using her maths genius to take over the world.

Girl with a double personality
Keroro: Momoka Nishizawa has a split person which is more aggressive and bold compared to her gentle and kind original self.
Ika: Chizuru can exhibit supernatural human abilities like speed and strength when is displeased as opposed to her kind and gentle front.

Obsessive stalkers
Keroro: Chiruyo Tsukigami writes all her observations about Fuyuki in her notebook.
Ika: Sanae stalks Ika each time including forcing her to put on cosplay outfits.

Guardian of the frontier
Keroro: Jessica Harpie and Poyon – Intergalactic Space Policewoman.
Ika: Gorou Arashiyama – lifeguard saver and ‘defender of the sea’.

Unrequited love polygon
Keroro: Giroro loves Natsumi who loves Mutsumi/Saburo. Momoka loves Fuyuki.
Ika: Sanae loves Ika, Gorou loves Chizuru.

Episode division
Keroro: Each episode is either divided into 2 short stories or 1 whole episode of its own.
Ika: Each episode is divided into 3 short segments.

Invasion ends at…
After numerous failed invasions, attempts and other non-related endeavours, this is where the TV series ends.
Keroro: In late March 2011 after 354 episodes.
Ika: By end of December 2010 after 12 episodes. However there is a second season announced and in the works.

Conclusion
As we can see that they are in no shape to invade humanity any time soon. Or even in the foreseeable or distant future. Instead they got invaded themselves and become ‘slaves’ for the family that they are living in. If you ask me, I would very much prefer Ika over Keroro many times because the former is damn cute!!! I’m not saying the froggy isn’t because the Ika was shown much more recent and that I never had the chance to even finish Keroro. Not even 1/3 of it. Therefore this blog may seem lacking a lot of other details since Keroro has lots more characters, plots and developments due to the lengthy and long running series that spans 7 years! Even during my tenure in watching it, it got repetitive and probably one of the reason (the other being, there were no subs) why I never continued. As for Ika, it was something similar but yet totally refreshing and the comedy really did made me laugh out loud and the character more lovable. As such, I’d rather have a squid girl invading my home rather than a two-foot tall frog simply because, I prefer eating fried ‘sotong‘ than ‘tin kai‘ (literally means paddy chicken, which are actually frogs). Ika FTW! Thumbs down to Keroro! Let’s just hope they keep flopping their mission so that we can have a good time laughing. Ah, being an invader is such a tough job.

 

Keroro Gunsou

This series wasn’t really on my must-see list but when Keroro Gunsou was shown on the local tv last year, I decided to give it a go. Since I know this show has over 100 episodes, I’m predicting that the tv station is gonna do their usual act of stopping halfway or even before the midway point. To my real surprise, they stopped showing the series just after 26 episodes! Now that really caught me off guard.

 

Well, I don’t really want to know the reason why even though I have a few theories of my own. But because of that, I decided to go and watch the series on my own. Even so, this is the first series in a very long time (maybe ever since the anime craze started in me) that I’ve decided to stop watching the show. There’s a reason for it. This series is still currently ongoing in Japan and since it’s being aired since 1999, they have already breached over 200 episodes. And there is no end in sight. Yet. What made me decide to drop watching the series a few episodes into a century is because the subs have just reached that far. Due to my impatience and at that current moment I had other ‘shorter’ anime series to watch, I finally decide that for the sake of watching that new anime, this one has to go at its expense. Sounds harsh. Besides, though each episode offers some different and variety of adventures, in a way, it’s what made it repetitious too. I’m not saying this is a boring series.

 

The basic storyline sees a group of frog invaders from the planet Keron who are going to invade planet Earth, whom they all fondly know as Pekopon. I don’t know why but out of all the millions of household, the leader of this invading platoon, Sergeant Keroro, has to start invade the Hinata household in Japan. To cut things short, this green little weirdo flops. Thus he is at the mercy of the Hinatas and becomes their slave-cum-servant and do meaningless household chores such as cleaning, cooking and the laundry. Makes you think are they capable of being invaders in the first place. Yeah, you’ll find Keroro is an incompetent frog as you go along. Wonder how he gets to be a leader of his platoon. Besides his signature "Kero, kero, kero" laughter and sentence ending "~de arimasu", this frog loves collecting and assembling those Gundam-like models called Gunpla. Weird or just plain lazy. Or both. Invasion, interrupted. All the time.

 

The Hinata household consists of just 3 people. Manga editor mummy, Aki, is the strongest member of the family and rides a motorbike. Eldest child, Natsumi, though is a normal girl with athletic, she is the one who punishes and gives Keroro the receiving end of her fury. She calls Keroro "Boke Kaeru" (stupid frog) and is always suspicious and blames Keroro if anything weird happens. Finally, Fuyuki is the more gentle one and is an obsessed fan of anything occult from the paranormal and the unsolved mysteries.

 

So over the episodes I have seen, most of the absurd-out-of-this-world-exaggerated comedy adventure will follow a certain pattern. Keroro and the gang will come up with some grand scheme to take over Pekopon but due to some error, misfortune and blunder, they’ll usually flop and be back at square one, or Keroro trying to find out Natsumi’s weakness and beat her with his plan. There are other main plots or side stories to help develop the characters but I feel that those 2 are the main adventures for the series. And while watching the series, it’s best to switch off your logic and reasoning power because as mentioned, the comical parts are outrageous enough to make you laugh (but not as much as Excel Saga). Even if you need a reason, let’s just say that it’s the superior high-tech advanced Keron technology.

 

Speaking of characters, I think I’ll blog on them since after watching the series for awhile, the jokes will revolve around the characters’ personality. So you could profile and analyze them after awhile. Let’s start of with the Keroro’s platoon. We have the snack loving Private Second Class Tamama who is skilled in martial arts. Okay, maybe not. But among the group, he’s the one who comes up with weird techniques like his mouth blast Tamama Impact. Tamama loves Keroro not in the sense as a superior-junior relationship, but as a lover! Woah! Yaoi relationship even do exists in aliens and frogs. But Keroro doesn’t know this and Tamama harbours this hope in his heart and gets jealous whenever anyone gets close to him. Yeah, I love Tamama’s voice when he’s jealous or in combat mode. He sounds ‘crazy’. But I notice that Tamama himself is sometimes selfish in the sense that whenever Keroro is in a tough pinch, Tamama will make up some excuse to not get involve. Where’s your real love for your sergeant? And I’m sure when Keroro got the surprise of his life when he finds out that somebody ranked lower than him gets to live in luxury whereas he himself does all those tough chores.

 

Next we have Corporal Giroro, the tough cookie and gun master of the team. Though he may look tough, but as the series progress, you’ll find otherwise. Always pestering Keroro to come up with plans to invade Pekopon and chiding him if he becomes lazy. If you’re so good, why not do it yourself? Giroro also harbours deep feelings for Natsumi (because he ‘lost’ to her when they first encountered) and because of his tough ego, he can’t reveal it. But I’m not sure when did this secret of his got busted and sometimes Keroro will use this Natsumi bait to lure Giroro into his schemes. Yeah, he softens up or gets weak whenever it involves Natsumi. I also notice that Giroro seems to bear the unfortunate consequences of Keroro’s testing or experiments. When not doing anything, Giroro can be seen cleaning his guns outside his makeshift tent in Hinata’s garden.

 

Then there’s Sergeant Major Kururu. He’s always laughing "Kukukukukuku…", which is annoying… and addictive. This yellow frog is the one responsible for all the bizarre inventions that you see in each episode. Though he’s a genius, it makes you wonder if he’s one because somehow each of his inventions has a flaw which partly contributes to the flop of each mission. His dark personality (but not evil) suits him very well in the sense that he has that unmotivated attitude and doesn’t listen to advice and only does so because he feels like it. There is an episode where we see his seemingly endless library collection of CDs, each labelled as some secret info (but it wasn’t really much… and lame).

 

Finally, Lance Corporal Dororo FKA Zeroro, is the one always left out by Keroro and the rest. Poor guy. Yeah, when he was young, he was always ‘bullied’ by Keroro and has developed some sort of trauma. So whenever those bad memories start coming back, Dororo’s Trauma Switch will go into on mode, and he’ll be unable to do anything but sit there in total gloominess. Aside that, he’s the quietest and calmest among the rest and even though he’s a trained assassin and ninja, his goal seems to contradict their mission. Dororo has turned into a peace loving advocate for Pekopon. And the only reason why he joins Keroro in his soon-to-fail invasion plans is because he yearns to be part of the action with the team. Sad case. Pity him.

 

Then there’s an additional member of Keroro’s team. She is Angol Moa and is dubbed the King Of Terror. She is from a race that destroys planets by using some weird staff with a comet. Her special move is called Helmaggedon and her 1/10000000000000 (I honestly don’t know how many zeroes there are) can split a planet in half! She’s supposed to destroy Pekopon but arrived several years too early and decides to take a nap. She wakes up later and crashes into the Hinata’s house (why do weird things keep happening at this house?). I’m not really sure of Moa’s real relationship with Keroro but she calls him her uncle and relish the chance to get all lovey-dovey with him. Because of that, Tamama sees her as an enemy each time she does that. Moa always has a habit of rephrasing or resaying a sentence in another way "Toiu ka~" (You could also say~).

 

Other Pekopon characters include a rich multi-billionaire (I think this amount isn’t enough to measure it all) Momoka Nishizawa, Fuyuki’s classmate and the daughter of NPG Corporation run by her dad and seems to have a hand in a lot of sectors. Makes you think that money can buy everything, huh? Momoka has a dual personality and while the more gentler and soft-spoken is seen, her other devilish and brute side will offer ‘advice’ or criticism. Just like how Keroro and Giroro lives with the Hinatas, Tamama lives with Momoka. Momoka has a capable elderly butler named Paul who will do anything for her. Then there’s this guy called Saburo also attends the same school as Fuyuki and Natsumi and he has that magical pen which can materialize things that he draws on. Then a ninja girl Koyuki Azumaya who has lived the way of the ninja for so long that doing normal things in the modern world seems so alien to her. She is best friends with Natsumi and is even her classmate.

 

In a long running series, there are many other characters too which spices up things. Such as some space detective called 556 (pronounced Kogoro) who is always hyped-up and passionate whenever he speaks. Yeah, he tends to do hand movements you see in those sentai movies. 556 has only 1 facial expression and always laugh no matter whatever the occasion. His sister, Lavie, is always seen apologizing for her brother’s lameness, stupidity and whatever. 556 has a habit of collecting coloured cardboards and because they’re so poor, that’s what they have in their small apartment and Lavie works part time to earn some cash. Also, Lavie is the only person who can tell her brother’s true feelings. Then there’s a space policewoman called Poyon. I don’t know why viewers called her a f*cking b*tch but I find her real cute whenever she ends her sentences "~Poyon". The there are Keron’s eternal cobra-head enemy called Viper in which they’re always been introduced as brother or mother or girlfriend or some in-laws of the first original defeated Viper. An American pop star named Melody Honey who speaks Japanese with an American accent and laughs at any kind of jokes, even boring or lame. Also a famous pop star but of intergalactic proportions is the pink Keron, Sumomo. Let’s not forget the narrator who comments or criticizes the characters with ambiguous talk (say one thing, mean another) and at the end of most stories, give some advice to viewers NOT to do what you just saw. There are many many many more characters but it will seem to take forever if I were to blog each an every one of them.

 

Now let me move on to the love triangles which partly makes the series a little interesting. Momoka has a crush on Fuyuki and will go to any great lengths to win his heart. So far, it all ended in failure and Fuyuki is still oblivious to all those signals. Makes you wonder why she loves this boy in the first place. And yeah, money can’t buy you love, right? There’s another side character bespectacled girl who seems to have a crush on Fuyuki too. I can’t remember her name but just like Momoka, she too can’t confess her feelings. I’m thinking the girls have such strange taste. Ah well, love works in mysterious ways. Likewise, Natsumi likes Saburo but is unable to confess her feelings. I don’t know but I kinda notice that Saburo is the voice of a radio programme which Natsumi loves listening to called 623 (pronounced Mutsumi). After hearing so much of this talk show, hasn’t she recognize his voice yet? Maybe they sound different on and off radio. But as far as I’m concerned, they sound the same, the way they talk too. Also, Koyuki seems to harbour that lovely feeling for Natsumi. Ah, yuri ninja. But you won’t see Koyuki doing weird desperate attempts to win her heart.

 

After watching the series, here’s too what I kinda noticed. Whenever something zaps or explodes at Keroro, he’ll don an afro hairstyle. In order to hide the Keron’s activities on Earth, they will use an Anti-Barrier which will make them invisible from the sights of all Pekopon inhabitants. However, mysteriously the Anti-Barrier doesn’t seem to have an effect on the Hinatas. Could this mean that there are actually real aliens living among us? There is a ghost which inhabits the Hinata’s household named Yure (literally also meaning ghost) and just like Dororo, her presence too is always ignored though she doesn’t make that much of an appearance throughout the series. She is more cute than scary in a way and there’s an episode which tells how she came to be. Uh huh. Something about believing in a kappa which resembles so much like a Keron. If you notice that Keroro has made the Hinata’s home as their base to invade Pekopon, you’ll wonder how big and seemingly endless the base is. Yeah, with just a meagre crew of 5 plus 1, you’d think why do they need such a large space for. Even when a so called meeting is being session, the room seems so empty with many unfilled seats. Besides, how on Earth does the ground below the Hinata’s residence have such a wide endless space? It just goes on and on and on… Every plan and scheme that Keroro hatches has got to have something to do with money or his Gunplas. It makes me wonder why he’s so obsessed with getting Pekopon currency to buy Pekopon Gunpla. Can he have Kururu make more money or Gunpla? Whenever the Kerons don’t use Anti-Barrier, they’ll get into a ready made Pekopon suit which allows them to move and mingle around normal humans. I find it funny that nobody except the other main Pekopon characters notice their odd appearance. Does anybody see that round frog head of theirs which doesn’t match that human body and limbs below?

 

Since they’ve arrived on Pekopon in such a relatively short time, I wonder how did they construct it all too? The genius of Kururu? Maybe. Even that frog admits that he can built and invent anything except a time machine, no matter how smart he is. But I’m sure he has a way around that, like that Do-It-Once-Again gun. If Dororo is always wearing a face mask, I wonder how he eats and drinks without ever taking it off. Whenever Kururu is ‘defeated’ or ‘lost’, his spectacles will be broken and he’ll be saying "Megane… megane…" (my glasses… my glasses). Whenever the frogs get together and resonate, they’ll repeatedly echo the 1st two syllables of their name. Harmony or cacophony? Natsumi likes listening to her 623’s radio programme and gets all excited when he’s gonna read her send-in postcard. However, whenever it reaches that part, there’ll be some interference (usually from Keroro’s ruckus) which prevents her from enjoying it a single bit, and soon incurring her demonic wrath. Whenever Momoka invites Fuyuki to some event, somehow the rest of the uninvited guests (read: Keroro and co) would tag along, spoiling the mood for spending their time alone together. Not only there are many strange aliens from outer space, there are some mysterious creatures from Earth too, like the weird mermaid clan which Fuyuki met in one episode. I’m not too sure, even though their identities are not allowed to be known by humans, they decide to let him live because they think he’s the saviour of Earth. Huh? At Keroro’s age or rank, I notice that the headquarters sends him assignments and homework to be completed and handed in a certain time frame. Of course Keroro is lazy and doesn’t do them till the last minute. Does it really matter all those assignments? Back on Keron, Keroro, Tamama and Giroro are quite popular and have their own group of fans. However, Kururu is quite unpopular so much so the platoon receives requests to remove or replace him. Ah well, better than being ‘forgotten’ or inexistent.

 

Since it’s impossible for me to blog on every episode, I’ll just mention the more memorable ones (in other words you could say the ones that I can remember. Heh, I do sound like Moa, don’t I?). Most of the episodes are divided into 2 stories though there are some which are a whole story by itself. I kinda notice that most episodes with 2 stories are in a way are related to each other in the sense of the topic or the aftermath of the first. Also, you can also guess a certain story is focused on which main character since his/her name will appear first, followed by the episode title and the sentence ending "~de arimasu".

 

Some of the stories included such as the Hinatas along with Keroro and co visit their grandma at the country side. Due to her strong and perseverance character, Keroro and co looks up to her and addresses her admiral. Also, Tamama’s confrontation with a tiny rhinoceros beetle… and lost. An episode whereby Keroro has a tooth cavity so the gang has to miniaturize themselves and fight the decaying invaders in Keroro’s mouth (love the part whereby Tamama was in his crazy mode and firing like nobody’s business but his crazy shooting didn’t even hit a single enemy!). A time where a couple of fakes are imposing as the universe’s most famous tv celebrities and take advantage of Keroro and Hinata’s hospitality and kindness only to be foiled in the end by Poyon and the real ones receiving their fury upon their arrival. A part where Momoka’s dual split personality really splits into 2, telling really lame ghost stories, Natsumi temporary turning into a busty adult self (wonder why Saburo didn’t recognize her), Momoka inviting Fuyuki and co to her island so that she could be close to him in a test of courage, Tamama temporarily becomes the leader of Keroro’s platoon because of an error in a letter (yeah, he just fires those against him even if it’s just some insy tinsy reason. But he soon finds himself alone when no one is left), Keroro using the radio waves to invade Pekopon (expect failure), Keroro and co invade the sports festival of Fuyuki and Natsumi, Keroro’s legendary demonic father visits him on Pekopon (to everyone surprise, he’s not as fearful as he once thought to be), having a snowball fight at the Hinata’s yard, trying to persuade Kururu (seems only Moa can have an effect on him because of her angelic smile), doing a manzai comedy at a beach competition, Keroro and co trying to get and turn an animal into half-human to help in their invasion, Keroro and co trying to understand how an anime is made in order to invade Pekopon (yeah, it’s tougher than it looks. So all anime enthusiasts, be thankful and grateful for having watched quality animes. Can’t say the same for Keroro’s lame anime they made at the end), Fuyuki takes a wonderful trip visiting the world’s ancient mystery sites only to find that they’re past tools used by aliens (like Stonehenge was a giant cooking pot!), and the gang planning a surprise birthday party for Natsumi when it’s actually just a plot to get everyone to celebrate Keroro’s birthday which is a few days after Natsumi’s.

 

Other (mis)adventures include Keroro having a Tyrannosaurus Rex as a pet but its mind control over it went out of control, Aki takes a spin on one off Kururu’s robot inventions but it goes out of control and battles Kururu, Fuyuki and Keroro challenges each other to some winter sports duel but the game is always being interrupted by mysterious forces (that’s Aki and Kururu’s accidental doing as it’s later revealed), Tamama befriending a football kid and getting his self confidence back, Keroro mass producing dangos as part of his invasion plot (too bad they didn’t sell a bit so he and the rest has to eat them all up. And they’re still producing dangos at that rate too!), Momoka takes Fuyuki on a space trip or even a haunted school in hopes of getting near him (don’t bet your money that she’ll come close. Even so, it’s like yet so close yet so far), Tamama learning a new deathblow (I like the theory of how his twisted personality twisted the direction of his deathblow since his original Tamama Impact can only predictably go in a straight line), Natsumi and Koyuki duking out in a tennis match, Keroro and gang try to stop a moving castle with a mind of its own before it destroy a Gunpla factory, a new transfer student in Fuyuki’s class who is actually an alien trying to retrieve a precious item in Fuyuki’s possession to end her bad luck streak, Momoka along with Natsumi and Moa forms a 3 member thief called More Peach Summer to steal an embarrassing picture to be displayed by her dad who employs Fuyuki and the Kerons to guard it (yeah, the picture is a naked baby version of Momoka. Real embarrassing), Keroro becomes a temporary teacher in Fuyuki’s class, Keroro and the rest enter Dororo’s subconscious mind to rid all (okay, some of them) the bad memories which are causing him his usual trauma, Fuyuki and Keroro walking down memory lane a path Fuyuki usually walks when he was young, Keroro setting up a intergalactic hotspring pitstop for aliens, Natsumi and Koyuki having their ‘date’ while Giroro watches real closely (even if they’re girls or the date was just shopping, that frog is still suspicious), and when Natsumi and Saburo are locked together in a rocket soon to be launched to space (Giroro getting real jealous here and did everything he could to prevent it. When the rocket lifts off, Giroro was hanging to it. Finally it’s revealed that the duo are trapped in just an adjacent toilet and well… poor Giroro’s blasted off into deep space).

 

Momoka’s dad testing Fuyuki to see if he’s capable of being the next heir to his gigantic corporation, Keroro creating a weird and real life game, the Kerons trying to take over the world through football by facing Paul’s side but the former lost because Keroro did an own goal, Keroro remodels the Hinata’s home into some weird and confusing mix-up maze, Tamama gets a visit from a junior Taruru who looks up to him (it seems Tamama must be spreading lies to him as Taruru blurts out Tamama’s greatness and the other’s ‘weaknesses’), Tamama also getting a visit from a little Keron girl Karara who wants to be Tamama’s bride (later on she changes her mind and falls for Kururu because he ‘saved’ her and much later again changes her preference to Dororo when he did the same thing too. So fickle…), Koyuki making a heavy riceball for Natsumi (I wonder why it’s edible too) and gets the Keron frogs involved in a sumo wrestling match between a group of mouse aliens, a 3rd personality of Momoka awakens (which her character reminds me of Hime of Kaibutsu Oujo. And yeah, she’s gonna take over the world!) when she saved Fuyuki from a blast, Keroro and Natsumi have their usual fight but the former ends up running away from home to live on his own (not gonna last very long…), Keroro and co along with the help of a space policewoman try to decipher a code containing some treasures (what? some gold toilet seats? It’s some Japanese pun I don’t get anyway) and a showdown with the Vipers, Keroro runs a fast food outlet only to find out that it was Moa and Natsumi’s smile which is selling and not the loads of ingredients for the burgers they bought, the gang turned themselves into magical girls and tries to cheer up a busy Aki at work, Giroro having himself split into 7 different personalities, Moa got a disease which causes her to unconsciously blurt out her deepest desires and her bad side, Momoka inviting the gang to some traditional badminton game whereby the losers get moustache drawn on their face, some alien and Dance Man rip-off turning the entire world into afro as part of his invasion plan and doing that funky disco plan but only to be foiled by the transformed singing quartet of Natsumi, Koyuki, Moa and Momoka, Aki being chased and ‘tested’ by aliens who wants to employ her manga editor skills for the whole wide universe (she turned down the offer), Giroro being kidnapped by a jilted alien who thinks Giroro is the reason why his girlfriend broke up with him and Natsumi comes to his rescue, and a hotspring murder mystery whereby 556 is the victim (actually he just tripped on his coloured cupboards).

 

A day when Fuyuki and the Keron frogs go back in time and meet a young school going Aki, a past on Koyuki on how she was raised from a ninja village and met Dororo soon after, Keroro and gang trying to show their version of Hina Day for girls only to ruin it for Koyuki and pissing off Natsumi, trying to control self-regenerating and multiplying Nyororo (alien creatures which sucks humidity) when it goes out of control, Giroro go to great lengths to get some 3-headed dog alien liver to cure Natsumi’s illness, Keroro bluffed his dad by saying that he plans to marry Natsumi in order to continue staying on Pekopon, Keroro once again trying to beat Natsumi in some miniature racing game around their house, Fuyuki accidentally being turned into a child once more and relieve his world domination ambitions, 623 organizing a talent contest whereby the winner gets to meet him face to face (Kururu won with his cold jokes), Giroro trying to do some hobbies, Tamama temporarily all grown up, Keroro and co disguise themselves as physicians, doctors and nurse to do physical examination at Fuyuki and Natsumi’s school (hilarious part was when every girl saw Fuyuki naked in his undies when Keroro was running away and accidentally bangs him away. Oh Momoka…), Natsumi and Fuyuki had a quarrel, Fuyuki and Momoka stranded on Kururu’s experimental island, Fuyuki and Momoka attending some occult games meet so that their occult club will have records of achievement and not be closed down, Natsumi temporarily becomes a dog and meets Saburo while Keroro tries an unsuccessful attempt to take an embarrassing photo of her. But my favourite one was when Paul created a simulator for Momoka with all the scenarios in an attempt to get the right atmosphere and scene for Fuyuki to confess to Momoka. Looks like they need to remove a lot of things, obstacles and possibilities. Finally the simulator is perfect and Momoka can now confess to Fuyuki in the real world. It seems to be going as planned until the final part whereby Fuyuki is gonna confess… when suddenly 556 comes by in his whatever motor jet laughing like an idiot, splashing water on them and zooms off (with Lavie apologizing of course). Damn that guy. Of all the weird combinations and possibilities, they actually never thought of 556. Another one is whereby Keroro plans of using moveable cabinets to conquer Pekopon because everyone who gets their little toes knocked by them will be squirming in pain than anything else. Of course this plans failed because in most parts of the world, especially USA, people wear shoes in their homes.

 

There are times whereby the headquarters requests Keroro and co to show the results and proof of their invasion or advances like the time where Keroro uses a last ditch attempt to create a new planet. Though it’s against some intergalactic law, they have too or else they’ll have to abandon their mission and return to Keron. Now, after so long on Pekopon, everyone’s so comfortable with each other, why would they want to go back or the Pekopons for them to leave, right? Even though the results aren’t satisfying (in my eyes), they’re always able to get away and continue their stay (hooray for the gang and another reason to prolong the series. Haha). Then there’s a time whereby the gang have to say their final farewell as headquarters command them to return home. In doing so, everyone who has memories on them will be erased and any physical proof of their existence will be vanished without a trace. Of course it’s a heartbreaking tearful way to part and eventually though the Kerons are gone, it’s revealed at the end that they were just being called for a health check-up. That’s what happens when you jump to conclusions. And with Kururu’s memory restoring invention (can memory be reset just like a computer?), everyone regains their memories and continue with their happy ways. It makes me wonder why the headquarters don’t really monitor their progress. I mean, with all those technological advances, it’ll be just at their fingertips, right? Are they serious in wanting to conquer Pekopon?

 

But there is a short story arc that got me a little interested and excited to watch. It all started when the entire Keroro platoon along with Fuyuki and Natsumi lost their memories and there is a countdown timer in which a bomb will destroy the entire planet. This scene looks very much like the American thriller, 24. They did stupid and hilarious stuffs just trying to remember who they are and what they’re doing at that point in time. Finally it’s revealed that one of Kururu’s invention (a satellite in space) was the one responsible for zapping them all and causing them temporary memory loss. But it wasn’t Keroro or they gang who stopped the timer (yeah, so colour prejudiced. You’re not gonna cut the red wire aren’t you Keroro? And not the yellow one too, huh?), but that Kururu’s invention itself because it thinks that they were all so dumb and stupid that they were not worth killing. So true. For the first time, Kururu’s expression and tone was a little serious because he wonders how anyone else could hack into his system like this. There is.

 

Soon, Giroro’s older brother, Lieutenant Garuru and his troops arrive on Pekopon with their mission of replacing Keroro as Pekopon’s invaders after so many failed attempts. Garuru is more merciless and ruthless and his crew seems quite intimidating. We have a part-cyborg and assassin Lance Corporal Zoruru (coolest character with his sharp razor claws), computer geek Private Second Class Tororo, and Private First Class Taruru. Yup, that Taruru has joined Garuru’s platoon and is all grown up now. Garuru’s arrival seem to have froze the entire planet in suspended animation. It’s not that only time has stopped, if it were to go on, everything on this planet will suffer some atrophy and waste away! I’m not sure why the usual Pekopon characters aren’t frozen, though. Anyway Giroro goes up against his brother and lost to the latter’s superior Keron weaponry. Gasp! Is this the last we’ll see of him? Taruru takes on Tamama and easily beats him. Zoruru who has a grudge with Dororo (I don’t know where he’s hiding all this while ever since Garuru’s invasion came to be) meets and duels with Koyuki. For those surviving Pekopons who got defeated by Garuru’s troops, they’ll disappear, but I don’t know to where. With Giroro and Tamama down, Kururu locked away in his own room because he can’t outwit Tororo, and Dororo nowhere to be found, Keroro thinks his bad leadership is the cause of all this happening. Took you long enough to realize it, pal. Garuru and co then confronts Keroro (after imprisoning Moa) and changes Keroro mind with some tube to his ruthless self before he came to Pekopon. Before Giroro was wiped out, he made some super high-tech suit for Natsumi as he thinks she’s the last saviour of Pekopon. Even though she kicked ass, it still wasn’t enough to beat Garuru. Even Fuyuki tried to lend a hand by persuading Keroro, who has become the leader of Garuru’s platoon to stop it all and remember all the times they had together. Though it seems futile, but it manages to reach deep down into his heart.

 

In a sudden turn of events, Keroro remembers all his memories and turns back to his old but renewed self. For the first time, we see Keroro like a true leader (even if it’s just for a short while) commanding his other troops to protect the Hinatas. Sudden revival from Giroro and Tamama as they head to where Keroro is. Finally Dororo makes his move by using his ninja art to immobilize Tororo’s computer system. With the help of Kururu, they turn the tables on him. Giroro and Tamama had their respective rematch with Garuru and Taruru and easily won with their renewed determination. Finally all of Keroro’s troops have gathered and the much awaited showdown between Dororo and Zoruru is about to begin when Dororo don’t remember who he is, sending shockwaves to the latter so much so he just disappeared into the darkness. Everyone thinks Dororo did a cruel thing. They’re the one to speak. Ah well, I was really anticipating such a cool fight but it didn’t materialize. Perhaps in the future episodes. I’m not sure but it seems Garuru’s mission wasn’t to replace them but the way he said things, was just to ‘awaken’ them and see their true potential. With that, Garuru and co left and return Pekopon to its original state. Looks like these same bunch of losers will be the ones who will invade Pekopon. With Natsumi’s close watch and their bunglingness, I think we don’t have to worry any time sooner.

 

After this arc, I continued watching a little more. Keroro and co took a short vacation and accidentally left their fake robot selves (even their characters are totally opposite) trying to take over the world and the Hinata siblings are at their mercy. Of course the real ones return and show up just in time to save the day. Just then, headquarters have had enough of their delays and send some sort of countdown timer to conquer Pekopon in 175 days or else. But those few subsequent episodes sees them all still dilly-dally even with their failed plots as by the end of each episode shows the counter closer to the deadline. And even though I’ve stopped watching since then, I bet that there’s gonna be some catch or loophole somewhere which will allow those froggies to continue their stay on Pekopon. With more characters coming into the fray, I’m also sure that life on Pekopon for Keroro and co will be an interesting one. Not to mention probable short story arcs. I also read that Garuru and his team make another return in a not so distant future episodes. And for those who still can’t get enough of Keroro, to date there are 3 movie length features of the series.

 

I guess that’s it for me. At certain point, the episodes feel the same but it still didn’t bore me. Especially with all the jokes and stupidity coming from Keroro himself. Probably I would’ve gone on myself if the subs were up-to-date but like I’ve said, I haven’t got the patience. I kinda notice that though the drawing doesn’t cater to those bishoujo or bishonen kind, but it has that kinda cute feeling, if you know what I mean. In other words, the character’s facial details especially the humans are quite simple. Yeah, their hair looks kinda like plastic… One thing about this series that there are lots of kanji words accompanied with hiragana and katakana writing on screen. Too bad that since they’re being displayed too fast and my Japanese isn’t that proficient yet, I can’t finish reading it in time. Even so, I can’t make any sense out of it. The next episode preview has the characters blabbing about something when Keroro interrupts by saying "Who cares about that" before mentioning the next episode titles.

 

Another thing I like about this anime is the superb voice acting. Everyone here sounds really fitting in their roles, especially Keroro who undergoes various voice changes depending on the mood he is in like being spoiled or pretending to be some flirty female character. Keroro is voiced by Kumiko Watanabe (Shippou in Inu Yasha), Etsuko Kozakura as Tamama (Yoriko in You’re Under Arrest, Mirmo in Mirmo De Pon), Jouji Nakata as Giroro (Gran Kayser in Yakitate! Japan), Takehito Koyasu as Kururu (Kuroyanagi in Yakitate! Japan), Takeshi Kusao as Dororo (Hanamichi of Slam Dunk, Kougaiji of Gensoumaden Saiyuki), Mamiko Noto as Moa (Enma Ai of Jigoku Shoujo, Esther of Trinity Blood), Tomoko Kawakami as Fuyuki (Athena in Aria The Animation, Ai in The Law Of Ueki), Chiwa Saito as Natsumi (Neneko of DearS, Aika of Aria The Animation), Akiko Hiramatsu as Aki (Miyabi in Ai Yori Aoshi, Haruko in Slam Dunk, Yukari in Azumanga Daioh), Haruna Ikezawa as Momoka (Yoshino of Maria-sama Ga Miteru), Keiji Fujiwara did double roles as Paul and the narrator (Takeshi in Sola), Ryou Hirohashi as Koyuki (Alice of Aria The Animation, Franca of Coyote Ragtime Show), Akira Ishida as Saburo (Narumi in Gakuen Alice) and Noboyuki Hiyama as 556 (Kankuro of Muteki Kanban Musume, Ikkaku of Bleach).

 

A long running series like this surely there has to be several opening and ending themes and of course I only get to listen to some of them. The 1st opening theme Kero! To March sounds like a marching song and the animation is full of Keroro himself. The 1st and 3rd ending theme Afro Gunsou sounds more like a Saturday Night Fever Disco theme and has Keroro in his afro hairstyle while in a John Travolta 70’s trademark suit. The 2nd ending theme Pekopon Shinryaku Ondo sounds like a traditional Japanese festival song while the 4th ending theme Keroro Shoutai Kounin! Netsuretsu Kangeiteki Ekaki Uta!! sounds like a children kindergarten’s song. The animation for this ending theme also tells viewers how to draw the frogs and each of them will have their turn singing the song. The series’ 2nd opening theme Zenkoku Musekinin Jidai reminds me of Naruto’s because the singer is screaming like a rock song. The 3rd opening theme Kimi Ni Juice Wo Katte Ageru sounds more pop-rock. The 5th ending theme Katte Ni Shinryakusha has a disco feel whereas the 6th ending theme Kokoro No Mondai sounds like a 10 year old trying to rap. The 4th opening theme Hareru Michi ~ Uchuujin sees Keroro and his platoon doing some weird dance while the 7th ending theme Shouri No Hanabira sees them running on a long winding road. Perhaps it’s a way of saying that Keroro will never reach his goal?

 

So if there are aliens out there really want to invade and take over our planet, chances are they may or may not be successful. Even though they are all high-tech and advanced, it doesn’t mean that they’re more smart and intelligent. And I still can’t understand Keroro’s Earthly desires anyway. Are frogs in our world really another life form from another planet? But I don’t think aliens will want to conquer our planet. Look at the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into. Killing each other to self destruction. I think they’ll definitely pass this one. Kuuukukukuku…