The Summer 2025 Anime Preview Guide - Mr. Osomatsu Season 4

The sextuplets of the 1960's anime comedy, Osomatsu-kun once thought they'd have a bright future, but adulthood has not been kind to them. Instead they've grown up to become a bunch of jobless NEETS fleecing off their parents and generally going about their days doing anything but getting a job. Work is way too much work for these slackers though, so whether it's scamming children or building spaceships these boys will always find new ways to waste their time and escape their crushing reality.

Mr. Osomatsu Season 4 is based on the Osomatsu-kun manga series by Fujio Akatsuka. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Tuesdays.

Episode 2

After a bit of an underwhelming premiere, I'm happy to say the second episode is at least a bit of an improvement. Surprisingly this actually follows up on one of the random subplots from the premiere, namely the one where Totoko got herself shot down from space alongside Choromatsu and Todomatsu. It turns out they weren't struck down by just any old group of aliens, but rather watermelon people who are looking to take over the planet. Since it's the middle of a scorching hot summer, they arrived at the perfect time, and when the Matsu try to go out and find some watermelon to satisfy their cravings, they each start falling under the control of these invaders alongside most of their friends. It's an extremely weird premise for an episode, but one that could only come from a series as off the rails as this one, and feels much more in line with what I expect of the show's brand of comedy. The jokes are a lot more solid too as the sextuplets search for some juicy melons lead to some bits like trying to steal some off of Chibita only for them to be explosives he planted in case they tried that, or Totoko agreeing to share some only to take one for herself and go back to her house without even looking in the boys' direction. These aren't amazing jokes, but they were funnier than last week's offerings, and take better advantage of how callous these characters usually are.

That being said, I found the actual alien invasion to be a lot more lacking in laughs than I was expecting. For the most part the cast is just turned into watermelon zombies, which is certainly silly, but not enough to generate good comedy without some other strong jokes supporting it. The best we get is Osomatsu somehow being too lazy to be properly mind controlled at first, or Choromatsu being too pathetic to try and deal with the alien outbreak himself when he and Karamatsu are the last men standing, but these moments weren't exactly laugh out loud hilarious. If nothing else though, it at least it has an appropriately bizarre ending where upon defeating the aliens and discovering they were cast out from their home planet for growing too many watermelons, the Matsus take pity on them in exchange for some free melons, while Iyami somehow ends up being taken by their leader. This is all still far from the most I've laughed at this series' antics, but being able to pull out something this strange is at least a sign that the team haven't completely run out of creative set-ups. Hopefully this means that the rest of the season will only improve from here, because I'd honestly much rather be laughing at the series than complaining about it being past its prime. While it might be too much to hope for a return to the highs of the first season, I'd like to think it's still got some great jokes left to unleash, and as long as its sense of humor hasn't completely faded, I'm still willing to keep tuning in for it.

Episode 1

Anime's most terrible boys are back on the market and as ever …or at least that's what I would like to say. Mr. Osomatsu has been a bit of an odd beast ever since its inception as the staff at Pierrot took what could have been a simple revival of an anime sitcom from the 1960's and have morphed it into one of the most insane anime comedies I've ever seen. From taking several of the most popular seiyu on the market and having them voice the worst group of deadbeats you can think of, to some of the most out-of-pocket parodies to ever air on television (when they weren't taken down anyway) it feels like there's no lines this series hasn't been willing to cross for the sake of a punchline—and its success feels pretty surreal to look back on. At the same time though, I can't help but feel like the series peaked pretty early with its first season. Seasons 2 and 3 weren't exactly terrible, but it has become apparent that the writers have been struggling to come up with crazy scenarios to drop our band of crappy sextuplets into—and there's been diminishing returns the further it's gone along. Still, the series has made me laugh enough that I've been willing to stick with it despite the decline—and regardless of the overall quality of any given season, the season premieres usually fire on all cylinders when it comes to the mean spirited gags and copyright smashing parodies of other anime properties that have helped to keep this show such a mainstay.

That's why I was surprised that rather than swinging for the fences to celebrate the show's return, this premiere ended up being pretty subdued. Much of this episode is just boys kind of casually going about their daily lives as lazy NEETS and…that's kinda it. Granted, “daily lives” is underselling things a bit when it comes to the Matsunos as even an ordinary day for them is still filled with plenty of hijinks. We've got scenarios like Osomatsu stumbling across Iyami charging kids to use the river as a pool and calling him out for it—before proceeding to start fleecing them himself—or Karamatsu trying to build a cool motorcycle out of junk and seemingly succeeding before it ends up exploding while he rides into the distance. They're decent enough jokes, but they feel more like something we'd see out of the show's occasional short skits rather than the big season opener. The most elaborate gag we get involves Choromatsu and Todomatsu taking their simping for Totoko to new levels as she's dressed up as the goddess Orihime for the Tanabata festival and wants the boys to build her a spaceship so she can take to the stars—only for all three to get quickly shot down by an alien invasion. It's weird enough to feel more in line with what I'd expect of the show's best comedy, but this sequence still left me scratching my head. Not because I didn't think it was funny, but because Totoko keeps apologizing as they plummet to their deaths. Given how self-absorbed she typically is, having her apologize for anything, much less putting her designated manservants in danger, feels a bit too out of character.

I figured that the episode was at least building up to some kind of last minute swerve or punchline that would give this slow start some kind of payoff, but it never really came and the best we got was a montage of all the characters celebrating the Tanabata festival (which somehow culminates in Iyami being shot out a cannon for being his usual sleazeball self). Funny, but nowhere close to the show's best material. The most praise I can give is that the new opening theme is pretty catchy and is as visually creative as what we got with the previous seasons (even if I do kinda wish it could have all been kept in 2D) but it just makes me more disappointed that creativity wasn't extended to this premiere. Of course, with this being the show's 4th season, I imagine anyone still invested in the franchise isn't likely to see this premiere as a dealbreaker, and for all my complaints I'll probably still keep up with it. Even so, I can't help but be bummed that the show hasn't started the new season off with a bang like what we've gotten in the past. While it could certainly improve next week, I hope this isn't a sign that the series has completely run out of steam