Sgt. Frog Manga Volume 17
Keroro Gunsou/ケロロ軍曹

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Giroro decides to get Natsumi some new mittens and seeks the advice of her friends and family to get the perfect pair. Next, the X5.5 weapon is sent to Earth with a message for the platoon but ends up attacking just the same, forcing the platoon to do battle. Then, Keroro gets over-enthused about making a giant snowman after being praised once. Next, some mice who have obtained intelligence accidentally school the platoon before leaving Earth.

As Dororo and Koyuki perform a kangori ritual, the assassin Zoruru traps the rest of the platoon so that he can battle Dororo in a one-on-one contest. Next, Keroro gets Natsumi to agree to let the Hinata home be used for a reality show. Following that, Keroro gets to reenact the initial invasion of Earth and finds that revisionist history doesn’t sit well on Earth or back at home. Next, Keroro gets the Secretary-Type Robot, K-Ro, to take over for him while he works out a plan, while the platoon discovers K-Ro is a better leader.

Fuyuki has a bout of insomnia and ends up helping Keroro make a sleeping solution.

The platoon is not respecting Keroro, so he decides to go giant and faces off with Officer Poyo, who’s going to arrest him until she discovers that they are actually on a miniture set and no one has been turned into a giant.

Thoughts/Review:

TokyoPop is going cheap in its printings it appears, at least for certain titles. Holding the current volume of Sgt. Frog, the flimsy way if feels in ones hand is the first clue of its cheap printing. Then, there’s the cheaper paper that’s being used (lower quality grade paper) which results in some minor bleed through of ink from the previous page, especially when a lot of black is used. It really is a shame to see things produced so cheaply as TP tries to cut costs to improve the bottom line rather than try to do things that would get more people to buy. I’m afraid that Stu Levy’s chickens have come home to roost (all of his non-manga projects that he got TP involved in).

Regarding this manga, I have to say there’s really nothing that compelling here. Sometimes, Yoshizaki-sensei will introduce a new and interesting character or create an interesting story involving a previous character. While there is nothing bad about any of the stories here, I found none of them made me laugh and none of them were all that interesting. The closest thing for me may have been the initial X5.5 Christmas story, but that’s it. That’s not to say that I didn’t like reading this volume or that I think it is bad — I just think that Yoshizaki-sensei just didn’t score any runs with me (to use a baseball analogy).

Actually, now that I think about it, Giroro getting Natsumi those mittens was kind of nice too, though sadly nothing else came of that (though she is seen wearing them in another chapter).

So an average manga volume that TokyoPop treats sub-average with their new cost-cutting measures. Its a shame, really.