Like Wile E. Coyote in the 1950's Warner
Bros. cartoons, Keroro in Sgt. Frog seems destined to a life of eternal
frustration, approaching a goal but unable to reach it. The difference
between the coyote and the frog is that the frog has a domestic life in
a typical Japanese household. Also, the frog talks a lot and has a
voice – Kumiko Watanabe, also the voice of Shippo in Inu-Yasha. “This
anime using frogs to conquer the earth is so funny, nobody assumes that
a frog could conquer the earth, that makes it very funny,” said
Watanabe. The frog series parodies much of 21st-century Japanese life
and popular culture, starting with its very fallible lead frog. “Keroro
is a middle-aged old man - he is not a child. He matches that Japanese
culture where you're scolded by your boss. It matches the
businessman's life – it is animated but its reality to some people. You
have to work overtime as Keroro does sometimes, you pull out a snack as
Keroro - it is part of the real life of a businessman in Japan." Don't
expect the frogs to actually conquer the earth, she hinted.
There are plenty of Simpsons-style pop
culture injokes in Sgt. Frog, and some of them come from the voice
cast. “Something that is unique about Keroro is that all of the actors
will get a screenplay but all of us change it,” said Watanabe. “We have
specific emotions with the voices and sometimes they say something that
is very popular like in stand up comedy or shows. If you hear the
sound, it's very fast speaking. The conversation is always going like a
ping pong game - you have to act more.” And also like the
Simpsons, the Keroro series has become a part of the popular culture it
parodies. A sign of success in American culture is when your characters
are sold at stores and given away at restaurants, and Sgt. Frog's
characters have reached the exalted status of becoming figures given
away in the Japanese version of Happy Meals at McDonald's. Some of the
Keroro cast members started eating at the fast-food restaurants to get
the figures and came up with 30 of them, which became decorations on a
Christmas tree, she said.
Like Wile E. Coyote in the 1950's Warner
Bros. cartoons, Keroro in Sgt. Frog seems destined to a life of eternal
frustration, approaching a goal but unable to reach it. The difference
between the coyote and the frog is that the frog has a domestic life in
a typical Japanese household. Also, the frog talks a lot and has a
voice – Kumiko Watanabe, also the voice of Shippo in Inu-Yasha. “This
anime using frogs to conquer the earth is so funny, nobody assumes that
a frog could conquer the earth, that makes it very funny,” said
Watanabe. The frog series parodies much of 21st-century Japanese life
and popular culture, starting with its very fallible lead frog. “Keroro
is a middle-aged old man - he is not a child. He matches that Japanese
culture where you're scolded by your boss. It matches the
businessman's life – it is animated but its reality to some people. You
have to work overtime as Keroro does sometimes, you pull out a snack as
Keroro - it is part of the real life of a businessman in Japan." Don't
expect the frogs to actually conquer the earth, she hinted. 
There are plenty of Simpsons-style pop
culture injokes in Sgt. Frog, and some of them come from the voice
cast. “Something that is unique about Keroro is that all of the actors
will get a screenplay but all of us change it,” said Watanabe. “We have
specific emotions with the voices and sometimes they say something that
is very popular like in stand up comedy or shows. If you hear the
sound, it's very fast speaking. The conversation is always going like a
ping pong game - you have to act more.” And also like the
Simpsons, the Keroro series has become a part of the popular culture it
parodies. A sign of success in American culture is when your characters
are sold at stores and given away at restaurants, and Sgt. Frog's
characters have reached the exalted status of becoming figures given
away in the Japanese version of Happy Meals at McDonald's. Some of the
Keroro cast members started eating at the fast-food restaurants to get
the figures and came up with 30 of them, which became decorations on a
Christmas tree, she said.
