Keroro Gunsou Episode 123
ケロロ軍曹/Sgt. Frog Anime Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

The Hinata family head to Grandma Hinata’s home for the Obon festival. Keroro’s platoon tags along under the guise of doing training. Kururu observes something unusual. Later, Natsumi sees a ghostly slug, attempting to eat an eggplant. When Fuyuki, Keroro, Tamama, Giroro, and Dororo investigate, each one of them encounters something they fear most. Kururu shows up and reveals it is a Kawaru alien, who uses people’s greatest fears as a protection mechanism.

Keroro has a plan to use the Kawaru. To that end, they attempt to lure it into a trap to snare it. Meanwhile, the Hinata family heads to the river for the Obon festival. Grandma Hinata observes there are an unusual number of candle lanterns on the river. She returns to where Keroro has captured the Kawaru. Grandma Hinata gets him to release the alien, where she takes it to the river. The alien returns to its ship, briefly appearing as Grandma Hinata’s grandma before leaving.

Later, Grandma Hinata observes Tamama training. He sees a turtle on the path and challenges it to a race. Later, he finds the turtle still slowly, plugging away. After lunch and a watermelon snack, the squad find the turtle still plugging away on the path. The platoon discuss there, where Dororo recounts the story of the Tortoise and the Hare. Kururu tells the story of URASHIMA Taro, who saved a turtle.

That night, the group head to the summer festival. The Hinata’s recall how a vendor gave Natsumi and Fuyuki a turtle as young children. However, it escaped. Grandma Hinata quips that the turtle Tamama saw may have been it. Tamama takes a snack to the turtle, but finds it reunited with the vendor. The next day, Tamama leaves the snack with Grandma Hinata as they all return home.

Thoughts/Review:

It has been a couple of years since I last reviewed an episode from this old series. There were two tales in Keroro Gunsou Episode 123, which is the norm for this series. However, at least the two episodes were linked via the trip to Grandma Hinata’s home.

Lost Alien?

I found it kinda interesting that Keroro Gunsou Episode 123 attempted to educate the viewer about the Obon festival in Japan. Beyond that, it didn’t make much sense for me why this Kawaru alien was hanging around Grandma Hinata’s house. Further, it didn’t make sense to me why she would know to take the alien down to the river, where its ship was apparently at. It came across as, “We need some sort of supernatural thing tied to Obon, but with an alien twist.” Well, that’s exactly what we got.

Still, if you check our brain in over all the plot holes, the ending of the story is kinda nice. Earlier, Grandma Hinata mentioned how she’d love to meet her own grandma again. And thanks to the alien’s illusion skills, Grandma Hinata got her wish fulfilled. Yeah, it is kinda sappy, but I’m going to let it ride.

Turtle Story

The second half of Keroro Gunsou Episode 123 dealt with Tamama’s keen interest in a turtle. To that end, it was a neat way for the writers to mention a turtle story from ancient Western fables, and one from Japanese stories of old. The weird thing here is that the turtle Tamama keeps encountering is implied to be the same turtle Natsume and Fuyuki had for a day as young children. I guess the turtle has spent years trying to return to the vendor? And somehow, the elderly vendor recognized the turtle? Eh, whatever.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Keroro Gunsou Episode 123 is fine for what it was. The first story was a bit more interesting, though both stories have a lot of, “Huh?” elements. Oh yeah, and there’s that countdown to whatever drama happens when it reaches zero.