Thus proclaims Alex Lo, Senior Writer at the South China Morning Post.

I was flipping through the 1st of May edition of the paper on my flight home from Hong Kong and choked on my wine when I was halfway through the article. A few small tears streamed down my eyes as I chuckled to myself.

Ok, I never ever got into Keroro Gunsou (promotional move poster above) because I have huge issues with the character designs of both the manga and anime iterations. On top of that, it is devoid of moe and bishoujos which definitely doesn’t sit well with me. Sure, I’ve heard tons of good stuff about it but sadly, I guess just pure humour alone with a bunch of weird and endearing aliens doesn’t appeal to a moe-bishoujo addict like me.

Anyway, I do know quite a bit about Keroro Gunsou off hand before reading the article which led to freaking burning wine in my nostrils, and these are some of the facts about the series:

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The Keroro Gunsou manga was serialised in Shounen Ace. Now, Shounen Ace is targeted at an “older Shounen” audience, which may lead to a spillover into the Seinen category.

For those not acquinted with anime/manga demographics, Shounen media is intended for “boys no older than 17″ while Seinen media is intended for a more matured audience of “males 18 and above”.

While normal and explosively popular Shounen magazines (like Shounen Jump for example) are slanted towards a 12-15 years old male audience, Shounen Ace attempts to bridge that tricky gap between Shounen and Seinen (16-17 years old audience) which can actually lead to close to or completely Seinen serials. For example, Welcome to the N.H.K. was serialised in Shounen Ace and if you ask me it isn’t freaking Shounen, but Seinen. Scan from a volume I own below:

This makes Shounen Ace an extremely interesting manga magazine and aside from Welcome to the N.H.K., many of the manga serialised within are in my opinion truly “older Shounen”. In fact, check out this bit of info from the NHK wiki:

“In North America, the manga is licensed by Tokyopop, and the first volume was released on October 10, 2006. It is one of the first manga published by Tokyopop to be rated M, for an 18 or older audience (Happy Mania, Battle Royale, Yubisaki Milk Tea among others, have also earned this rating from Tokyopop). Tokyopop also released the novel on October 9, 2007. ADV Films announced at Anime Central that they acquired the rights to the anime, and they released volume one on October 2, 2007 with volume two released on December 4, 2007.”

One extremely good example as a good transition manga would be Keroro Gunsou. Guys that are below 18 are generally not matured enough to enjoy moe-bishoujos. I mean I know how it felt like in the past but that feeling is fading since I’m freaking 20 now. When I was younger and more immature, I thought that anything that contained Bishoujos were for girls, when in fact most girls seriously dislike watching an anime filled with perfectly drawn females and only 1 or 2 guys.

Keroro Gunsou fits the bill of “older Shounen” well and helps 16-17 year olds adjust into the moe zone. Keroro and his friends are arguebly rather cute, but not overtly moe. The plot itself isn’t immature shit like “normal Shounen” or “normal Shoujo” and is rather complex while retaining mature themes such as sadomasochism as well as unique humour.

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I’m just personally glad that in all my years of reading the local Singaporean Straits Times, which I do without fail when I’m in Singapore everyday, I’ve never seen an opinion piece written without thorough research. Heck, when Andy Ho (Senior Writer for The Straits Times) churned out anti-Odex opinion pieces during the peak of the Odex Saga, he didn’t write anything that was factually wrong (CARTOONS FOR CHILDREN, Mr. Lo says), even to a discerning hardcore Otaku like me. That’s pretty amazing stuff if you think about it, and shows that the man has done his research. He wrote freaking long opinionated pieces on ODEX if fellow Singaporeans recall. In true Singaporean spirit, get that man a Tiger! lol.

The fact is Keroro Gunsou isn’t for kids. Happy Lesson isn’t for kids. ARIA isn’t for kids. I think we need a closet Otaku in any of the major censorship boards to indeed point out the dangers of modern Japanese visual culture that is easily mistaken as for kids due to our dimensional superiority complex. As I’ve said before, I don’t freaking want my future kids (if I do have any) to be reading freaking eroge-to-manga adaptions just because the authorities irresponsibly dismiss “childish-looking” Japanese comics for as intended for kids.