Sgt. Frog Manga Volume 19 Review

Well, its time to get off another volume of Sgt. Frog. ^_^

–> PURCHASE FROM RIGHTSTUF!

*SPOILERS*

The first story has Keroro and company check out karaoke after observing Natsumi go to a karaoke establishment. The second story has Keroro’s next invasion plan use the power of cows and Giroro is turned into a hybrid cow-alien, forcing Natsumi to face him. In the third story, the platoon shows off their superior soap bubble-blowing skills to Natsumi and Fuyuki. For the fourth story, a happy Keroro gets to run the Hinata house alone and learns how lonely that can be. The sixth story has Natsumi use Moa-chan’s judgment powers to mete out punishment for Keroro while Keroro learns just how tough life on Earth is for Moa. Meanwhile, Moa’s cousin “Fear” pays a visit and learns how much Moa has grown up.

For the seventh story, Keroro has control devices developed for human complete with remote control. However, test subjects Natsumi and Fuyuki figure out how to foil the device and Keroro ends up being the one controlled like a puppet. The eighth story has Momoka lamenting that she can’t address Fuyuki as “Fuyuki-kun” instead of “Hinata-kun,” so Keroro as a special rocket pack, helmet, and badge so that she’s able to help Fuyuki. When Fuyuki later gets the device to return the favor, Momoka has no problem calling him “Fuyuki-kun” but when the helmet comes off, she’s back to “Hinata-kun.”

The ninth story has Fuyuki and Natsumi in an unrealized weather battle with the Keroro Platoon with teru-teru-bozu. The 10th story has Natsumi borrow the Kero-ball to take the perfect digital picture, only to have it judged by the tough standards of the platoon’s judging equipment. The next story has Keroro use his KeroroRobot to help Fuyuki only to have it take over his mind, forcing the rest of the platoon, Fuyuki, and Natsumi to help restore him.

The stories are entertaining for what they are worth but I found nothing that I would call funny. Amusing at times, sure but not funny.

I enjoyed getting to see a bit more about Mao-chan’s family and indeed her race. That was interesting to be sure.

There was a surprising lack of support characters in this volume. Mokona scored a chapter and a cameo in another. Koyuki, Aki, Mutsumi, Dororo, and Paul all scored cameos of varying lengths as well. Otherwise, it was all Natsumi, Fuyuki, Keroro, Giroro, Tamama, Kululu, and Mao. I missed Koyuki and Alisa’s presence, though more Koyuki I guess.

On the TokyoPop side, it is a pretty standard release — no color pages, a mix of Western and Japanese honorifics, the standard rewrites exist (“General Mom” and Fuyuki calling Natsumi by her name rather than “neesan”), and basically everything else that has been done since volume 1. Well, they are consistent. ^_~ I did like the use of the term “teru teru bozu” being left untranslated though. Those have come up in more than a few anime and manga series I’ve seen or read so I already knew what they were. So while there is still not a translator note section, the translator Yuko Fumaki does educate those who don’t know what they are.

In addition to the fairly standard nine pages of ads at the end of the book, TokyoPop added something extra. They are calling in “TokyoPop Insider” and Stu Levy, the founder of TokyoPop, writes the first article. As I understand it, for a given month of TokyoPop publications, one of the TP staff will write a 1-page article, something Stu calls a “paper blog.” Personally, I’d rather read an interview with the manga creator but that’s just me.

So while this volume is certainly nothing special, I do have a soft spot for Keroro and company and thus for me, it was worth buying the manga. I guess the next manga volume will be in six months or so. Maybe in the meantime, I can go back and pick up a few more episodes of the anime. ^_^;