hontou ni sou omou?

Haven’t been buying much anime-related stuff for the past month because funds in that vote were diverted towards family gifts. However there was still enough cash for this - just received my copy of Sgt Frog Vol.7 from Amazon.co.uk. Sorry, Forbidden Planet but the discount given by the online retail behemoth is just irresistable. Meta-note: I’ve decided to label this as “Sgt Frog” to differentiate it from my discussion of the Keroro Gunso anime.

Koyuki finally appears and the anime follows the account of love at first scent pretty closely. However there are some important differences. The manga Koyuki is so much more aggressive in her pursuit of Natsumi - even her initial sniff is so much closer to Natsumi’s face and the way it is drawn almost looks like a kiss. One of the things I loved about the manga version was how Giroro immediately realized that Koyuki is a love rival and starts fuming about how Koyuki constantly clings to Natsumi. The latter leads to many lecherous stares from the guys at school and fury from the not unnumerous Natsumi fangirls. And while Giroro’s actions also leads to Koyuki’s secret ninja identity being revealed to Natsumi, it’s a whole different sequence of events and I found the manga version so much more amusing. Completely different context - related to how Koyuki and Dororo moved into the house opposite the Hinata home. The casual way in which Saburo-sempai (Mutsumi 623) and Koyuki’s reaction made me feel that he doesn’t deserve Natsumi at all and that Koyuki or Giroro are so much better suited for the Hinata oneesama.

The last one third of the volume was Koyuki-less though. :( With a whole chapter on that wretched 556 which is probably the only character in the series whom I utterly detest. Then again I also jumped out of my chair, pumped my fist into the air and screamed “YES!!!” when Gai bought the farm in Martian Successor Nadesico. Twat type characters. But for the rest of the Koyuki x Natsumi goodness, it was still well worth it.