Osomatsu-san S2 – 02

「祝・就職!!」 (Iwai Shuushoku!!)
“Celebrate! New Employment!!”

「超洗剤」 (Chou Senzai)
“Super Detergent”

Now that the premiere has passed, Osomatsu-san is back to its regular timeline with two skits based around the Matsuno brothers’ fight to avoid responsibilities.

Nipple Hunt

This section of Part 1 was great specifically because it gave the sextuplet’s parents Matsuzou and Matsuyo more to do. They didn’t have as much to work with in the first season, but this time around, they’re both spearheading the campaign to get the Matsuno brothers jobs. Otherwise, Matsuyo will have the pleasure of chopping off their nipples. Even as the brothers start to wise up, and act dedicated to finding employment, Matsuyo still lets her cleaver do the talking when Jyuushimatsu wants to procrastinate about when to grab a job or when Karamatsu gets too passionate about his decision to work for his family’s sake. Todomatsu taking his own to spare himself from Matsuyo’s blade was a funny way to show his desire to be as distant from his brothers as possible even when he’s just as shameful as they are, as was Choromatsu being spared as the only one his parents assumed was responsible enough to reign them in.

Viral Video

In extension to this, Todomatsu tries to take ownership of the idea to get employment through producing a vlog channel on the internet. As with most of the Matsuno’s ideas, however, it ends up escalating into a drunken, nude frenzy among the brothers. It was pretty clever on the show’s behalf to hone in on the money that’s in producing vlogs, especially with the advent of avenues like Youtube or Niconico proving to be lucrative business ventures for those up to the task of creating a steady feed of content. Much like recent vlog personalities who fell hard, the sextuplets also face the wrath of reports as their content was flagged for wearing nothing, but band-aids where their nipples used to be. What’s even funnier is the payoff to their pursuit of e-fame when Chibita candidly uploads them fighting to the internet a la World Star only to receive far more commentators on his video.

Super Detergent

The last segment of the episode reminded me of some of the 1980’s Osomatsu-kun episodes I’ve seen between the first season and now where it’s Iyami and the Matsuno’s getting wrapped up in shenanigans because of a contrivance that gives them the wrong ideas. The contrivance in question for this part is a super detergent that makes anything that’s rubbed onto it invisible. In the older series’, Iyami would cook up an idea that would use the detergent to make money while the Matsuno’s would use it to fight back against him. Because this is Osomatsu-san, Iyami’s main use for the detergent is to clean up the crap that’s flung on his dinner party attire, and the Matsuno’s only stumble across the detergent in a drunken stupor after haggling with Iyami about letting them crash at the overbite convention he was invited to. As someone who enjoys Iyami’s screen-time as his schemes backfire horribly, it was nice to see him once again trying to pry his way into higher society to no avail. The image of Dayon wearing a maid costume was also an unexpected surprise. Similarly to the payoff to Chibita’s viral video, the punchline of having the kid who flung crap at Iyami return to fling more crap at him after his detergent goes missing made me crack up. The dedication it took to have the kid show up out of nowhere only to make matters worse for Iyami coincidentally when the detergent went missing was rich.

Invisible Juice

This part weirded me out a bit because the Matsuno’s drunkenly chugging the detergent ended up making them invisible in every body part except their nervous system and organs. It had a very Ren & Stimpy vibe to the gross-out humor of the brothers examining each other’s organs to notice the differences, but it was still funny to see how the differences reflect on their personalities such as Karamatsu’s disco ball heart, Ichimatsu’s fragile glass heart, and Todomatsu having no heart. The best part of the segment was where they painted each other to reflect what they thought of each other. Each of them are painted to mirror their personalities at their worst. What ends up being the funniest one is how the five brothers come together to paint Osomatsu in a way that captures his terrible personality and overall awfulness accurately only for the grand punchline being that they gave Osomatsu the most accurate face that looks like his real self. It was hilarious to see the other characters act like their painted selves don’t look any different from their real selves, but I got the most laughs from how Osomatsu didn’t need a exaggerated form like the rest of the brothers for them to express what they really think of him.

Final Impression

The second episode wasn’t exactly the strongest. There were many parts of the episode I did enjoy as we see a different side to Matsuyo throughout the episode that’s more mischievous and humorous than we’ve seen before. In addition to the joy she has from slicing off her son’s nipples as punishment, she also directly calls Todomatsu by his nickname “Totty” and gives off an awkward expression when they ask her if their painted versions looked any different from their true selves. It was also great to see the show play around with the topic of viral videos, and have fun giving Iyami misfortune even when he isn’t scheming, but it did get a little weird when the brothers became mostly invisible, and they continue to be largely unsympathetic as they work to disappoint their parents. I find the show is more enjoyable when the brothers aren’t just getting wasted together, but it does cook up some potential for goofy opportunities to arise. Nonetheless, it was still a very funny episode, and captures the show’s sense of humor in it’s regular state.