Lance Corporal Dororo

Name: Lance Corporal Dororo

Former name: Zeroro

Gender: Male

Age: Over 10,500 years old

Height: 55.5 cm

Weight: 5.555 kg

Hobbies: Organic farming, blogging in the manga

Special skills: Trauma switch activation, assassin magic, Dororo ninja arts

Likes: Natto in the anime, peace, friendship

Dislikes: Viper, trauma

Partner: Koyuki Azumaya

Voice actor: Takeshi Kusao

Natto as his favorite food was revealed in anime episode 206.

He once proposed an invasion plan using natto, but it was rejected because Giroro and Tamama disliked it and the others said it was “wrong as an invasion plan.”

Dororo is the kind-hearted assassin soldier of the Keroro Platoon who deeply loves Earth and its natural world.

Before taking the name Dororo, he was known as Zeroro.

He had once been an elite member and the top operative of the Keron Army special forces unit known as the Assassins.

From that period he retained formidable combat arts, including assassin magic and ninja techniques.

After meeting the Earth girl Koyuki Azumaya, he abandoned the old name tied to his life as an invader and renamed himself Dororo.

Since then, he has dedicated himself to protecting Earth and living as a guardian rather than a conqueror.

His family includes his parents and a younger brother, though only his mother has properly appeared in the main story.

According to anime episode 326, his mother was also an exceptionally skilled assassin.

Dororo’s body is blue and his eyes are light blue.

He always wears a mouth covering.

He can somehow eat, swallow, brush his teeth, and even rinse his mouth without removing it or visibly adjusting it.

He is embarrassed about showing his mouth, so he never removes the covering in front of others.

As a result, the lower half of his face has never been shown in the story.

Even longtime companions like Sgt. Frog and Corporal Giroro have never seen it.

In anime episode 318, Sgt. Frog and the others tried to see Dororo’s mouth.

They still failed.

He carries a small blade at his waist called the Dororo Sword.

He received it while training in Ninja Village, and supplementary material states that even if the blade breaks, it immediately restores itself.

Dororo first appeared in manga chapter 55 and anime episode 13.

At that time he was called Lance Corporal Zeroro.

He was introduced as the true culprit behind a case in which aliens living on Earth were being punished, despite being invaders themselves.

Because he had been absent for so long, the Keroro Platoon had practically forgotten him.

After the incident, he declared a break with the platoon.

He eventually returned after being saved from Viper and because Koyuki became closely connected to Natsumi Hinata and the others.

His life-changing meeting with Koyuki happened in Ninja Village.

He was caught in a trap meant for intruders and nearly collapsed before she rescued him.

Through Koyuki, he learned about the life of a ninja and the beauty of Earth’s nature.

That experience convinced him that Earth was a world worth protecting.

He gave up the name tied to his past as an invader and took the name Dororo from the Forest of Dororo, the place where he met Koyuki.

He also vowed to protect both Koyuki and Earth.

Although the manga had hinted at his existence from the beginning, his actual debut did not occur until four and a half years into serialization.

That delay was so notable that the anime even joked about it.

In contrast, the anime brought him in much earlier, at the end of the first cour in episode 13.

Because of that, he appears in many early anime scenes where he had not yet joined in the manga version.

Moral outlook and stance on invasion

Dororo is emotionally mature and notably tolerant.

Even in conflicts involving younger characters, he tends to respond with patience and understanding.

Because Koyuki taught him both ninja arts and a love for Earth, he now limits himself to peaceful invasion plans that do not harm people.

In the manga, he sometimes even calls the planet “Earth” directly rather than using the alien term for it.

The rest of the platoon, especially Sgt. Frog and Sergeant Major Kururu, often see him as too serious.

As a result, he is frequently left out of invasion meetings.

Sometimes this exclusion is deliberate.

Sometimes they genuinely forget to invite him at all.

Earth characters trust him far more than the others.

Natsumi regards him as the squad member who loves Earth the most and essentially a hero of justice, while Fuyuki calls him a gentle alien.

After becoming Dororo, he also became strongly principled.

If a plan would clearly hurt Earth’s environment, humans, or rely on dangerous weapons, he firmly opposes it.

At one point, Sgt. Frog tried to reconcile with him by proposing plans that might suit him.

Dororo slashed apart every proposal because they still involved obvious harm to Earth or its people.

Despite being gentle, he can be frightening when angry.

When pushed too far, he will punish even his friend and commanding officer Sgt. Frog without hesitation.

Koyuki, who lives with him and knows him well, has also remarked that he is unexpectedly scary when angry.

This contrasts with his childhood, when he was timid and easily swayed by Sgt. Frog and others.

As an adult before the name change, he was more of a courteous gentleman who valued harmony and consideration.

Even so, he sometimes still attends military planning sessions and does not always stop the others unless things become extreme.

That makes him something of an idealist who is simply too kind to completely abandon his comrades.

This tension between “elite Keron assassin” and “ninja protecting Earth” remains one of his central internal conflicts.

In anime episode 312, that conflict was dramatized when he had to fight a shadow duplicate representing the invasive side of himself.

In manga chapter 225, Giroro apparently opposed Dororo’s military enlistment in the first place because he suspected Dororo might one day betray the Keron Army.

In the flash anime adaptation, much of this nuance is removed.

There, Dororo participates in invasion plans more casually like the other members.

In the manga, the full five-member resonance did not happen until volume 20, and in the television anime not until episode 29.

In the flash animation, however, all five perform it in his debut episode, and by the next episode they are doing it nightly in Sgt. Frog’s room so loudly that Natsumi loses sleep.

Even there, Dororo still talks about friendship with Earth and harmony with nature during invasion meetings.

Sgt. Frog and Tamama shut him down immediately.

Dororo’s most famous recurring trait is that people forget he is there.

Outside of Koyuki, many characters overlook or ignore him almost by reflex.

According to Kururu in anime episode 206, even his body color may contribute to how easy he is to miss.

When Dororo tries to draw attention to himself, it often fails until his trauma gets triggered.

He did not seem fully aware of how faint his presence was until anime episode 202, when Sgt. Frog directly pointed it out.

In that same episode, a being called Kagege materialized his shadow, revealing that even his literal shadow was thinner than everyone else’s.

Naturally, this triggered his trauma switch.

That switch is one of his signature gags.

When Dororo remembers the many painful things the others did to him in the past, the trauma switch activates.

Fans often call this his trauma state.

In that condition, he becomes so weak that he is practically useless.

If left alone, he may not recover his senses until the next day.

Oddly, there are also moments where he remains conscious under conditions that should force a Keronian into hibernation or freezing.

That is likely just part of the series’ comedic logic.

The switch is treated almost literally in the anime.

In episode 349, when the platoon swaps their personal switches around, Dororo’s trauma switch somehow ends up replacing the building’s main power switch.

He is also implied to hold onto things for a long time, likely due to his shy nature.

He is at least somewhat aware of that tendency.

Even so, Sgt. Frog was the first friend he ever made.

Dororo still cares deeply for him.

In private, Dororo often drops his formal speech style and calls him “Keroro-kun,” reflecting their old friendship.

He even credits Sgt. Frog with shaping his future.

According to Dororo, he became an assassin because Sgt. Frog’s absurdly rough childhood games strengthened him both physically and mentally.

One time, Dororo happened to land a spinning swing stunt, and Sgt. Frog told him he could become an assassin.

Dororo later reflected that without that one remark, the person he is now might never have existed.

He is sincerely grateful for it.

Some of his traumas were later “resolved” through memory alteration using one of Kururu’s inventions.

The method was bizarre: the memories were rewritten so that Tamama would burst in and beat up Sgt. Frog before he could cause the trauma in the first place.

Of course, that leaves Dororo with the memory of watching his close friend get violently beaten by a strange youth.

Why that did not become a new trauma is never really explained.

Giroro once insisted that he had done nothing because he had only watched.

Dororo was still hurt by that, and the scene makes it clear that passive bystanding also counted as cruelty.

Social awkwardness and humor

Dororo has almost no sense of comedy.

His jokes and comments often kill the mood instead of helping it.

He is so bad at reading the room that even typically cheerful characters can get irritated with him.

He seems at least slightly aware of this flaw, but he still blurts things out without realizing it.

He also has tastes that reveal a more personal side.

In the manga, Giroro disguised as Santa gave him a dragon-themed paper knife, then later a life-sized sword modeled after it for his birthday, remarking that Dororo used to buy things like that often.

Though he loves nature, he is also surprisingly good with machines.

In manga chapter 110, he runs a blog and uses the internet.

In chapter 164, he rewires Kururu’s computer with limited materials so skillfully that even Kururu straightforwardly praises him.

In the anime, he also becomes intensely enthusiastic whenever he gets into a combat robot.

There is even a painful backstory involving a spinning-top-style UFO battle game.

Back when he was still Zeroro, while other children casually played for fun, he seriously modified his machine until it became so unbeatable that even Sgt. Frog and Giroro avoided him.

Dororo is one of the strongest individual fighters in the series.

Among the Keron Army’s elite assassin corps, he stood at the very top.

He held remarkable records such as consecutive wins in a universal martial arts tournament and a top supporting performance award in Keroro calisthenics.

His reputation was widely known even among professional assassins.

New recruits like New Keroro had heard of him.

So had Chuton, an assassin from the Rune species.

His old fighting name was Zeroro of Shooting Star.

Some fans within the story world know him by that name, though Dororo himself finds it embarrassing even if he is flattered.

In direct combat, he can exceed Giroro.

His feats include seeing and deflecting lightspeed lasers, slicing giant robots in two with a single blade, and using numerous assassination and ninja techniques.

He can also use a finishing move called Zero-Dimensional Slash, which banishes targets into another dimension.

At times he fights in special armor called the Oni Style, pilots robots, and once even used a blazing dual-flame slash as a parody homage.

This creates an interesting contrast: the platoon’s most peaceful and gentle member is also one of its most terrifyingly capable fighters.

When he pilots a robot, his personality shifts so dramatically that he can snap out of trauma mode instantly.

Kururu even jokes that Dororo changes the moment he takes the controls.

His master Jirara, however, believed Dororo could never attain the absolute pinnacle of assassination.

The reason was not lack of skill.

It was because Dororo’s achievements and kindness made him too memorable to disappear fully into the shadows, which is the final ideal of an assassin.

He is also highly resistant to difficult environments.

He can function normally in sealed spaces filled with energy that drains all motivation from living beings.

Still, he is not invulnerable, as Kururu once knocked him out with sleeping gas.

Only a small number of characters can seriously challenge him in one-on-one combat.

Within the platoon, those include a serious-mode version of Sgt. Frog and a fully enraged Giroro.

Dororo himself has said that Sgt. Frog is stronger.

Outside the platoon, he has been thoroughly defeated by Alisa Southerncross and by New Keroro in D-Style.

In anime episode 355, he was also beaten by Sakura Nishizawa while she was sleepwalking.

Later scenes suggest that against D-Style New Keroro, Dororo may have been holding back or caught off guard, since he later surpasses that form in raw movement experience.

In the Keroron Ball Easter Island arc, his invasion power is stated to be 29,999.

According to Aquaqu, that is enough for him to conquer a planet like Earth by himself.

For comparison, a value of 12,000 already stunned Kururu as an S-class threat in the manga.

Dororo could not defeat Aquaqua Giroro after that foe absorbed three squad members.

Even so, his stated power level places him among the most absurdly strong beings in the setting.

In games, this usually translates into a fast close-range fighter built around rapid attacks and combo chains.

He is typically portrayed as a speed-focused combatant.

Assassin magic

These are the techniques Dororo learned back on Planet Keron as part of his assassin training.

Many are less like straightforward attacks and more like strange magical or psychological arts.

Appraisal Eye allows him to gather information on a target and identify weaknesses.

It is useful in espionage and tactical analysis.

Unknown World creates an assassination space, also called the Assassin Zone, where assassins gain an advantage.

It shifts the battlefield into a realm suited to his methods.

Mother’s Power summons a giant hand at a chosen location.

In the anime, a related variation involves both hands appearing and pushing outward.

Death Renunciation appears to be a technique used to resist interrogation.

It likely functions as a kind of self-inflicted memory loss or memory suppression.

Dororo ninja arts

These techniques are mainly an anime-original expansion of his skillset after arriving on Earth and learning from Koyuki.

One example is Cross Halo, which throws a shining shuriken of light.

Another is Ultimately Antarctic Gale Cooling, which generates freezing air cold enough to stop even lava.

His major finishing ninja art is Ultimate Secret Technique: Meteor Cross Shuriken, a giant version of Cross Halo.

Some manga techniques were renamed as ninja arts in the anime.

For example, the manga technique Assassin Mystic Circle: Laser Return became Dororo Ninja Art: Laser Return in the anime.

A move equivalent to Meteor Cross Shuriken also appears in the manga, though without the same explicit technique name.

The anime simply gives clearer labels to many of his attacks.

Zero-Dimensional Slash

Zero-Dimensional Slash is Dororo’s signature finishing move.

He swings his short blade, releases a flying slash, and sends the target into another dimension.

The name likely references dimensional cutting attacks from classic role-playing games, with “zero” also recalling his former name Zeroro.

Another assassin, Captain Zoruru, can use the same technique.

Dororo’s personal flying board differs from those of the other platoon members.

Instead of a control lever, it is operated by shifting his weight with both feet.

Its shape is that of a cross shuriken.

Functionally, it serves the same role as a standard flying saucer board.

In the manga, this design was used from the start.

In the anime, however, because his board appeared later, some early merchandise incorrectly depicted him using the standard blue military board with a white lever.

This mismatch also appeared in a Game Boy Advance racing game’s box art and commercials.

The actual in-game model correctly uses his cross-shuriken board.

Other members also sometimes use special personal vehicles, such as bike-type boards.

But Dororo is especially notable because some merchandise portrayed him with the standard military version in a way that stood out as plainly inaccurate.

In *Sgt. Frog RPG: The Knight, the Warrior, and the Legendary Pirate*, Dororo again fills the role of a sensible party member.

This version downplays the usual jokes about him being forgotten.

Instead, his relative lack of flash compared to the more eccentric cast makes him seem understated in a meta sense.

He often functions as the character who respects the feelings of original game characters.

He also handles practical jobs such as receiving letters that provide hints, scouting enemy attacks, and occasionally acting alone to protect kind people encountered during the journey.

His game class is a thief type who fights with daggers.

Initial setup

Weapon: Shinobi Katana

Code name: Lance Corporal

Techniques: Appraisal Eye, Kuuga

Field advantage: Slightly increases movement speed on the world map

Field disadvantage: Increases the chance of getting caught in pincer attacks

Dororo is built as a speed type focused on agility and multi-hit combo attacks.

He excels at dodging enemy strikes and chaining together repeated hits.

He cannot use healing magic.

Instead, he learns many status ailment techniques, making him valuable alongside teammates like Sgt. Frog and Giroro, who are less specialized in that area.

He can also steal items from enemies.

This includes not only useful battle items but sometimes equipment and valuable goods, making him excellent for resource gathering.

His biggest weakness is that outside of speed, his attack power, defense, and HP are all quite low.

One way to compensate is by using curry-type items that boost his base stats.

Another method is to use his own speed-related skills, such as reducing enemy quickness.

Pairing him with Kururu is also effective, since Kururu can help compensate for all three of Dororo’s weak defensive parameters.

Traits

Invisible: Enemies are less likely to target him.

Endurance: He is less likely to suffer status ailments.

Rapid: The time needed for CC recovery is shortened.

These traits reinforce his role as a fast, evasive utility fighter.

Super special move

Zero-Dimensional Slash: Dororo melts into darkness and cuts from blind spots.

It has relatively few hits, but it never misses and covers a wide area.

Artificial intelligence behavior

If controlled by the computer and set to a casual strategy, Dororo behaves similarly to a support-oriented character.

He often rushes in to help when an ally is under attack.

Cards

Dororo Card 1

HP: 520

Attribute: Scissors

Attack: 59 to 124

Turn count: 1

Speed: 120

Critical rate: 8%

Critical damage: 155%

Dororo Card 2

HP: 500

Attribute: Rock

Attack: 59 to 124

Turn count: 1

Speed: 120

Critical rate: 5%

Critical damage: 140%

Dororo Card 3

This is a hidden card obtained through the Keparou map.

HP: 400

Attribute: Rock

Attack: 70 to 89

Turn count: 1

Speed: 120

Critical rate: 20%

Critical damage: 175%

In the 2009 popularity poll for humanoid Keronians, Dororo placed fourth.

In the official *Sgt. Frog* character popularity polls held in 2010, his placements were seventh, fifth, second, third, and fifth.

He never managed to reach first place in those earlier rankings.

That finally changed in 2021.

In the *Sgt. Frog Character General Election 2021* hosted by the Keroro Channel, Dororo won first place with 674 votes.

That victory earned him a dedicated selection feature.

A funny detail from that poll is that the other squad members were often listed with their full ranks, such as Sgt. Frog or Private Second Class Tamama.

Dororo alone was very often listed simply as “Dororo,” without rank.