Mr. Osomatsu

Episode 25

Mr. Osomatsu closes out its second (but hopefully not final) cour with its most chaotic episode yet. If you were expecting an emotional finale on par with last week's second segment, prepare to be disappointed. However, if you wanted to see the show embrace its crazy side one last time, episode 25 is sure to strike a positive chord.

Remember how last week's episode ended with five of the sextuplets leaving the nest or finding gainful employment? Well, all of that is undone within the first minute of this latest installment. After Osomatsu receives a letter informing him that the Matsuno family has been selected to take part in the ill-defined 88th adglkjdsk Invitational, all of his wayward siblings move back home and quit their respective jobs. The show rewrites history through flashbacks to make it seem like the invitational was the boys' dream all along, but as Choromatsu points out, this makes no sense. Channeling the viewers, Matsuzou expresses shock and confusion, but Matsuyo insists that this is what's best for their children. As it turns out, the aforementioned invitational is a cartoonishly overblown baseball tournament in which the Matsunos are pitted against a series of increasingly outlandish opponents.

Following a prompt disqualification, the re-energized Matsunos and their friends make it to the final round of the subsequent year's invitational, which entails traveling to outer space and facing off against the Fourth Galactic University Affiliated High School. (First they gather to mourn the loss of "Coachmatsu," a character the audience has seen for all of two seconds.) After most of their teammates are killed or maimed, defeat seems all but certain for the Matsuno team. However, when Totoko promises sexual favors in return for the team's victory, the boys are spurred to once again give it their all. Unfortunately, whenever the Matsunos are involved, failure is a foregone conclusion. As the defeated sextuplets float through space, Totoko commits seppuku while the opposing team celebrates their victory.

Whereas any other show (with the possible exception of Gintama) would lose points for devoting half of its penultimate episode to setting up a fake finale, this sort of bold comedic move is hardly out of place in Mr. Osomatsu. Personally, I would have liked to see “Letter's” story reach a more organic conclusion, but this show's Prime Directive has always been to amuse, and this week's fake-out finale did just that. Plus, the brothers instantly undoing all the progress they made for the chance to win a hitherto unmentioned baseball tournament is perfectly in tune with the show's humor.

I walked away from this week's Mr. Osomatsu thinking, “What on earth did I just watch?” Even in its curtain call, the show managed to subvert viewer expectations and serve up a heaping helping of irreverency. Completely devoid of emotion and chock-full of rapid-fire gags, episode 25 is a fitting sendoff to one of the strangest shows I've seen in recent memory. The plot makes little sense, tosses continuity out the window, and gets crazier by the second — in other words, Mr. Osomatsu in a nutshell.

Rating: B+

Mr. Osomatsu is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Amy is a YA fantasy author who has loved anime for over two decades.