Sgt. Frog, Book 1

Rating:
Summary: DROP AND GIVE ME TWENTY...
Review: ...more volumes of this manga please. I gotta say, this is truly one of the goofiest and most fun comics I've read in a long time. I really like the way Mine Yoshizaki gives all his characters a great deal of personality. Whether it's Sgt Keroro being torn between duty and his cushy life on Earth (Oooooh! Bandai's making a ZEONG!!!), Pvt Tamama's doe-eyed admiration of his superior officer, Fuyuki's haplessness, or Angol Moa's airheadedness (and why did she disguise herself as a ganguro girl!?) Long story short, this is my favorite title coming out from Tokyopop right now. You really oughta give it a try...

Rating:
Summary: Just Awsome!
Review: This has to be the coolest and funniest comic ever. But were is the next one??? I think long time manga readers would love this, but those new people to the club, well this is a good manga to start with!

Rating:
Summary: GREAT Manga
Review: This manga is hilarious! With such quarky characters and crazy storyline there's a laugh on every page, enough so, that I finished in only a couple of hours. I can't see why any comedy-manga fan wouldn't like it.

Rating:
Summary: "Jeremiah was a bullfrog, was a good friend of mine..."
Review: Well, not exactly, but if I showed him this manga, he would've been. As much as I like frogs in the media, like Kermit the Frog, the WB frog, & Jean Reno (just kidding), having a manga about frogs from outer space trying to invade earth but then few make friends to human children and make it a sitcom, has got to be one of the most dumbest ideas I've ever heard...at first thought when I felt like buying this. The dumb idea actually was a well-executed plan for Sgt. Frog, because the manga is funny. I was cracking up, and I'd never expect to have such enjoyment with this overlooked child's play of a graphic novel.

Originally released in Japan as "Keroro Gunso", the story in Sgt. Frog is simply about...Sgt. Keroro, a goofy-looking frog, "a high life flyer and a rainbow rider; a straight shootin' son-of-a-gun." He's also a commander officer of a space invasion frog force from planet Keron, with the objectives on this planet was to spy, reconnaissance, then to, well, invade. And they would've succeed on their invasion, if a certain amphi-lian wasn't discovered, by sheer luck, by two young Earthlings, or as they refer to us Earthlings as "Pokopenians". Because of that unexpected discovery that the fleet knew later on, Keroro's fleet decided to haul the invasion plan and instantly evacuated the planet, abandoning the sarge and four of its comrade on Earth with the Pokopenians.

This manga is basically a mix of "Invader Zim" with "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy", except replacing the boring mythical undead with perky extraterrestrial frogs and omitting the myopic robot pet who's a couch potato. It has some degree of creepy adventures like in TGAoB&M, but mostly it's made for hilarity like IZ, and it DOES ensure hilarity. The frog wants its people to rule the world, but the frog has to wash dishes and vacuum the house for the two Pokopenian children, Fuyumi and Natsumi Hinata. Fuyumi is a young boy who's interested in alien life forms, with a positive personality of a daffodil. Three words can describe teen-girl Natsumi: athletic, early-bloomer, and hot-headed. And then there's Aki, who's not only a accomplished comic-book artist with a Carmen Electra complex, but also A MOTHER OF THESE TWO?! HALLELUYAH! (Sorry! I've rarely seen or read any Japanese media that has a single hot mom supporting her children) She also seems to have an special interest with the amphi-lian, as her inspiration of that frog to make a comic book is her personal libido.

Anyway, the Hinata family have to grow accustomed to the alien frog livin' in their household. While he's planning to find its other alien buddies and worldwide takeover, he's doing mostly normal, slice-of-life chores, though him making an omelet out of creepy unknown creatures for the family is anything but a normal chore; he also doing what an average free-spirited fanboy always does: buy models like crazy. And when he's in a stingy mood, he's either going to dance like a dork or cause mayhem in the Hinata household, either by bring out his alien slugs or impersonate a soldier from a Broadway musical before taking some action; it's crazy, but funny. Later in this ten-chapter volume, the manga progress to show new over-the-top characters. There's Momoka Nishizawa, a girl who's willing to do anything to win Fuyumi's heart, who also seems to have Advanced Delusionary Schizophrenia with Involuntary Narcissistic Rage, or Multiple Personality Disorder. She also has an invading amphibious comrade of Sgt. Keroro named Private Tamama, who's cute as a button, but like Hulk, you wouldn't like it when its angry; it also suffered from Multiple Personality issues. And there's Moa of the Angol tribe, partners of Keroro's kind, who's sole purpose is to destroy planets with her wand...but eventually just hangs out with the Hinata tribe, instead.

The art style is okay. I wouldn't say it's the best, but the manga showed a good deal of expressional characters and wacky direction. I wouldn't like it as much if it wasn't for the frog designs, the best I've ever seen. Keroro has these weird wide pupils and the simple body structure, plus the weird helmet with the ear muffles, it makes him look adorable but very manly by his persona. There is one noticeable problem with Sgt. Frog, and it's the actual translations.

It has some grammatical issues:
"These WIERD aliens are attacking the earth..." - Fuyumi (Yeah.)

And it's too literal at some places:
"ON FURTHER REFLECTION, maybe we really are in trouble." - Natsumi (How about saying, "On second thought?")

The extras contains in this manga are interesting. There's a body profile on Sgt. Keroro. Interesting note: it says the star mark on its chest "disarms the enemy with jealousy." If this was true to humans, and Americans follow that, there wouldn't be so many casualties in the enemy line, cause they'd suddenly surrender over the envy of a star mark in their chest. And there's the first issue of The Monster Files which quotes the people that sighted the alien frog. Though, since it's all fake, it's a pretty irrelevant extra.

Sgt. Frog isn't meant to be taken seriously. With books I read so dark and solemn like Berserk, Confidential Confession, and PLANETES, it's good to read a book that's light-hearted. It's fun, it's full of wits and humor, and it has a decent amount of panty-bra fanservice to warm-up the most modern of Love Hina fans. If you're a deep-thinking reader, this may be too silly and wacky for you. However, if you want to read something that's going to give you a good time, Sgt. Frog is worth your time. If this direction keeps up in later volumes, than this manga will bring "Joy to you and me."

Okay, I'm going to stop with the lousy Three Dog Night-puns, now.