Osomatsu-San: The Movie (2019) review

Osomatsu-Kun is a historic franchise that originated in the Showa era of Japan as a gag manga. This tale of 6 identical brothers and the con artist that bothers them would go on to inspire several anime adaptations, plenty of merchandise, a game on the Super Famicom, and even a trend of doing Iyami's signature pose! However, as time went on, nostalgia started to dwindle, and thus taking the property in a new direction was a little bit of a risk.

This would ultimately pay off in 2015 with the meteoric rise of the latest iteration of the anime, and the only one I've been on this earth for, Osomatsu-San! Unlike the previous iterations, this series was a lot more adult, and focused on the sextuplets more than Iyami. Rather than being some sort of hivemind, they are all defined characters in their own right now, and all of them are as terrible as they are lovable. I often see this anime compared to South Park, and the comparison is not without merit. Both feature a deceptively cutesy art style, plenty of crude humor, genuinely interesting character drama at times, and huge dedicated fanbases who sit at the edge of their seats for every new release.

Such a level of success naturally meant a movie would be made in addition to the sea of merchandise, collaborations, and virtual reality bath simulators. While a lot of tie-in movies of even the best anime can fall flat for me (the Star Twinkle Precure movie being a prime example of this despite being based on one of my favourite seasons of the franchise), how did this manage to be the one that wowed me? Let's make one thing clear: Osomatsu-San does not have much of an overarching story. The skits are generally self-contained, and while I've often seen it recommended to see at least the first 2 seasons before watching this, I don't think you need any specific context from those. You just need a baseline understanding of the main cast of the show to appreciate it, making it accessible to those who've seen only a little of the show, but maybe not someone who's seen none at all.

The plot revolves around our 6 beloved NEETs attending a high school reunion, which goes about as well as you would expect for them. Embittered by the humiliation of the evening, they get wasted while remembering the old days. As a result, they wake up in a distorted world made of their memories, and are only able to return home if they can find out what exactly it is that they regret. When I first heard of this premise, I was like "Really, a time-travel plotline? Already? From a franchise by the same creator as Doraemon?". However upon watching it, it didn't feel the same. Doraemon tends to explore a specific place in time, and the world of memories in this film presents feels a lot more abstract by comparison. Fragments of areas are missing, the people inconsequential to the Matsu bros' lives are vague approximations of people, and there's an overall dreamy quality to the world making you question how much of it is real. 

One thing Osomatsu-San has always excelled at is the visual department. The simplistic designs are often pushed to their absolute limit for the sake of fun animation and this movie is no exception to this rule. The environments really steal the show here in terms of visual design, they manage to capture the idea of something being familiar yet so vague and fragmented very well. The colours just pop out of the screen, but the realistic environments also are great at setting tone as well. 

I feel like Ichimatsu is the NEET that gets the most time to shine here. I couldn't help but personally draw parallels to the concept of autistic masking, the saddest part being this attempt to appear more palatable to his peers didn't even pay off...and the Ichimatsu of today just seems to be experiencing the burnout stage with none of the support of the group he hung out with at this time. We can only imagine how the treatment he received from his so-called "friend" in this time period ended up contributing to his present feelings of inadequacy and self-loathing.

By contrast, Choromatsu was the real loser of this film. Sure, I can admit his past self being a teacher's pet makes sense given his tendency to kiss ass to authority at certain points in the anime, but he was also responsible for the only real issue I had with this film: the one particular scene involving him being a simp in an inappropriate situation, which paints him in a HORRIBLE light. At the very least, Jyushimatsu directly acknowledges his problematic behavior and calls him on it, but it really didn't contribute anything to the film other than making one of the characters we're meant to root for look like a perverted freak. Look, I get that he's considered the most horny of the six, but in the anime we see that he at least had some decency towards the women he interacted with regardless of his personal fetishes. 

What ultimately won me over however, was the themes of this film. Despite having the anime's typical sense of humor that's very crude, it has a lot of positive things to say. I actually was impressed by how they managed to balance the humor fans have grown to love, such as Dayon's head becoming a...certain object...with more serious story beats. Themes of identity are explored here, as the sextuplets get to meet their past selves and see how different they were, and ultimately come to terms with how things played out. This theme extends to some of the supporting cast as well, seeing how Chibita struggles to find his niche and Totoko feels intense anger at the unrealistic expectations placed on her by peers. 

Ultimately what it has to say is that we may never radically change from our most embarrassing and cringey qualities, but they're what make us human. On top of that, more people care about you than you can ever know. The world is better to someone because of you, and people would notice if you were gone. Even if you feel as interchangeable as six same faces. This is why Osomatsu-San: The Movie was like the warm hug on a cold winter's day that my soul needed.

Thank you so much for reading this review! This is a first for me, but if I get inspired I may try my hand at this sort of thing again. I've recently been hyperfixated on this series, and wanted to gush about my thoughts on this movie somewhere, so I guess this is the perfect place.