[Meeting…] Keroro

Today I am going to talk about the protagonist of a series that I met by pure chance and that hooked me almost from the first moment: Sergeant Keroro.

Although it is obvious that the target audience of the series is rather young, there are many things in Sergeant Keroro that are designed for a much more adult audience and I am not referring to comments with double meanings or similar situations, but rather references to things that are clearly part of the childhood of the creator of the series and that therefore may sound more like an adult than a child.

space invaders

At the beginning of the year 2000, the army of the planet Keron decided to send some of its soldiers to invade Earth (a planet they call Pokopen). During the invasion, one of his soldiers was discovered and captured by two humans, so the army left him and his troops to their fate.

That soldier discovered is none other than Keroro, whose appearance is that of a green frog with a very large round head (traits shared by all the inhabitants of the planet, with the exception of color, which varies from one to another). Keroro was discovered while spying on some humans (the Hinata family), who despite retaining him at first ended up accepting him as a pet and letting him stay at home, where he set up his base in the basement.

Although Aki Hinata (the mother and apparently the only adult in the house) is against her children having pets, Keroro fascinated her to the point that it served as inspiration in her work as a manga artist and editor, so she let the alien stay at home.

There Keroro will have to live with Fuyuki (a quiet boy obsessed with paranormal things and extraterrestrial life) and Natsuki (a girl with a lot of temper who normally keeps Keroro in line with threats). Although Keroro tends to be lazy for much of the day, her adoptive family entrusts her with maid duties, such as preparing food or cleaning the house, something she will do with more or less enthusiasm depending on the day.

Keroro, after being abandoned by his army, forgets the mission of conquering Pokopen and entertains himself by assembling models, watching TV, reading manga and playing video games, entertainment on which he spent the invasion budget once settled in his new home.

In the following days upon his return, this character will encounter the rest of his troop, most of whom do not seem to be very focused on dominating the planet either. Unfortunately for them, they have a time limit to carry out their mission or they will be sanctioned by the army, which will send another squad to carry out the mission.

The Keroro Troop

It is clear that Keroro is incompetent incapable of conquering Pokopen. Fortunately he is not alone in his work, since he has his troop, made up of faithful soldiers from Keron's army that I mention below.

Kururu: The brain of the team. He is an expert in computers and creates inventions with great ease. His rank is that of ensign, which means that if Keroro were to disappear, command would remain in his hands. This situation is feared by the rest of the troops, because Kururu is extremely twisted, cynical, lacks ethics and has a very peculiar sense of humor..

Giroro: Corporal of the troop, he is a soldier at heart. He loves war and is prepared to survive in extreme conditions. He is a weapons specialist and has a sour and unfriendly character. He is the only one who seems to take seriously the mission of conquering Pokopen, but After being defeated by Natsumi he fell in love with her and since then he was no longer so focused on fulfilling his initial objective.

Every time Keroro makes a fool of himself, Giroro suffers enormous embarrassment because he is his sergeant and superior. Despite having (partially) given up on invading the planet, Giroro tries to maintain his soldier's pride, which is why he lives in a tent in the garden, instead of living inside the house with human comforts.

Dororo: Originally his name was Zeroro and he is the most calm, thoughtful and sensitive member of the group. He was a childhood friend of Giroro and Keroro, and because the latter took advantage of his insecurity to get him into trouble, He was traumatized for life.

Despite being easily forgotten (even by his friends), Dororo is the most lethal member of the troop, since for many years he has been trained with “assassin” techniques. After arriving on Earth, he became a pacifist and decided to live in the mountains with the only company of Koyuki, a ninja girl who helps him in his mission to defend the planet.

His rank is that of Corporal because Keroro swapped his army exam with Dororo's, thus obtaining the rank of Sergeant despite his lack of skills and leaving Dororo relegated to a much lower rank.

Tamama: The youngest of the troop, he is still a tadpole and his rank is that of a recruit. He is sweet, adorable and tremendously happy, but inside him hides an envious, possessive and sick personality that comes to light every time someone angers him or provokes one of his jealous attacks. In his normal state, Tamama is not especially powerful, but when he succumbs to his dark and envious side he is fearsome.

In addition to his faithful troop, Keroro has other allies who in one way or another became part of his team:

Angel Moses: Pese a su aspecto de humana es una extraterrestre. Conoce a Keroro desde que era niña y siente una enorme devoción hacia él. Según una profecía ella debía destruir la Tierra, pero se le pasó la fecha y finalmente decidió aplazar su misión para poder disfrutar de una vida feliz al lado de Keroro y el resto.  Su estrecha relación con Keroro hace que Tamama siente enormes celos de ella, lo cual dará lugar a más de una situación de envidia y competición entre ambos.

Pururu: Amiga de la infancia de Keroro, Dororo y Giroro. Pese a ser la enfermera de la Tropa Garuru (rivales de Keroro) Paruru se une temporalmente a la Tropa Keroro en calidad de enfermera. Es inteligente, madura y pacífica, pero cuando se enfada puede ser terrible.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Keroro es un personaje gracioso y representa de manera bastante directa al friki medio. No posee la malicia, ganas o habilidad suficiente para dominar la Tierra, pero es tremendamente decidido cuando hay en juego algo que valore (o cuando se sobrehidrata).

Su fiel tropa es sumamente disfuncional en un sentido u otro, pero en cierto modo todos parecen mejor preparados que el propio Keroro para llevar a cabo la dominación del planeta (o cualquier tarea que no sea montar una maqueta).

Para disfrutar de Keroro solo hay que leer el manga y la serie de televisión o  los OVAS que lo adaptan. La mayoría de historias son autoconclusivas y aunque es cierto que es una serie pensada para un público joven incluye muchísimas referencias a animes, videojuegos y películas que los más jóvenes no entenderán (por ejemplo en un capítulo que van a la playa se hace un homenaje a la película Space Amoeba de 1970). Para que os hagáis una idea de hasta que punto las parodias pueden llegar a influenciar en la trama, el capítulo dedicado al día de la madre termina siendo un homenaje al videojuego Street Fighter II.

Es cierto que muchos de los episodios solo tienen homenajes cortos o cameos a algunas series de manga o anime (los robots de la saga Gundam son constantes) pero incluso esos momentos suelen estar hechos con mucho acierto, llegando a tener escenas casi idénticas a las series que parodia, como por ejemplo el siguiente homenaje a la primera versión de Evangelion, que se centra en la parte donde Kaworu entra en la base de Nerd o cuando Tamama usa su “Death Note” mientras come patatas en una escena idéntica a la protagonizada por Kira.