“Osomatsu is basic and boring :/” look I’m sorry my boy Oso isn’t a walking identity crisis like the rest of his brothers but if you can’t appreciate a laid-back, goofy, mischievous, lazy, honest, straightforward character like Oso without seeing him as Mr. No Personality then maybe you’re not looking hard enough?
Look let me make this a full meta; Oso is at his core the classic, quintessential slapstick cartoon protagonist archetype. He is a Mickey Mouse type, but like, pre-feel-good-family-friendly-face-lift Mickey Mouse. He’s an underdog, a trouble maker, a Pretty Average Guy™, but he’s a bastard, he’s a gambling addict, a lazy good-for-nothing full of hair-brained schemes that are literally more work than actually getting a god damn job. Oso is simple, sure. But that doesn’t reflect a lack of character, that is LITERALLY his character, and it’s balanced flawlessly with random bursts of destructive energy, a balance of lazy air headed bullshit and passionate stupidity. It’s a classic character type but classic is not the same as boring, is not the same as basic, is not the same as unoriginal.
Granted, he shares a lot of these traits with his brothers, but the thing is they’re all like that BECAUSE of Oso, because he was THE dominant personality among the siblings for the duration of their childhood. It’s not the other way around, and Oso does not blend in to the background. He IS the background! And the other five are struggling to get out of that while Oso is laying on the floor scratching his ass and giggling to himself!
What’s really interesting is, in a weird sort of way, it makes Oso kind of an emotional straight man to his brothers. I know that sounds weird but I’m not talking about a comedy straight man. Aside from Jyushi who is in a league all his own, Oso is arguably the brother with the least insecurities and the least weird emotional hangups. Even Todomatsu is so caught up in appearances and “escaping” his NEET status it screws with his generally inflated ego. Osomatsu is extremely straightforward with his feelings, even in episode 24 when he had his little mini-breakdown. I know episode 25 was played off as a joke, but that’s really so typical Oso; completely absorbed in self pity one minute, on his feet and ready to rally an army the next.
I know we as an audience crave depth of character, but just because Oso is a shallow person doesn’t mean he’s a shallow character; and really, he isn’t actually nearly as shallow as he let’s on most of the time. There’s a lot to Oso that makes him interesting, a lot about his “classic” vibe that makes him just as endearing and just as hilarious as the other five oddballs he shared a womb with. Being The Oldest™, being the laziest, being the most honest, being the most bull-headed, being the-idiot-who-lowkey-knows-what’s-up, being the good-natured asshole, being the innocently tactless fuckboy manchild of a human being like…WHAT about that is boring??? All that is boring to you? Look my guy, there’s just no pleasing you then. Oso is swell as hell and I’ll meet you at the flag pole after school if you wanna fight me on that.
vaporwave
dailybridgerton
tangentwithtanner
germansingergirl
romaincrisis
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
