Osomatsu-kun (1966 anime)

**Osomatsu-kun** (おそ松くん) is a 1966 anime adaptation of Fujio Akatsuka's manga. It was produced by Mainichi Broadcasting System, with Childrens Corner handling animation for the first 25 episodes and Studio Zero for the rest. It aired from February 5, 1966 to March 25, 1967 on NET (now TV Asahi).

This marked -kun as the first Akatsuka work to be adapted to animated format. To distinguish it from the second anime by Studio Pierrot, it is sometimes referred to as "Showa edition Osomatsu-kun".

## Overview

The anime was first considered to happen in 1965 as a Studio Zero project, but was held up for a year due to the poor working conditions as well as MBS stakeholders having already presented an offer with Childrens Corner to be the studio.

The finished product would involve the work of both studios for the show; According to memoirs by Kunio Nagatani, Fujio Akatsuka did not like the early episodes produced by Childrens Corner due to the inexperienced animators that resulted in a lot of off-model moments. Studio Zero would then take control for the later half of the series (though Childrens Corner would still be used for outsourcing), along with Akatsuka giving the proposal for "Chibita the Safe-Cracker" to be adapted as a full episode, split across its two 11-minute parts. Yet it is also said by others that Akatsuka had a supervising role in the production from the start, signing off on final approval of the stories and any retakes.

Compared to the later version by Pierrot, this anime more closely adapts from the Shonen Sunday manga that had been running at the time and the sextuplets have more of a role. However, there were some adjustments made to the adaptations of certain chapters, with punchlines and gags altered in the process. Iyami and Chibita were also written into stories that originally took place early in the manga's run, taking the place of random guest characters. This also applied to other characters being added into plots.

Most of the series' episodes were divided up into two unrelated 11-minute shorts, although there were later cases where two-part stories would be featured. Some of the later episodes would also contain only one new short, opting to rebroadcast an earlier story along with it likely for budgetary reasons. Towards the end of the run, perhaps due to budget or other reasons in wrapping it up, some airing slots (including the final three) entirely consisted of rerun segments.

Besides the *Osomatsu-kun* manga serialized in Shonen Sunday, nine chapters of the manga *Kantaro* (serialized in Shueisha's Shonen Book) were adapted and rewritten to be episodes about Chibita, as the series had been re-released under the *Chibita* title in a tankobon, both characters were identical and Chibita was becoming popular. In some cases, the segments would wind up having the other -kun characters incorporated as well. The story of "Great Car Race of the Century", which appeared as an extra feature in Weekly Shonen Sunday, was also adapted into an episode ("The Grand Prix Annihilation Race").

After the series was rebroadcast on Tokyo Channel 12 (now TV Tokyo) in the early 1970s, the film masters went missing and were believed lost or destroyed. The broadcast reels to the series were found in a MBS Senrioka warehouse in 1990, and it has seen home video release on VHS and DVD since. The film is considerably aged and damaged, and it would appear to be unable to be remastered.

### Relationship with other Akatsuka works

Akatsuka's Star System is employed to a degree, as some characters from other series originally showed up in some stories and were retained, or cameos were newly-added for the adapted skits.

In some cases, these would be the only animated appearances of certain characters (eg: Ichiro from Otasuke-kun, Bokeo from Nonsensical NO.1), while other appearances (Moko and Chikako from Akko-chan's Got a Secret!, Jajako) would be the earliest sightings before other animated adaptations' existence.

In non-Akatsuka character sightings, Fujiko Fujio's Q-taro the Ghost would also sometimes be slipped into episodes, as Q-taro had also run in Shonen Sunday and made similar cameos (a Q-taro series had also been airing at the time, produced by Tokyo Movie and airing on TBS).

## Staff

* Original manga, Supervision- Fujio Akatsuka
* Director, Production Chief- Makoto Nagasawa
* Music- Urahito Watanabe (1-25), Keitaro Miho (26-finale)
* Planning and Production- Mainichi Broadcasting System, Childrens Corner (1-25), Studio Zero (26-finale)

### Voice Cast

* Osomatsu, Hatabō- Midori Kato
* Karamatsu, Choromatsu- Keiko Yamamoto
* Ichimatsu, Todomatsu- Haruko Kitahama, Keiko Yamamoto (understudy), Mari Kitagawa (understudy)
* Jyushimatsu- Mie Azuma
* Totoko- Fuyumi Shiraishi, Kazuko Sawada (episode 4, 27-32)
* Iyami- Kyoji Kobayashi
* Chibita- Kazue Tagami (1-25), Yoko Mizugaki (26-38, 40, 41, 43, 50), Kazuko Sawada (39-finale)
* Mother- Mitsuko Aso (1-25), Takako Kondo (27-finale)
* Father- Joji Yanami (1-25), Kyoji Kobayashi (27-28), Yasuaki Suzuki (29-finale)
* Dekapan- Takuzo Kamiyama (1-25), Setsuo Wakui (26-finale)
* Dayōn- Takuzo Kamiyama (episode 1), Hiroshi Otake (all other appearances)

Guest Voices by- Tadashi Nakamura, Mari Kitagawa, Kinryu Akimoto, Hiroshi Masuoka, Kumiko Morikawa, Kiyoshi Komiyama, Toshio Kitayama, Akira Shimada, Shinsuke Chikaishi, Gen Nakajima, etc.

The sextuplets' actors were not consistent through the full series run, save for those of Osomatsu and Jyushimatsu. Fuyumi Shiraishi occasionally understudied for Karamatsu, and Yamamoto would sometimes understudy for Ichimatsu and Todomatsu as well before Kitagawa was later used as the fill-in actress.

Another case of trouble exists with the character of Hatabō, where his voice was never credited except in episode 21; the book "TV Anime Memories of 25 Years" put forth a claim (later debunked) that he was voiced by Takako Sasuga.

### Program Sponsors

* Marumiya (Curry Powder)
* Kobito (Chocolate)

## Theme Song

The opening theme was entirely replaced between episodes 25 and 26, to mark the change in direction for the show.

The first ending sequence for 1-25 contains a set of lyrics missing from the full record release of "Osomatsu-kun Song". These lyrics, sung by the sextuplets and Iyami, relate to Iyami as a character. The second ending sequence for the remainder of the show is an instrumental of "Osomatsu-kun Song 2".

**"Osomatsu-kun Song" (おそ松くんのうた)**

Lyrics- Fujio Akatsuka/ Composer - Urahito Watanabe/Singers- Mitsuko Aso, Midori Kato, Keiko Yamamoto, Haruko Kitahama, Mie Azuma, Kazue Tagami, Kyoji Kobayashi

Used as the opening for episodes 1-25.

### Lyrics

* English
* Kana&Kanji
* Romanji

Matsuyo:

Osomatsu, Karamatsu, Jyuushimatsu,

Ichimatsu, Choromatsu, Todomatsu!

Come along everyone, let's go!

Sextuplets chorus:

When we are all together,

we will do anything.

We are all cheerful

sextuplets!

Iyami: Shee!

Sextuplets chorus:

Six times we study, really hard,

we get a total of 600 points!

Everyone's good friend,

Osomatsu-kun!

Chibita:

Even though I'm all alone,

I will still sing!

I'm the cheerful

Chibita!

Iyami: Shee!

Chibita: I will eat six long oden,

then I have to beat up six people!

Sextuplets chorus: Everyone's good friend,

Osomatsu-kun!

Iyami: Shee!

「おそ松　カラ松　十四松　一松　チョロ松　トド松

さあ　みんなそろっと！」

6人そろえば　なんでもやるぜ

ぼくらは元気な　六つ子だい

　　「シェー」

6倍べんきょう　やっちゃって

6人あわせて　600点

みんなの仲間だい　おそ松くん

ひとりだけでも　なんでもやるぜ

ぼくは元気な　チビ太だい

　　「シェー」

6本おでんを　食べちゃって

6人まとめて　やっつけちゃえ

みんなの仲間だい　おそ松くん

みんながそろえば　いやみを言うぜ

あいつはでっ歯の　イヤミさん

　　「シェー」

六回おせじを　いっちゃって

六人ウシシと　だましちゃえ

みんなの仲間だい　おそ松くん

　　「シェー」

None.

**"Osomatsu-kun Song 2" (おそ松くんのうた 2)**

Lyrics- Fujio Akatsuka/ Composer - Keitaro Miho/ Singer- Makoto Fujita

Used as the opening for the remainder of the series.

### Lyrics

* English
* Kana&Kanji
* Romanji

None

ぼくらは　六つ子だ　ぼくおそ松

ぼくらはなんでも　知ってるぜ

チビ太のあたまに　手が一本

ちいさなおててに　おでんが二本

イヤミがシェーすりゃ　歯が三本

ダヨーンの大ぐい　はし四本

デカパンのパンツから　ネコ五ひき

ぼくらは六人　六つ子だい

ちからをあわせりゃ　なんでもできる

おそ松　トド松　一松　チョロ松　カラ松　十四松

けっこんざんした！

None.