Sgt. Frog, Vol. 1 [Paperback]

Mine Yoshizaki (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 9, 2004

Sgt. Keroro, commanding officer of Planet Keron's invasion force, has a problem. After blowing his cover and losing his top-secret weapon, the frog-like alien has been cut off from his home world. To make matters worse, he's lost communications with the rest of his platoon! But now he has taken cover in the Hinata family household. In exchange for doing his share of the chores, he gets his own private room...where he is secretly devising new plans for world domination!

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Gr. 8-11. This new manga series introduces a young brother and sister who are dealing with an uninvited houseguest. Froglike Sgt. Korero is an invader from another planet, who is marooned in the Hinata family's Tokyo apartment. Clever, insensitive, a trickster, and a mischievous character in a Garfield-like way, Korero provides some entertainment as Natsumi Hinata and her slightly younger brother, Fuyuki, evolve into engaging characters during the course of this first volume. Brief chapters detail the siblings' discovery of the froglike invader; the reunion between Korero and one of his own, who has invaded the home of a young girl smitten with Fuyuki; and a Hinata family vacation to a resort island. In culturally normative style, the girls' underwear is on display, there are jokes about Mrs. Hinata's bosom, and the characters show emotions that run the gamut from innocence to jealous outrage. In line with the publisher's adherence to keeping the art "unflipped," the book reads from right to left, an easy accommodation for the target audience to make. Light fun. Francisca Goldsmith
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Publisher

Pinky and the Brain for the manga fan!

Anime currently being developed in Japan

Full of parodies of the most popular Anime & Manga series including; Gundam, Initial D, Chobits, Neon Genesis

Product Details

• Paperback: 188 pages
• Publisher: TokyoPop (March 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591827035
• ISBN-13: 978-1591827030
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #404,730 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great comedy, September 22, 2005

By 

B. Cain (MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sgt. Frog, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

This manga is absolutely hilarious. The other reviews speak of it being degrading to women and having pornographic elements, but that is simply not true. I am a woman and find this stuff to be hilarious. Its fiction, and its about alien frogs. They're adventures are so hilarious. The plot is light, but it isn't even supposed to have a major plot. All in all, I would definitely recommend this one. I can't wait for vol. 10.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Jeremiah was a bullfrog, was a good friend of mine...", March 12, 2004

By 

Del Keyes "Elaborate Chattering Nut" (In The Middle of the Sunshine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sgt. Frog, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

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.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ignore the one star reviewer........., October 21, 2005

By 

Geoff "chop suey!" (long beach CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sgt. Frog, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

Ignore the obnoxious kid reviewer that gave this one star.....I cant possibly comprehend why anyone would give this hilarious manga a one star rating, just because of the partial nudity (of which there is none,unless you consider a picture of a girl in a bra "nudity") and yes there are skimpy swimsuits but hey I have news for you THATS WHAT PEOPLE WEAR!!! ahem anyway this is not too heavy on the plot,an alien frog trying to take over the earth sounds simple right? well the author manages to take this somwhat cliched plot and turn it into pure magic,all the characters are great to, although I think the best is yet to come sgt frogg gets 5 stars, and my highest reccomendation