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The Series:
FUNimation keeps chugging along with their Sgt. Frog
releases. The latest collection is Sgt. Frog Season Three Part Two and the
13 episodes on these two discs are just as irreverent, wacky, and fun
as the
previous 65 installments. To quote
FUNimation's
catch phrase, "you should be watching."
Series Background: The Earth is in danger. A ship
full of troops from the planet Keron are
in orbit and ready to invade, but first they send down a squad of five
frog-like reconnaissance soldiers led by Sgt. Keroro.
Unfortunately for
the invaders, Keron is an idiot. Soon after landing on Earth he
meets up
with the Hinata family, mother and manga creator Aki, son Fuyuki, and
daughter
Natsumi. In the first episode Fuyuki takes Keroro's very powerful
control
ball and accidently sends a signal to the invasion fleet to flee the
planet,
leaving Keroro and his comrades behind.
Aki quickly agrees to let Keroro stay at their house, in exchange for
some
'light' house work (so she can chronicle his adventures in her
manga.) He
agrees and basically goes from intergalactic soldier to slave in one
quick
motion. The frog lives in the spacious basement which sounds like
a sweet
deal until he discovers that the Hinata's house is built on the ruins
of a
mental hospital which was built on top of an old cemetery and the
basement is
haunted by the ghost of a wrongfully committed female patient.
There's
always something, isn't there?
In addition to Keroro, there's the rest of his command, the Armpit
Platoon. This consists of Private Second Class Tamama who goes
along with
whatever Keroro says; Corporal Giroro, the group weapons master who is
constantly irritated by Keroro's lack of an invasion plan; Sergeant
Major
Kululu, the intelligence expert who invents various items at the drop
of a hat;
and Lance Corporal Dororo, who follows the ways of the ninja and has
vowed to
protect Earth, even from his team mates.
Though he's trapped on Earth (or Pekopon as it is called on Keron) that
hasn't
stopped the soldier from trying to conquer the planet... his love of
Gundam
models has. He spends all of his free time building models and
recreating
famous Gundam battles, and only thinks about destroying humans when he
has to.
This Season: The 13
stand alone episodes (though they frequently refer to
earlier adventures) included in this latest release are just as goofy
and
strange as the earlier batches. One of
the better installments is House of 1000
Floors-es, where Keroro with the help of Kululu redesigns the
Hinata house,
just like on a popular house restoration TV show. Their
new domicile is a bit over the top
though. They use a two-person railroad
car (a left over prop from Oh Brother,
Where Art Thou? To go from floor to floor, it has a horror movie
room
complete with real ghost, a kitchen with stadium seating like in Iron
Chef, an
M. C. Escher-esque starcase made from cemented anti-gravity pylons and
the
whole thing is run by the mystical power of pyramid... marketing. If you're wondering how they got all that
into the Hinata's house, there's an easy explanation:
Kululu is an honorary Time Lord.
Another great episode was Ribbited Away, a delightful
parody of Spirited Away, where the Hinata family
passes through a strange
tunnel and ends up at a bath house resort... that's owned by Kerero. They've set it up as a spa for aliens and it
works quite well. They even get a huge
amorphous blob-creature, a Derorin alien from the 53rd
planet of the
Sea Slug Constellation. The bicycle in
his head is just a fashion thing so he's "cool like a River Spirit
without the
environmental message." Of course things
don't go smoothly. A banana gator egg
hatches in the warm water, and it goes downhill from there.
If you've seen the other volumes, you can expect more of the
same. Yeah, some of the shows miss and
are just sort of stupid but those are few and far between.
It's a hilarious show that's filled with
solid laughs.
The DVD:
This two-disc set contains episodes 66-78. They come on two
single-sided
DVDs each in its own thinpak case.
The cases
are housed in an attractive slipcase.
Audio:
This show comes with the original Japanese soundtrack in stereo
and a DD
5.1 English dub (with optional subtitles). I viewed the show in
Japanese
and spot checked the dub track and found them to be both fine, if
unexceptional, mixes. There are not a lot of effects in the show,
but the
2.0 track has some good separation and the 5.1 option does make some
good use
of the rears in the occasional action sequences. The rare
explosions do
sound better on the dub track though they aren't as forceful as I would
have
liked. Whether you prefer watching anime with subs or the dub,
you'll be
pleased with this set.
Video:
The show was made in 2004 and features a 4:3 image
that looks
very good. The colors are solid and bright, the lines are
tight,
and the blacks are deep. There was a bit of aliasing in the
background,
but nothing too tragic. Overall this is a nice looking show.
Extras:
Not much in the way of extras. There are clean versions of the
opening
and closing. That's it.
Final Thoughts:
Filled
with more puns, quips, and jokes, this set is just as uproariously
funny as the
earlier seasons. Sgt. Frog is easily the best humor anime
currently in release and deserves to be in everyone's anime collection.
Highly Recommended.
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