Mr. Osomatsu Season 2

Episode 20

It's meta time once again on Mr. Osomatsu. The second Tidbits Collection is accompanied by Dayon's reaction shots. Not counting his bathroom or boredom breaks, there are seven segments that leave Dayon laughing out loud or just picking his nose. It's a more minimalist, sound-free, less cringeworthy version of variety shows where Japanese TV personalities belt out their eeeeeehs and oishiiiiiiis to a series of food items, a fun way to add another layer of that self-aware commentary Mr. Osomatsu is so fond of.

Not all of the 11 total skits are equally successful at catching Dayon's attention, and his sense of humor certainly falls more on the side of malicious pleasure than sophisticated puns. While he laughed hysterically at Matsu Buns containing beer or poison, I'm pretty sure the meta-ness of Jyushimatsu's bun containing a whole alternative universe goes over Dayon's head. We can certainly agree on the insane boredom and nuisance of tax declarations, even when done on color-coded forms. The brilliance of Choromatsu's definition ("When you file your taxes, you do something taxing, then file it.") seems lost on our in-universe audience, who checked out when the first numbers appeared on screen. Osomatsu almost sliding to skeleton victory on his private parts is met with hysterical laughter, but Karapino extending the same dick joke too far somehow meets Dayon's outrage – as if anyone would believe this guy has a threshold for tastefulness. The joke is on him though, and his talent for picking the worst moments to leave his little reaction corner – who would dare to leave with the threat of 8000-fold pollen encroaching on the city like Stephen King's mist?

Dayon ends up missing the best bits: Karamatsu sneezing his brains out. Choromatsu popping out his itchy eyes to wash them in the sink, and so on. By the end, everyone gets trapped in surprisingly comfortable balls of their own snot like that tragic bubble boy suffering from immune deficiency. It's wonderfully absurd, but as Dayon can't appreciate Totty turning himself into a derpy 2D version of himself that looks like a child's doodle, I'm not sure he would have gotten the joke.

Dayon's biggest loss is no doubt the (almost) return of the mighty Proper-Rangers, reminding me how much I miss the over-the-top craziness of season one segments like the Mad Max parody or Iyami's kart race. Accompanied by Yūsuke Saeki's still glorious Proper Fusion Theme, the Matsu family home embarks on an equally glorious, but utterly useless transformation montage stuck in a loop of preparing its heroes of NEET justice for the fight, like a mad automaton clock that keeps ticking after everyone is long dead and I'm just trying to catch my breath.

In the end, Dayon's verdict is a mere so-so. I disagree – unlike Dayon, I actually watched the entire episode. And even though these tidbits collections are likely to end up using leftovers and rehashing ideas previously discarded for longer segments, the Wallet, Pollen, Totty, and Proper-Rangers skits can proudly hold their ground. Given the reduced animation in the variety show bit, I wonder when in the production process the team came up with the idea of adding this reaction shot frame idea. On the other hand, having the show Iyami and Dayon are watching be better animated than their reality could be entirely intentional. You never know with Mr. Osomatsu.

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.