Keroro Movie 6’s second BIG news drop! New trailer, staff/cast reveals, and theme song info!
On April 24 at 10:00 AM JST (and technically a few hours before on early morning television, because of course…) we got the next series of huge scoops on Keroro Movie 6, now just two months away! We knew this was coming, but it’s even more than I thought we’d be getting at one time, so let’s dive right in!
The majority of this post will be relaying information that you can also find on the movie’s official website. Links to any other sources will be separately provided.
First and foremost, a minute-long trailer for the movie featuring all new (parody-filled) footage has been posted! Here is my translation of all the dialogue in order:
Keroro: Southern island, here we come! Let’s go, sir!
Aki: Sorry, Kero-chan. We couldn’t get you a ticket.
Keroro: Nooooo! [Swirling text: Stuck house-sitting]
Fuyuki: Sarge, turn on the TV! A bunch of mysterious yōkai have shown up in Shibuya, and everyone’s freaking out!
Keroro: Who the heck is this, sir?
Kururu: That’s the inventor Dr. Aruderu, whose true identity is unknown.
Keroro: I’ll use my epic skills to put a stop to ’em, yes sir!
Keroro: Keroro Platoon, assemble!
Keroro: Will love save Pekopon…?
Keroro: (States the movie’s title)
Aruru: It’s finally time, huh…
Keroro: Wait, just who are these brothers…?
New staff and cast reveals!
Thanks to both the trailer and the new key visual, we’ve received confirmation of previously unrevealed key staff members!
Color Design: Chie Yoshimura
Art Director: Yasutoshi Kawai
3D CG Director: Kazuya Ōya
Director of Photography: Takeo Ogiwara
Sound Director: Yōta Tsuruoka (*Returning from the original series)
Although these haven’t been highlighted on the website just yet, the poster/trailer also confirmed several reprisals from the original series for the supporting cast! Most assumed they were indeed staying, but this is the first official confirmation.
Haruna Ikezawa as Momoka Nishizawa
Ryō Hirohashi as Koyuki Azumaya
Mamiko Noto as Angol Mois
And finally on the subject of the cast, the reveal they’ve been teasing for days…
Movie original characters Aruru and Deruru will both be played by Jesse of SixTONES!
SixTONES (pronounced “Stones”) is a very popular boy band/idol group that debuted in 2020. One of its members, Jesse, will be playing BOTH Aruru and Deruru (confirmed romanizations per the website) in the movie!
Here’s the official comment from Jesse about his roles. Since Crunchyroll graciously provided an adequate translation, I’ve decided to save myself some work and quote their article here:
I really enjoyed playing the dual roles of Aruru and Deruru! At first, I was so nervous I thought I might lose it, but as I performed over and over, I started to get the hang of it and was even able to add ad-lib a bit. I was so happy that Director Fukuda laughed too! Both Aruru and Deruru are such great characters that I hope you’ll enjoy the story from start to finish without ever figuring out, "Wait, was that actually Jesse?" And I was really excited to learn that this story involves facing the biggest threat in the series yet! I’m so happy to be part of this "Sgt. Frog" franchise, featuring such stellar cast members and Director Fukuda’s spice! Please enjoy the various storylines and characters! Aruru and Deruru are my favorites! Everyone, I’ll be waiting for you at the theater!
The Keroro anime twitter account also posted a short announcement video. Here is my translation:
Hello, everyone! The person who will be performing the voices of Aruru and Deruru turned out to be…me, Jesse! Thank you, thank you. Did anybody get it right? Aww, nobody got it. So yeah! The characters I play, Aruru and Deruru, are Keronian siblings. I hope everyone looks forward to seeing how they get involved with the Keroro Platoon and the story as a whole! [Movie title] will deliver the largest scale experience in the history of the Keroro Gunso franchise, and is coming out on Friday, June 26! Yep, it’s on a Friday, guys! So please come on down to the Jesse-Jesse Theater!
In addition, the early morning TV programs I mentioned at the beginning of the post played a segment about Jesse’s role in the movie that included him recording some lines for the two characters! (Though whether or not these lines made it to the final movie or are just for testing purposes remains to be seen). Here’s a clip, sourced from this tweet:
Here’s my translation of the lines he says in the video:
Aruru: I’m the brains, and you’re the action guy.
Deruru: You got it! You’re sure it’s okay if I totally destroy the Keroro Platoon, right?
Aruru: Do whatever you want.
Deruru: ’Kaaaaay! [makes noises]
In another clip from the show that I unfortunately can’t relocate right now, Jesse makes a joke about how he’s thankful he wasn’t given three roles to do.
As to how he got here in the first place, it turns out per this tweet that Director Fukuda recruited him on the spot at last year’s showing of the Japanese adaptation of Beetlejuice, which Fukuda directed and Jesse starred in! Fukuda adds descriptors of the two characters, saying Aruru is “the super-cool older brother” and Deruru is “the cute, funny, mischievous younger brother.” Because they’re such polar opposites, he really wanted them both to be played by the same person. He also wonders if little kids will start mimicking Deruru after watching the movie.
The movie’s theme song revealed: “Kashippanashi Destiny,” performed by ano!
In addition to the movie’s opening theme—the new rendition of Kero to March—idol and official Keroro Anime 20th Anniversary Ambassador ano also performed the movie’s main theme, called “Kashippanashi Destiny” (Lent-Out Destiny)! You can hear part of it in the trailer. She is also credited as a composer along with Vocaloid producer Komedawara, and the song is arranged by Taku Inoue of TOY’S FACTORY. ano left a comment on the official website:
In addition to “Mata Kaettekita Kero! to March, I’ve also been put in charge of the movie’s main theme. This song captures the joy of Keroro and friends’ return in the Reiwa era, along with the sense of how their adorable daily lives haven’t changed even as time has gone on. The director and everyone on the Keroro team watched my live performances and requested that I incorporate not just the image I present to the public, but also some different and more intense parts of myself, so I tried to go all out in meeting their expectations! I hope everyone enjoys the music along with the movie.
That’s it for all the major news, but here’s some miscellaneous other announcements with regards to the film’s distribution and advertising:
If you’re going to be in Japan while the movie’s in theaters, advance tickets are now on sale, and Movie Walker’s mubichike (short for movie ticket) service is doing a merch giveaway! (The giveaway application deadline is May 20, but you can buy advance tickets through June 25).
An official TikTok account for the Keroro anime has opened! (For now it’s strictly movie advertisement, but they might repurpose this for this fall’s TV series based on the username).
The original five movies will finally be added to Netflix in Japan starting May 1! You can access international Netflix on a good VPN, though there will most likely not be multilingual subs.
And now that’s everything! Thanks for reading!
(As was my procedure for the last news dump back in December, I’ll throw my personal thoughts into a different post when I get around to it. My fingers hurt.)
