As if on cue, Osomatsu-san reverts back to a formula that worked well – if not often – in the first season.  I’ve been worrying that it was simply going to keep trying to top itself for outrageousness and offensiveness as a way of trying to live up to the expectations of being a sequel to that first season, but here we got something full-length and rather serious by Osomatsu-san standards – not as serious as Jyuushimatsu’s romance episode (or as brilliant) but quite sincere and even poignant at times.

As an added bonus, of course, this episode was a showcase for Inoue Kazuhuko as long-suffering Matsuno father Matsuzou-san.  I’m not sure there’s ever been a seiyuu who can so completely disappear inside a role as Inoue-san (Hayashibara Megumi maybe?).  His range is basically infinite, and it’s nice to hear him in this sort of role – he gets to cut up a bit here and there, but basically you’d never know it was him – this is just Matsuzou-san, that’s all.  And he’s quite worried that the spark has gone out for good between he and Matsuyo-san – so much so that he’s suffering some rather alarming lapses in concentration.

There are several interesting elements to this episode, not least of which is that it finds the brothers acting relatively normal by their standards.  They express concern over what their dad’s malaise may mean to their precious future as NEETs, but in truth it’s fairly clear that they do actually sort of care about their parents.  it’s not surprising that it’s Todomatsu and Choromatsu who express this most openly, as they’re the two most socially well-adjusted of the group.  But their father’s reaction to Choromatsu’s offer of help is rather valid, harsh as it is – how are six NEET virgins going to help a man in his 50’s fix his marriage and sex life?

The answer, happily, is to teach how to “regain his virgin heart” – happily because this leads to a very funny extended sequence where the boys try and do just that.  Some of this I confess I don’t even get (why was Matsuzou dressed as what looked like Sgt. Pepper with a parachute?) but some of it is obvious enough – like the konbini porn-buying bit (all must bow to Fappymatsu-sensei’s expertise in this area).  This is followed by an even sillier Indiana Jones-style trip to try and procure the flower Dekapan needs to replenish the love potion Dayon has swigged down to nothing.  The best part here was the callback to last week’s awkward encounter between Choromatsu and Ichimatsu.

That whole riff was classic Osomatsu-san outrageousness, but it was the change of pace this week rather than the main dish.  I knew in the end that Matsuzou would never try and win his wife’s affection back through that love potion (though the boys were wearing earplugs just to be safe), but it seems as if it really wasn’t needed anyway – what’s really called for is some peace and solitude.  I don’t know what kind of parents these two were – the evidence suggests not exactly great ones – but have a little sympathy, because with these six that’s a really thankless job.