Osomatsu-san S2 – 01

OP Sequence

OP: 「君氏危うくも近うよれ」 (Kunshi Ayauku mo Chikou yore) by AOP

「ふっかつ!おそ松さん」 (Fukkatsu! Osomatsu-san)
“Mr. Osomatsu Returns!”

When we first saw the return of Osomatsu (Sakurai Takahiro) in 2015, it was met with legal trouble as the first episode of Osomatsu-san was cut from streaming and DVD release due to copyright infringement. With the sextuplets trying to woo audiences by becoming characters from Shingeki no Kyojin, Naruto, Love Live, Pokemon, Sailor Moon, and just about every other anime under the planet, the first episode set such a high bar for what could follow. The resulting anime ended up being a hilarious re-emergence for the Osomatsu-kun franchise, torpedoing many of the characters into a series of merchandising opportunities, video game spin-offs, and stage shows. The US release for their iOS/Android game was last month, and it’s a relatively fun tower defense game. But with all of the success that has come their way, expectations were high for what exactly can come from another season of Osomatsu-san, especially since the first couple episode dropped many jaws when it first came out. I’m glad to say that they started off on a high note by tweaking the initial formula to make something equally twisted and entertaining.

The first half is where the “twisted” part comes in. Much like any sophomore album, they wanted to come right out the gate to acknowledge how much of a hit the first season was, and they expressed this by having the money and fame warp the Matsuno brothers into horrifyingly hedonistic monsters. After Iyami (Suzumura Kenichi) takes a vacation to Trump Tower, him and Chibita (Kokuryu Sachi) are greeted to a new world where the Matsuno’s have a mansion and are steadily enabled in taking their depraved lifestyles to the highest heights to maintain the level of prosperity they’ve had since 2015. As a result, Osomatsu has become an obese kid in an adult body, Karamatsu (Nakamura Yuuichi) becomes an equally massive pop star, Choromatsu (Kamiya Hiroshi) and his otaku tendencies are amped up to include directing anime and flipping skirts, Ichimatsu (Fukuyama Jun) is transformed into an emaciated hermit, Juushimatsu (Ono Daisuke) is now a giant blob, and Todomatsu (Irino Miyu) ordained himself as a womanizing king. Along with this, the sextuplets’ parents, friends, and acquaintances are riding their fame for all its worth, profiting off of their relationship with the brothers and the exposure they received from the 2015 anime.

It’s a clever way for the show to address how unexpected the success of the first season was, and what would happen if you made the sextuplets from this iteration of the franchise millionaires. The brothers belching, cannibalism, and comeuppance are also some of the grossest moments I’ve seen in anime this year, but it’s the outrageous direction they went with the Matsuno’s that pushes the envelope for what exactly they are willing to subject them to this season. The repulsiveness of the big money Matsuno brothers shows their willingness to abandon any sense of toning down their bad taste because of how much yen the series has made since the reboot/sequel. That dedication comes in play as offended viewers march to their mansion to blow it to pieces and attack the brothers in revolt.

What this also does is show that perhaps letting the money get to their head isn’t the best route the show can go, especially if they get comfortable enough with the brothers’ popular traits that they manifest into a personification of their worst attributes. This comes into play as their 1960’s counterparts are so upset with their future hedonism that they swear to become the best they can be so that they can be better anime than whatever happened with that future. Instead, their long string of good deeds caused the brothers to transform into completely different, vastly better people. Osomatsu grows up to have the perfect future in a respectable seinen story where he has an office job, a wife and kids, a love life, and a new lease on life. I was looking forward to seeing if the other brothers also lead a similar life in a sophisticated anime like Osomatsu was, but what ended up happening was even crazier and funnier than what I expected.

Karamatsu transforms into a cyborg ninja like Raiden, Choromatsu and Totoko (Endou Aya) arrive as a Kimi no Na Wa.-like pair who are animated like characters from hyper-deformed 90’s anime like Saber Marionette, Ichimatsu appears similar to the old He-Man or Aquaman cartoons, Juushimatsu is animated in CGI, and Todomatsu is just a live action guy with a mask. It was hilarious to see all of the brothers’ ideal versions of themselves when they’re at their very best, but it was even funnier to see them all interact with each other in the same screen. To see 90’s anime, 3D, and live action all come together into a sloppy mess as they fight in mecha made me laugh quite a bit. This particular segment seems to be the most direct response to their copyright mishaps since they managed to parody anime genres this time around more so than any particular series as to avoid issues like last time. It’s also a nice message on how dedicated they are to playing around with the animation style since the first season tinkered with stylistic changes like the Sanematsu-san skit, but they’ve gotten advanced enough to mash up so many styles in one frame, and it’s impressive that they took the time to animate Juushimatsu in 3D or had someone with a Todomatsu mask pose in ways for him to be inserted into the show as a character.

They also showed off the OP/ED for the season at the end of the episode with varied results. I loved all two of the OP’s that the first season had, and the OP for S2 is no exception. It was cool to see how much flair they gave to the colorful animation as the Matsuno’s are thrust into a a world of rainbow colors and poppy music. Specifically, them firing drinks off into the sky to reveal the song name was impressive to see. To match the episode’s animation experiments, the ED implemented a neat stop-motion sequence for the animation where Stickmatsus are on a car trip across the desert. Visually, it’s amazing to see how dedicated they were to adding flair such as a light show and exploding paint to their trip. The song, however, wasn’t as great. I have an unpopular opinion in that the ED songs tend to be disappointing compared to how cool their sequences are. “Six Same Faces” had a cool food-themed sequence, but the song was disjointed in its character cut-ins. “Six Shame Faces” was even messier as a song, but improved with Endou Aya’s singing and the neat chalkboard animation. The ED continues this tradition with an ehh song, but an awesome sequence, but that’s just me.

It’s great to have Osomatsu-san back, and it feels as if it never left at all. In my eyes, they met up with the high expectations they had to make something on par with the quality of their banned first episode. I had a lot of fun seeing how depraved the Matsuno’s got with their newfound wealth and the experimental animation styles they played around with when the Matsuno’s decided to turn their life around to prevent their twisted future. In the end, it only got the 1960’s brothers where they were when we left off with them as lovable, self-centered NEET, but I’ve got high hopes for S2 now that the first episode came out firing from all cylinders.

ED Sequence

ED: 「レッツゴー！ムッツゴー！～６色の虹～」 (Let’s Go! Muttsu Go! ~Rokushoku no Niji~) by ROOTS66 Party with Matsunoke Rokukyoudai

End Card