What’s old is new again.
What They Say:
Mr. Osomatsu is based off of the gag manga series Osomatsu-kun by Fujio Akatsuka, and ran from 1962 to 1969. The series features a set of sextuplets, the Matsuno brothers, with Osomatsu being the oldest brother and leader of the group.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
There is a lot to be celebrating about Osomatsu-kun this year. The original anime turns 50 next February and last month would have been original creator Fujio Akatsuka’s 80th birthday (he sadly passed away of pneumonia in 2008). To mark the occasion, Osomatsu and his five identical brothers have decided to revive their old anime to mark the occasion. But there’s a problem, their 1960’s, black-and-white and 4:3 aspect ratio Japanese sitcom antics might fly over the heads of today otaku crowd. So there’s only one route to take and that’s…to reboot the series as a bishonen idol show?! Okay, that’s not what I would have done but let’s roll with that for a bit. The boys reinvent themselves as the ultra-popular idol group F6, who all have their sights on returning character Totoko. It’s when the six of them begin to attempt to woo the girl of their dreams that their carefully constructed anime reboot world begins to crumble, and the jokes begin dropping nonstop.
Several Otome game tropes (even dipping into the BL end of the pool for a couple gags) later, Totoko drops dead from a severe nose bleed. As other characters from Osomatsu-kun drop in, cameos from other anime ranging from the notorious Bog pachinko machine from Kaiji, to Koro-sensei and Goku, to the Colossal Titan (even going so far as to make a joke about titan genitalia) spew onto the screen as if they came out of a fire hose. You’re barely left time to breathe when out of nowhere they literally break the world around them and Osomatsu and his brothers are returned to the world of black and white, where they beg for Fujio Akatsuka’s forgiveness for screwing up their ultra-important anniversary anime series. They mull over new ideas as ten years pass and the art style shift to the anime’s final designs as the opening and ending credits run nearly back-to-back. Now adults, the boys have to look for jobs and find a way to become relevant again.
Clearly if you’re going to throw references and sight gags left and right, you need people who clearly know what they’re doing to make it work. Thankfully that comes in the form of director Yoichi Fujita, who has overseen the equally ‘use the source material as a springboard to jump into whatever to great comedic success’ series Gintama and Good Luck Girl. Pierrot’s animation also keeps up well with the manic pacing of the jokes and looks great, even at the point at the end of the episode where they finally reveal the final art style the series will take. Not enough was shown of the actual character designs and saturated color palate yet for me to have 100% confidence, but I still want more. The sense of humor of the show carries it THAT far. In a world where too many reboots of classic shows come and go in the blink of an eye, I’m happy to see one come along that has the confidence to riff on its source material while maintaining a sense of respect for its roots. I cannot recommend this initial outing of Mr. Osomatsu high enough.
In Summary:
An amazing over-the-top ride from start to finish. If you like screwball comedy in the vein of Gintama, watch this show. If you’re kinda curious about television from Japan’s Showa-era, watch this show. If you have a funny bone in your body, watch this show. If you’re not watching this show yet, watch this show.
Grade: A+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll (All regions except Japan)
Review Equipment:
Honeywell 50” LED TV, Roku running the Crunchyroll app
