To open up, while I acknowledge that there were a lot of things that were handled it very difficult ways in the Osomatsu-san series, I'm fully aware that a lot of social issues or tackles from the lens of Japanese culture no matter how outrageous or realistic they actually are. I do believe that there are some things that Osomatsu-san did right, but this along with a few other issues we're tackled very poorly. And I am saying this from an American culture pov.
My biggest inspirations for this review article are the girlfriend rental service episode, the Valentine's day episode, and a specific scene from season 2 episode 4. In examining the scenes and how the world is observed around the sextuplets, I have come to a few conclusions on this subject matter.
we all know that being lgbtq is as old as the existence of humanity, but there are a lot of cultures and societies and our modern-day that act like somebody just thought it up in the 70s and a lot of people are still slow to get on board. If you aren't familiar with lgbtq rights in Japan, that is for your own research.
Starting off, everyone around the sextuplets is very pointedly heterosexual and cisgender. all six of the sextuplets themselves are heterosexual and cisgender. At no point do you see any depictions of assumingly same sex or queer couples presented at anytime. This is especially highlighted in the Valentine's day episode, if everything else going on was to settle. with the show's Focus being on a male set of sextuplets, they also faced a narrative downfall of addressing white day. For those who are unfamiliar, and Japan Valentine's day is "split in two". There's Valentine's day where the women give the men chocolate, and white day where the men give the women chocolate.
The origins of Valentine's day comes from Saint Valentine who married people that were not accepted by the Catholic Church - interracial, inter-religious, etc. We have the term Valentine's, because after Saint Valentine was in prison before his execution he exchanged letters with the couples that he married and continue to give advice to others. the origins of white they are much less dramatic and gratifying. What day was simply started because Valentine's day was always the day where women were expected to give men gifts, and white day was created as a "payback" for that. Most countries that celebrate Valentine's day celebrated as a single day where is an exchange regardless of sex or gender. I see that white day that's mostly observed in East Asia. Of course, this inherently hurts trans, non-binary, and intersex people.
Before I get ahead of myself, I will talk about the events in the order that they appeared in the series. First is the girlfriend rental service episode. Maybe played for laughs, maybe damning. Iyami and Chibita go to Dekapan for essentially instant sex change medicine, and immediately target the sextuplets for their girlfriend rental service. And in Chibita’s case, I feel like it's justified for how many times they ate at his food stand for free. Iyami could have gone somewhere else and expand it out to more clients.
So immediately, we are faced with the issue of transgender sex workers. Some may argue that the girlfriend rental service isn't sex work, but we’ve already on the transgender track, so I’m pushing it from my own cultural context. Being relatively in the loop about the issues going on with Japanese culture and being transgender, I feel like this is an issue that was played for laughs, but still addressing a sort of light-hearted way to where some people might not catch on. It was handled by characters with that we know with methods that were used to in The
Osomatsu-kun "lure". and when the medicine wear off, they got what was coming to them for tricking the sextuplets (even though Chibita had a case). But in the meantime, they actually have the nerve to try to go into the woman's side of a bathhouse, instead of waiting for the medicine to wear off and going in as men. That has very perverted implications that's very specifically related to being transgender. The idea of going into a place where you don't belong.
The next highlighted problematic episode is the one dealing with Matsuzou and Matsuyo. Huge highlights of issues with misogyny, but we're talking about lgbtq, right now. The Love potion is found to only affect the male libido, and had the women running in fear of their safety. But the specific moment that needs to be pointed out for the sake of this subject matter, is the scene with Chibita, Hatabou, Iyami, and the Gang of cats. In a short scene of Chibita's oden stand it's pretty clear that Chibita and Hatabou are having sex. Iyami is outside chasing felines, to try to have sex with them. In my lifetime, I have seen the age-old argument since the 60s about homophobic rhetoric that they tried to teach in schools and churches tying homosexuality to bestiality and pedophilia. This is the part where tone-deafness was no longer an option in my speculation. I don't believe there's anyone in that studio that worked on this anime that's younger than I am, and Japan also adopted Christianity and lgbtq phobia. I feel like they know what they did.
Now for a more extended explanation on the Valentine's day episode, specifically pertaining to the characters. After creeping and stalking around town, all six of them try to gang up on Totoko. She's the only woman they know, and she has already expressed that she is not invested in dating any of them, let alone all six of them at once. However, when she wants attention they are expected to give it. Even though a few female characters have come and gone at this point, there was never a proper addition for the boys to actually be able to relate to. They stock and creep around town again, and seem to have a mental break down before they go home.
At the end, the boys actually express a form of love that is just as valid - the love of one's family. it would have been all well and good to end the episode on this note, and highlight that your mental health is more important than the social expectations of romance and intimacy which the memory of the Brave Saint Valentine has unfortunately been used to sell the people. But, of course, they had to go full mental breakdown, beat each other up in self-pity, go full involuntary-celibate mode, and attack people buying, sharing, and making chocolate. and swim to South America and attacked the cocoa, itself.
To my disappointment, the anime did skip over white day. But I feel like that's a part of the satire of the Valentine's day episode. I'm sure the overall thing is to point out how selfish the sixth uplands are, even though on other occasions who seemed to be generous. Nobody seems to have it set moral code, anyway. But back to the matter at hand, throughout that whole scene as the boys go around town being creepy and then later attack people there are no lesbians depicted. or gay men that don't care about society standards, and giving each other gifts on Valentine's day anyway.
After speculating these episodes first, I also realized that any other time that anything considered relatively homosexual content is brought up it is in some sort of dehumanizing fashion. like the way they play male sexual assault for laughs in the show. it was something that they also did it the 1988 series but to a much lesser degree, because those were children. But the 1988 series also had a supporting queer character. Admittedly, problematic in his own rights being a queer character with mental health issues being the only queer character depicted in the series.
In the "San" series, the main male characters are anally raped on multiple occasions, and the series has no lgbtq character to try to soften these blows to say "hey lgbtq people are people, this is all for laughs but seriously we see you and we love you". Realistically speaking, I've seen Twins and triplets have an lgbtq siblings. So it's completely unrealistic -in a bad way- for all six of them to be like that.
At the same time, a part of me is speculating "is this the world of the sextuplets?" giving this team a very unnecessary amount of benefit of the doubt, maybe the world is always working through the lens that the sextuplets see it from. There could be a huge psychological thing going on that erases lgbtq people from existence in their eyes, because they don't want to be like those people at all, and only relate anything that has to do with lgbtq as bad specifically from the siblings worldview point. Maybe their upbringing was taught that being lgbtq wasn't an option, so whenever it's present they just wipe it out, or manifested is something bad. Since this is a world with no consequences, we can't be sure what has long lasting effects, and what will carry over in continuity. Maybe all the times that they're raped are metaphors for things that didn't actually happen. Maybe it had something to do with an LGBTQ person or any consideration of being LGBTQ that translated into that for whatever reason.
The next highlighted problematic episode is the one dealing with Matsuzou and Matsuyo. Huge highlights of issues with misogyny, but we're talking about lgbtq, right now. The Love potion is found to only affect the male libido, and had the women running in fear of their safety. But the specific moment that needs to be pointed out for the sake of this subject matter, is the scene with Chibita, Hatabou, Iyami, and the Gang of cats. In a short scene of Chibita's oden stand it's pretty clear that Chibita and Hatabou are having sex. Iyami is outside chasing felines, to try to have sex with them. In my lifetime, I have seen the age-old argument since the 60s about homophobic rhetoric that they tried to teach in schools and churches tying homosexuality to bestiality and pedophilia. This is the part where tone-deafness was no longer an option in my speculation. I don't believe there's anyone in that studio that worked on this anime that's younger than I am, and Japan also adopted Christianity and lgbtq phobia. I feel like they know what they did.
Now for a more extended explanation on the Valentine's day episode, specifically pertaining to the characters. After creeping and stalking around town, all six of them try to gang up on Totoko. She's the only woman they know, and she has already expressed that she is not invested in dating any of them, let alone all six of them at once. However, when she wants attention they are expected to give it. Even though a few female characters have come and gone at this point, there was never a proper addition for the boys to actually be able to relate to. They stock and creep around town again, and seem to have a mental break down before they go home.
At the end, the boys actually express a form of love that is just as valid - the love of one's family. it would have been all well and good to end the episode on this note, and highlight that your mental health is more important than the social expectations of romance and intimacy which the memory of the Brave Saint Valentine has unfortunately been used to sell the people. But, of course, they had to go full mental breakdown, beat each other up in self-pity, go full involuntary-celibate mode, and attack people buying, sharing, and making chocolate. and swim to South America and attacked the cocoa, itself.
To my disappointment, the anime did skip over white day. But I feel like that's a part of the satire of the Valentine's day episode. I'm sure the overall thing is to point out how selfish the sixth uplands are, even though on other occasions who seemed to be generous. Nobody seems to have it set moral code, anyway. But back to the matter at hand, throughout that whole scene as the boys go around town being creepy and then later attack people there are no lesbians depicted. or gay men that don't care about society standards, and giving each other gifts on Valentine's day anyway.
After speculating these episodes first, I also realized that any other time that anything considered relatively homosexual content is brought up it is in some sort of dehumanizing fashion. like the way they play male sexual assault for laughs in the show. it was something that they also did it the 1988 series but to a much lesser degree, because those were children. But the 1988 series also had a supporting queer character. Admittedly, problematic in his own rights being a queer character with mental health issues being the only queer character depicted in the series.
In the "San" series, the main male characters are anally raped on multiple occasions, and the series has no lgbtq character to try to soften these blows to say "hey lgbtq people are people, this is all for laughs but seriously we see you and we love you". Realistically speaking, I've seen Twins and triplets have an lgbtq siblings. So it's completely unrealistic -in a bad way- for all six of them to be like that.
At the same time, a part of me is speculating "is this the world of the sextuplets?" giving this team a very unnecessary amount of benefit of the doubt, maybe the world is always working through the lens that the sextuplets see it from. There could be a huge psychological thing going on that erases lgbtq people from existence in their eyes, because they don't want to be like those people at all, and only relate anything that has to do with lgbtq as bad specifically from the siblings worldview point. Maybe their upbringing was taught that being lgbtq wasn't an option, so whenever it's present they just wipe it out, or manifested is something bad. Since this is a world with no consequences, we can't be sure what has long lasting effects, and what will carry over in continuity. Maybe all the times that they're raped are metaphors for things that didn't actually happen. Maybe it had something to do with an LGBTQ person or any consideration of being LGBTQ that translated into that for whatever reason.
I am going to stretch so far as to say that the crude handling of any otherwise sexuality that isn't cisgender or heterosexual is usually connected to money. Hatabou and Chibita who both own their own businesses, and one of them being rich. Hatabou it's so rich he gets to violently shove over-sized flags into people's anal cavities. In the first episode of season 2, the sextuplets are rich. There's the race episode where Iyami has one of the top is flags in his butt which immediately implies that he is now an employee of “Mr. Flag’s”. To a much wider degree, the Osomatsu detective episode, where Todomatsu does the finger jab thing. A part of me is going to let that slide, because that's a real prank that they do in Japan. But, it did happen in a mansion, which lines it up with my theory.
In my observations of same-sex male animated porn, there are rarely any healthy relationships. A lot of that type of porn is centered around coercive relationships, usually related to money, a position of power, and/ or just social status. With as much as I see it, I'm willing to believe that this behavior is playing into some sort of rampant homophobic stereotype. Either power has corrupted you into being gay because corruption has no morality, or you're on the receiving end of the coercion - forcing you to be queer. But there are far and few animes/ manags where characters are down-to-planet, normal, working class queer people that aren’t evil and/ or mentally ill.
And a bit of an off-topic nitpick: piercings and tattoos. They do actually bring up tattoos, as characters, and echo the sentiment that tattoos are unacceptable. That is still a thing in Japanese culture where tattoos and piercings are unacceptable, but they aren't illegal and people still do have them. It's like A Slice of Life anime without the life! But I guess it's not that Nitpicky, because the whole world is still somehow about conforming outside of conformity. The brothers are sexless jobless 20-something year olds that run around committing all kinds of random chaos. There's all kinds of rape, Carnage, debauchery, and murder. but Shiva and Parvati forbid you be a working class transperson with tattoos and piercings and a functional family.
In my observations of same-sex male animated porn, there are rarely any healthy relationships. A lot of that type of porn is centered around coercive relationships, usually related to money, a position of power, and/ or just social status. With as much as I see it, I'm willing to believe that this behavior is playing into some sort of rampant homophobic stereotype. Either power has corrupted you into being gay because corruption has no morality, or you're on the receiving end of the coercion - forcing you to be queer. But there are far and few animes/ manags where characters are down-to-planet, normal, working class queer people that aren’t evil and/ or mentally ill.
And a bit of an off-topic nitpick: piercings and tattoos. They do actually bring up tattoos, as characters, and echo the sentiment that tattoos are unacceptable. That is still a thing in Japanese culture where tattoos and piercings are unacceptable, but they aren't illegal and people still do have them. It's like A Slice of Life anime without the life! But I guess it's not that Nitpicky, because the whole world is still somehow about conforming outside of conformity. The brothers are sexless jobless 20-something year olds that run around committing all kinds of random chaos. There's all kinds of rape, Carnage, debauchery, and murder. but Shiva and Parvati forbid you be a working class transperson with tattoos and piercings and a functional family.
That’s the end of this think piece. More to come?
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