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This Week in Anime
Why You Should Watch Mr. Osomatsu

by Michelle Liu & Steve Jones,

The biggest anime comedy of last year has finally returned to go all-out this season. This week in anime, Micchy and Steve explain why you should catch up on the Osomatsu-san phenomenon.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network. Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead. Not Safe For Work warning for content and language.


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You can read our weekly coverage of Mr. Osomatsu Season 2 here!


Steve
Micchy, it seems like whenever we get together to chat, it's always about the most cursed shows.

Micchy
First the relentless insanity of Heybot!, now... whatever the hell Mr. Osomatsu is.


Osomatsu-san is Heybot! but somehow wildly successful, and I have no idea how that happened. But we're here to talk about the appeal of this bizarre show! And if you've ever felt sexually attracted to Jon Arbuckle, this might be the anime for you!

I Still Do Not Get The Fandom. Sure, the sextuplets have bishie alternate designs, but somehow all the fans latch onto their round normal designs. I Do Not Understand.

Well I mean, what's more lovable than a trash boy? Apparently the answer to that is six trash boys.

and boy are they trash


And they're all trash in different ways. There's Osomatsu, who's generic fuckboi trash. There's Karamatsu, who's hopelessly self-absorbed trash. There's Choromatsu, a.k.a Fappymatsu.

Karamatsu, who is best boy you mean

Ichimatsu is best boy and I will have none of that naysaying.

Ichimatsu is a cat.

A cat who poops on Starbucks tables!

Jyushimatsu is a cartoon character.

And Totty's, well


Having six different varieties of trash to choose from for comedy skits means the show has a LOT of wild ideas. For instance, the Fury Road parody episode where the boys save the oppressed from their sad, lotion-less lives under a ruthless dictator.


In the most abstract sense, the anime is a reboot/sequel to an old children's show, but the years have warped it into a raunchy no-holds-barred comedy about six manchildren being awful to themselves and all of their friends. And the result is pretty fucking funny.

The first season kicked off with a premiere so heavy on parodies that you're not even allowed to watch it anymore! Osomatsu-san: Too Funny For This World

I simply cannot imagine why they would have been worried about legal trouble!

But yes, it's a show so cursed that you cannot even legally watch the entire thing anymore.

Truly the tragedy of our times. The first episode started with a bang, but of course it didn't stop there. Over the course of the season, the brothers' distinguishing features became more pronounced, and the humor got grosser and grosser.

By season 2, you have this

Thank god they're all color-coded, how would I be able to tell them apart otherwise wwwww

The second season begins with an extended piss-take on the show's breakthrough success, imagining the finally-rich brothers as bloated, fetid pop stars who nevertheless enjoy the adulation of millions of fans (mostly women). So basically, typical Osomatsu-san. Making fun of both itself and everyone else.

You'd think it'd be mean-spirited and uncomfortable, but for me at least, it somehow isn't? The cast is terrible, the jokes are mean and gross, but it's all executed so sharply that I laugh anyway.

For me, it's that the anime is so equal-opportunity about its targets. EVERYONE is horrible to everyone else, so it all balances out, in a weird way. Also I'm just partial to comedies about awful people, being raised on Seinfeld and still a huge fan of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. This vein of comedy isn't something you see too often in anime, and even more rarely executed well, so Osomatsu-san definitely deserves its accolades.

Maybe that's why it's popular. It's not afraid to be raunchy and gross and doesn't shy away from making fun of both itself and the audience. There is definitely a place for self-deprecating humor, and I guess Osomatsu-san fills it.

It's also restless in its humor and structure. Like it's not afraid to devote entire skits or episodes to a single weird idea and take it to its most ridiculous and/or upsetting conclusion.

case in point: these fucking things

Accompanied by the reveals that Totty is literally heartless and Ichimatsu is actually a fragile child under the edgelord doom 'n gloom.

and Karamatsu is, well...

Lots of the jokes in this show lean on the sextuplets' unique brands of grossness, that episode being a particularly weird example. They all share one thing in common though, and that's the dedication to being the laziest pieces of shit in existence.


Yes, those are band-aids over their cut-off nipples. And you thought Daily Lives of Highschool Boys' nipple shaving was bad!

I feel like I really need to emphasize that Totty RIPS HIS OWN NIPPLES OFF in this episode. And that's still not the grossest thing that happens.

But speaking of weird, remember Sanematsu?

Geez, I must've wiped that episode from my memory.

I don't remember much of the actual skit, just that it was extremely upsetting. But again, that's a big part of what I like about Osomatsu-san, that it's not afraid to experiment and even not afraid to not be funny sometimes. Also not afraid to shift the focus away from our beloved sextuplets now and again.

Right, the side cast is pretty entertaining (?) too!

They're a whole 'nother bunch of big weirdos themselves, that's for sure.

There's Totoko, the ambitious money-grubbing girl-next-door who's sometimes a fish-themed idol, sometimes a gold-digger, sometimes a ruthless businesswoman.

always very fashionable tho

There's Iyami, who's kinda the rival character. He wants to be French and has a most unfortunate overbite.

Sorry Iyami, Trump Tower is not in France.

I should mention that all these characters also originate from the original series, but I imagine they were quite a bit more subdued in their younger years. at least i hope.

All in line with Osomatsu-san's goal of taking everything to its logical extreme, naturally. Beyond those folks, there's Dekapan with the big pants, Dayon with the Dayon, Chibita the grumpy oden cart owner, and Hatabou, who offers economic advice to Obama.


Seriously, What The Heck

Their character designs are mostly unchanged from the classic anime, so there's also a fair bit of comedy that comes just from seeing them in a contemporary show.

also of course they get nude

Of course, this is Osomatsu-san. Everyone gets nude at some point.

VERY NUDE

Have I mentioned this show has zero chill? And I wouldn't have it any other way, god bless.

You know what, maybe I do understand why its popularity took off.

There isn't much else like it out there, that's for sure. These mental images are just Do Not Want, please, stop making me imagine cartoon boys' schlongs, my brain is dying.

Important question time: who is best boy and why?

Ichimatsu, for he is a cat, and he has the most sincere (?) episode of the entire show.

It's a really good one!

Ichimatsu gets a talking cat who points out that the real reason he's antisocial is because he's extremely insecure, which is really sweet and nice from a show that's so frequently throwing shade. Of course, that episode also has butthole jokes, but that's beside the point.

You never know what you're gonna get from a new Osomatsu-san episode, and that's great! As for me, best boy is Karamatsu, because he has the best fashion, and because I'm a Karamatsu girl.


Hey, for what it's worth, he is the most committed to his horrible shtick among the six of them.

Although I do have to admit that live action Totty from the season two premiere is still the funniest thing to me for some reason

The stages of anime evolution: 2D to 3D to REAL LIFE

This show is living in 3017, I swear. Don't you dare tell me anime isn't real anymore.

Osomatsu-san is a cursed anime, but it's a beautiful curse.

I'm so glad it's back so we can subject ourselves to another two dozen episodes of the horrible, wonderful, disgusting, hilarious adventures of six manchildren. And hey, at least its storyboarding makes more sequential sense than Heybot!'s, so it's got that going for it.

It's one of the strongest and most creative anime comedies in recent memory, so if you have the tolerance for highly crude and self-referential humor, give it a shot! And yeah, if you feel it's too pedestrian for you, there's always the welcoming, plastic arms of Heybot!. Just don't say we didn't warn you.

Yeah, please note that this is not an endorsement of Heybot!.


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