Corporal Giroro

Name: Corporal Giroro

Gender: Male

Age: Over 10,500 years old

Height: 55.5 cm

Weight: 5.555 kg

Hobby: Weapon maintenance

Special skill: Full-power shooting

Likes: Weapons, 723, trains in the anime version, scorched rice in the manga version

Dislikes: Desk work, housework, gargling, ghosts and supernatural matters, sea cucumbers, natto in the anime version

Motto: Big guns and big battleships

Partner: Natsumi Hinata

Voice actor: Jouji Nakata

Childhood voice actor: Akiko Hiramatsu

In anime episode 106B, Giroro claimed he had no hobby at all, even leaving that section blank on a resume.

That story followed his attempt to find a hobby, and at one point he even wrote poetry while disguised as Natsumi and got it nominated on a radio program.

Giroro is the mechanized infantry soldier of the Keroro Platoon and the childhood friend of its leader, Sgt. Frog.

He holds the rank of corporal, and his older brother is First Lieutenant Garuru, commander of the Garuru Platoon.

He is also a childhood friend of Lance Corporal Dororo and Pururu.

His body is red, his eyes are shaped like crescents, and his forehead bears a yellow skull emblem.

A large scar runs across the left side of his face above the eye.

He got it on Planet Keron when Sgt. Frog used him as a shield.

His forehead skull mark sometimes changes with his emotions.

When he becomes excited, his already red body turns even redder and begins to boil.

According to a manga character profile, he also has skull marks on the soles of his feet.

That detail was never actually shown in the story and was effectively dropped in the anime.

Unlike the other platoon members, who wear matching insignia on both the forehead and stomach, Giroro wears a large belt from the shoulders down.

This belt was a gift from Garuru, and without it he loses spirit, balance, and even basic luck.

When he is not wearing the belt, he becomes clumsy and accident-prone.

He stubs his little toe, fails to brace himself properly, and crashes into walls.

Before meeting the Hinata family, Giroro waited on Earth for Sgt. Frog to return from reconnaissance.

When he did not come back, Giroro went searching, discovered that he had been captured by the Hinata household, and began secretly observing them.

He studied their weaknesses in order to rescue Sgt. Frog.

Later, he infiltrated the house through the television in the sergeant’s room and planted booby traps throughout the home.

His attempt to fully conquer the Hinata house failed when Natsumi Hinata effortlessly broke through his trap.

In the anime version, she even did it with a single green onion.

That moment made him fall for her as both a formidable female soldier and a romantic interest.

Since then, he has lived in a tent in the Hinata garden, surviving outdoors and roasting sweet potatoes.

He has little patience for weakness.

When faced with soft-hearted or cowardly behavior, he tends to erupt in anger.

Giroro is the most serious and stubborn member of the Keroro Platoon.

Because of that, he is usually the one most committed to the Earth invasion mission.

He frequently scolds the others for slacking off.

His inflexibility often gets him mocked by the others as a stubborn old man.

He is also the most conventionally soldier-like member of the group.

He has a habit of framing all sorts of things in military terms.

Even so, he is emotionally transparent in his own way.

When Sgt. Frog shows enthusiasm for invasion, Giroro can become so happy that he cries.

Sgt. Frog once called him easy to read, and that is not entirely unfair.

One reason Giroro is so devoted to invasion is that he wants to witness Sgt. Frog successfully conquering Earth up close.

In one anime episode where Sgt. Frog seemingly succeeded in taking over Earth, Giroro was the happiest and most tearfully overjoyed of them all.

His preferred invasion method is straightforward military force.

That approach is criticized by Sgt. Frog and Sergeant Major Kururu as too violent and outdated.

It also often causes missions to fail.

In the world of the series, direct violent invasion is considered old-fashioned and even against interplanetary agreements.

That makes Giroro, despite his discipline, something of a problem child under Sgt. Frog’s command.

His earnestness also makes him inefficient at times.

He appears aware of this flaw, but he struggles to overcome it.

Because he fills the hard-boiled and serious role, he often gets strong scenes in dramatic episodes.

By contrast, the more unserious Sgt. Frog and the twisted Kururu often end up drawing the short straw in those stories.

However, Giroro can also reveal a contradictory side.

When Sgt. Frog collapsed from summer exhaustion, Giroro refused to accept temporary command of the invasion mission.

That suggests he may unconsciously dislike taking on responsibility in some situations.

Still, another episode showed him delighted at the prospect of promotion and leading his own unit, so he is not uniformly opposed to authority or advancement.

He can also be unexpectedly indulgent.

When Sgt. Frog became trapped in a spending spiral after buying a new flying saucer on a century-long loan, Giroro did not simply mock him and instead seemed to view him as a fellow victim of obsession.

On rare occasions, Giroro himself also buys things in bulk.

His stern image does leave room for humanizing little weaknesses.

Romance and Its Effects

Giroro sees Natsumi Hinata both as a battle-worthy woman and as the object of his affection.

This crush often interferes with military operations.

There are episodes in which he sabotages the platoon’s chances of success because his attention shifts entirely to Natsumi.

In one story involving an ear-cleaning based invasion plan, he nearly ruined victory because of his feelings for her.

He is painfully aware that his emotions make him waver.

That self-awareness does not stop it from happening again.

He is also jealous of people around Natsumi, especially Mutsumi Saburo and Koyuki Azumaya.

Even Tamama considers Giroro’s jealousy toward those two intense.

Still, he does not truly hate them.

He has cooperated with Koyuki in dangerous situations, and he once personally invited Saburo to a Christmas party for Natsumi’s sake after Saburo had previously declined.

In other words, he can see them as honorable rivals in love.

Later in the anime, it is also revealed that a rather unexpected character sees Giroro romantically.

As the story goes on, Giroro increasingly becomes the one who gets defeated or fails at the crucial moment.

Because of that, Sgt. Frog starts calling him a “jobber,” and his serious image gradually shifts into that of a character who gets teased.

Giroro is highly skilled in combat and in the use of heavy weaponry.

He carefully studies individuals and situations, fitting his image as a professional soldier.

When enraged by danger to Natsumi or by intense jealousy, his combat power spikes dramatically.

Sgt. Frog once described him in a bizarre way as being 1.3 times as strong as a normal Keronian soldier but somehow feeling like three times as strong.

He can fight Lance Corporal Dororo on nearly equal terms in the right circumstances.

At least in a straight duel he may be somewhat weaker, though Dororo’s reluctance to go all out against friends complicates the comparison.

Giroro is also intelligent enough to explain battle conditions and tactical situations even to people unfamiliar with warfare, such as Natsumi and the others.

He often serves as a battlefield commentator because of this.

In the anime, his all-around marksmanship is said to be the best in the Keron military.

At the underground base shooting range, he consistently hits the center of the target.

Despite this, both his brother Garuru and his former soldier father criticize him for misjudging enemy capabilities and selecting the wrong weapons in solo combat.

Giroro appears to know this weakness about himself, but he has difficulty fixing it.

In one major confrontation with Garuru, Giroro initially lost.

But he rose again in order to protect Natsumi.

He even rode a missile into the secret base to save the Hinata family.

Garuru himself was impressed, saying he had never seen anyone rescue hostages unharmed by using a missile that way.

Giroro is especially terrifying when pushed past anger into cold fury.

When he learned that Tamama and Kururu had been consumed by the monster Aquaqu, he became a merciless battle machine.

He suppressed all emotion, brought out weapons from before the treaty era, and fought with calm and precise efficiency.

In that state, his usual flaws in judgment vanished.

He still failed to defeat Aquaqu because the enemy regenerated, and it had also been strengthened by absorbing two members of his platoon.

In other words, the opponent was simply overwhelming.

His belt remains crucial to his ability.

Without it, his balance suffers and even his shooting accuracy declines.

Only his usual belt can restore him properly.

Substitutes do not work.

At one point he used a device invented by Kururu that supposedly guaranteed perfect aim.

Even then, Giroro somehow failed to hit the center of the target.

He blamed himself for lacking ability and was ready to quit the platoon over it.

That says a lot about both his pride and his insecurity.

In games, these traits usually translate into a ranged fighter archetype.

He is commonly portrayed as a firearm-based long-distance combatant.

Sgt. Frog

Giroro and Sgt. Frog are childhood friends, comrades, and officially superior and subordinate.

A manga relationship chart even describes them as unexpectedly close friends.

Giroro constantly gets angry when Sgt. Frog acts lazy or irresponsible.

That routine is so common that other characters treat it as normal background noise.

Although he often seems exasperated with Sgt. Frog, he does not truly hate him.

When Sgt. Frog was lost in a parallel world, Giroro worried deeply about him.

The reverse is also true.

Even when Sgt. Frog imagines a world where he does not have Giroro pressuring him about invasion, there is no sign of real hatred between them.

They understand each other’s weaknesses better than they admit.

In fact, the person who set Giroro on the path to military life was none other than Sgt. Frog.

As children, Giroro was more of a local bully.

Sgt. Frog was the first one who hit back without fear and then invited him to invade Earth together.

That became the foundation of their bond.

One anime episode suggested Giroro may have abandoned a dream of becoming a railway worker because he came from a military family, but that was presented within a commercial shoot script and may not be true.

Private Second Class Tamama

Tamama is Giroro’s junior subordinate.

Giroro scolds him for slacking off, but compared with some other members, he actually trusts Tamama fairly well.

The two often end up punishing Sgt. Frog together when he gets too lazy.

Tamama addresses him respectfully as “Giroro-senpai” or “Corporal.”

Tamama also appears to have learned parts of his fighting style from him.

Their relationship is one of stern mentorship with some mutual respect.

Sergeant Major Kururu

Kururu is younger than Giroro but also his subordinate.

His personality is almost custom-made to irritate Giroro.

Kururu’s endless pranks and psychological needling often reduce Giroro to the butt of the joke.

That makes them appear like bitter rivals.

Official materials explicitly label them as having a hostile relationship.

Still, Giroro does acknowledge Kururu’s skill as an inventor.

Kururu, for his part, does not seem to hate Giroro.

So the hostility is mostly one-sided, with Giroro being the one who cannot stand him.

Kururu also has a longer service history than Giroro.

Because Kururu once served as Garuru’s superior officer, Giroro had apparently heard about him even before they formally met.

Lance Corporal Dororo

Dororo is one of Giroro’s childhood friends and a classmate from military training school.

Among the platoon, Dororo is probably the one Giroro trusts most.

Unlike his relationship with Sgt. Frog, Giroro almost never fights with Dororo.

Dororo’s gentle nature and his own seriousness make them unusually compatible.

That said, Giroro thinks Dororo can be too inflexible in his opposition to military-force conquest.

Even friendship does not erase their ideological difference.

Natsumi Hinata

Natsumi is Giroro’s partner and the person he loves.

He first fell for her after she effortlessly defeated the traps he had set.

His continued residence at the Hinata home is largely because he wants to stay near her.

His stubbornness, however, keeps him from expressing his feelings directly.

Throughout the series he repeatedly tries to approach her, yet his intentions rarely come across clearly.

As a result, his feelings remain mostly unspoken and unanswered.

He keeps a photo of her in his belt.

In the anime, after losing an earlier picture of Natsumi alone, he replaced it with one showing her together with a cat.

He also frequently imagines scenarios in which she falls in love with him.

So while he may seem resigned at times, he has definitely not given up.

Fuyuki Hinata

Fuyuki is Natsumi’s younger brother.

Because Giroro lives around the Hinata household, the two have many direct conversations.

Their bond is not usually described in dramatic terms, but it is quietly warm.

They talk about everything from trivial things to topics that touch on the core of the story.

In practice, they are almost like friends.

Giroro himself does not seem to realize that.

The anime emphasizes this connection even more.

He sometimes gives Fuyuki training advice despite Fuyuki being much more of an indoor type.

Giroro’s most recognizable traits are his red body, half-moon eyes, forehead skull mark, facial scar, and large combat belt.

His expression is often intense, and his emotional outbursts can literally make him seem to boil over.

His eyes are iconic enough to be nicknamed “Giroro eyes.”

The skull emblem on his forehead may change shape in response to his feelings.

The belt is not just fashion or military equipment.

It is psychologically and physically indispensable to him.

In this role-playing game, Giroro often functions as the main straight man of the party.

He uses his usual loud retorts against Sgt. Frog, but he also gets moments of dry, calm reaction that are unique to the game.

Because it is an RPG, he also becomes the first victim of dungeon traps more than once.

He even ends up serving as a shield for Sgt. Frog again, giving him a strange kind of honor.

Gameplay Style

Giroro is a gunner-type character who fights with ranged weapons.

His initial weapon is a slingshot, and his code name is “Corporal.”

His starting techniques are Flame Impact and Rabbit Shoot.

When placed at the front, he slightly increases experience earned after battle, but lowers allies’ defense a little during combat.

He is basically a defensive support character who focuses on preserving his own health and protecting allies.

Many of his techniques attack from long range and can pin down enemy movement.

Depending on the build chosen by the player, he can also fight at close range.

However, his natural abilities are more suited to support than to aggressive stagger-heavy offense.

He is not great at building long combos.

On the other hand, his repeated-fire attacks give him the highest total damage per technique among party members.

His greatest gameplay strength is his high defense.

He does not flinch easily and survives well, making him valuable alongside more fragile allies such as Dororo or aggressive rushdown fighters like Tamama.

His weak point is slightly low movement speed and agility.

Using speed-boosting items is the best fix, though he can also be protected by close-range allies like Sgt. Frog, Tamama, and Dororo.

Traits

One of his traits extends the duration of positive status effects.

Another gradually restores his health while he is not actively attacking in battle.

A third trait increases his attack and defense when his health drops below 20 percent.

This fits his tendency to become more dangerous when cornered.

Special Move

His super special move is D-Burst, short for Dendro Giroro Full Burst.

In it, he rides Dendro Giroro and sweeps away everything around him.

It hits all enemies in a wide area.

That makes it very practical and easy to use.

Computer-Controlled Behavior

If controlled by the computer and set to a general-purpose strategy, he behaves similarly to an all-out offense setting.

He tends to prioritize airborne enemies.

He will not cast the revival spell unless support-focused settings are specifically enabled.

That makes his AI useful, but not fully automatic.

Card Data

He appears on multiple collectible cards in the game.

One version has 660 HP, a rock attribute, 130 to 149 attack, 1-turn action timing, 80 speed, 8 percent critical rate, and 145 percent critical damage.

Another version has 640 HP, a paper attribute, 130 to 149 attack, 1-turn action timing, 80 speed, 5 percent critical rate, and 130 percent critical damage.

A hidden third card obtained through the Keparou map has 600 HP, a paper attribute, 120 to 149 attack, 1-turn action timing, 80 speed, 15 percent critical rate, and 200 percent critical damage.

In a 2009 popularity poll for humanoid Keronians, Giroro ranked eighth.

In the 2010 official *Sgt. Frog* character popularity poll, his placements climbed through fourth, first, fifth, second, and second depending on the round or category.

In the 2021 *Sgt. Frog* character election organized by the official channel, he ranked fourth.

He did not reach the top three, but he still secured a place among the top five.

Jouji Nakata, Giroro’s voice actor, was the oldest member of the main Keroro Platoon cast when the first episode aired.

He was 50 years old at the time.