Ichimatsu Matsuno

**Ichimatsu Matsuno** (松野 一松 *Matsuno Ichimatsu),* created by Fujio Akatsuka, is one of The Sextuplets in Osomatsu-kun. He occasionally may appear alongside his brothers as part of Akatsuka's Star System.

## Overview

Ichimatsu is usually not name-dropped in outside appearances, or is left to blend in with the rest. He may be assumed to be the second brother due to the original role-call order, but recent materials and adaptations such as *Osomatsu-san* have set him as the fourth.

In whatever case, it can be verified that despite the "Ichi"/1 in his name, he is not the oldest of the six or the leader in any way. Both the initial settings by Akatsuka and the current descriptions by Fujio Pro agree upon him being the smartest and most serious of the brothers. Like the other five, he is usually a 10-year old boy.

## Physical Appearance

Ichimatsu is first depicted as being short, with smaller round eyes, a large upturned nose, and a low-set mouth. His facial features are modified with the second chapter, and his face and height gradually change over the course of the early manga until he becomes usually set to have a tall slim figure but still bearing a round face and large eyes.

He has the same bowlcut-styled hair and uniform that his other brothers wear, and rarely gets to be seen in different fashion as their parents buy their clothing in bulk. When the brothers so wear different clothes, they are not always individually identified, so one must guess if they'd want to on which would be Ichimatsu.

Later artistic depictions of Ichimatsu favor him and the other sextuplets being much shorter and sometimes rounder, a pattern which the 1988 anime also follows towards the end.

### Settings as an adult

In "Osomatsu-kun after 30 Years", Ichimatsu wears his hair slicked and parted into a typical Japanese businessman style, dubbed the "7:3 ratio" for the amount of hair on each side. His eyesight has become rather poor by age 40, leading to his need to wear a pair of thick round glasses. He is mocked relentlessly by Osomatsu and referred to as "Glasses". He too is jealous of Osomatsu looking the least aged and most similar to how they looked as children.

The 1988 anime equivalent of "Iyami in 40 Years" depicts the 50-year old Ichimatsu as being equal to the rest in appearance (except the balding Choromatsu); instead of being a taller man with glasses, he is a short, pudgy figure with wrinkles and a greased-up black pompadour hairstyle.

The TV Magazine chapter "Osomatsu-kun after 40 Years" depicts a different take on him at 50 in its punchline, though he is not seen very much in detail due to the fact that he is sickly and bedridden, covered up with a futon simply reading "Ichimatsu" over and over on it. His hair appears to be graying and messy, and he has dark circles under his eyes. It also appears that his brothers have drawn eyes on over his closed ones as he sleeps.

In the scenario of the 1993 beer ad "Osomatsu-kun Grows Up", the 35-year old Ichimatsu keeps the bowlcut hair but has a mustache. He wears a businessman suit and enjoys beer and cigars.

## Personality

In Akatsuka's initial settings seen in a Shonen Sunday column on how to differentiate the brothers, Ichimatsu is said to be the "#1 serious" of the six. Although all six can be shown to be foolish and not very good at education, there are points where he will shown to be the smartest (comparatively) out of them and best in different academic abilities.

He is strong-willed and tends to be more patient and kinder with younger children such as Chibita, and shown to have the most endurance of the sextuplets when trying to deal with Chibita running up a skyscraper. In the fight against the Smog Family, he also manages to come up with a plan defeat his own rival (Chibita) easily, while the other brothers lose or get caught in struggles.

Though he tends to find some of the antics his brothers get into to be boring, he will still gladly go along with them in certain schemes. He also tends to have the most money saved up, showing that he's very practical and thrifty.

## Relationships with Other Characters

### Jyushimatsu

He is most often seen with Jyushimatsu out of the others, in fitting along with how both were named by Akatsuka after numbers. While they may seem like they could be lower-key boys on their own, they can and will still play pranks and do terrible things if they so please.

There are approximately 8 times throughout the manga that both can be confirmed in a duo via name-dropping. In the 1988 show, these two become the least-prioritized of the boys and it winds up being rare to see either of them doing much or as their duo.

### Todomatsu

Less commonly, Ichimatsu may be seen with this boy, to the point where the very first instance of duos in the series had these two interacting. They are also grouped off together in some early episodes of the 1988 show; in these instances, Ichimatsu can be mistaken for Choromatsu due to Rica Matsumoto covering his role while Megumi Hayashibara was occupied with voicing Todomatsu (and being unable to perform both boys in the same scene).

### Osomatsu

Ichimatsu is rarely seen directly hanging out with Osomatsu, but when he does, one of the memorable moments comes when he gets jealous and angry at the other boy for having given Totoko a sweet potato.

### Karamatsu

There are occasions where Akatsuka had Ichimatsu and Karamatsu grouped off together in the manga as well, but as the boys' personalities can blend together or otherwise be generic as the series goes on, they simply can be as mischievous as the rest.

### Choromatsu

On a few occasions, Ichimatsu can be seen to go along with Choromatsu. The 1988 show occasionally had these two as Osomatsu's closest two brothers at the start as well, until Ichimatsu was swapped out with Todomatsu (as that became the role more closely associated with Hayashibara).

### Chibita

Ichimatsu attempts to be nice to Chibita, as seen in both "This Heavy Weight of Chibita is Big Trouble" and "Chibita Wants a Brother", though he is also strict and attempts to see why Chibita would want to be naughty in the first case, to suffer from him as a result. In the second case, he accidentally feeds Chibita a firework instead of candy, but otherwise wants to try to be the best "big brother" he can.

Still, this would not stop Ichimatsu from otherwise fighting or doing any cruel things to the boy. In "The Simple Smog Family", he shows a quick brutality in gag form by mowing Chibita down with a steamroller, being the only boy to be effective at defeating his opponent on his own. Other than that instance, he will usually gleefully join in on the casual bullying.

### Totoko

Ichimatsu attempts to act better than his brothers around Totoko, insisting that he can play the violin in "Autumn Fever" but turning out to be quite horrible and inexperienced at it. His pettiness over Osomatsu giving a sweet potato to Totoko also plays a key part in angrily punishing his brother over it, along with the fact his brother had been sneaking out and slacking off to do so.

## Appearances in Animation

### Osomatsu-kun (1966)

Ichimatsu is one of the six boys that are often interchangeable in plots with no great significance unless there are specific moments given to him. As he and Todomatsu share the same actress, it can be difficult to discern which of them is which unless they are name-dropped in a scene.

However, the role of the cowardly sextuplet in the boxing story was given to him in this anime adaptation, as opposed to it having been Karamatsu in the manga.

### Furious Ataro (1969)

Ichimatsu appears with the rest of his brothers in episode 48, in the prologue showing the havoc that ensued in an old Edo neighborhood.

In episode 74, he and the other five are shown to be passengers on an airliner that winds up hijacked.

### Osomatsu-kun (1988)

Ichimatsu is most egregiously indistinct in this version due to having not been assigned a fixed voice actor in the casting stage (see Portrayals for more information). This leads to him blending in well with the rest of his brothers and honoring the interchangeable motif, even if the idea in casting was for the boys to be told apart by their voices.

He is often seen hanging out with Osomatsu and Choromatsu early on, such as when they become angered at Iyami for having impersonated Dekapan or react in shock (and then glee) to Chibita's news of Iyami's supposed demise. He is also seen to be present with Todomatsu more often in these early episodes, until he and Jyushimatsu become the more common duo.

His notable moments in this adaptation come in episode 48, where he loses control of a water pump and winds up freezing everyone, or concluding that the mysterious stranger who didn't flinch at Iyami's training was "a God sent down to Earth to straighten out our hearts". He also happens to craft a kite patterned after his own face in episode 60, to the disbelief of the other brothers.

### Osomatsu-san

*For information on his portrayal in this spinoff, see the Osomatsu-kun and Osomatsu-san wiki*

## Portrayals

### Voice Acting

* Osomatsu-kun (1966)- Haruko Kitahama, Keiko Yamamoto (early understudy), Mari Kitagawa (later understudy)
* Furious Ataro (1969)- Masako Nozawa
* Osomatsu-kun (1988)- Megumi Hayashibara (ep.1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20, 23, 25, 40, 46, 67, 78, 82, 84), Rica Matsumoto (ep.8, 10, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 26, 39, 2 lines in "Go For It! Chibita's Oni War", 59), Mari Mashiba (ep.1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 16, 24, 28, 40), Naoko Matsui (ep.1, 14, 36, 50, 60, 62, 71, 83), Mari Yokoo ("regular" actress; ep.30, 32, 35, 39, 42, 45, 48, 49, 60, 61, 68, 81, 86, 1 line in "Go For It! Chibita's Oni War", "Greetings From the Watermelon Planet!", "The 3000 Mile Quest for Osomatsu's Curry")
* CR Osomatsu-kun- Yui Shoji
* Pachislot Osomatsu-kun- Unknown/uncredited actress
* Osomatsu-san- Jun Fukuyama

The 1988 incarnation of Ichimatsu often did not have one consistent voice within the same episode, with the role handed to whatever actress would take a turn for his lines. This had to do with how he never had an actress decided for him in the script to start with, so this was only dependent on choices made at the recording stage.

Even after Yokoo was cast, he still had no technical "permanent" actress and the listing of Yokoo as being the regular voice is only a retroactive claim by Studio Pierrot. The only one of the sextuplet actresses who never covered for him would seem to be Yo Inoue (Osomatsu).

Furthermore, while Yokoo was credited for episodes 30, 42, and 45 there is no audible dialogue by Ichimatsu either in singular lines or group chatter, leaving it uncertain why her name was put in the billing.

### Live Action

Ichimatsu showed up in the Monday Dramaland special of Osomatsu-kun, but it is currently unknown who played him due to the lack of detailed information.

## Trivia

* Although the kite in episode 60 of the 1988 series is intended as being Ichimatsu's by the script and the intent of the scenes (notably when Osomatsu yells at him to keep his kite away), the animators for the kite scenes had accidentally put an "Ichi" kanji on one of the other boys' kites instead of a "Ka" katakana to keep with the rest of the pattern, creating a miscommunication. This in turn can lead to confusion from viewers in those shots, who may wonder if the face kite belongs to Karamatsu.

## External Links

* Ichimatsu profile at Koredeiinoda (Japanese)