Sgt. Frog 13
Posted: July 31, 2010 Filed under: Sgt. Frog 1 Comment »Mine Yoshizaki – Tokyopop – 2007 – 20+ volumes
Holy crap, the covers to the Japanese volumes of this series are AWFUL. Thank you, Tokyopop, for sparing us that. In English, this volume features a delightful Street Fighter parody with frogs.
Anyway, once again, the formula’s wearing a little thin for me here. I want to like it, I really do. And I have a high tolerance for episodic, formulaic series, and I can look the other way when I know some elements repeat themselves (ie Oh My Goddess). But I just haven’t really enjoyed this series in a long time.
It’s not really Sgt. Frog’s fault. There are still flashes of cute to be found here. I loved the April Fool’s chapter, and I thought the ski vacation and hanami chapters were adorable, and I was very impressed that, so late in the series, introducing Momoka’s mother could still be so exciting. Things like this stick in my memory, and make me want to pick up the next volume.
But then we get the Alisa Southern-Cross chapters. Actually, that was the worst part about this volume, and most everything else was great. I think I just hate being reminded that there are other aliens, and that the Keronians are trying to invade. I know they are. I know they’re bad at it. We’ve had countless variations on this, and… I’m just tired of these stories. Thankfully, this volume doesn’t really have any “failed invasion” stories, and actually twists that expectation twice, with great effect. I’ve had enough aggressive alien action. Give me more giant bread-man fights.
The Keronian fresh baked bread story was by far the best in this volume. It opens with what seems like Tamama and Keroro using the scent of fresh baked bread to somehow take over, but what they really do is bake Keronian bread and make gigantic Gundam-sized bread versions of themselves and fight them to determine a winner.
Giant bread frogs will always be welcome on my shelf.
Damn you, Sgt. Frog, for keeping my interest when I don’t even want to read you anymore.
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