| Sgt Frog Abridged: Episode 3 | |
|---|---|
Season 1, Episode 3
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| Air date | 07/23/2010 |
| Length | 4:50 |
| Written by | Mugiwara Yoshi ThornBrain (Script can be read here) |
| Link | YouTube |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous Episode 2 (Retconned) |
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Episode 3R was primarily Giroro's introduction episode, though the ending also served as an introduction for Kululu. It was retconned and remade on July 30, 2011 to fix a few anachronisms that resulted from the first two remakes.
Original Summary
More of Keroro's platoon is revealed, and plans for a takeover are laid immediately. They don't work out.
Cast (In Order of Appearance)
- Narrator: ThornBrain
- Keroro: Mugiwara Yoshi
- Tamama: Mugiwara Yoshi
- Giroro: ThornBrain
- Fuyuki: ThornBrain
- Natsumi: LillyLivers
- Kululu: GhostTC
- Dororo: ThornBrain (uncredited, Post-Credits)
Other voices
- Pichu: ThornBrain
- Singing TV: ThornBrain
Sgt Frog Episodes Used
- Episode 3B
- Episode 4A
- Episode 8
- Episode 49 (The close-up of Kululu)
Music Used
- "Tekno Gunsou" - Keroro Gunsou OST - general background music throughout episode
- "Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth" - Sparks, Propaganda - Singing TV, pitch-shifted down one step
- "Pirate's Fortress" - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask OST - Giroro talking about the people he has spied on
- "Forest of Outset Island" - The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker OST - Giroro explaining the phases of his plan
- "Keroro Gunsou" - Keroro Gunsou OST - Natsumi's scene
Development Notes
Writing of the script began on June 5th, shortly before Episode 2R was released. The script was fully completed the following July.
Thorn's lines were completed by July 14th, and Yoshi's lines were completed on the 19th. LillyLivers and GhostTC, who were also making appearances, had their lines completed at various points in-between.
The video was completed on July 22nd, and was uploaded to YouTube that following midnight.
Post-Credits
- Part 1: The Narrator gives a preview of Episode 4, in which Dororo says he's not in the team but, following a passage-of-time clip, changes his mind.
- Part 2: Keroro comments that Giroro sounded like he had laryngitis at the end of Episode 1 (now Episode 1R), which Giroro confirms before making a comment directly referencing his original voice-actor DFatman.
Joke References and Explanations
IMPORTANT WARNING
Due to the episode being retconned, the following jokes may not be canonical within Sgt Frog Abridged
- Thorn hid the covers of three of her favorite albums in the background throughout the video, with no particular theme:
- Can's Ege Bamyasi is seen on the shelf in Keroro's room.
- John Foxx's Metamatic is seen on the side of the bookcase behind Keroro, Fuyuki and Tamama in Natsumi's room.
- Metamatic is replaced with Talking Heads' Remain in Light the second time the camera is on Keroro, Fuyuki and Tamama.
- The video that plays on Keroro's TV is a YouTube video called "my sweet guinea pigs" by Fabienne2212.
- Though it is technically Giroro who blows up the TV, Tamama does reference the Disney Channel's poor-quality programming at the time. The TV laments this after the title sequence.
- When Tamama sees Giroro he thinks he's seeing "an old people commercial", which points out that Giroro is in-fact a fully-grown adult Keronian, adding to the pedophile joke surrounding him. The team would almost immediately drop the pedophile angle after Episode 3R, instead deciding for Giroro to be in love with just Natsumi.
- Pichu from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged is operating the lights for the Singing TV's performance, referencing Pichu's revealed ambition to operate lights on Broadway.
- Keroro's line, "Eh, the book was better", after the TV sings is a shot at people who comment that movie, television, or other adaptations of books aren't as good as the original book.
- Giroro references how the Sgt Frog anime calls humans "Pekoponians", and then compares that to "Pik Pik Carrots", a reference to the Pikmin game series. It is also an example of the writers playing with, and even mocking, the original Sgt Frog series and its tropes.
- Giroro developed an attraction to Natsumi from watching her shower instead of her ruthlessly defeating him, which is hinted at when Giroro mentions the humans he's spied on, then completely acknowledged after Natsumi knocks him out the window near the end of the episode.
- Giroro actually going along with Keroro's plan, (somewhat optimistically, it should be noted), hints at an incompetence in the platoon that affects even the best of its soldiers. It also hints at their lifelong friendship, as it's later shown that Giroro and Keroro grew up together.
- Keroro saying "nah-nah-nah nah nah-nah-nah" is spoken in the rhythm of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo.
- The wah-wah jingle played between each "attempt" is a clip of the PeeWee's Playhouse theme cut into sections.
- In "Attempt #3" Giroro literally flies out the window for no reason.
- Keroro mentions Dr. Pepper, which is ThornBrain's favorite soda.
- The occult trinkets that Giroro uses to distract Fuyuki have been re-branded as simply "crap he stole from the neighbors". Fuyuki seems to recognize them, mentioning that he "love[s] living in a rich neighborhood" before immediately losing his attention span.
- The episode pokes fun at the original show's joke of Giroro tying up Keroro and Fuyuki under the guise of it being "a magic trick".
- Fuyuki's sudden expression and disposition change both references his cameo in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged and confirms that his over-the-top demeanor in that video is a real part of his personality. This trait was rarely seen after Episode 3R due to a major toning down of his character.
- Giroro describing Natsumi as a "pink-haired backscratcher" is a projection of him seeing her rear while she was showering.
- Natsumi's claim that "You can diffuse anything when you force a meme" when she shows the leek is the writers pointing out that Funimation seemed to force the obvious Leekspin reference in the episode dub. Thorn sometimes feels that Funimation forced a lot of their references.
- Keroro's line "...It's over six" is a reference to "Over 9000", and Keroro not saying it directly is the writers' refusal to do so, due to the joke being unfunny and overdone.
- When Natsumi knocks Giroro out the window, Giroro references that not only has this happened constantly, the window glass seems to come back each time.
- Keroro asking Giroro when he's going to buy him a new toothbrush is a call-back to Episode 2R, when Giroro blew up Keroro's toothbrush in the Post-Credits.
- Keroro's line, "You're like that magic man with the magic... no wait, I'm thinking of Shaq", references the Shaquille O'Niel movie Kazaam.
- Keroro and Giroro's conversation in the Post-Credits is a call-back to Giroro's cameo in the Post-Credits of Episode 1R, at which point he was still voiced by DFatman.
Reception
As with the previous two episodes, Episode 3 was received very positively, with a few comments remarking that it was a funny episode despite its shorter length (roughly 1 and 1/2 minutes shorter than the previous episodes). When it was retconned on July 30, 2011, the video had 93 "Likes" and 2 "Dislikes".
Additional Trivia
- Though Yoshi was technically the "first" voice actor for Tamama, this is his only credit for the character. Originally he and Thorn planned to trade-off as the character each episode, but Yoshi's Tamama voice became strained and raspy following this episode, partially due to his insistence to voice Keroro first. He officially retired as the voice before Episode 6, making Thorn the single official voice actor for Tamama.
- Episode 3R would be GhostTC's second and last appearance as Kululu, leaving the group shortly after Best Wishes Abridged was released.
- A few of the jokes became anachronistic after the retconning of Episode 1R and Episode 2R, the primary reasons why SFA3R was remade:
- Because Episode 1 was remade and no longer features Giroro at any point, the Post-Credits joke about his voice is now out-of-place.
- The team dropped DFatman's SFA theme this episode. As a then-temporary replacement, Episode 3R simply uses the series' title card and Thorn groaning, "god, we need a new intro". Thorn decided to eschew intro sequences altogether by Episode 4, meaning that this remark made no sense come Episode 2's remake.
- The team also wanted to remove GhostTC's Kululu and Yoshi's Tamama from the continuity.
- Yoshi and Thorn did a commentary of the episode on March 27, 2011, roughly eight months after its release.
- Thorn also did a solo commentary on the video in March 2012 for ZippCast. ZippCast lost the video file (long before the site itself went down), so the commentary is now on YouTube.