Oh yeah I completely forgot about this because of the news and the day’s almost over here so there’s no point, but I forgot I was gonna make this my icon for April Fool’s

dororo-daikaizou perhaps?

NEW KERORO ANIME FIRST ACTUAL UPDATE……THAT THERE WILL BE AN UPDATE

Sergeant Keroro is a bitch ass motherfucker.

It is now April, the promised time. The start of the fiscal year in Japan and—in about a day from now—the 21st anniversary of the 2004 anime’s first episode. I predicted a couple of months back that this would be the time we get the first concrete news drop about the new anime. And I was right!

Kind of!

“The new Keroro Gunso anime project will have new information released this summer!”

Yep, an announcement of an announcement! Well, that’s all for now, folks. See you in a few months!

…Okay, at least we know it’s really chugging along and not just some kind of mass hallucination we all had for a year. Seriously, I was almost starting to feel a little gaslit and I was far from the only one.

At least we can infer this: given that “news” is coming in summer, it’s obviously not releasing in summer. This means that the earliest possible airdate, and only opportunity for it to air in 2025, is this October. I’ve explained in earlier posts how anime seasons work and there is a very, very, very low chance that this will break the mold in the modern anime hellscape. That said, if you recall, I’ve mentioned that BNP has the Gintama spin-off anime confirmed for October. While it’s not impossible, I personally am a bit doubtful that they will have both Gintama and Keroro airing in the same season, so a later airdate of 2026 (probably January) is also plausible. This all feels a lot longer than it probably really is since they announced it so early to coincide with the 20th anniversary—maybe it was even still in preproduction then? Either way, 1.5–2 years isn’t far off from a normal production cycle, in actuality.

…is what this point was originally supposed to end on when I drafted it while half-asleep but OOPS:

They’re having ISSUES?! ~Say it ain’t sooooo, your leeeeak is a heartbreakerrrr~…

All right so we’ve already been over the whole kerfuffle with this rumor and the origin of it and to be honest I am not totally convinced they’re being 100% honest here (was it ever really planned for Spring to begin with?), however I sadly don’t find the idea of there being production problems unrealistic. I’ve mentioned that BNP took on a lot more shows than usual for them this year and it’s very possible that, even with Studio Bind’s assistance, they’ve been in a bit of a crunch. Keroro especially seems to be something they’re looking to make a larger scale project (whether that includes a movie or not, who knows), so maybe they’re just biting off more than they can chew. It’s sad, but it’s the reality of many anime productions these days as the original publishers greenlight more and more adaptations just for the sake of it, and now that the most famous studios are really bogged down, the burden falls on mid-tier and newer studios to pick up the slack. But that’s discourse for another time and place.

Aaaaanyway, I’m anticipating that “summer” means June or July, but given my luck it will be August. You see, this is actually my divine punishment for playing Pokémon and doomscrolling all the time instead of working on my fanfic that I claimed needs to be finished before Schroedinger’s Frog Show airs. Sorry guys. At least the Switch 2 direct is tomorrow!

Good news! The update was shitty

Writeup tomorrow or Wednesday (there isn’t much to say I’m just tired)

To Chase a Butterfly Chapter 14 Release

On days like these, frogs like you…should be burning in hell.

After dispatching Tsukeke’s mech, our heroes make a break for the deep fabric space exit (wherever that is) upon detecting some kind of anomaly on Kururu’s device. But the disgraced mechanic—though bruised inside and out—isn’t down for the count just yet, and he catches up to the platoon in a last-ditch attempt at vengeance! Somebody put this guy down already, he needs to chill.

Well, that wasn’t supposed to take two months, but thanks to an unhealthy dose of burnout, existential dread, and Pokémon TCG Pocket, I went quite a while without much progress before pulling myself together. “I just want to finish it already” isn’t the healthiest mentality for a writer, but I really intend to swap to anime coverage when we finally start learning literally anything substantial about it and don’t want this hanging over me for that long into the run-up and certainly not when it’s airing. But I’ve got quite the finale planned and I’m still gonna do my best to nail the last three chapters (yes that's the final count I've made up my goddamn mind) as best as I can! As for how this even gets dragged out for that long, you’ll see at the end of this chapter ;)

(Lack of) Anime News Update: Sadly, I was right to be skeptical

THEY TOOK ALL MY COPIUM

A few months ago, a rumor emerged about the new Keroro anime project being a series in 2025 and a movie in 2026. I did a longer write-up on it here, but the tl;dr is that I said there was a chance due to the usual reliability of the leaker but that it could also be a misinterpretation of another source. I leaned toward more likely than not (hopium perhaps), but I did advise caution and to not strictly take it at face value.

I guess that was the right call because, well, here we are mid-February. The spring anime season starts in about a month and a half. And…no official news. Zip. Nada. The waiting game continues, it seems.

So, what was that Oizaki quote about? We don’t have hard confirmation, but my guess is that the spring 2025 series part was about a completely different seasonal anime Oizaki is directing set to begin in April. (Yes really I know the premise sounds ridiculous but it’s an adaptation of a light novel, sky’s the limit with those things.) This was revealed back in December. As for what the movie is, it seems to be still unknown. My guess is either an original project or something involving Kaleido Star, which also had a major anniversary recently. The interpretation of the Japanese that the series and movie were connected was in hindsight a mistake, but I wasn’t the only one to propose that reading, and it could’ve gone either way. Gotta love/hate ambiguity.

I could go more into how I think this mix-up happened but then I’d have to talk about twitter anime leaker drama, and while I am unfortunately pretty knowledgable about this subject, it is not fun to talk or read about so I’ll spare you the details. The main conclusion I have is that this account was not deliberately trying to trick anyone and rather just made an assumption and reported the info before actually checking against the evidence because they really wanted to be fast and get interactions, especially because a perceived to be competing account reported a less sensationalized, more accurate version a few minutes before. SugoiLite’s sources aren’t usually publicly visible but this time they pretty much played themselves.

What does this mean for Keroro, then? Personally I still think there will be a series (for reasons I explained in my post from last spring about the whole reveal) and I still think it will be this year, but in either summer or fall. That will have been at maximum a year and a half after the announcement (summer season starts in July, fall in October), which gives it a pretty standard anime production time, assuming the teaser trailer was released during early production. As for the movie? There’s not as strong of a reason to speculate that happening, but next year is the 20th anniversary of Movie 1, so the timing would line up pretty well. That’s just based on vibes, though, rather than any evidence at this time.

Look, I’d be pleased as punch for the Keroro PR account to prove me wrong tomorrow, but I’m quite confident that we lost the coin flip on this one. Before you get too down in the dumps, don’t forget that two major dates are around the corner: AnimeJapan in late March, closely followed by the next anniversary on April 3. I think we will see some kind of preview or at least a progress update around that time. If not…then maybe I’ll start worrying a bit about the chances of it making this year, but we’ll cross that bridge if and when we get to it. So hold onto your butts for just a little while longer! I think!

To Chase a Butterfly Chapter 13 Release

I couldn’t find a fitting image for this chapter (trust me I tried) but visuals boost engagement so I just took a gif from tenor. I guess he does this metaphorically at some point

It turns out the lone mechanic Tsukeke has actually been planning to overthrow the Keroro Platoon all along! It seems he has their backs against the wall, but Kururu, with Keroro’s help, has prepared a secret weapon that just might be able to take down their supposedly invincible adversary! If he can get an opening to pull it off… What was this fic supposed to be about again?

Anyway, I lied, story’s gonna be a bit longer than I initially planned for again. I really gotta stop trying to commit to specific numbers. So another impromptu two-parter it is!