Mr. Osomatsu

Episode 6

This week, Mr. Osomatsu changes things up by shifting its focus away from the Matsunos. Although the brothers are still present, particularly in the first half of the episode, the true stars this week are Hatabou (or "Flag Kid") and Iyami. While Iyami's been a solid supporting presence in several previous stories, this is Hatabou's first significant appearance in the current series. Even though we haven't seen much of him before, this episode provides enough information about his connection to the sextuplets to comfortably familiarize us with the character. Telling stories about the side cast at the expense of the show's core characters is always a risk, and some shows pull it off better than others. Fortunately, Mr. Osomatsu seems to know what it's doing in this department.

The episode opens with the sextuplets being invited to the birthday party of Hatabou, a childhood acquaintance from their Osomatsu-kun days. As a child, Hatabou's skull was pierced by a miniature Japanese flag, which remains firmly implanted in his head. After reflecting on what a space-case goofball their old pal was, the Matsunos assume Hatabou is handling adulthood even worse than they are. However, upon arriving at his massive estate, the brothers learn that Hatabou has become obscenely wealthy by "selling information." We soon see that even President Obama (who in this universe sports a pompadour and mustache) is willing to pay half a million yen for several seconds of his time. Hatabou has so much money to burn that he offers to let the Matsunos take as much as they want from his Scrooge McDuck-ian vault. Ever the stick-in-the-mud, Choromatsu refuses to accept money for nothing, prompting Osomatsu to suggest that Hatabou give them jobs instead. Hatabou happily obliges, but not before putting the boys through a rigorous orientation process.

In what's steadily becoming the norm, Mr. Osomatsu takes a cookie-cutter premise, cartoonishly inflates it, and litters the proceedings with ingenious gags. It also helps that this story is relatable to almost anyone. When a seemingly goofy childhood acquaintance inexplicably strikes it rich, reactions can be equal parts humbling and jealousy-inducing, so the Matsunos' range of reactions to Hatabou's success—amazement, disbelief, and greed—hit all the right beats. Hatabou's innocence and naivete nicely complement the sextuplets' insatiable self-interest.

The second segment finds a recently-evicted Iyami living under a bridge and longing to return to his "native" France. After enlisting Professor Dekapan's assistance to fix a chipped tooth, the stick-thin swindler's luck turns around. It turns out that Iyami's teeth are composed of a rare metal that has a seemingly endless variety of practical applications. In the coming weeks, Iyami becomes an international celebrity as his teeth are used to make everything from smart phones to herbal medicines. When President Hollande offers to grant him permanent French citizenship in exchange for his last remaining teeth, Iyami is ecstatic. Unfortunately, a series of cartoonish accidents deprive Iyami of his dream-come-true, landing him right back where he was at the beginning of the story. The track played when Iyami laments the loss of his final tooth is almost James Bond-esque. It makes this loss seem so much more devastating, which makes the whole scenario that much funnier. As the tooth is pawed by a cat, kicked like a soccer ball, and ultimately carried off by an eagle, the score demands that we feel Iyami's pain. However, Osomatsu and Hatabou soon discover that Iyami's chompers are far from a finite resource. The end of the segment provides a fun callback to the diabolical Black Factory featured in episode 2.

If you apply real-world logic to this episode, a lot of it doesn't make sense. For example, before it was discovered that Iyami could re-grow his teeth, how were they able to produce thousands of products from his existing pearly whites? (That bugged me more than the fact that he apparently has rare metal teeth.) The similarities between Mr. Osomatsu and Gintama (likely director Yōichi Fujita's influence) are on full display this week, like a racehorse running fast enough to break the time/space barrier and another one being exposed as a centaur. Also, let's not forget the Matsunos having the Japanese flag jammed into their rear ends. Whenever you think you know what a setup is building to, the punchline proves ten times zanier than you imagined. That's the kind of humor you'll find in Gintama—but Mr. Osomatsu, with its cartoonier look and even looser sense of continuity, is able to take this irreverency to new heights.

Halfway through its first cour, Mr. Osomatsu shows no signs of diminishing quality. Episode 6 turns up the surrealism several notches and churns out one outlandish gag after another. If this is what we can expect moving forward, I can't wait to see what the future holds for the Matsunos and their growing supporting cast.

Rating: B+

Mr. Osomatsu is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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