#saburo mutsumi

[markbandanawitts]

kururu day 🐬🎀💞 rate the party hat peak out of peak

what do you mean making this was an excuse to not work on homework or translating. clearly this drawing was made with love and appreciation to my favorite bromance ……

[tamamatango]

Unplanned character analysis I should’ve saved for 6/23 but I need instant gratification whenever I have a thought or I explode

Sup nerds, thanks for reading my master’s thesis completely overanalyzing what literal scraps we have in relation to the new anime. Unfortunately no updates yet on that front but I’m starting to go a little Cuckoo For Cocoa Puffs in anticipation so fingers crossed they drop something soonish. I have a couple of longer form posts in my back pocket that may or may not happen in a nearish timeframe, we’ll see what I get around to.

I was going to not do any more posts until one of those materializes but I’m detouring from that for a bit because I had an epiphany about Saburo now that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this series again. Those if you who know me and/or were around for when I was most active here know he is my favorite character behind Kururu and that’s still true. So here’s like. A reading of him that I think completely changes the way you will look at this character. If you don’t see him like this already.

Saburo(/Mutsumi since this goes equally for the manga side) is not actually cool. Like this kid is totally cringe and a weirdo right. Literally thinks of the most unnecessarily extra solutions to things, wardrobe that gets increasingly bizarre over time, writes poetry that is usually either obnoxiously cheesy or just doesn’t make any sense. Spends his free time doing stuff like talking to cats and collecting shitty kids’ meal toys. His drawings aren’t even that good most of the time. Unironically Momoka has more swag than Saburo does (granted Momoka has more swag than most characters but that’s besides the point). Yes he is a super genius and athletically gifted and conventionally attractive to other people his age, and (for manga Mutsumi only) it’s later implied he was modified by the N326 in some way. But here’s the thing—a lot of his peers either think he’s a smarmy ass show-off little shit (manga) or just completely inaccessible to the average person so why bother (anime).

The reason why he’s such a celebrity is because the only people who think he is really cool are children and preteen girls (and secretly Giroro but the whole reason that’s a funny joke is because Saburo is totally not appealing to adults at all let alone hardened super serious soldiers). But this is a very profitable and exploitable audience so he is really successful. He is the equivalent of a Disney Channel teen star. He’s like what Justin Bieber was in 2010 or whenever. In the manga Mutsumi gladly eats up this attention, but the anime pretty heavily implies especially toward the (until this year tee hee) end of the series that Saburo kinda dislikes being under the celebrity microscope and having producers who want to milk their child star as much as possible; he just wants to create and entertain and express himself freely which is why he does everything anonymously.

I think the anime tried a little too hard to make him unironically cool and my guess is that this is for a couple reasons. One, he has Akira Ishida’s voice coming out of him which yes was obviously chosen primarily because lol Kaworu but also his voice is just inherently associated with “we want you to think this character is a mysterious ikemen” most of the time. Two, compared to the manga there’s a lot more fillery stuff revolving around Natsumi idolizing him and because so much of the show is from Natsumi’s perspective, that’s the perspective the viewers (who were also intended to be children then, though I think now that it’s a 20 year old series they’re going more for the nostalgic adult audience) get as well. Don’t get me wrong though the VERY few serious moments he had were fantastic, 229 best episode movie 3 best movie etc etc.

You could also argue Kururu thinks Saburo is “cool” but I think he respects him more in the way that he’s kinda like him but younger so they understand each other intrinsically and that makes Saburo more reliable in fulfilling Kururu’s specific needs than most other characters. Saburo’s a lot kinder ostensibly but unlike the rest of the cast, who recoils at Kururu’s mannerisms and psychological torment of everyone, Saburo usually just thinks it’s funny. Kururu is much of a freak as he is but is very particular about his image and actively micromanages almost every aspect of his personality to get people to see him a certain way and avoid showing too many of his vulnerabilities (it’s all but confirmed in the anime that his entire cadence and vocal tics are an elaborate act and his normal voice is totally different). We don’t see it much on screen but it seems he can kinda relax a bit around Saburo who himself is totally out there but in a more genuine and unabashed way, like even in the anime where the radio persona is a secret it’s not like he acts that much differently on the air than he does in his personal life. Besides maybe the early manga Kururu is not really a romantic and probably thinks Saburo’s sappy wappy poetry is cringe too, but he likes Saburo enough that he supports him being himself no matter what bullshit that entails (besides getting himself killed of course). Sorry had to shoehorn best partners talk for a bit longtime Kirb readers know how it is.

So there is actually a specific thing that made me decide let’s do a fucking character analysis for the first time in like 5 years or something, and that’s that I was browsing through raws of the one 4koma book I don’t physically own (shoutout to @kagender for those scans along with some other cool stuff like Keroro Land issues, storyboards and ref sheets!), and it was these strips:

This is a 4koma series in which Meru and Maru from Movie 2 hang around with the main cast for funny shenanigans. Not super relevant because these two strips don’t have them pictured but anyways. They’re having a beach day and Natsumi runs into Saburo who is there to “surf” but actually there are no real waves and he is just pretending. Because he’s copying the 1978 film Big Wednesday (it is Sunday in the comic). In other words teenager larps because he saw it in an old movie once. I know this is not really a pertinent example because the Keroro Land 4komas are all very silly and non-canon (a lot of the artists are actually former doujin artists) but look. This is peak, okay. This is my ideal Saburo outside of serious scenarios. I’ve seen the vision.

I swore I was gonna make this a short post but it’s not I guess. Can’t resist turning these into goddamn essays. So to wrap it up: Saburo is some dorky kid who thinks he’s way more of a hotshot than he really is and totally owns it with no shame. This is adorable. I will defend him with my life. I need Anikero The New to agree with me here. In like 85% of cases I prefer the anime’s takes on everything but Yoshizaki cooked with the ideas behind this guy so listen to word of god. Give us more Silly Saburo. The TikTok teenagers of today deserve this representation.

[keroro-france]

[pekoponianwars]

[simillimussims]

Saburo/623/Mutsumi from Sgt Frog in The Sims 4. Although I'm working on his anime and manga designs, I had to go with the Flash series first because of how goofy he looks, IMO.

Includes Saburo's beanie, eyes, hair (limited swatches), jeans, shirt, shoes, and wings- plus a merged file for easy DL.

Download (Google Drive)

Pose Wings inspired by A-LuckyDay

[ozzie-starfur]

THESE ARE EVERYTHING OUR AU IS AMAZING YOUR ART IS AMAZINF

These are far from finished lol but I really wanted to share because I'm so so excited about these! These are some keroro x soul eater designs n doodles I've been playing around with after being inspired by @ozzie-starfur 's ideas!

[brightestlulu]

Day 2 of Februrary: sabufuyu 👽

[fyeahyoshizakimine]

[lancecorporaldororo]

Sgt. Keroro Acrylic Stand

[markbandanawitts]

Things to Never Say to Someone Who Just Came Out, a Keroro Gunsou version ❤️🥰

I’m sure this has been done before in the fandom but this is the markbandanawitts special (my wonderful two cents everyone cares about)

mois is not here on purpose i promise she’s just not an asshole like the rest of these plebeians . i am also allowing myself to post anything that includes saburo and not just the days counter THIS IS MY BLOG I MAKE THE RULES HERE ALRIGHT

[scaneverything]

⋆｡𖦹‧★ Sgt. Frog Postage Stamps (ft. Mutsumi Saburo, Kululu) ★‧°𖦹｡⋆

[ BONUS EDIT >> Side by side ]

Made with these scans: Kululu | Mutsumi Saburo

These postage stamps came from the same sheet and actually match! Each one was scanned at 1200 DPI. I thought it would be cute to edit them together so that the full design would be more visible.

First pass edit where the edges aren't copy-pasted. These two stamps don't line up a nice as the others!

[pekoponianwars]

[bymikazuki]

Saburo/Mutsumi Hojo from Keroro Gunso

Diving back in my childhood, this artwork came up 😁

[brightestlulu]

two nerds

👽🌀

[boypussydilf]

literally how does natsumi not recognize saburos extremely distinctive outfit or HAIR COLOR AND STYLE. i know its a cartoon but god

[ozzie-starfur]

i know nothing about this fandom you're posting about but i'm happy you seem to be enjoying yourself :)

Hi okay so this is Keroro Gunso (english dub: SGT Frog). I know my tumblr is primarily known for Star Trek but for reference I have the same longevity in the Keroro Gunso fandom as I do in the Star Trek fandom…I got into both when I was in middle school. But I haven’t really been an active participant in actual fandom spaces until recently so…here I am.

Keroro Gunso is amazing. It’s a Japanese anime about these frog-like aliens that want to conquer Earth. Specifically five of them—Keroro, Tamama, Giroro, Kururu, and Dororo. This is the Keroro Platoon. They each have human “partners” that they get to be really good friends with and a sort of circle forms of people who know about these aliens and the hijinks they get into. It’s worth mentioning that they absolutely suck at conquering Earth though. They just can’t seem to do it (I have headcanons about why). Let me break down each of their characters real quick…

Sergeant Keroro - He’s the main character and the leader of their platoon. But he’s really lazy and kind of lives in his own little fairytale land—sometimes this actually hurts other characters. He is obsessed with building gundam and reading comics. He is a very empathetic person in spite of his self-centeredness though and always pulls through when he’s really needed. His human counterpart is Fuyuki Hinata.

Private Tamama - He’s a young lad (he still has tadpole markings and a tail which you only see on women and children). Obsessed with sweets and candy. Despite this he’s actually quite athletic. Despite being an adorable sweetheart on the outside he’s actually extremely jealous and vindictive—he’s particularly possessive of Keroro. This is a trait he shares with his Human counterpart Momoka Nishizawa, who is also simultaneously sweet and jealous.

Corporal Giroro - The most militaristic of the five. He takes their mission very serious and is easily irritated or angered by the others. He has very little patience for laziness and just wishes Keroro would take their mission more seriously. He does have a hidden soft side though…he adopts a stray cat at some point in the series and enjoys writing poetry. I wish they had written his relationship with his human counterpart differently though…because I love all aspects of his character otherwise. His human counterpart is Natsumi Hinata.

Sergeant Major Kururu - My favorite, he is everything and he is baby. Kururu is the mad scientist/engineer character and comically he could probably take over Earth on his own but doesn’t (he’s actually the highest ranking platoon member but not a great leader) He’s extremely enigmatic and acts like a jerk towards others often. His proclivity for jokes often goes too far. However, the way he acts with others is way different than how he acts on his own. It seems that his assholey-ways are completely a facade to cover up his vulnerabilities as it’s actually shown that he really does care about the others and just wants attention. But he hates vulnerability (I headcanon him as autistic for his restricted interests, social issues, etc). His human counterpart is Saburo (or Mutsumi) Hojo.

Lance Corporal Dororo - The most emotionally intelligent and gentle of the group. He’s not real fond of the mission and has decided instead to live amongst humans peacefully, only partaking in invasion plans that aren’t particularly violent or harmful. He’s taken to becoming a ninja like his human counterpart, Koyuki Azumaya. He’s also deeply traumatized by his childhood (mostly due to Keroro having been a terrible childhood friend). He’s also often forgotten about which triggers these depressive episodes he often gets.

I highly recommend watching it. There are some problematic things in it (it’s an early 2000s anime…) but if you can overlook that it’s an absolutely amazing watch. I do recommend watching the Japanese dub over the English dub—don’t get me wrong, the english dub is funny. But it kind of murders some of their characters. Like Keroro is not empathetic at all and Kururu’s asshole streak is played up to the point of getting rid of all of his softer moments (he’s a lot softer in the manga actually).

There are other great characters like the Garuru Platoon (Garuru, Pururu, Tororo, Zoruru, and Taruru) as well. Lots to love…