#4 more days everyone...

Oh yes. I’ve been waiting for a good chance to talk about Special Ops Soldier Dorara for like an entire year and here it is. I know I usually do a little intro to the prompt or something before going into the answer but who cares it’s motherfucking Dorara time.

Dorara is actually in my top 10 favorite characters in the series, and is the only one of those to not be part of the Keroro Platoon or one of their partners. I would say that’s a pretty big achievement.

Dorara is exclusive to Keroro Gunso: Gekishin Dragon Warriors de arimasu! for the Nintendo DS, an action platformer by Bandai Namco obviously based on the movie of the same name and spiritual successor to 2008’s game based on the 3rd movie. Despite being a licensed game, it actually really stands on its own as a surprisingly good platformer with smooth, fun controls, decent level design (albeit a bit tiresome toward the end), pretty great presentation for a 2009 DS game...and a better story than the actual fucking movie. Seriously I have no idea how that happened. If you can run DS games on your computer (I recommend desmume), it’s worth checking out even if you can’t read the text. It’s perfectly enjoyable despite the language barrier and there’s English video walkthroughs on YouTube if you need the help.

Anyway, enough about the game, let’s talk about Dorara. Dorara is first introduced toward the end of the game’s first world (iirc), and he was sent by Keron Army’s HQ to investigate the big scary dragon tail thing along with the Keroro Platoon. He commands his own special forces (which all look identical to each other) and seems to be a very disciplined and serious soldier at first glance, but he has a tendency to get flustered, and when he does...he slips into a country accent. Yes, cool-looking Dorara is a country bumpkin. He’s also a super big mamma’s boy. And it’s really funny.

So Dorara kinda just hangs around for most of the game showing a little support here and there, masking his true intentions the whole time...until he shows up at he very end of the game as Keroro and pals are about to confront the Earth Dragon and absorbs the dragon’s power for himself. And then he turns into this thing:

And it’s really badass.

See, Dorara gets fed up with the Keroro Platoon working with those lowly Pekoponians and decides to take the Pekopon invasion into his own hands (even though the Earth Dragon is already effectively destroying the planet). In fact, it’s revealed (though I don’t remember where in game I got this part from another site lol) that Dorara was never satisfied being a special ops soldier in the first place—he wanted to be something bigger so he could make his hometown back in the country proud and show those city slickers who’s boss. And he sure did become a boss—the final boss, in fact. Ultimatley, the Keroro Platoon beat him up a bit and then Fuyuki steps in to give him the power of friendship! speech to explain the relationship between Keronians and Pekoponians, and Dorara goes back to normal and the ending of the movie follows (Terara being born and all that). And so Dorara ends up as a good guy (or at least a guy who decides not to take over the world).

It doesn’t end there, however. When movie 4 hit theaters in Japan, moviegoers were given a set of seals that you could trace into the DS touch screen and get cool stuff. In the age of emulators and the Internet, you can still use the seals, which you can find images of online, but since they’re not traceable you have to draw the shape yourself until the game accepts it. It’s tedious as hell but worth it because you can play as Dorara. (And also Garuru who is essentially a faster Giroro)

Dorara is extremely overpowered. He has all the abilities that the individual platoon members have plus infinite flight, meaning he’s the best for combat and platforming and can solve every puzzle in the game. He can also go into almost every single stage, whereas most of them are normally only accessible with a certain platoon member. He’s essentially a crutch or a way to find hidden collectibles more easily, and he’s a lot of fun. He’s also really cute. Please look at his widdle face.

Anyway, that’s about all there is about Dorara, sadly (why the hell wasn’t he in the movie). He has a really cool design in both forms, emotes really well (look at some of his event sprites on the Keroro wiki), has a cute backstory, comes from a really fun game and is broken as hell. What’s not to love? Also, he did have a brief cameo or two in the Kero Zero short before the 4th movie, but that doesn’t make me any less angry that we never see him again. Please I just wanted to see him animated ;-;