Mr. Osomatsu Season 2

Episodes 15-16

After I was unfortunately unable to review episode 15 last week, there are now two episodes and seven individual segments to write about, so Let's Go! Muttsu Go!

Kicking off its episodes with cold opens offers Mr. Osomatsu the opportunity to either set apart its more outrageous acts from the show's main universe or establish the mood for the next 24 minutes. Sometimes, it's a bit of both.

In episode 15, we accompany the UMA Expedition Team on another short-lived adventure. Iyami, Jyushimatsu and Hatabou's plan to capture a Chupacabra goes exactly as expected – ending in their predictably brutal deaths. Building up and playing with expectations is a key component of comedy, and while half the fun is waiting for what we know will happen to happen (possibly in an unexpected way), Mr. Osomatsu's longer main segments offer the chance for subversion in between, adding nuances neither achieved nor intended by the monster hunt.

After the OP, we spend almost seven minutes of screentime trying to open a particularly stubborn jar so that poor Ichimatsu can enjoy a piece of toast (instead of going for one of the UMA-themed instant foods someone in his family is fond of). Even though there are six brothers and their mom to try and accomplish this impossible task, each with their usual antics and some surprising new contributions, it's still astonishing how long Mr. Osomatsu manages to keep watching them fail funny without the joke ever getting exhausting itself. It takes some considerable skill at timing and carefully-built escalation to keep such a simple premise from getting old, and it works much better in the jar segment that it does for Totty's quiz later on in the episode. Of course it'll be up to Jyushimatsu to go wild, of course Choromatsu will pretend to be too mature to participate, and of course Totty's suggestion to apply common sense will be considered an affront that equals losing to the jar. But even hearing the Matsus' desperation get less and less intelligible, or watching Ichimatsu optimistically wait with his slice of toast in hand once Mama Matsu enters the scene is neat. Usually the most sensible member of her family, Matsuyo actually lets their relation show for a change, when instead of scolding their sons for wrecking the kitchen, she actively takes part in its destruction. The fact that it says "Dayon" on the jar's lid has me thinking that someone played a prank on the Matsunos – someone we know to have a deep-rooted disposition for cruelty.

In his dedicated segment, our favorite narcissistic brother masters the art of very slowly turning his head and getting lost – two important qualities for a taxi driver who gives customizing his vehicle greater importance than learning how to navigate. We know he'll get lost (after all, he'd lose to the navigation system just like they would have lost the fight to the jar by opening it with hot water). The unpredictable variable here is Totoko, who pretends to know what she's talking about just like Karamatsu pretends to know what he's doing. However, I'm unconvinced that her being just as clueless should invalidate her cheering for him. Sometimes even a hypocrite's advice can be helpful, and we have to appreciate any kindness Totoko shows on screen. It'll never last long, anyway.

The expectations game doesn't work quite as well in Totty's quiz, which drags by indulging in somewhat random degradation before getting to the good stuff, like someone dying their hair brown being the absolute worst, or Totty's brothers assuming he's so vain that he thinks himself cuter than Totoko.

Where episode 15 left me less enthused by the end, episode 16 starts off with a bang into full-blown parody territory. This time, it's the epic space pirate adventures of Cobra Shaazar, complete with all the wonderful speed lines, limited animation, and dramatic Osamu Dezaki freeze frames to invoke visual nostalgia. I can't possibly fathom why one would want to exchange their glorious '80s space piracy life (complete with equally glorious hair) for a life of mediocrity in the company of NEETs and people like Iyami, but boredom is probably even more subjective than humor. We're left guessing who of the cast could have been Shaazar in their previous life – is it Hatabou, who looks on and walks away when the evil space empire goons track down Dayon because no human could ever look like that? Is it Papa Matsu, who's acting so suspiciously in the following oden gourmet episode and obviously used to keeping secrets from his family? I'd like to think it's Jyushimatsu, and that something went either slightly wrong or very right when transferring Shaazar's consciousness to a new body. Becoming Jyushimatsu is surely the perfect recipe for never being bored again.

In this week's main story, the sextuplets make a friend of the kind, caring, cute, and female variety. Kin-chan is too sweet to stick around – what amount of comedy can she possibly contribute once our virgins have faced the (magnificently timed) challenge of being attacked by her bras repeatedly? The one we're stuck with is Totoko – mean, selfish, jealous, has-the-ability-to-crawl-out-of-screens-Ring-style Totoko. For once she's humbled, but her character development doesn't last long after sending Kin-chan off with a giant fish on her back, which was hilarious. Had Kin-chan stayed, the Matsus might have found out that girls are actually human beings, and we can't have them graduate from their virgin NEET status just yet.

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.