Web Video / Sgt. Frog Abridged

Series logo, Season 3 onward, featuring the core five members of the Keroro Platoon^note From L-R: Sergeant Major Kululu (InfamousGentleman), Private Tamama (ThornBrain), Sergeant Keroro (Mugiwara Yoshi), Corporal Giroro (Thorn), Lance Corporal Dororo (Thorn)

Pururu: "Keroro, you're fine. You're just an oversexed asshole."
Keroro: "NO- oh. Yeah, that's me. But isn't that why you like me?"

— Episode 11

Sgt Frog Abridged is The Abridged Series of Sgt. Frog by TheMidnightFrogs, originally created by Mugiwara Yoshi and ThornBrain. Yoshi and Thorn were the series primary writers for its first two seasons, joined frequently by BigTUnit1/Travis through Season 3, and the series is now co-lead by JigglyJacob. The series is hosted on TheMidnightFrogs' YouTube channel.

The starting premise of the series was the same as the original, until it developed its own story at the end of Season 1 and the first three episodes were remade. From these SFA formed a new premise where the platoon has been dropped on Earth because Keroro's superiors hate him and how useless he is. The entire series' Myth Arc is how much everyone hates Keroro and wants to kill him, resulting in antagonists from his past, his colleagues, and even his friends and family.

Viewers have noted that SFA is considerably different from Sgt. Frog, and the series is known for being a well-made parody of a comedy, something that numerous people found to be a bad idea before they saw SFA. The authors attribute this to taking the series in a different writing and story direction, as the writing focuses more on Rapid-Fire Comedy snark, absurdity, and surrealism than the original's referential humor. LGBT subjects are also occasionally examined, culminating in Giroro and Dororo becoming a couple and eventually getting married in Episode 15.

The series has numerous articles maintained by Thorn on the team's website, including all of the episodes, side-projects and one-shots, and most of the cast and crew.

Series creator Yoshi stepped down as writer after Episode 16, giving creative control to Thorn, though he continued writing with Thorn and Travis to close out the season. The series ended after Season 2 in November 2012, until Thorn decided to bring it back for a third season, starting with Sgt Frog Abridged: Reset. Though multiple writers worked with Thorn throughout Season 3, JiggyJacob eventually settled in as her de facto co-writer by Episode 24. Season 3 and the episodic series concluded for real on New Year's Eve 2015, with Thorn redirecting her focus to TheStrawhatNO! and her personal projects from thereon. TheMidnightFrogs went into indefinite hiatus by 2017, but they made the surprise announcement in January 2020 of The Sgt Frog Abridged Movie's official release set for February 16, co-written by Thorn, Jacob and Travis. A second movie is in the works as thanks for fans helping Thorn with her money troubles after coming out as trans, with Yoshi returning to write alongside Thorn and Jacob. A third and final movie is another potential milestone goal for Thorn's GoFundMe.

SFA has a 20-episode Spin-Off audio Q&A blog called Ask GiroDoro SFA, starring Giroro and Dororo. The series is confirmed to be in a Shared Universe with the defunct The Audio Logs Of Dr Squid. It is also a sister series to TheMidnightFrogs' Tamers Abridged, How I Caught Your Mother, and to Thorn and Travis's Jetters Abridged, though none of them share a universe. Tropes related to TheMidnightFrogs themselves go on their page.

Unmarked spoilers for Seasons 1 and 2 ahead.

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The series provides examples of:

A-C

• Aborted Arc:
  • Giroro's crush on Natsumi was a recurring joke and important part of his character through Season 1, and its last appearance was as a focal point in the first segment of Episode 10. Giroro turned his affections toward Dororo almost immediately after in Season 2, though this was foreshadowed a few times. The sudden drop gets addressed in Episode 18: the emotional stress of courting Natsumi with no success made Giroro lose interest, and Dororo happened to be in the right place at the right time.
  Giroro (in a recorded message that predates Episode 18): "You know what? Forget it. I like cock now."
  • Alisa appeared and became Fuyuki's girlfriend in Episode 13, but aside from a brief joke in Episode 16, she and their relationship were never referenced again. This is because the series was shortened drastically from what Yoshi and Thorn had planned at the time, and none of the remaining episodes included Alisa. The writers also later regretted the coercive nature of their relationship.
• The Abridged Series: Not the first or only abridging of Sgt. Frog, but by far the most successful. The comedic style and story diverge greatly from the original, changing the series from a parody to a new series of its own by Season 2, to the point that the source video and some audio is all that remains. It's also one of the few abridged series to have a conclusive ending (though the series keeps being revived).
• Absurdism: While the series has a plot and Character Development, much of the humor comes from abstract silliness without a point.
• Added Alliterative Appeal:
  • Todd's Toilets.
  • All of Tamama's invasion plans in Episode 9 are two-to-three-word phrases that start with a hard "k" sound (E.G.: Kangaroo Catapult, Cockblocking Cantaloupe, Colostomy Coffee Pot).
• Affably Evil:
  • Alisa and her father Black Nebula in Episode 13. Nebula is generally polite and releases the trapped platoon, who he was going to eat, though by coercing Fuyuki to date Alisa.
  • Garuru, who's so warm-hearted and supportive of his brother Giroro that it drives Giroro insane, and he believes everything Keroro does is genius. He's also out to defeat the Keroro Platoon and finish the invasion of Earth, regardless of who gets in his way, at one point shooting Giroro in the back.
  • Robobo is programmed to befriend the platoon. Unfortunately he thinks murdering them is how to do it.
• Affectionate Parody: Episodes 17 and 18 parody dialogue-heavy drama in action stories, though in one scene it gets taken seriously.
• All of Them: Pururu discovers in Episode 11 that Dororo has "everything", as in every disease ever. They're all benign and non-contagious (supposedly), and she cannot understand why, while Dororo doesn't seem particularly fazed by it since he purposefully took in diseases from other people to try and make friends.
• All There in the Manual:
  • The team's wiki/site tells you everything there is to know about every episode, character, etc, and it's constantly being updated.
  • More detail is given into Giroro's and Dororo's lives, personalities, and relationship on their Q&A blog. Though the blog was first inspired by a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic parody blog from Yoshi, Thorn came to use it for giving more depth to the characters, so as to better avoid flanderization.
• All There in the Script: Aki's husband stuck in the Hinatas' basement, who was later confirmed to be hot air balloon-bound toilet merchant Todd Sirkowski, was originally written in the SFA2 script as "Haru", the Fan Nickname for the unseen Hinata patriarch in Sgt. Frog.invoked
• Alternate Continuity: The in-universe explanation for SFA1R, SFA2R and SFA3R is that they are how the timeline was going to be before Future Kululu began time-hopping. Out-of-universe, the writers just didn't like them.
• Angrish: Tamama's incoherent babbling to Giroro in Episode 8.
• Animate Inanimate Object: Mop, a talking mop originally born out of TheMidnightFrogs Podcast and infrequently used as a bit character in SFA.
• Anti-Humor: Keroro's recurring "joke" mode, Serious Keroro.
  "I'm so serious, even the jokes I tell are serious! How many blacks does it take to screw in a lightbulb?! One! 'Cause stereotypes aren't cool!"
• Apologetic Attacker: Nuii in Episode 24 is forced into taking out the platoon and is extremely sorry Shurara is forcing her to do so.
• Arc Numbers: 4 and 9, which kept popping up in-series and in Thorn and Yoshi's personal lives so often that they made the numbers running gags and later Chekhovs Gags.
• Arc Welding: The series started with the intent of being as Negative Continuity as the original. Then Episode 10 arrived and, with the help of Future Kululu and a heaping helping of retcon, the series developed its own Myth Arc of everyone hating Keroro and wanting to kill him.
• Arc Villain:
  • The Garuru Platoon in the final two episodes of Season 2.
  • Shurara in Season 3, with the members of his corps being sent to attack the platoon as villains of the week.
• Artifact Title: Defied with SFA: Reset. Reset was originally going to be the title of SFA's sequel series, but the title would have lost its meaning right after the first episode, so it was simply shortened to a special as a lead-in to SFA Season 3.
• Back for the Finale: Two characters in the Episode 25, the Season 3/series finale:
  • Pururu disappears from the series after Episode 12, only making a cameo in the cast roll call that closes Episode 18. She fully reappears in Episode 25 to help close out the series, reveal information about Shurara, and tease the SFA movie.
  • Joriri is initially a One-Shot Character from an Episode 11 flashback, a weird and whimsical hobo that gives the kids incomprehensible advice. He reappears in Episode 25 as voices in Shurara's head, apparently being Shurara's biological mother that neglected him and also gave him incomprehensible advice that screwed his mind up for life.
• Baddie Flattery: Parodied to hell and back with Garuru complimenting everybody in Episodes 17 and 18, but especially his brother Giroro and his supposedly Worthy Opponent Keroro. The former finds it unbearable, while the latter just finds it confusing.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • Early episodes set up some jokes as though they were going to be spouting memes. By Episode 7 they dropped any reference to memes entirely.
  Keroro: "It's over 6... Ahhhhhhh..."
  • In the movie, the platoon are attacked by Dark Keroro outside of Momoka's mansion. Cut to Mois watching a screen in the base and jumping out of her seat in shock, only for it to turn out that she's actually watching an international soccer game and is mad that Germany are losing. She does eventually end up in the battlefield, but only because she was trying to run to Munich on-foot to berate the team.
• Bathos:
  • Shurara and Keroro end the series solemnly and seriously. Shurara has a realistic snake head that moves its mouth like a puppet.
  • In the movie, Dark Keroro suddenly remembers how he originally died: Keroro strangled him to death when they were infants. The scene is drawn cutely with their eyes unexpressive and comical while "Lollipop" by the Chordettes plays in G-major.
• Beard of Evil: Future Kululu and his pencil mustache.
• Beat: TheMidnightFrogs love a good awkward silence.
• Big "NO!": Keroro nearly has one in Episode 11:
  Pururu: "Keroro, you're fine. You're just an oversexed asshole."
  Keroro: "NO- Oh. Yeah that's me."
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Viper family is central to the backstories and Freudian Excuses of several characters, particularly Dororo, Keroro and Shurara. Viper himself is a highly promiscuous space pirate, resulting in so many thousands of children that a government website was established to keep track of them, and he was a Disappeared Dad for all of them. Dororo is one of the few he had much of any involvement with as Dororo grew up, but he was still rarely around due to jail time and choice. He and Dororo sold Dororo's little brother Keroro to buy Dororo a Christmas present, but it was instead spent on Viper's bail money, all despite the family being noticeably rich. Dororo's mom paid no attention to him, instead paying local children to hang out with him, and she went through multiple marriages before returning to Viper. By the time the entire family finally reconciles, Dororo and Keroro are middle-aged, it's the latter-third of the series, and we meet Viper's Mom-Son and Dad-Train. At the same time, we meet Shurara, yet another of Viper's bastard children, who was mothered by insane hobo Joriri and has severe hatred and resentment of Keroro thanks to his and Viper's reconciliation. The series finale revealed that Keroro also had a twin, who becomes the antagonist for The Sgt Frog Abridged Movie.
• Big "SHUT UP!": Giroro to his brother Garuru while they're fighting:
  Giroro: "I could actually hit you if you'd just sit still!"
  Garuru: "You could if you'd finished military training! We can't all get F's for 'Fantastic'!"
  Giroro: "Shut uuuuuuuup!"
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • Keroro (and occasionally other characters) speak random bouts of Spanish. While Funimation did this with Angol Mois just for laughs, TheMidnightFrogs did it because project founder Yoshi is Dominican. Fun with Subtitles often happens at the same time, especially in cases where the supposed Spanish is actually gibberish, or is a real Spanish statement being passed off as gibberish. Episode 1 also featured Spanglish interplay between Keroro and the caption.
    Keroro: "Soy un major yes."
    Caption: I am grande si.
  • Future Kululu's random placement of the numerals 4 and 9 become hints when the Japanese language is involved: 4 is pronounced the same way as Japan's word for death, and 9 is pronounced the same way as original series Kululu's signature laugh.
  • Keroro uses Morse code in Episode 12 to send a message to Giroro. It's assumed that he's tapping out the Serious joke he is saying at the same time; he's actually tapping out Dororo's catchphrase, "I'm lonely".
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • Episode 18 has the platoon fight off the Garuru Platoon, earn their respect, and accidentally take over the world thanks to Garuru's time freeze. However, the Garuru Platoon also die suddenly, and everyone else in the universe already died in Episode 14. Further problems with the time freeze in Ask GiroDoro SFA require the platoon to undo this ending in SFA: Reset.
  • Played for Laughs in The SFA Movie: Keroro and Fuyuki succeed at redeeming Dark Keroro and ending his invasion, but DK also acknowledges that he killed millions of people in one day.
• Black Comedy:
  • Dororo's sadness, possible mental illness, and life of abuse are Played for Laughs.
  "My conscience hung itself."
  • Fuyuki happily and proudly walks into a scene in Episode 15 with:
  "Guess what, Sarge? I no longer believe in god!"
  • Briefly with Brainwashed Serious Keroro in Episode 18:
  "So...aborted fetuses...what's up with that?!"
  • Original song "Stroke in the Sun" treats seizures like a new Dance Sensation.
  • Episode 24 ends with Nuii's sudden, explosive death at the hands of Todd's poor timing, just after she and Natsumi had a heartfelt goodbye.
• Bloody Hilarious:
  • Episode 14 opens with Dororo's blood splattered all over a wall. Koyuki is unsurprised.
  • Episode 20 ends with Putata's unceremonious death by gunshot, with his blood splattered across the wall behind him.
• Brand X: Generic Japanese Bridge in Episode 4.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Keroro at the start of Episode 7:
  "Ahhh. Nothin' like doin' nothin', eating fruit, and rifling through your friends' emails."
• Break Them by Talking: Though the change is subtle, Fuyuki's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Keroro causes him to start pulling out of his Jerkass state.
• Brick Joke:
  • In Episode 2, Fuyuki thanks Keroro after singing a song, though Keroro can't hear him. In the Post-Credits, Keroro suddenly says "No problem, Fuyuki!" and has no idea why he said it.
  • The Episode 8 Post-Credits includes a voice saying "Dang, man! Mop need him a cigarette!" The end of Episode 10 features a mop coming out of nowhere and saying "And I'm a talkin' mop!"
  • The Narrator leaves early-on in Episode 10 to get some dollar store cheese. Future Kululu's base turns to be a dollar store. Also, the credits feature Mop screaming "Cleaning up the cheese! CLEANING UP THE-"
  • One of Tamama's invasion plans in Episode 9 is putting cake into the Hinata house's fridge. Though the entire ordeal turns out to be a daydream Tamama is having, Kululu later finds cake in Keroro's fridge for real.
  • Everyone goes on a picnic in Episode 10, with Dororo insisting on holding hands. Later, Giroro seems to freak out after reading Keroro's letter to them, with Dororo saying "See? this wouldn't have happened if you held my hand."
  • In Episode 6, Dororo temporarily loses his sight and wonders if it has something to do with his morning coffee. In The Stinger for Episode 12, HQ tells someone to "fix the coffee machine; I think it's making me blind".
  • In Episode 6, Keroro teases Giroro to get him something for his birthday. In Episode 13 a timer delivered from HQ crashes into the base, and Keroro responds that it was not what he wanted for his birthday. The brick comes back in Episode 16 when the device seemingly breaks, at which point Keroro shouts "Worst birthday ever!"
  • In Episode 15, Keroro lets slip that Garuru is on his way to Earth, but he's not going to make it for Christmas. When Garuru and his platoon finally arrive in Episode 17, he sends a message saying "Sorry I missed Christmas".
  • Two with Natsumi's power armor and its built-in message machine in Episodes 17 and 18:
    • The machine says that it has 300 new messages in SFA17. Natsumi listens to a few of the recordings, and Episode 18 opens with her listening to message 297.
    • Message 299 has Giroro angrily storm out of the room he's recording the messages in. After Natsumi activates the power armor and flies off, Giroro returns to finally end the recording. Cue message 300.
  • In Episode 23, Natsumi's life is so burdened by the frogs that she doesn't know what fun is, let alone how to pronounce it. Fuyuki helpfully tells her that "It's 'fjord'; it's how you cross rivers". The next episode, she finally has a good day and remarks as such with "What a wonderful day of fjord." Their closing remarks for the end of the series brings the brick back.
  Natsumi: "Are we having fjord yet?"
  Fuyuki: "It's 'fun'; it's when you enjoy yourself."
  Natsumi: "Which is it, Fuyuki?!"
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Kululu has the skills and resources to build large mechs for the platoon's use or to tape a whole planet back together, but he rarely ever does anything. It takes him three hours to build a drill when he had thirty minutes, yet it takes him mere minutes to cannibalize Shurara's mech for the platoon's own personal Gundam. After the events of Season 1,^note an Alternate Universe Kululu comes back from the future to kill Keroro for his inability to finish the invasion the platoon are mostly glad that Kululu keeps to himself and stays out of the way.
• Broken Tears:
  • Dororo is prone to it, due to his horrible life.
    Pururu: "So, um, did you ever get over that bed-wetting problem?"
    Dororo: "Kind of. Now I do it with my face."
  • Then in Episode 15:
    *Reading his poem* "Touch my toes, then I cry at night." *Beat* "Sorry, I was gonna finish it, but I started...crying..."
• Buffy Speak:
  • In Episode 8, everyone describes the pink armbands on Dororo's arms as "pink, poofy things".
  • Keroro in Episode 9
    Keroro: "Come on guys! You can't make an omelet without doing whatever the fuck it takes to make an omelet!"
  • Koyuki and Dororo harness magical powers via "Ninja Magic Bullshit."
• Call-Forward: Episode 14 is a flashback to the events leading up to Episode 4 and has several Call Forwards to that episode, including showing how Dororo supposedly broke his leg.
• Calling Your Attacks: In the rare cases of fight scenes, Koyuki and Dororo call out "Ninja Magic Bullshit" to do anything they want, Dororo uses a "Giant Ninja Fuck You Star" from Episode 18 on, and Giroro calls out "Blind Fire" and "Flail Barrage" to hide that he's firing his weapons senselessly.
• Canon Discontinuity: The original first three episodes from February-July 2010 are set to Unlisted and no longer considered part of the series' continuity. They were remade in the interim between Seasons 1 and 2; Episodes 1 and 2 were remade to make them better and more in-line with the writing style and quality the team had developed over the course of the season, and Episode 3 was remade to fix some plotholes that resulted from the first two remakes.
• Captain Obvious:
  • Serious Keroro is usually this, tying in with his punchline-warping Anti-Humor.
    "What do you call cheese that isn't yours? Stolen!"
  • Mois in Episode 5:
    *Pointing to Asami* "YOU LOOK LIKE ME!!!"
• Cast Full of Writers: Thorn and Yoshi were the primary scriptwriters and core voice cast for Seasons 1 and 2, the latter stepping down as writer after Season 2. Voice actors LillyLivers, BigTUnit1, JigglyJacob and InfamousGentleman also contributed to the writing in several episodes, and the only non-cast member to write for SFA was an-artist-complex in Season 3.
• Cerebus Retcon:
  • Fuyuki's monologue in Episode 18 is this for the entire series. Watching Keroro be a Jerkass to his friends may be funny, but the scene reveals just what negative effect this has on everyone around him.
  • Joriri hangs out with the Lil' Keronians in Episode 11 and gives them bizarre advice. Episode 25 reveals that by doing this he was abandoning his son Shurara, leaving Shurara to see Keroro as stealing his mother and to build up his resentment.
• Character Development:
  • Giroro and Dororo become closer friends at the end of Episode 7. By Episode 11 it's much more noticeable in how the two back each other up at different points in the episode, and in the Episode 14 Post-Credits Dororo asks Giroro to marry him in a very idiosyncratic way.
  • After having an episode-long daydream in Episode 9, Tamama decides that she is happy being the submissive one in her relationship with Keroro. This doesn't stop her from laying out everything that annoys her about Keroro right to his face in Episode 12, and she continues to think less of him through Season 3.
  • Keroro's selfishness and poor treatment of his friends causes Fuyuki to break down emotionally and lay out "The Reason You Suck" Speech. Though Keroro doesn't immediately act any different, he seems to respect Fuyuki more the following day. Keroro's development is more noticeable in the Spin-Off blog Ask GiroDoro SFA and subtly in SFA Season 3.
• Character Filibuster: Keroro and Fuyuki each give one to each other in Episode 18, Keroro as to why he's the real victim, and Fuyuki as to why Keroro is a terrible friend.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • Keroro's characterization in Episodes 1R and 2R was based on the original. As the first season progressed, a greater emphasis was placed on his Jerkass and sarcastic sides, leaving behind all of the personality traits and quirks of the original.
  • Kululu's personality mellowed out after the first season, becoming more apathetic than Jerkassy. This was the personality the team originally intended for him during the series' planning stages, but when InfamousGentleman became his VA they went the creepy jerk route. Then Future Kululu happened, and they steadily went back to making him apathetic.
• Chekhov's Gag:
  • The constant appearance of the numerals 4 and 9 throughout the series is revealed in Episode 10 to be a threat from Future Kululu. It's also later revealed to be the numerals for how much Keroro was sold for as a child: $49.99.
  • Tamama, upon Keroro introducing him, calls himself "a pretty princess" in Episode 2. Then in Episode 8, Giroro reads a joke from Jimmy Carr about vaginal pain, during which Tamama can be heard groaning "ow". Tamama also remarks about having "air boobs" in Episode 9, then later discovers a "hole" in the Post-Credits. The end of Episode 10 is Tamama revealing that "he" is actually a "she", with her attempting and failing to say so throughout the episode.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Kululu's bizarre demeanor through the second half of Season 1, him suddenly disappearing from Tamama's office in Episode 9, and his ethereal cackling throughout Episode 10 all culminate in Future Kululu's appearance and the reveal of his time and inter-dimensional powers.
• Christmas Special: Parodied with A Christmas Special (It's special, alright), where the platoon's latest invasion plan is a crappy Christmas parody album played over a Jim Nabors commercial.
• Cliffhanger:
  • Dororo proposes to Giroro in the Post-Credits of Episode 14. Giroro's answer isn't given, but Episode 15 opens by making it clear that he said "Yes".
  • Keroro ends Episode 17 by losing his mind and leaving everyone to their fate at the hands of the Garuru Platoon.
  • Episode 22 ends with HQ confronting the platoon about the mechs they used to fight Robobo.
• Clip Show: A Beginner's Guide to Sgt Frog Abridged
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Every character is "off" to some extent. Fuyuki, Tamama and Aki straddle the line between this and The Ditz, Dororo straddles the line between this and serious mental illness, and Joriri takes it up to eleven to incomprehensibility. Even the Straight Man/Only Sane Man characters of Giroro and Natsumi have their weird moments.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • Joriri in Episode 11.
  "I don't understand water wings. Every time I throw a bird into a lake, they drown."
  • Keroro in Episode 15. Justified, since he's delirious from his illness.
    "HQ’s sending his^note Garuru's platoon to Earth. But bad news, he’s not gonna make it to Christmas. You’re gonna be so shocked!"
  • In Episode 23, Natsumi doesn't know what "fun" is or how to say it. Fuyuki tries to help her by saying "It's 'fjord'; it's how you cross rivers."
• The Comically Serious: Giroro and Garuru, the tough, straight-laced soldiers. Literally with Serious Keroro.
• Continuity Nod: Jokes and quotes often reappear in later episodes, usually in an altered form. Proper Running Gags are listed further down the page.
  • In Episode 4, the first episode with a flashback to the platoon as kids, Viper says the only thing that can save them is "shitty Deus ex Machina". In Episode 7, the second flashback episode, Lil' Keroro describes a train home as "shooty Deus ex Machina".
  • Dororo briefly loses his sight in Episode 6. When Pururu discovers in Episode 11 that he has every disease ever, she asks if he can even see; he responds, "Usually".
  • Giroro mentions (and proves) that flashbacks make him nauseous. Come Episode 11 he is around for both flashbacks, and his little weakness suddenly returns. In SFA: Reset, as Keroro begins the How We Got Here flashback, Giroro focuses through the flashback and proudly proclaims "Yes! I've conquered it!"
  • Episode 10 is a Continuity Cavalcade Mind Screw, with several major and minor details culminating in the reveal of Future Kululu.
  • Keroro took Mois to a "dollar store" when she was a child; Future Kululu's base is a dollar store.
  • Pururu finds Tamama inexplicably tied to a tree in Episode 11. In Episode 12 the platoon ties Kululu to the ceiling; Pururu remarks to Keroro, "I think your platoon is addicted to rope..."
  • George Albert Nishizawa's first appearance is him acknowledging Todd's Toilets' hot air balloons from Episode 1 and the George Albert radio commercial in Episode 6.
  • Keroro begins an invasion plan in Episode 3 with "We're gonna take a can of soda..." In Episode 13 while at a Halloween festival, he repeats that exact line to the others before the camera cuts away; doubles as an Internal Homage. HQ references the line in Episode 23 when revealing his plan to destroy Earth.
  • In Episode 2, Fuyuki laments that girls aren't attracted to him by wondering "What happened to my game...?" In Episode 13 Alisa kidnaps him, causing him to triumphantly shout "I got my game back!"
  • Episode 14 is a flashback to the events leading up to Episode 4, and thus has several Call Forwards to it.
  • In Episode 15, a delirious Keroro remarks to Fuyuki "I'm your uncle, and I heard what you said", a Call-Back to Fuyuki lamenting about not having an uncle in Episode 5.
  • Also in Episode 15, Keroro tells Giroro that his brother is coming to Earth, but "bad news, he won't make it to Christmas." In Episode 17, Garuru sends a message to the platoon, "Sorry I missed Christmas."
  • In a Continuity Cavalcade moment in Episode 18, Keroro drops the sudden revelation that he was sold as a child. He is hinted heavily to be the little brother Dororo said he sold for cash in Episode 8. Apparently the cash was spent on Viper's bail in Episode 7.
  • Kululu sings a "HEGH" harmony at the United Nations in Episode 12. He briefly does the same thing in Episode 18 before singing a Pre-Ass Kicking version of the birthday song to Tororo.
  • The Todd's Toilets balloon from Episode 1 reappears in Episodes 17, 18 and 24.
  • Portions of SFA: Reset take place in the Dollar Stores from Episode 10. During one of these segments, Mop slips into view in the background.
  • Dororo experiences a Mushroom Samba nearby a waterfall in Episode 23, and one of the hallucinations around him is of Mukuro from Episode 14 once again falling down a waterfall.
  • Joriri, the random incomprehensible hobo from Episode 11, is revealed to be Shurara's mother in Episode 25. This is a play on Keroro's description of him in Episode 11: "If there was anyone who went to bed with a girl he thought was a guy, it was Joriri."
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • The culmination of Season 1 is this, by the writers' admission. Thorn only planned for the finale to have a few reveals to cap off the season, including giving a purpose to the constant appearances of 4 and 9. But when Future Kululu popped out of brainstorming, a plot completely different from the original series was formed instead. The team went with it because it made a creepy amount of sense, though acknowledging that it didn't make complete sense.
  • Momoka comes back to life during Robobo's attack in Episode 22. This is only because Paul resurrected her as a tank, while Robobo had everyone else fused with machinery. When Robobo is killed and everyone returns to normal, so does Momoka.
• Cool Old Guy:
  • Grandpa Viper in Episode 7, who gives out dollars for nothing and is a Cloud Cuckoolander.
  • Invoked with Paul, who can do anything regardless of how physically impossible it is and causes explosions just by moving his body.
  • The young Keroro, Zeroro and Giroro see the old, nonsensical hobo Joriri as this in Episode 11. He tells them abstract non-sequiturs that they interpret as advice, and although none of it makes sense, the boys are captivated by him. It's not until they've grown into adults that they realize how weird Joriri really was.
• Credits Gag: Every credits sequence includes a message at the very end after the ownership disclaimer, usually a follow-up to a joke, a thank you to cast members, or just something general from the creators to the viewers. Season 2 specifically includes a joke "Lesson #[x] of Season 2", and it lists Let's Player MrFailGame in the credits as a figure or object that either does not speak or does not even appear to begin with.
• Crossdressing Voices: In-Universe, Giroro "attempts" this himself by pretending to be Sumomo in Episode 6. It's not revealed if it works at all, but they try again the next day with a device that masks his voice with Sumomo's.
• Crossover:
  • Fuyuki made split-second cameos in TheMidnightFrogs' Pokemon one-shots, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged and Best Wishes Abridged.
  • Birdy from SFA's sister series, Jetters Abridged, interviewed the platoon in Episode 9 and left a message about Jetters Abridged in the Post-Credits for Episode 13.
• Cutaway Gag:
  • Keroro wonders where Tamama is in Episode 13. It cuts away to her neck-deep in candy and screaming in terror.
  • Kululu is apparently on drugs in Episode 23, but he sent his "best shit on vacation", I.E.: slipped them into Dororo's food before he left for a sabbatical. Cut to Dororo in the middle of a Mushroom Samba.

D-J

• Dance Sensation: Original song "Stroke in the Sun" suggests making seizures into this.
  "Get all your buddies to your house after school
  Flop onto your side covered in vomit and drool
  Do the seeeeizuuuure!"
• Darker and Edgier:
  • Season 2 comically. Thorn and Yoshi were more willing, and often made it a point, to make darker jokes and situations. As a result, Momoka dies, Dororo opens Episode 14 having banged his head against the wall so hard he's splattered blood all over it, Keroro initiates mass suicides across the universe, and the season ends with the cast left on an Earth locked in time in a universe devoid of sentient life.
  • Spin-Off Ask GiroDoro SFA was more serious and willing to discuss personal, relationship, and traumatic issues among the characters, and its first season ends with Giroro and Dororo solemnly accepting that they don't know what will happen to them after the time jump.
  • In Season 3, antagonist Shurara is closely shown to be abusive to his underlings, and Putata exits his episode via unceremonious gunshot to the head.
• Deadpan Snarker: Everyone at some point. Rule of thumb: if ThornBrain voices a character, this is guaranteed to happen.
• Debut Queue: The first five episodes introduce a handful of the main cast at a time: Keroro and the Hinatas in Episode 1, Tamama and Momoka in Episode 2, Giroro and Kululu in Episode 3, Dororo and Koyuki in Episode 4, and Mois in Episode 5.
• Deliberately Cute Child: Both Mois and Koyuki have played up their cuteness to get the attention of their respective love interests, Keroro and Natsumi.
• Demoted to Extra: Mois, due to her voice actor often being busy early in the series, and to the writers getting anything they could have really gotten out of the character in her first episode. Travis often lobbied to give her more lines, but generally the writers didn't have a use for her. They made sure to make her a prominently funny part of the SFA Movie.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Episode 5:
  Keroro: "Tamama, you're in a burger store. They sell burgers."
• Disproportionate Retribution: The series' antagonists all want to kill Keroro because he's a useless Jerkass. Only Yukiki's retribution is proportionate.
• Discontinuity Nod:
  • Aki repeating her "period" intro from Episode 2R in the remake, only to freak out her kids who don't know why she brought it up.
  • Several of Future Kululu's callbacks became these after the original first three episodes were remade.
  • Giroro recycles a line from Episode 2R in Episode 21.
  "Sounds like my dad when he left."
• The Ditz:
  • Fuyuki, Tamama, Aki, and Mois, though each has their moments of clarity.
  • Raiden appears as a goofy FaceBook-ish idiot in Season 2.
• Drama Bomb Finale: The Season 2 finale, featuring the first legitimate threat the team has ever faced and a Cerebus Retcon "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Keroro from Fuyuki.
• Drop-In Character: Saburo, with his greatly diminished presence from the original series and no voice, just occasionally shows up for no reason. Exaggerated come the SFA Movie, wherein nobody can even remember who he is, but he still jumps the fence and tries to let himself into the house.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him:
  • Momoka in Episode 13. Subverted in Episode 22 when Paul resurrects her.
  • Keroro inadvertently does this to everyone in the universe, including everyone on Keron in Episode 16. Reset undoes this.
  • The Garuru Platoon, due to Dororo's Giant Ninja Fuck You Star having a delayed effect. Reset also undoes this.
  • Putata and Mekeke in Episode 20. Invoked for the former: Thorn found the original character, and how she and Travis where writing their version, so obnoxious that only an unceremonious death seemed appropriate.
  • Nuii at the end of Episode 24. After a heartfelt goodbye, she flies directly into Todd Sirkowski's balloon and explodes.
  • Yukiki in Episode 25. He acts confident and righteous to the platoon, but everyone just wants it over with since they're sick of the Shurara Corps, so Kululu melts him in seconds with focused sunlight.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Episodes 1R and 2R were generic and derivative Abridged Series videos in comparison to the rest of the series, which has a better developed style. They were remade between Seasons 1 and 2 to bring them in-line with this style.
  • Season 1 as a whole is closer in concept to the original show than later seasons. The Myth Arcs of the people who hate Keroro and Viper's Big, Screwed-Up Family are not set in stone yet, and the episodes mostly amount to Debut Queue for Episodes 1-5, then Excuse Plots for 6-10.
• Earn Your Happy Ending:
  • Dororo was mentally, emotionally, and often physically abused by Keroro and Giroro throughout his life, developing an obsession over them and becoming generally unstable. After he and Giroro began developing a real friendship, Dororo was finally able to break from his obsessions and issues to settle into a happy relationship.
  • Episode 18 pre-Reset: After constant threats of death, intense fights with the Garuru Platoon, and friendships being tested and strained, the Keroro Platoon actually take over the world, and nothing can threaten their safety anymore. However, this is only because everyone on Earth is time-locked, and everyone else in the universe is dead, including any friends and family they might have had on Keron. This aspect of the ending was undone in SFA: Reset, so now it's a fully happy ending. Except people want to kill Keroro again.
  • Episode 25 gives everyone and the series a proper happy ending after battling the Shurara Corps.
• Eldritch Abomination: Keroro and Tamama's baby, Kemama, transforms into a giant Albatross, Eater of Worlds. Kemama was apparently conceived by Beetle Jesus, and Tamama refers to him as "my eldritch son".
• Embarrassing Nickname: Of all the disparate things everyone has called Dororo, "Poodlejumper" has a backstory.
• The End:
  • The final screen of Episode 18. A question mark appears shortly after. Then a "Yes". Double Subverted when the series came back for a third season.
  • Shows up (properly this time) after the credits of Episode 25, though this time it's meant specifically for the episodic series since there were already plans for movies.
• Epic Fail: Dororo spends two episodes meditating to gather power for his Giant Ninja Fuck You Star. When he finally uses it on Garuru's mothership, it bounces off with a pathetic "dink" and destroys a nearby building. Subverted, however: the mothership finally explodes later in the episode...after Garuru's platoon amicably leave Earth, effectively killing the main cast's new friends.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Keroro: "That's Mister Sexy to you!"
  • Fuyuki: "Tear down this school!" *Proceeds to smack his body into the roof*
  • Natsumi: "Alright, let's get this over with. Who and what are you?"
  • Tamama: "I can't find my ass..."
  • Koyuki: Jumping through the gym window.
  • Dororo: Keroro struggling to remember his name. Or care that he's back.
  • Paul: "Karate Butler Paul at your service. Would you like a cup of tea? I can brew it with my bare hands. Or perhaps you would like a slice of cake? I can bake a cake just by looking at it. Mrrrr."
  • Garuru: Giroro calling him a "warm-hearted bastard".
  • Zoruru: "You're looking at me? What- You think we're dating or something?!"
  • Taruru: "Well, I like to think about birthdays..."
  • Tororo: "There are worse things to find on your dad's hard drive. You never told me you made Mint's Hints!"
  • Shurara: "Ignore my threat, but fear it."
  • Putata: "Yo! I'm..." *air horn* "...Putata! And I'm here to say 'go big or go paint a home'!"
• Everyone Is Bi: The creators' official stance on the characters' sexualities is that they are bisexual unless explicitly stated otherwise. Character sexuality is rarely Played for Laughs in the usual sense, and sexuality has been closely examined in several episodes.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • Zoruru to Dororo: where Dororo is friendly and always feels alone regardless of if people are with him, Zoruru is a cold-blooded assassin who is always alone but feels like people can never leave him alone.
  • The rest of the Garuru Platoon are subversions. Garuru is out to invade Earth just like Keroro's initial mission, but he is so warm and friendly that, if Giroro were still an active soldier, Garuru would be the good counterpart by comparison. Taruru isn't much of a threat, and he's at least as clueless as Tamama. And Kululu's counterpart Tororo, despite possibly being dangerous, is really just unhinged over his father more than anything.
  • Keroro recognizes that Shurara is this to him, having similar childhood issues and going far more off the rails.
  • Dark Keroro is also this to Keroro, being a more brutal and effective invader.
• Fantastic Racism: Episode 7 hints at/plays with the Viper clan being the subject of racism, particularly through the use of a police robot.
• Flanderization: This series initially out-flanderized the anime, but the creators decided after Season 1 to defy this trope and develop their characters further and not to reduce them to single jokes.
• Flashback: Episode 4 has a Flashback Cut, Episode 7 and Episode 14 are Whole Episode Flashbacks, and SFA: Reset is a mixture of both.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Keroro's "Evil Digestive Monster" in Episode 1 is named Frank.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Tamama remarks to Keroro in Episode 23: "Sarge, I know our relationship's better, but professionally we're over." By the end of the episode, the platoon is freed from the Keronian military.
  • In the movie, Fuyuki expects that Dark Keroro is there to kill Keroro like all of the previous villains and asks, "Can't you just kidnap my sister or some shit?", hinting at the plot of the second movie.
• Four Is Death: Four is a recurring joke number, revealed in Episode 10 to be a death threat from Future Kululu via the Japanese superstition.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • Dororo blames his massive friendship and emotional issues on his parents never being around.
  • Keroro blames his parents selling him as a child for setting the stage for everything to go wrong in his life.
• Friendly Sniper: Garuru, who is so kind and supportive that it drives his brother Giroro insane.
• Funny Background Event:
  • Dororo's eyes sometimes do strange things when he's not the focus. In Episode 6 they twitch uncontrollably the day after the first radio show, they can be seen following a bug crawling around Tamama's head in Episode 11 when adult Pururu is introduced, and they spin around inside his head in Episode 16 when Kilili is introduced.
  • Videos were uploaded showing dialogue hidden in the background of Episode 5, Episode 6, Episodes 17 and 18, and Episode 20.
  • Tamama transmits TV static with her head in Episode 25. When the camera cuts away, the themes to Full House, The George Lopez Show ("Low Rider"), Family Matters, and COPS ("Bad Boys") can be heard in the background. Later, after Kululu kills Yukiki, Tamama's eyes are static again.
• Gay Aesop: Episode 11 concludes with "It's okay to like both men and women."
• Godwin's Law: In Episode 21, Fuyuki uploads a video of Dokuku to YouTube and promptly gets called Hitler in the comments. He isn't bothered by it, though:
  Fuyuki: "At last, I have power."
• Grandparental Obliviousness: Grandpa Viper in Episode 7 is unaware that the boys have stolen his money or that Zeroro is his grandson.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Yoshi has a habit of breaking into random Spanish when voicing Keroro. Many other characters have also slipped into Spanish at points.
• Halfway Plot Switch:
  • The first half of Episode 5 introduces Angol Mois, while the second half has the platoon follow her human Doppelgänger around after she causes trouble.
  • Episode 21 starts with the heroes chasing Dokuku through the base, and then it switches to Keroro taking care of his newborn son after Tamama suddenly gives birth.
  • Planned but ultimately averted for the following episode: Episode 22 had a similar setup, where the first half would be against Robobo and the second half against HQ, but the script ended up getting so long that the writers split it, and HQ's half was saved for Episode 23.
• Halloween Episode: Episode 13, wherein the platoon and some humans go out to a festival in costume, only for Fuyuki to get kidnapped by Alisa Southerncross.
• Hand Wave: Omiyo the ghost girl was exorcised from the house by Kululu before she could make an appearance in Episode 2, due to Thorn and Yoshi not having anything they could do with her and deciding they'd rather leave her out of the series. Come Episode 21, she's a central character and unavoidable in the source video, so Thorn had to bring her back while addressing the exorcism.
  Kululu: "Hey! I worked really hard to get rid of you!"
  Omiyo: "You said my parents were fat and then walked out of the house."
  Kululu: "I'm not paid by the hour."
• Happily Married: As of Episode 15, Giroro and Dororo. More detail is given of their relationship in their character Q&A blog.
• Harmless Villain:
  • The Keroro Platoon, thanks to Keroro himself, have no chance of taking over Earth.
  • Viper poses a threat to the platoon at first in Episode 4, but simply being flabbergasted by Dororo causes him to give up. His later appearances are as a comically unsupportive dad to Dororo and later Keroro.
  • Future Kululu simply leaves after three impossible things happen right in front of him.
  • Many members of the Shurara Corps do not put up much of a fight before the Keroro Platoon defeat them. Yukiki in particular dies within minutes.
• Heel–Face Turn: Robobo in Episode 25. Shurara revives him as a giant mech, which he uses to fight the platoon. However between then and Shurara going mental and growing asteroid-sized, Kululu cannibalizes Robobo and turns him into a Keroro-Gundam, "Kerobobo", which the platoon use to rescue Shurara.
• Here We Go Again!: SFA: Reset undid the events of Episodes 16-18 that prevented the series from realistically continuing, including the killing of everyone in the universe. With it undone, the series could bring in new people who hate Keroro and want him dead. Cue Shurara's introduction.
• Heroic BSoD: Keroro suffers one after being blamed for the world's communications being hacked in Episode 17.
• He Who Must Not Be Heard: Saburo, who is variously played as a Cute Mute or as someone who is interrupted before he can ever speak. He finally speaks in Episode 18, though for the first and last time.
• Hidden Depths: Shivava in the movie is treated as the same kind of obnoxious loser as Putata from Episode 20, and everyone on his team ignores him. His climactic fight with Tamama and Momoka reveals that his behavior is a result of insecurity about feeling unwanted and ignored by those around him.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood:
  • Dororo/Zeroro, up to eleven from the original into lethal territory with Keroro's and Giroro's games such as "Zeroro Dies".
  • Keroro was sold as a child, and not for very much money. He had to buy himself back, and he ends up living in a clubhouse in the junkyard, all without learning who his biological family is until adulthood.
  • Pururu's mother is implied to be a violent drunk.
    "When my mommy drinks juice, nobody's happy."
  • Implied that it could happen with Keroro and Tamama's baby, Kemama, when Keroro quickly gets fed up with taking care of him. Avoided when Kemama transforms into a giant bird and flies away before it can happen.
    Keroro (exhausted and voice cracking): "So, I'm gonna jettison him into space. He can be Superman somewhere else!"
  • Shurara's mother is Joriri. He spent his childhood taking Joriri's advice and resenting Keroro, who his mother would always go off to hang out with rather than take care of Shurara. By the time he's an adult, he's turned into a darker, eviler version of Keroro.
• Homage: The original song "Stroke in the Sun" is a stylistic parody of The Beach Boys and Chuck Berry.
• How We Got Here: SFA: Reset begins after everything has happened. Since Mois wasn't there and is confused by the platoon talking about it, Keroro has to flashback to explain everything.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Kululu telling the platoon that they're "fucked up".
  • Keroro calling Dororo an ass, particularly for getting Zoruru's name wrong.
• Ice-Cream Koan: Every single one of Joriri's lines is supposed to be advice, but it's really nonsensical one-liners.
  "Live your life like a sea urchin: fucking ridiculous."
• Imagine Spot: Episode 9 turns out to be Tamama imagining if she was made the new sergeant after Keroro embarrasses himself in front of the platoon. She returns to reality after realizing it would end horribly.
• In-Joke: TheMidnightFrogs have a list on their site of their in-jokes, most of which have some involvement or have made an appearance in SFA:
  • The late Let's Player MrFailGame is listed in the credits of every episode in Season 2 as someone or something that does not talk or does not even appear. This comes from an appearance he made in a friend's film as a guy with a bucket, where his friend made a stink about him appearing on-time to film, but the only line Fail had was "Okay".
  • Kilili, the name bestowed on the baby Kiruru in Episode 16, comes from a series of Sgt Frog fanfictions that Yoshi and his friends loved to read and mock. Kilili was an OC in the stories with many of the Mary Sue Classic characteristics.
  • Kemama, the offspring of Keroro and Tamama who was originally formed during a four-hour Skype call from around the February 2010 launch of SFA. Kemama later entered the series proper in Episode 21, though he shared none of the original's ridiculous characteristics, save for rapid and sudden growth.
• Innocuously Important Episode: Due to the original series having minimal plot and few Story Arcs, and SFA's first season being much the same, some SFA episodes have events that only make them important in hindsight:
  • Episode 7 is a Whole Episode Flashback to Keroro, Giroro and Dororo (then-Zeroro) as kids going on a treasure hunt. The latter two's friendship gets some development, leading to them eventually getting together as a couple and then married. Their relationship is one of the linchpins of Season 2, and their character Q&A blog documents the lead-up to SFA: Reset and Season 3. Viper's sordid relationship with his children, the number of which skyrockets over the course of the series, is also introduced here before it becomes one of the series' key plot points.
  • The primary plot of Episode 13, a Halloween Episode where an alien gets a crush on Fuyuki, is rarely referenced again and has little bearing on the main Story Arc. Just before the credits, a capsule with a timer crashes into the platoon's base, starting the arc that culminates in HQ and the Garuru Platoon attempting to kill them in the final three episodes of the season. The Kiruru inside the capsule, with help from Keroro, also kills everyone in the universe, setting up the necessity of SFA: Reset as a prequel to Season 3.
• Ironic Juxtaposition: Future Kululu salutes Keroro during his monologue about killing Keroro for not putting forward the effort to invade Earth.
• Jerkass:
  • Keroro, and he only gets more so as the series progresses - abusing his friends, cheating on his partner, infinite selfishness. Character Development between Seasons 2 and 3 mitigates it slightly: he's still a jerk with a huge ego, but he's more aware of it and knows how and when to apologize. Season 3 ends with him taking a strong personal vow to change for the better.
  • Kululu in every iteration doesn't care about anyone or his job. He relaxes by Season 3, becoming more apathetic (and apparently a fan of acid) than jerkassy.

K-Q

• Killed Off for Real: Momoka at the end of Episode 13. Subverted when she's resurrected for Episode 22.^note See McLeaned for the out-of-universe reason she did not appear in-between those episodes.
• Knight of Cerebus:
  • Subverted with the Garuru Platoon. Garuru's deep, dramatic, threatening voice; Zoruru's nightmarish attitude; and the platoon being the series' first genuine threat take the show into darker territories than before. However, Garuru clearly does not take himself seriously, Zoruru is too mentally messed up to be effectively scary all the time, and Taruru and Tororo are essentially useless.
  • Shurara zig-zags this trope. His first appearance is him threatening his subordinate, and much of his screentime is spent putting someone through the wringer. However he's a hilariously unstable Large Ham, is strangely Literal-Minded, and his backstory is ridiculous. He also has a realistic snake head under his helmet, which provides much bathos when it's revealed. Any scene with him is just as likely to be played comically as it is for drama.
  • Dark Keroro also zig-zags this trope, being as silly as any character in the series, but also being its most effective invader and having one of the darkest backstories.
• Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy: Parodied by Grandpa Viper in Episode 7 while explaining his relationship to Viper.
  "I'm his second cousin’s third uncle twice removed with a lemon twist- I’m his father, you little wiener."
• Large Ham: Keroro, Kululu, Garuru, Shurara, Yukiki, and the occasional bit character, all to varying degrees.
• Larynx Dissonance: Sumomo, the pop singer with a raspy, guttural speaking voice.
• Late to the Punchline: Inverted in Episode 10. When Keroro reveals that he actually got a job, Dororo arriving late to the scene is a punchline.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Tamama charges at Mois in Episode 5 shouting "G.I. JOOOOOOE!!!". She immediately runs down a chasm.
• Logic Bomb: Garuru, under the mistaken impression that Keroro is a military genius, fights a few mental battles with himself before ultimately snapping after this:
  "Still, you'll never beat my clever mind. Unless you're more clever-" *brain electrocutes*
• Logging onto the Fourth Wall: In Episode 25, Keroro finds and visits a forum, "Fuckeroro.edu", which is run by Shurara and dedicated to talking about how awful he is. It's a real (albeit short-lived and minimalist) forum made with Proboards. Keroro also accesses "IFuckedViper.gov", though that was not made into a real site.
• Luke, I Am Your Father:
  • Viper is Dororo's father. Or it's the blue frog in Dororo's meditation DVD. It's probably both. By the end of Season 2, Dororo is no longer bothered by the issue and simply accepts Viper as his de facto father.
  • Keroro is Dororo's little brother that was sold for cash as a child, thus making him Viper's son as well. Naturally, Keroro is too dumb to put the pieces together. Dororo has to tell him upfront in Ask GiroDoro SFA.
  • Shurara is yet another son of Viper, mothered by Joriri, making him Keroro and Dororo's half-brother. While this messed him up plenty as-is, it's the fact that Keroro's life turned out so much better that really pisses him off.
  • Dark Keroro is Keroro's twin that he strangled to death when they were infants. Miruru in-turn was going to adopt DK before his death.
• Major Injury Underreaction: After Keroro slams his fist against a solid stone wall in Episode 9, his only reaction is calmly stating "Huh... I just broke my hand."
• Malicious Misnaming:
  • Characters often called Dororo something that starts with the letter "D" (Dorito), is a "Dor" pun (Door Knocker, Doorbell), or is completely unlike his name (Hangnail, Laryngitis) throughout the first two seasons.
  • Lampshaded in Episode 14, when Keroro realizes that he actually got Dororo's name right (immediately after getting it wrong, of course).
  • Shurara gives bizarre nicknames to the platoon in Episode 20 while showing off his "Tic-Tac-Toe of Hate". Giroro is "Grumpy McScarface", Kululu is "Specky McCreamCorn", Tamama is "Sputnik McBreathtablet", etc. He hates Keroro too much to give him a nickname, simply calling him "THAT ASSHOLE".
• Man, I Feel Like a Woman: Subversion. Tamama was probably always female, but she's so stupid that she only realizes this upon randomly discovering her vagina.
• Memetic Badass: Invoked with Paul, whose ability to do literally anything regardless of its physical possibility is a play on the Chuck Norris meme.
• Meta Origin: By the end of the series, the respective Freudian Excuses of Keroro, Dororo and Shurara are tied back to Viper, the promiscuous space pirate who fathers thousands of children and abandons them all.
• Mildly Military: The platoon in the first season, due to Keroro being a moron with bizarre and ineffective invasion plans. By Season 2 they don't even try to pretend that they're still invading Earth. They get forced back into it for Season 3 but still make little effort to take over Earth or act militant before HQ prematurely wipes their info from the military's databanks.
• Mind Screw:
  • The cartoon the platoon develop in Episode 8 is bafflingly minimalist, leaving them in Stunned Silence.
  • The climax of Episode 10 is a visually disorienting Continuity Cavalcade that forever changed the series.
• Monster of the Week: Season 3 consists of members of the Shurara Corps (plus one episode with HQ) taking on the platoon. Shurara himself serves as the Arc Villain before facing the platoon in-person in the finale.
• Mood Dissonance: Fuyuki cheerfully saying "Guess what, Sarge? I no longer believe in God!" in Episode 15.
• Mood Whiplash: Keroro's monologue in Episode 18 takes the series into dramatic territory for the first time. Fuyuki's response sends the series hurtling into it. Then Garuru brings it back to comedic very abruptly.
• The Movie: The Sgt Frog Abridged Movie, taking place some time after the episodic series and serving as an 80s adventure film-tinged reunion of the team. Two further sequels are also planned.
• Multi-Part Episode: Episodes 17 and 18 are two halves of the Season 2 finale, showing the Garuru Platoon takeover.
• Mundane Made Awesome: The guys in Episode 5 who proudly state, "Eyyyy, I can talk with my teeth closed!" and "I can talk with my mouth open!"
• Mushroom Samba: Kululu slips some drugs into Dororo's food in Episode 23. A quick Cutaway Gag shows Dororo's hallucinating the forest on fire, the world purple and undulating, a bassy dance song playing, and Mukuro from Episode 14 falling down a waterfall.
• Myth Arc: The overarching plot of the series, and the reason the platoon are on Earth in the first place, is that Keroro is awful and useless, and people want to kill him because they hate him so much.
• Mythology Gag:
  • To TheStrawhatNO!:
    • In Episode 17, Taruru refers to Dororo as "Dumple".
    • In Episode 21, a disheveled Keroro makes the same honking sound as Marco from Skies of Arcadia, and Robobo is revealed with a line adapted from Pibot in the Bomberman Hero Let's Play. Robobo continues to share similarities to Pibot in Episode 22.
  • To Jetters Abridged:
    • Birdy makes vocal cameos in Episode 9 and Episode 13.
    • In Episode 16, the platoon at one point run out of a room while shouting "HIGE!"
    • Mujoe shouts the scene transitions in the second half of Episode 21.
  • To Tamers Abridged: In Episode 21, Fuyuki makes the same laugh as Kazu while running away from Dokuku.
• Negated Moment of Awesome: Dororo spends two episodes meditating to gather power for his Giant Ninja Fuck You Star. When he finally uses it on Garuru's mothership, it bounces off with a pathetic "dink" and destroys a nearby building.
• N-Word Privileges: Keroro outright says "tranny" in Episode 6, "nig-" in Episode 8, and he and multiple characters say "fag" or "faggot" throughout the first two seasons.
• Never My Fault: The gist of Keroro's monologue in Episode 18. It's what finally breaks it to Fuyuki that Keroro is not the friend he thought Keroro was.
• Nightmare Retardant: Invoked in Episode 10. While the climax is made to be disturbing aurally and visually, the sudden background appearance of the video for R.E.M.'s "Shiny Happy People" is a signal to the viewer that things are going to get stupid.
• No Bisexuals:
  • The series averts this overall, having the characters defaulted to bisexual unless explicitly stated otherwise. So far only Dororo is stated to be anything else, in his case gay.
  • Deconstructed in Episode 11, which was directly inspired by the No Bisexuals article. Keroro always acted as a Straight Gay while having a very obvious attraction to women, yet when Tamama reveals that she is really a girl, Keroro exhibits a form of "straight panic" and fails to acknowledge that he may simply be bi. The ending of the episode parodies the LGBT mantra "It's okay to be gay" by saying "it's okay to like both men and women". Giroro, the off-screen Wholesome Crossdresser, had this figured out from the start and gets irritated at Keroro's blatant ignorance.
• No Mouth:
  • Dororo, by way of his mask.
  • Zoruru has half of a mask, but his voice seems to come through a speaker.
  • The Shurara Corps:
    • Shurara's face is completely covered by his helmet for most of the season. When he is finally seen without it, he has a realistic snake head that moves like a puppet.
    • Giruru, who is entirely liquid, does not have a visible mouth.
    • Dokuku and Robobo both have visible mouths, but they don't appear to speak out of them.
    • Kagege barely has a face, with only one large eye visible.
• No-Sell:
  • Dororo's Giant-Ninja-Fuck-You-Star, which he spent the previous episode meditating to power up, bounces right off of the Garuru Platoon's mothership. Subverted later, when it turns out it was just a delayed reaction.
  • The star fails again in Episode 20 against Mekeke, who takes the hit with no visible damage and laughs maniacally in response. Dororo only hit a marionette, not the real Mekeke.
  • Finally averted in Episode 22, when the star successfully destroys Big Robobo.
  • In the giant mech fight with Shurara in Episode 25, the platoon sends Shurara's mech flying through the air and crashing to the ground. The mech is visibly unharmed; Shurara merely laughs maniacally and goes berserk in response.
• Non Sequitur:
  • Fuyuki drops "I don't remember getting dressed today" in the Episode 1. He also randomly shouts "Speed lines are cool!" in Episode 5.
  • Tamama's introductory line to Fuyuki is "I'm a pretty princess".
  • Fuyuki pleads the fifth at the start of Episode 11. Keroro plays along by saying "Go fish".
• Non Sequitur, *Thud*: Episode 3, when the TV explodes in Keroro's face:

  Keroro: Yeah...jalopoly my waffle-flabergize, Trix Rabbit.

• Noodle Incident:
  • Keroro mentions two in Episode 1:
  "Who'da thought a toilet balloon would save my ass again? That was the day I knew I wanted to become a sergeant."

  • Followed almost immediately by:

  Keroro: "Didn't I tell you? I'm an alien invader."

  Fuyuki: "I wanna be your friend too!"

  Keroro: "Okay! Wait, I'm not falling for that again!"
  • "The Poodlejumper story", which you can hear parts of in Episode 6, details how Dororo got the nickname "Poodlejumper". A video was uploaded so you can hear the entire story unaltered.
  • Zeroro's mental flashback to Christmas with his parents in Episode 7.
    Viper: "We had to spend the money on my bail."
    Zeroro: "What did you do, Dad?!"
    Viper: "*Sigh* Look. It's not my fault. I just happened to think they were very sensible looking shoes. But this other guy..."
  • Koyuki in Episode 10:
    "Well with a name like Luigi, could you blame me?"
  • Keroro in Episode 10:
    "So I got fired. Funny story! But anyway..."
  • Tamama in Episode 12:
    "Hey guys, I brought you all cookies, but then I didn't. It's kind of a long story. So...here's a tray!"
  • In Episode 25, it's revealed that many members of the Shurara Corps were somehow killed by Keroro in their backstories. How this happened is not always apparent.
    Keroro (reading the death certificates of the Shurara Corps members): "Frozen in the tundra, check. Called him a nerd and he blew up, that could be anybody. Beat him in a staring contest, never forgave me...? Mekeke- what the hell, I only shared a burrito with him! "Threw shade on him"?! What the fuck are these people?!"
• "Not So Different" Remark: Keroro realizes that Shurara's faults are the same as his, and the real cause of all of his problems is simply being a terrible person. This makes Shurara transform into a being of pure self-loathing, but the platoon rescue him, and they reconcile at the end, both agreeing to come out of the ordeal for the better.
• Not That There's Anything Wrong with That: Garuru after completely killing the mood in Episode 18.
• Obliviously Evil: Robobo in Episode 22 was programmed by Shurara to see the platoon as his friends and to show his love "inefficiently", I.E. with murder.
• Official Couple:
  • Keroro and Tamama. Often challenged, however, as Keroro has openly cheated on Tamama, and despite Tamama's pregnancy, their relationship is on the rocks by the end of Season 2. They've mostly sorted out their issues by Season 3.
  • As of Episode 15, Giroro and Dororo.
  • As of Episode 18, Natsumi and Koyuki.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: A delirious Keroro flies around the room crotch-first like a ragdoll in Episode 15...except all that's seen on-screen is Natsumi leaning sadly against the door, accidentally locking the other characters in with Keroro.
• One-Shot Character:
  • Asami, a troubled youth in Episode 5. Mois comes to Earth and sees her fight off some street thugs, which inspires her to take on her appearance as a disguise. The platoon decide to stop her from mugging people and return her to her parents, which Mois succeeds at doing by splitting the Earth in half. She's never seen or referenced again.
  • Subverted with Joriri from Episode 11, a weird and whimsical hobo that gave Lil' Keroro, Giroro and Dororo incomprehensible advice. He disappears from the series thereafter, until he makes a sudden reappearance in Episode 25 as voices in Shurara's head, apparently being Shurara's biological mother that neglected him and also gave him incomprehensible advice that screwed his mind up for life.
  • Alisa and Black Nebula in Episode 13. Alisa is a doll brought to life by amorphous alien Black Nebula, who treats her like a daughter. Alisa takes a liking to Fuyuki, and by the end of the episode they become a couple. Aside from an offhand line from Fuyuki in Episode 16, they're never seen or referenced again.^note They were intended to show up more than once, but the series was reshuffled after Episode 13 proved difficult to write and the series was drastically shortened, leaving no future episodes where they appear.
  • Mukuro, Koyuki's best friend and an exaggerated stoic from the Episode 14 flashback to their life with the ninja clan. After they and Dororo accidentally kill several clan members, the clan is disbanded and they never see or hear from Mukuro again, though she makes an appearance in The Stinger and in a drug trip Dororo has in Episode 23.
  • Keroro's children, Kilili and Kemama, only appear in one episode each, both times growing massive and eventually flying away from Earth. Keroro later references his inability to hang on to his kids.
  "But my mistakes are like my children! They grow really big and I lose track of them."
  • Except for the cast roll call at the end of the season, Putata and Giruru are the only members of the Shurara Corps to appear in only one episode each - all of the others make vocal cameos in previous episodes to tease their future appearance, usually in The Stinger.
  • Dark Keroro and everyone in his platoon only appear in the SFA Movie.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Kululu consciously drops his creepy demeanor to bring Tamama back to reality in Episode 9, due to Tamama being particularly out-of-character herself by imagining if she were dominant in her relationship with Keroro. It got out of hand for everyone.
  • Dororo's characterization through most of the series is always depressed, always lonely, and dependent on his friends. In Episode 17 he tells Koyuki he needs to be alone to prepare himself for fighting the Garuru Platoon, and she has a hard time believing he can handle being alone.
  Koyuki: "I don’t want to sound like a broken record here, but do you need a child tracker?"
• Out-of-Genre Experience: "Stroke in the Sun" is mostly a Rock & Roll homage to The Beach Boys and Chuck Berry. Its bridge is Death Metal.
• Overly Long Gag: Implied twice when Giroro gives Natsumi a set of power armor in Episode 17:
  • The device comes with an answering machine full of 300 messages from Giroro, each of him failing to cheesily introduce the armor to her and hit on her. While only a few are heard in Episode 17, Episode 18 opens with her listening to message 297, and it's still the same day. 298 and 299 play in the background for the rest of the scene.
    Natsumi: "I don't know why I thought this would cheer me up."
  • Message 300 is a protracted song Giroro wrote for Natsumi which inexplicably narrates her battle scene. As the episode occasionally cuts back to Natsumi's battle, more of the song is heard as Giroro audibly loses the energy and will to keep trying to win over her heart. The message finally ends after several minutes with Giroro deciding "You know what? Forget it. I like cock now."
• Overly Preprepared Gag:
  • Kululu works his way up the Nishizawa Corporation, nearly making it the leading world economic power in the process. Soon he finds himself addressing the leaders of the world, whereupon he...sings a "HEGH" harmony. He's back with the platoon the next day.
  • Saburo is played as mute, or at least he never gets the chance to speak. Let's Player MrFailGame is listed in every Season 2 episode as a person or object that never speaks. When Saburo finally gets an audible line in Episode 18, it's voiced by Mr Fail Game.
• Ow, My Body Part!: Giroro yells out that he's injured his femur in a message to Natsumi in Episode 18, shortly after describing his love to her in song as a broken femur.
  "My love for you is like a broken femur"
  "I scream for help but you ignore me"
  (A crash is heard shortly after) "AGH, MY FEMUR! Natsumiiiiii...!"
• Pet the Dog: Giroro, both as a child and as an adult, offers Dororo/Lil' Zeroro drinks in Episode 7, an important point in their Character Development.
• Picnic Episode: The second quarter of Episode 10 is of the cast, minus Keroro, going for a picnic.
• Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Every flashback involves Lil' Zeroro saying something that causes Lil' Keroro and Lil' Giroro to instantly hit puberty. Keroro lampshades this the first time it happens in Episode 4, but every time after he just runs with it.
• Plot Tumor: Viper being Dororo's father was originally only a set-up to a few jokes in Episode 7. By Episode 10, Viper's absence and promiscuity was an important factor in Dororo's various friendship and relationship issues, and him coming to terms with it is a key point in his Character Development. By Episode 18 it tied into Keroro's backstory and personality as he was Viper's son that was sold off as a child. And finally by Episode 25 Viper has fathered an astronomical amount of children, so much so that there is a government register to keep track of all of them, and one of them just so happens to be Shurara, the Big Bad of the season, and it turns out to be his entire motivation.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner:
  • Tamama: "You've just gone 'n' fucked the beehive!!!"
  • Kululu: "I made you Tororo, and I'm gonna CTRL+ALT+Fuck you up!"
  • Kululu makes a second one out of the birthday song.
    "HEGHppy birthday to you, HEGHppy birthday to you/I brought you into this world, and I'll take you out too. And many HEEEEEEEGH-" (Tororo explodes)
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  • Zoruru to Koyuki: "I pull things out of my arm."
  • Garuru to Giroro: "You fought well, little brother, but it's time I went after the real soldier."
• Precision F-Strike:
  • A variation in Episode 7. While the characters cuss profusely as adults, their young selves avoid cursing throughout the episode until Zeroro meets Solid Snake and screams out the F Strike in terror. Keroro and Giroro immediately hit puberty and begin cussing themselves.
  • Fuyuki drops one while tearfully berating Keroro for his selfishness and poor treatment of his friends.
• Pun:
  • Todd's Toilets: "Don't buy that George Albert crap!"
  • Fuyuki: "You should take this alien badge, 'cause your looks are out of this world!"
  • Lil' Keroro: "You better not hit the brake! Or you're going to... break, haha!... our friendship!"
  • Narrator: "You may be fat, but you're p-hat where I come from."
  • Lil' Keroro, after Lil' Zeroro falls in the toilet: "You look a little... *snicker*... pissed off!"
  • Keroro: "What did the river say to the ocean? Nothing! It just waved! AAAAAH-HAHA!"
  • Tamama: "Well, time to storyboard!" *Time passes* "Aaaaand I'm bored!"
  • Keroro: *Dressed as a girl* "Who's the boob now, Giroro?"
  • Keroro: "I'm a pipe-cleaner."
  • Serious Keroro jokes tend to subvert this, as he's usually mangling a joke with a punchline.
  • In Episode 13 several characters make Halloween puns, with Keroro saying the "punchline" pun directly above.
  • Robobo makes a pair of magnet puns in Episode 22, due to his hands being a pair of magnets.
  • Gyororo in Episode 24 while sneaking outside Giroro's tent:
  "This is pretty intense...! Dammit I'm outside. This is pretty outside of tents...! You die first."
• Put on a Bus: Momoka for most of Season 1 due to voice actor problems. The Bus Came Back in the season finale after a new VA was found, until the writers decided to get rid of her again just for laughs in Episode 13. She gets resurrected in Episode 22.
• Quietly Performing Sister Show: Jetters Abridged and Tamers Abridged are this to SFA: well liked and respected in their own right, but not nearly as popular.

R-Z

• Rapid-Fire Comedy: One of the stylistic differences between SFA and Sgt. Frog is SFA's high jokes-per-minute quotient, and episodes tend to have fast pacing.
• Reality Warper: Future Kululu distorts the scenery around him and the platoon in Episode 10.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Fuyuki gives one to Keroro in the series finale. Though the change is subtle, Keroro does start to pull out of his Jerk Ass state as a result.
  Fuyuki: ...You're right, Keroro. It is funny. So now you managed to turn everything that happened into everyone else's fault. Have you ever thought about why you can't make people happy? Maybe it's 'cause nothing you had ever done in your life has been for anyone else. You hurt my sister for questioning you, you abandoned Tamama for being herself, you take advantage of Giroro for keeping the team together, you mock Dororo for his undying devotion for you, and tell me, Keroro, did you ever once think of what I go through to protect you?! You don't care about anyone, you just drag everyone through the dirt! Everyone who ever cared about you hates you, but it didn't matter to me. You were my friend. The only real friend I ever had. I took everything you gave us because I wanted you to be happy. Does that mean a fucking thing to you?! Please, Keroro...please tell me...at least a part of you cares about me...please tell me a part of you is good...
  • Keroro gives one to Shurara, in a way that's intended positively - by acknowledging all of the bad ways they are same, Keroro sees that what he does to others is wrong and seeks to heal with Shurara. It doesn't take at first.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: The first divergence from the original series is that Keroro's superiors are fully aware of how useless he is, and he and his platoon get sent to Earth to get them out of the way. The fact they accomplished nothing in all of Season 1 leads HQ to send the Garuru Platoon to kill them in Season 2. Their information gets wiped from the military database in Season 3, leaving the platoon free to live by their own terms.
• Record Needle Scratch: Frequently used to coincide with an awkward statement or before an awkward silence.
• Reference Overdosed:
  • The series overall is a subversion compared to the original series and SFA's early episodes. Following the first season, references are few and far between.
  • Solid Snake is a straight example. Practically every one of his lines is a quote from Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2. Raiden and Ocelot also appear, but they have their own jokes divorced from MGS.
• The Remake: Episodes 1, 2 and 3 are remakes of old episodes which are now titled 1R, 2R and 3R. The old versions are unlisted on YouTube, and the team treat them in the series like they didn't happen.
• Reset Button: As per the name, SFA: Reset is a special where the cast go back in time to undo the events of the last three episodes of Season 2 that prevent the series from continuing and prevent new characters from appearing.
• Retcon: The Myth Arc of the series' antagonists trying to kill Keroro because they hate him so much was not fully formed until SFA: Reset and the beginning of Season 3. The series started as roughly Negative Continuity, but Future Kululu in Episode 10, the Episode 1-3 remakes, and some Arc Welding developed the surrounding story retroactively.
• Revisiting the Roots: Downplayed example. Thorn felt that Episodes 8 and 9 were too self-aware, stilted and lacking in ideas. She and Yoshi then wrote Episode 10 with the intention of returning to the more relaxed and ridiculous writing of Episodes 4-7. She also thinks Episode 24 had a similar feel and atmosphere to Episode 5 for its focus on one of the sidelined female characters.
• Revolving Door Casting: Momoka, who went through five different voice actors before she was killed off in Episode 13 after finally getting a stable VA in Dobuchu. She was resurrected in Season 3 with Dobuchu returning for the rest of the series... before the writers lost contact with her before the SFA Movie and had to find a new VA once again.
• Running Gag:
  • The numerals 4 and 9 appear frequently in random places and dialogue. Revealed to be a message from Future Kululu that he is going to kill Keroro, though they continue appearing after Future Kululu returns to his time. They are also apparently the price Keroro was sold for as a child: $49.99.
  • Keroro speaking Spanish/embodying various Hispanic stereotypes.
  • Solid Snake appears randomly, referencing the Metal Gear series under the guise of it being advice.
  • Raiden started appearing in Season 2, though he instead acted like a metrosexual's Facebook/Twitter feed.
  • Characters droning "nurrrrrrrrrrr" in the background, specifically when they're just standing around with their mouths hanging open.
  • During flashback episodes, Zeroro inexplicably causes Keroro and Giroro to instantly hit puberty just by saying something.
  • Keroro's sharp and quick "AGH!" laugh.
  • Let's Player MrFailGame is credited in every episode of Season 2 as a person or object that either doesn't speak or doesn't even appear.
  • Dororo's catchphrase of sorts, "I'm lonely", started appearing in places outside of Dororo himself in Season 2. It even appears once in Morse code.
• Running Gagged:
  • Natsumi's Too Kinky to Torture tendencies were quietly dropped in Season 2.
  • Giroro's blatant ignorance of very plain things, which the writers acknowledged as lazy writing, was dropped.
  • In the first movie, Giroro is shocked to see Doruru and says "Father?! (Beat) Oh, no it's not- thank god," a subversion of the series' tendency to make various characters related.
• Satellite Character:
  • Mois, whose only personality trait is her devotion to Keroro. See also Demoted to Extra.
  • The Lesbos,^note Yayoi and Satsuki in the original who only talk about Natsumi, even after "breaking up" with her.
• Satire: Tamama's Church of Beetle Christ is this to religions as a whole.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In Episode 4, Viper is so flabbergasted by Dororo's random spark of motivation that he just gives up. By exploding.
• Season Finale: Episodes 10, 17 and 18 together, and 25 cap off their respective seasons with big showdowns with villains and major character/story reveals.
• Self-Deprecation:
  • Dororo does this occasionally. Fitting considering he has the most (and most blatant) issues.
  Dororo: "Keroro, you're looking a lot like me right now. I want you to think about that very carefully."
  • Keroro's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Shurara at the end of the series is Keroro's backhanded way of facing his awful treatment of people and seeking forgiveness.
• Sequel: The Ask GiroDoro SFA audio blog. Initially conceived as a Spin-Off before Thorn decided to end SFA, after which the blog continued the story. It also became a Prequel to Season 3 when SFA was brought back, via the Sgt Frog Abridged: Reset special.
• Sequel Hook:
  • HQ's message at the very end of Episode 10, setting up the Kiruru and the Garuru Platoon. Several messages at the end of episodes in Season 2 also foreshadow the Kiruru device and the Garuru Platoon.
  • Season 1 ends with Tamama revealing that he is really a girl and HQ leaving a message revealing that they're sending someone out to get rid of Keroro.
  • Episode 11 ends with Pururu contacting Garuru, revealing that she is a double agent sent to find the platoon's weaknesses.
  • Episode 12 has HQ calling to send out a bioweapon to take out the platoon.
  • The Kiruru counter appears at the end of Episode 13 with the platoon trying to figure out what it's for.
  • Subverted in the series finale credits. It really is the end. Except, as of SFA: Reset, it isn't.
  • In the Post-Credits of Season 3 episodes, Shurara sends the next wave of his corps after the platoon, with said wave being the focus of the following episode.
  • Episode 23 ends with Natsumi talking to a living teddy bear, teasing Nuii's appearance in Episode 24.
  • Pururu closes Episode 25 by revealing that Keroro has a twin, teasing the SFA Movie.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The Reset special is centered around fixing the events in Episodes 16 and 18 that doomed the universe (and prevented the series from continuing).
• Shared Universe: With the defunct audio series, The Audio Logs Of Dr Squid. Dr Squid's Galactic Observation Dominion is referenced in Episode 18, and Keroro makes a cameo in Dr. Squid Episode 10.
• Shout-Out:
  • Editor ThornBrain hides the covers of her favorite music albums in the background, usually 5 per episode. Several episodes were dedicated to specific artists including Sparks, They Might Be Giants, Chrome, The Birthday Party, R.E.M., The Fall, The Damned, Pulp and Jarvis Cocker, Primal Scream, and Faith No More and Mr. Bungle.
  • The one exception to the above was Episode 18, which instead featured pictures of the team who won TheMidnightFrogs' 2011 Sgt Frog abridging contest.
  • Characters occasionally sing or quote lines from songs, including "Let's Hear it for the Boy" by Deniece Williams, "Hairdresser on Fire" by Morrissey, "Baby, Come Back" by Player, and "Apex Predator - Easy Meat" by Napalm Death. The very last scene of the episodic series is Solid Snake, Raiden, and all three versions of Revolver Ocelot singing "O, Do Not Forsake Me" by They Might Be Giants.
  • Episode 4 included a Shout-Out to Chip And Ironicus' Retsupurae "WHO IS A POKEMON IN THIS CRAZY WORLD":
    Reporter: "We are live at Generic Japanese Bridge, where a live seal-"
    Person off-screen: "No, it's a Pikac!!!"
  • Mint's Hints and "Clover's Disc-overs" in Episode 8 are references to Blue's Clues. The sweater that Giroro wears in the former is specifically inspired by Steve Burns' sweater.
  • Keroro's line "Huh. I just broke my hand" in Episode 9 is a Shout-Out to Patlabor the Abridged Files Movie, which was written by Koyuki's then-voice actor Revy Moonshine.
  • Future Kululu's pencil mustache was inspired by Ron Mael's signature mustache since The Eighties.
  • While Solid Snake provides plenty of Metal Gear references on his own, the message left by HQ in the Post-Credits of Episode 10 is a Shout-Out to similar sequences at the end of Metal Gear Solid credits.
  • Kululu: "It's because there's time now. Time enough at last! [Beat] It's a joke. LAUGH!"
  • Kululu: "I'm gonna go watch Matlock; I don't need this crap."
  • Dororo's blood splatter in Episode 14 trails downward into a hand, a'la The Presence from Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero.
  • Giroro's poem at the end of Episode 15 quotes a YouTube Poop by team member Vorhias.
  • invoked Renaming the baby Kiruru, Mashiu, to "Kilili" is a shout out to a series of Sgt. Frog fanfics starring a Mary Sue Classic named Kilili. TheMidnightFrogs and their Skype friends made a habit of reading Kilili's stories aloud for a short time, exaggerating the character into a Black Hole Sue.
  • The party carts in Episode 19 are walking references to Andrew W.K., always wanting to party and singing parodies of W.K.'s songs that replace the word "party" with "beverage".
  "When it's time to beverage, we will beverage hard!"
  • Episode 21:
    • Keroro sings segments of "Apex Predator - Easy Meat" by Napalm Death and "Baby Come Back" by Player.
    • Keroro and Tamama's baby, Kemama, takes inspiration from Bloodborne, as Kemama was an immaculate conception by Beetle Jesus and grows into a giant Albatross, Eater of Worlds. Eldritch gods impregnating people is a plot point in Bloodborne.
  • Episode 22:
    • Robobo plays the theme to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly when he crashes into the Hinata house, referencing both the film and ED-E from Fallout: New Vegas, who plays cowboy music when the player enters combat.
    • Robobo sings a variation of "Put One Foot in Front of the Other" from Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town.
  • Episode 23:
    • Dororo cry-sings variations of "Vacation" by The Go-Go's and "The Man Who Sold the World" by David Bowie, the latter a sideways reference to the then-recently released Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and the Midge Ure cover featured therein. Keroro also scream-sings a line of "Vacation".
    • The video playing in the water during Dororo's drug trip is "A Las Chicas de Verdad Nos Gusta el Pollo Frito (Oda al Pollo)" by Andrea Maramara and Ramses Hatem, colloquially known as the "Pollo" song.
  • Episode 24:
    • Mois's line "Quoth the raven..." is a reference to the Edgar Allan Poe poem, The Raven.
    • The first Post-Credits is a mocking parody of "Wiggle" by Jason Derulo, a sideways reference to Jiggly Jacob's live gaming streams wherein Thorn would play the hook on her Stylophone when Jacob succeeded or failed spectacularly at a task.
  • Episode 25:
    • Shurara laughing manically and then shouting "Stop laughing!!!" is a reference to the ending of "These Hands" by The Damned.
    • Tamama sings the title to "Like a Virgin". Later she transmits the themes to Full House, The George Lopez Show ("Low Rider"), Family Matters, and COPS ("Bad Boys") with her mouth. While fighting her shadow, she and it sing a line from "Shark Attack" by Split Enz.
    • "Fuckeroro" is a reference to #FucKonami, a hashtag and catchphrase started by Jim Sterling against gaming corporation Konami.
    • Keroro calls Shurobobo "Gigantor", after the 1950s anime.
    • Shurara hearing his mother in his head telling him to kill Keroro is inspired by Psycho.
    • Keroro's line "Toys are back in bound!" is a play on the title of the song "Boys are Back in Town" by Thin Lizzy.
    • Shurara yelling "Your life?!" is partially a reference to the same line from Bruce Banner in The Avengers (2012) as he's struggling not to turn into the Hulk.
    • Shurara's need to consume everything of Keroro's is a reference to the moon from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.
    • Lil' Pururu's laugh is the same tempo as Mandark's laugh from Dexter's Laboratory.
    • The giant Shurara helmet yells "Oh Mommy! Whyyyyy?!" in the same way Mrs. Puff says "Oh Spongebob! Whyyyyy?!" in Spongebob Squarepants.
    • Dororo mentions that Giroro cried at the end of The Terminator, which doubles as a reference to an offhand line from Alton Brown in Good Eats episode "Tuna: The Other Red Meat".
• Silence Is Golden: Several outside shots in Episodes 17 and 18 have no sound unless it's caused by the cast, so as to show that the world has indeed stopped dead in its tracks.
• Sincerity Mode:
  • In Episode 21, Keroro and Natsumi briefly put aside their sarcasm and vitriol after she teaches him to take care of his newborn son.
  Keroro: "I've decided to name him after my and Tamama's eternal love... Kemama."
  Natsumi: "I think she'd like that. Never thought I'd say this, but hey, hope things go well for you guys."
  Keroro: "Maybe being a dad'll be alright."
  • Keroro gives a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Shurara in the series finale that is actually Self-Deprecation for the sake of Keroro apologizing and ending the bad blood between them. The episode ends on a calm, positive tone between Shurara and the platoon, albeit laced with Bathos due to Shurara having a realistic snake head.
• Singing Voice Dissonance: Sumomo in Episodes 6 and 8 is voiced by 1KidsEntertainment with a deep rasp when speaking, but she has a clean, feminine singing voice in Episode 8 provided by LillyLivers.
• Slice of Life: The majority of Episode 10 is the characters going about their day and trying to spend time together.
• Something Only They Would Say:
  • Inverted in Episode 18. Keroro saying "Please" is a sign that he's finally changing out of his usual Jerkass self.
  • Inverted again in Episode 25. After his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Shurara, Keroro apologizes for everything he did to Shurara, showing that he's finally making an effort to end his awful treatment of people.
• Song Parody:
  • "A Pekoponian Day in the Life" - A mostly non-humor parody of The Beatles' "A Day in the Life". John Lennon's parts are sung by ThornBrain from the perspective of a human as the Keronian army invades, while Paul McCartney's section is sung by Yoshi from the perspective of Keroro on an average day.
  • "Pretty Girl's All Mine" - Parody of Chris Isaak's "Pretty Girls Don't Cry". Sung and performed by Thorn from the perspective of Giroro about his crush on Natsumi.
  • "The Lonely Dance" - Parody of Men Without Hats' "Safety Dance". Sung by ThornBrain as Dororo with Revy Moonshine making vocal cameos as Koyuki. Dororo tries to pretend that he doesn't need his former friends, only for him to have catastrophic emotional breakdowns in each chorus.
  • A Christmas Special (It's Special, Alright) features seven small Christmas parodies:
    • "White Blanket" - Parody of "White Christmas", sung by Dororo about wanting a security blanket due to being lonely during the Christmas season.
    • "Giroro's in Natsumi's Room" - Parody of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", sung completely out-of-time by Keroro and with incoherent lyrics.
    • "Walking in a Mall at 12 O'clock" - Parody of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland", sung by Fuyuki about dangerous Black Friday shopping.
    • "I'll be Home for Christmas" - Sung by Dororo about how nobody ever notices him, not even in his dreams.
    • "Baby, It's Cold Outside" - Sung by Natsumi and Giroro, with Natsumi trying to get Giroro to leave her room.
    • "Durdeedeedur" - Also a parody of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", sung by both Yoshi's and Thorn's respective Tamama's, with even more incomprehensible lyrics than Keroro's version.
    • "Carol of the Kululu" - Parody of "Carol of the Bells", sung by Keroro, Tamama, Dororo, and Giroro about Kululu and how he acts. It is the only song that does not utilize a karaoke track.
  • "The Valentine's Parody" - Parody of Billy Joel's "The Longest Time". Sung by Yoshi as Keroro with Thorn singing cheap backup as Giroro and Dororo. Keroro sings a Valentine's song for Tamama, alternating between being a romantic, a cheap date, and a general Jerkass.
  • "Stroke in the Sun" is a stylistic parody of The Beach Boys.
  • The team recorded a parody of The Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" in December 2009 called "Tamama's Titties". It was based on an in-joke involving Tamama with breasts, and though Thorn always had the file, she didn't release it to the public until 2014. It and the in-joke it was based on, however, did influence the direction the team would take with Keroro and Tamama's relationship.
  • "Friendship" - Parody of "You've Got a Friend in Me" by Randy Newman from Toy Story. Written and sung by Travis to parody Newman's guttural singing voice by having the entire song be lyrically nonsensical and garbled. AKA: "Don't Hit Your Dick with a Brick".
  • "Look at Your Boobs: - Parody of "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid (1989). Sung by Thorn as Giroro about his apparent gender dysphoria, wishing that he had breasts like Space Detective Poyon. Appeared in snippets in various SFA episodes but a full version was never completed.
• So Proud of You: Garuru to his little brother Giroro, but for mundane things like when he taught Giroro how to read. It drives Giroro nuts.
  Natsumi: "You know, he seems like a pretty nice guy."
  Giroro: "But he's so supportive!!!"
• Sound Defect:
  • In Episode 8 - instead of the usual "woosh" that would be used in such a situation - Kululu slides into frame with a rubbery stretching sound.
  • Tamama makes the stretching sound when turning to face Taruru in Episode 17.
• Spell My Name With An S: The series goes with the "Kululu" spelling and pronunciation of said character's name, and they spell the "Sgt" in the series' title without a period.
• Standard Snippet: In Episode 18, Giroro rides an aerial strike into the base. Cue Ride of the Valkyries. And him "singing" along to it.
• Stealth Pun:
  • When Kemama transforms into a giant bird at the end of Episode 21, the background music is "Velocity Bird" by Peter Murphy.
  • In Episode 22, Robobo makes a pair of magnet puns because he has a pair of magnet hands.
• The Stinger: Every episode features two brief clips after the credits, one with visuals and one with only audio. They usually follow up a joke or situation earlier in the episode or fill up a plothole. They also serve as Sequel Hooks from Episode 10 onward, a'la Metal Gear.
• Stunned Silence:
  • The platoon at the end of Episode 8, after they view their new "animation".
  • The platoon at the end of Episode 12, after Kululu trolls the world.
• Stylistic Self-Parody: In Episode 12 Dororo recovers from a very long sneeze with a laugh, only to immediately realize that he doesn't have a nose.
• Stylistic Suck:
  • The entire 2010 Christmas special, from the bad singing on most characters' parts to the mostly-unedited background video malfunctioning and looping halfway through.
  • The "cartoon" in Episode 8, a static image of a badly drawn Giroro in a sweater inspired by Blue's Clues.
  • Giroro's song to Natsumi in Episode 18. Or anytime he sings, really.
• Suddenly Speaking:
  • Parodied in Episode 7 with Lil' Giroro. He did not have a line in his first appearance, so Lil' Zeroro is shocked when he finally speaks.
  • Saburo, otherwise a Cute Mute, gets a brief spoken line in Episode 18.
• Suicide as Comedy: In Episode 16, Keroro suggests number 4 on his spider leg-game-list of backup escape plans. Number 4 leads to suicide by gunshot to the head. The point where it gets taken to an extreme is when Keroro then tells Kilili to "spread [his] teachings across the galaxy", which leads to mass ritual suicides on every planet in the system.
• Surprisingly Creepy Moment: While the series has had plenty of dark moments, they're usually played for laughs. In the first movie, Dark Keroro suddenly remembers Keroro strangling him to death while they were toddlers, and it's only half-funny.
• Take That!:
  • Keroro invokes this trope in Episode 1 after Fuyuki takes the Kero Ball, and in Episode 5 after "getting back" at Giroro in a nonsensical way.
  • Episode 4 contains one directed at zealous fans of Pokémon Generation One, calling Seel the most original Pokémon ever.
  • In Episode 5, Asami makes a crack about overwrought break-up poetry.
  • In Episode 6, Giroro suggests making cologne as an invasion plan, ripping on Axe Body Spray in the process:
    Keroro: Hmm... What would it smell like?
    Giroro: I dunno. Rat semen, but say it'll get you girls and people will still buy it.
    Keroro: Point.
  • Axe is lampooned again in Episode 8, when Keroro randomly reads a section of article in his animation manual that states "Axe spray does not work".
  • In Episode 8, Tamama asks from where Kululu stole the anime backgrounds. When Kululu simply answers, "It was Haruhi", the platoon is so disgusted that they lose all motivation to work on the project.
  • Keroro gets a job selling coupons in Episode 10: "Sad thing is, I still make more than Walmart employees."
• Tangled Family Tree: The Viper family. It seems straightforward at first: Viper, his father, his wife, their kids. But then in Episode 19 we meet his "Mom-Son" and "Dad-Train". In Episode 25 we find out that Shurara is another son, and hundreds of thousands of other children exist, including Keroro's lost twin.
• Toilet Humor:
  • Literally with Todd's Toilets and the kids hiding in the train bathroom in Episode 7.
  • George Albert Nishizawa speaks to his stockholders in urinal puns during Episode 12.
• Too Kinky to Torture: Natsumi is frequently hinted to have an interest in forced bondage in Season 1. This is quietly dropped in Season 2.
• The Triple: Keroro's ideas for what to name Kilili in Episode 16:
  "Jenny? Bob? ...Bob 2?"
• Twist Ending: The second half of Episode 21 is focused on Keroro taking care of his and Tamama's newborn son and learning to accept the responsibilities of fatherhood. Then the kid turns into an Albatross, Eater of Worlds and flies away. Turns out Keroro was a surrogate for Beetle Jesus.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: Episode 12 alternates between Kululu working at the Nishizawa Corporation and everyone else being terrorized by his cursed DVD at the Hinata house.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Keroro, Jerkass supreme. Even when his Dark and Troubled Past comes to light and he makes an effort to change, it doesn't last long.
• Unusual Euphemism: Tamama's food metaphors and similes in Episode 9:
  "And for tonight’s plan, Hun’s gonna wait for me in the dungeon so we can try out my new position... the Hamburger Helper."
  "Hun may be my sub sandwich, but every picnic needs it’s backup potato salad. ...Keep up the insubordination, and you’ll be my deviled egg..."
  "Like a bean burrito, you're goin' south... Why am I so fucking hungry?!"
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
  • In Episode 1, no one reacts to a hot air balloon crashing outside their house, or to the very same balloon crashing outside the school. Subverted when Aki shows up, revealing that this isn't the first time this has happened:
    Aki: Jesus christ, Todd. Again?!
  • When Mois falls off the roof in Episode 5, Keroro merely responds with "Well that's odd."
  • In Episode 14, Koyuki seems unfazed by seeing Dororo's blood splattered across her wall.
• Vocal Evolution:
  • Yoshi's Keroro voice started out as him trying to emulate Todd Haberkorn. Circa Episode 5 his Keroro voice no longer has Haberkorn influence.
  • InfamousGentleman's Kululu gradually became rougher and more sinister after his first appearance before calming back down to an amused deadpan.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Tororo reveals in Episode 17 that Kululu is this to him.
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: A favorite visual gag of Thorn's, inspired by comic strips like Garfield.
• A Wizard Did It:
  • Future Kululu's time traveling powers are because of his mustache. That's as far as anyone will ever know.
  • No detail is given as to how or why Koyuki and Dororo use magic. They merely call out "Ninja Magic Bullshit" and do whatever they want.
• Wham Episode: Episode 10, with Mind Screw, some Sequel Hooks, and the first establishment of the series' own plot separate from the original Sgt. Frog.
• Wham Line: In Episode 15: "Oh my god, Giroro. Wait until you find out your brother is coming to take over and kill us all!"
• Worst. Whatever. Ever!: Keroro's response to (supposedly) breaking the counter in Episode 16:
  "Worst birthday ever!"
• Worthy Opponent: Parodied, as Garuru treats Keroro as one, no matter how blisteringly obvious Keroro is a useless moron.
• Villainous Breakdown: Shurara becomes increasingly furious and unhinged as Season 3 progresses and more of his Corps die to the Keroro platoon or disappear. When he becomes directly involved in Episode 25, he drops all pretense of being cool and threatening, instead letting out all of his hatred and madness in the platoon's direction.
• Wedding Finale: Dororo and Giroro in the Post-Credits of Episode 15. Kululu acts as minister. Hilarity Ensues.

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"Man. If that's how you guys turned out, who knows what happened to his twin."