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Sgt. Frog  is a manga series by Mine Yoshizaki, and a TV anime series based on the manga and directed by Junichi Sato. Both the anime and manga are comedies that follow the attempts of a platoon of frog-like alien invaders to conquer Earth. Sergeant Keroro, the titular character, is the leader of the platoon, but is at the mercy of a human family of three. In both the manga and anime, Keroro is forced to do meaningless chores and errands for the family after his army abandons his platoon on Earth.

The series takes its comedy from a combination of wordplay (particularly puns and homophones), physical humor, situational humor, and numerous pop culture references (especially to Gundam). Various anime, games, manga, and other aspects of pop culture are parodied/referenced throughout the series, making it difficult for younger audiences to appreciate. Both the manga and the anime are laden with pop-culture references, and even in the same story the references often vary wildly. In particular, the anime does not explicitly refer to Evangelion and other animations to which Bandai does not hold the copyrights, and only recreates the "feel" of famous scenes from other anime. The anime is instead much more detailed and direct in its Gundam references, since Bandai does hold rights to the Gundam franchise.

Sgt. Frog is published in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, serialized in the magazine Shonen Ace, and published in English by TOKYOPOP. The anime is produced by Sunrise, has aired on Animax, TV Tokyo, and TXN at 10:00 A.M. until 10:30 A.M. every Saturday since April 2004, and is currently at episode 162. In addition, around August of 2005 it was announced that a "Keroro Gunsō" theatrical movie was to be directed by Junichi Sato, produced by Sunrise, and set for release summer of 2006. A second movie has been announced for March 2007. The English manga releases amount to 14 volumes in total. ADV has announced they have acquired exclusive rights to the English dub of Sgt. Frog. Currently, volume one of the DVD is slated for release in the United States in late 2007.

Characters and plot

Both the manga and the anime focus on the steadily deteriorating ordeal of the Keroro Platoon, a group of two-foot-tall frog-like invaders, who try to conquer the world, but fail miserably. The platoon's leader, Sergeant Keroro, is easily distracted, and would rather spend his time making plastic Gundam models and surfing the Internet than destroying Earth, much to the chagrin of the bellicose corporal, Giroro. Aside from Keroro's laziness, what most stands in the way of their mission is the Hinata Family, a trio of rather benign humans who keep Keroro busy with ridiculous demands and constant abuse, primarily from the family daughter Natsumi.

Keroro Platoon

Sergeant Keroro is the manipulative antihero and titular character, who spends most of his time making Gunpla and performing errands for the Hinata Family. He and the platoon were sent to Earth to conquer it and put Keroro's face on every piece of merchandise they could find. Despite being the leader of his platoon, he does little to help and lets his subordinates do all the work. Serving Keroro without question is Private Second Class Tamama, who loves the Sergeant and is portrayed as very cute, but is extremely sensitive to the point where he reverts to a violent berserker at the single buzz of a fly. He is also jealous of anyone who gets near the Sergeant. Perhaps the only sane individual in the platoon is Corporal Giroro, the group's gunman with deadly accuracy, ears from hell and exceptionally good at cooking potatoes. He is often frustrated with Keroro's laziness, and is disgruntled to have him as a leader. He also has a crush on Natsumi, which too is starting to get in the way of the invasion. The platoon's inventor, Sergeant Major Kururu, is gloomy, insidious, unpopular, and disliked by everyone, who see him as a depressing jerk. He makes most of the platoon's inventions using the money Keroro earns through his daily chores. Despite Kururu's malevolent nature, none of his inventions have any permanent effect. The fifth and final member is Dororo, who fancies himself a ninja, and has known Keroro and Giroro since their childhood. Despite hailing from a rich family, Keroro often uses him as a meat shield, but Dororo still follows Keroro's insane orders without question. Due to childhood abuse, Dororo falls into a deep but temporary state of depression whenever he is reminded of something bad Keroro did to him in his childhood. He is often overlooked by the others, also triggering his depression.

Hinata Family

Opposing and controlling the Keroro Platoon is the surprisingly normal Hinata Family. The son of the family is Fuyuki Hinata, who is obsessed with all things paranormal and supernatural. The daughter is Natsumi Hinata, the gifted one and the main voice of reason. The mother, Aki Hinata, is a manga editor who takes a liking to Keroro due to him becoming an inspiration for her new manga.

Other characters

In addition to the main cast, Sgt. Frog features a wide array of secondary characters, including the wealthy Momoka Nishizawa and her butler Paul Moriyama. They are friends of the Hinata Family, and are the owners of Private Tamama. Other human friends include the radio show host Mutsumi Saburo and the female ninja Koyuki Azumaya. A friend of the Keroro Platoon is Angol Mois, the Lord of Terror who was sent to Earth to destroy it, but is now forced to protect it (to keep the world's Gunpla companies intact for Keroro). Sumomo is a recurring character in the anime, where she is a highly popular singer that Giroro impersonates poorly in one episode, while in the manga she only appears in a bonus chapter.

Notable differences

The transfer from manga to anime is somewhat uneven, as some episodes strongly resemble the manga while others only borrow the basic story or even use it only as a starting point.

• Because Giroro, Kururu, and especially Dororo are introduced in the anime much earlier than in the manga, several storylines not featuring them at all were modified to include them.
  
• Whereas the manga is somewhat oriented towards teens, the anime is toned down to a level acceptable for children. For example, in the manga, when Natsumi is wearing Aki's bikini and reverts from an adult, her bikini does not, to her great embarrassment. In the anime, her bikini shrinks with her.
  
• Perhaps the most subtle difference is that in the manga, Earth is referred to as "Pokopen", whereas in the anime, it is "Pekopon". "Pokopen" is a derogatory word Japanese used to describe China during the Second World War, and has since been banned from TV programs by the telecom authority in Japan.
  
• Mutsumi (623) still has his radio show in the anime, but he is a student in Natsumi's class instead of a high school dropout, and his last name is Saburô (326) rather than Hojo.
  
• In the manga chapter LXXVI, Keroro plays a Game Boy Advance SP on Fuyuki's bed, while in the anime Keroro plays a Nintendo DS.
  
• Dororo has a trauma meter in the anime that appears frequently while in the manga there isn't one.Merchandising

A signature element of the manga series is its frequent Gundam references, ranging from Keroro's Gunpla obsession to the Keronian military equipment, which is based on those of various Gundam series. As a result, the series was picked up by Bandai, who have supported it with an extensive line of merchandise. For example, Keroro action figures are called "Keroro in Action?!", a play on the long running "Mobile Suit in Action!!" Gundam action figure line. Indeed, the Keroro name on the packaging is even designed to appear to be hastily pasted over the MSiA!! name. Other such lines include the forthcoming Keroro FIX (based on Hajime Katoki's popular Gundam FIX Figuration) and Keroro model kits, which include special neck joints to allow the user to place the heads on various Gundam kits.

International versions

• ADV Films in North America added a brief teaser page to their website, announcing their licensing of the anime.
• The site turned to static before playing a short clip of Keroro dancing to "Afro Gunsou," then leaving the message "hacked by the frog." This was followed by a press release by ADV, stating that they have licensed all Sgt. Frog properties (except the manga, which was already licensed) for the US. It was confirmed that the anime dub will be released on DVD in the United States as of February 2007. However, as of March 2007, ADV Films have still not confimed a release date themselves.
  
• In Italy, the anime series was broadcast on Italia 1, starting on September 11, 2006. De arimasu is translated as Signorsì ("Yes, sir").
  
• In Hong Kong it was initially broadcast by Cable TV, then by TVB. In Taiwan, Keroro was broadcast on Cartoon Network. In both versions, the names of Keroro and other Keronians are transcribed in Latin rather than into Chinese characters; and "Pekopon" is translated as "the Blue Planet" (Chinese: 藍星; Pinyin: lán xīng, Cantonese: laam4 sing1).
  
• In Spain, on Cartoon Network.
  
• In the Philippines, it is dubbed in Tagalog and aired as Sgt. Keroro on ABS-CBN on June 4, 2007.
  
• In Malaysia, the series is broadcast since April 27, 2007, dubbed in Malay on ntv7, known simply as Keroro.
• There are notable changes in the dubbing of the series. For example, Keroro's trademark line "de arimasu" is never said in the show but in one episode is translated as "watch it" in the episode title in Malay. Also Momoka calls Fuyuki by his given name instead of Hinata-kun.

Controversy

In Korea, as well as other victim countries of WWII in East Asia, anti-Japanese bloggers have demanded that Korean TV station stop broadcasting the Keroro series, arguing that the animation promotes militaristic imperialism among young children. Some of their points include:

• The yellow hats of Keronians were worn by Japanese soldiers during World War II
  
• The opening animation of the second arc displayed "Kyokujitsu-ki," the Japanese war banner
  
• The military rank "Gunso" in Japan was broken into two ranks after WWII, so using "Gunso" as the main word of the series's name promotes militarism

Most Koreans agree that this is an overreaction, as Sgt. Frog's military invasion plans fail humorously (often miserably), and this can be viewed as ridiculing obsolete imperialism in the context of modern Japan. Instead, Sgt. Frog is promoting the concept of friendship, fairness, and goodness, if only by demonstrating how not to go about taking over the world.

Also, with Christian groups, the supposed homosexuality of Tamama is criticized.

Trivia

• In the pilot episode of the NBC series Heroes, there is a Keroro figure on Hiro Nakamura's desk.In Densha Otoko, the main character owns many Sgt. Frog products, including a Keroro keychain and plushie.
  
• In episode two of the anime, Lucky Star, the characters Konata Izumi and Kagami Hiiragi are shown playing a claw game filled with stuffed dolls of the Sergeant and the rest of the platoon. Also in episode seven, the character Tsukasa Hiiragi has a Keroro keychain for her phone, which was soon placed in her bag later on. Konata and Tsukasa also announced that their favourite manga was Sgt. Frog at the end of this episode.