Trivia / Osomatsu-san

• Acting for Two:
  • Aya Endo plays both Totoko and Aida.
  • Both Sachiko and Hatabou are played by Momoko Saito.
  • The first episode of season 3 has a very meta example, where the brothers talk to their own voice actors (minus Todomatsu, whose own voice actor is inexplicably replaced by someone different, which he complains about).
  • The Riceball Robots are both voiced by Kazutomi Yamamoto.
• All-Star Cast:
  • One of the main reasons that the anime became a Sleeper Hit is when you consider that it gathers together big names in the voice acting industry, like the sextuplets being voiced by Takahiro Sakurai, Yūichi Nakamura, Hiroshi Kamiya, Jun Fukuyama, Daisuke Ono, and Miyu Irino.
  • The english dub is no slouch either with the Matsuno brothers being voiced by the likes of Billy Kametz, Ray Chase, Sean Chiplock, Kyle McCarley, Michael Sinterniklaas, and Max Mittelman.
• Anime First: The show came out before its manga did, which was released in January of 2016 in the josei YOU magazine.
• Bonus Episode:
  • Thanks to the episode order being switched around due to the controversy over the first and third episodes, the unaired shorts "Matsu Juice" and "Virgin Hero" were packaged together as "Episode 3.5" for the DVD release. In all DVD releases however, one bonus short is added to the lineup.
  • Season 2 has a whole bonus season: dMatsu-san, a series of online shorts running on the dTV app in Japan, collects a few bonus stories.
• Colbert Bump: Ever since this anime gained popularity, fans have been flooding to watch the predecessor series, Osomatsu-kun.
• Cross-Dressing Voices:
  • Chibita (by tradition) is still voiced by a woman, in this case, by Sachi Kokuryu (Weed in Ginga Densetsu Weed and Reiji in Gundam Build Fighters).
  • Hatabou is also voiced by women, Momoko Saito and Cherami Leigh.
  • The Girlymatsus are voiced by the same voice actors as their male counterparts.
  • Mick Wingert voices the Matsuno matriach, Matsuyo.
• Development Hell: The first draft of the English dub track by VIZ was first announced in 2017 with the primary English cast announced in Fall 2018, but remains unreleased. Eventually, Viz finally revealed the second draft dub (with a different director) of the first Season that would be released in March 2021.
• Fan Community Nickname: Fans of a certain brother collectively call themselves "[X]matsu Girls/Boys" thanks to a particularly hammy line from Karamatsu^note "So you're finally here, Karamatsu Girls." during "The Melancholy of Osomatsu".
• Milestone Celebration: The anime series was proposed as part of Fujio Akatsuka's 80th birthday celebration.
• Missing Episode: The original version of "Osomatsu-kun Returns" was not included on the DVD/BD release of the series and taken off of most Japanese streaming sites as well as Crunchyroll. One of the segments of the third episode was also cut from DVD release and from Crunchyroll. In both cases, this was due to them being unauthorized parodies: Of many different things for the first episode, and of Anpanman for the latter, which triggered a Berserk Button from a network executive who's a big fan of Anpanman. ^note Japan does not have parody protection the way most North American and European countries do. Hence, a parody has to be highly respectful of the source material, requires permission from the source, or be incredibly gentle.
• No Export for You: Unlike the first movie, the second and third movies, "The Hipipo Tribe and the Glistening Fruit" and " The Soul's Takoyaki Party and the Legendary Sleepover Party" were never officially translated, and remain legally unavailable to the rest of the world.
• The Other Marty: Chris Niosi was originally cast as the English voice of Mr. Choromatsu in 2018. However, Sean Chiplock was eventually brought in to re-record Choromatsu's dialogue due to Niosi's brief voice acting sabbatical.
• Playing Against Type:
  • A double case: Jun Fukuyama as guttural-sounding Ichimatsu and Daisuke Ono as Large Ham Keet Jyuushimatsu. It's quite notable as both voice actors's pigeonhole is the character type of the other.
  • Mick Wingert, who did the initial voice of Vigilante in Arrow and has a host of action-y voice roles (including the Darrin'd voice of Po), is the dub voice of the homely and relatively normal Matsuyo Matsuno.
  • Cherami Leigh usually voices young plucky women. Hatabou is one of the few times she voices a boy.
• Parody Assistance: Besides Studio Pierrot themselves, a few of the studios who helped out on Attack on Titan's adaptation, including drop and Nakamura Productions (both also Pierrot regulars), would contribute to the opening episode's parody of the series.
• Recycled Script:
  • Some of the segments from the show (ESP Kitty, The Life of Chibita's Flower, the cute neighbor skit, "Iyami, Alone in the Wind") are actually based off of some Osomatsu-kun chapters, but altered a little for this series.
  • A handful of Season 3's skits are based off of Doramatsu tracks.
• Sequel First: In North America at least, Osomatsu-san got its translation and exposure far before either of its predecessor anime or manga did. Spain was a little luckier in that regard.
• Sequel Gap: Anime-wise, it's been 27 years since the last Osomatsu-kun adaptation came out, and a whopping 46 since the end of the first run of the manga. If we go by the end of the third (1990), then it would only be 25 years. Less, but still a lot.
• Sleeper Hit: The series was based off of an older, more famous one, but it was only expected to have moderate success thanks to nostalgia. However, the show was one of the breakout hits of the fall 2015 lineup and outsold every other series on the Lineup for its first BD release. Even the staff has no idea how it became so radically successful.
• Throw It In!:
  • Ichimatsu's aroused moan at the end of "It's a Birthday Party, Dajo" was improvised by Jun Fukuyama, who did it since Ichimatsu's profile stated he was a masochist. The rest of the brothers (save Jyushimatsu) also had improvised screams.
  • During the first season's year-end special, the sextuplets' voice actors mention that Daisuke Ono tended to improvise a lot of Jyushimatsu's lines, though most of them didn't make it into the final cut.
• Trolling Creator: Episode 24 set up a Drama Bomb Finale, where the sextuplets all move away from each other and Osomatsu is left in the house alone. The team even said that it was going to be one of the saddest episodes in show to hype it up. This made the audience think they were going to get some sort of conclusion to the story... and they did in episode 25, but everything is glossed over in a couple of minutes, the contents of the letter were never revealed, and the rest of the episode focuses on a nonsensical baseball game. When the situation is repeated in season 2, the audience was at least prepared.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Reportedly, Ichimatsu and Jyushimatsu's personalities were not part of the original draft for the series and were added in later. This becomes obvious when one looks at the initial promo image for the series, where both lack their trademark visual quirks.
  • The decision to make "Totty" Todomatsu's nickname was spur of the moment. It was supposed to be one-off, but the cast liked it so much that it was made an official element of the character.
  • According the original plans for the series, the Matsuno brothers would have been in their thirties and, shockingly, have jobs. Early drafts of the show also had the world look more like Pierrot's -Kun adaptation than the poppy colors used in the show.
  • Ichimatsu was originally going to be mean and snarky rather than gloomy and apathetic. His initial characterization was switched over to Todomatsu at Miyu Irino's suggestion, which led to the creation of Totty's characteristic "dry monster" personality.
  • Chris Niosi was originally set to voice Choromatsu in the English dub before he was replaced by Sean Chiplock.
  • The birth order of the Matsunos changed a lot in production. That was because prior to this, there wasn't a concrete birth order beyond Osomatsu being older and maybe Todomatsu being younger.
• Word of God: Interviews with the staff have provided a steady amount of info concerning the characters:
  • Ichimatsu's treatment of Karamatsu is the result of jealousy towards the latter's self-confidence.
  • The Gender Flip versions of the brothers in "Girlymatsu-san" aren't actually siblings, just a set of friends who happen to resemble the Matsunos. They were also confirmed to not be the sextuplet girls from "Six Same Faces" prior to this reveal, and shown to be the brothers in costumes in another interview. You ever wonder why they don't show up at the same time? That's why.
  • Todomatsu's default outfit was expressly designed to be slightly out of style to indicate that he isn't as trendy as he seems. The reason he rolls up his jeans is because a shop assistant suggested it a long time ago and he still hasn't realized the look isn't in season anymore.

---