Mr. Osomatsu Season 2

Episode 6

This week, Mr. Osomatsu delivered a heartwarming two-part meditation on the humbling powers of compassion and friendship.

Just kidding.

We start off strong with Ichimatsu's deadpan reading of their parents' letter to a mocking jazz tune. Continuity is something the show mostly keeps in the background, but I choose to believe Mr. and Mrs. Matsuno are off rekindling their relationship on a sweet hot springs getaway. Good for them! It's amazing how conscious Matsuzō and Matsuyo are of their sons' failure but still only occasionally try to encourage them into adopting less leechy habits. The brothers themselves are equally self-conscious, entrusting Choromatsu with taking care of the money (and thus his brothers) as the most mature and sensible of the bunch.

But things get much worse than just preventing Osomatsu from gambling away what their parents left them to get through a weekend or so without adult supervision. Almost immediately, the sextuplets get to experience taking being exploited by another leech. While Iyami can't be bothered to remember who's who in the world of six s(h)ame faces, he's not above begging and humiliating himself to take the NEETs for a ride on their own vanity. Just when they're ready to adopt him so they can keep feeling valued for handing out stuff that isn't theirs to give away, Iyami returns to being gross and insufferable instead of just the former. Even the Stray Dog is disgusted at his load of crap.

When Iyami's around, I'm almost ready to feel sorry for the Matsus getting ripped off and walked all over – even though Osomatsu and Karamatsu keep reminding each other not to end up like that for a reason. If it wasn't for their parents, who knows what ditch they would crawl out of to pull the exact same crap on Chibita or Dekapan. But just when I start to feel overly sympathetic, the show is quick to remind me otherwise. It's not enough for insults to fire back metaphorically; Mr. Osomatsu likes its lessons to be more literal, by having each brother struck down by the cosmic boomerang justice of their own words. It's hilariously violent, making it abundantly clear that there's no moral high ground these guys can retreat to. For that matter, there's no moral high ground for anyone in their orbit, which is why we end this first part with the city, country, and possibly world going boom. If only Iyami had found some success drawing plucky overbite heroines instead of challenging the gods of anime. At least this series wasn't a mistake.

In the episode's second segment, poor lonely Hatabō just wants to have a friend. Of course, the way he goes about this is rather peculiar, but who isn't in this show. Chibita once again proves himself to be a quick-tempered softie, probably the one character with some redeeming virtues. When all these dimwits who think the institution of a "friend" is a folktale from the Edo period or a person who lends you money when you're strapped for cash gather on a playground at night to comfort Hatabō in their own peculiar way (including Totoko, who prides herself on not having friends, only enemies), there was an almost-sweet moment to be treasured – right before the inevitable non-dénouement.

While I prefer my Osomatsu humor zany over gross, both segments land their jokes as well as we've grown accustomed to, with brilliant dialogue highlights like All the words you're saying are turning into boomerangs and coming back to stab you begging me to pause and rewind a couple of times to appreciate their glory.

Rating: B

Mr.Osomatsu Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Anne is a translator and fiction addict who writes about anime at Floating Words and on Twitter.