I hauled out my Sergeant Frog DVDs last night and tried to figure out how far I'd gotten. I think I was up to about ep 28, something like that.

Then I went to the TV Tropes page for the series and read through it.

Everyone seems to assume that Giroro has some sort of repressed romantic feelings about Natsumi. That's not the way I read it. Their relationship is more like father and daughter, or maybe uncle and niece.

Aki is a wonderful mother, and she's raised a couple of great kids who are strong, smart, and well adjusted. But I kind of get a feeling that deep down Natsumi misses having a dad, someone strong that will protect her. Giroro is like that, and though she'd never admit it, for any of several reasons, I think she likes it. It fills a small need; it makes her feel warm and safe.

So when she needed a parent for a three-legged race at the school athletic festival, and her mother didn't make it on time, she was grateful to Giroro (wearing a human suit) for joining her. And when (as happens several times) she's deeply threatened with violence, Giroro will be there and protect her.

So why does he do it? In his intro episode, he took Fuyuki prisoner, and he boobytrapped the house. Natsumi was the first to show up, having just gone grocery shopping, and she made it all the way to Fuyuki's room armed only with a leek. Giroro recognizes her as being a true warrior -- but she's young, and still maturing.

Warriors are a rare commodity. Giroro doesn't really recognize any of his teammates as being such, not even Dororo, who is the closest to qualifying. For Giroro, that gives him a special bond with Natsumi, a kind of kinship.

It's a nice dynamic between them, but there isn't any intrigue or romance. It's not like that.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 10:21 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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