Jigoku Sensei Nube (2025) – 04

I’m not sure whether there will be future posts on these two series – with Osomatsu-san I’ll likely do periodic check-ins and/or a finale post at least. But they’re both delivering solidly for what they are. Jigoku Sensei Nube is something new (t0 me) and it is relatively interesting, but there seems to be very little interest in it among Western audiences. That’s not surprising as it’s perceived as a kids show because of the cast, though it was a Weekly Jump series just like countless others before it.

This week was definitely a more comedy-driven outing than the first three, though there were certainly a couple of darker moments in there. Miki was the student in the spotlight, and she’s certainly the silliest of the bunch so far. Seems a bit of an occult otaku and fancies she could become an idol if she gained psychic powers. Which she does, apparently by “rewinding her memories” (I don’t think it’s that easy). This winds up causing her to become a rokurokubi, the well-known long-necked youkai of Japanese folklore (there’s also a version whose heads pops off and flies about on its own, and there are male versions).

Miki’s quite dramatic transformation is apparently yet another manifestation of the psychic enhancement that seems endemic to this place. Convinced she’s just experiencing vivid dreams, Miki flits all over town spying on people (including Hiroshi on the toilet), cheating on tests, and generally making a nuisance of herself.  She freaks out Ritsuko-sensei, giving Nube a chance to uncork the worst pun of the season. It’s mostly innocent enough, though Miki’s terror when she thinks Nube-sensei is going to end her is pretty intense. It occurs to me that he just needed to explain himself a lot sooner there, but I suppose that would have undercut the drama…

I’m still pretty happy with Jigoku Sensei Nube on the whole. It’s a very solid adaptation and the source material clearly has something about it. But it’s a busy season so all options are on the table when it comes to future developments.

Osomatsu-san 4th Season – 02

Osomatsu-san is a tough nut to crack at this point. My gut tells me it’s best to recap it at the end of the season, because it always seems to inject a slightly different tone and tenor to every incarnation. But it’s also capable of delivering really big laughs in any given week (more so broadly speaking than CITY, in my estimation) and it would be a shame not to call those out.

This one was notable if anything because it gave the bros a happy ending, which is something we haven’t seen all that often over three-plus seasons. It was a full-length storyline (also rare-ish) and not only that, it played off last week’s seemingly throwaway gag of Todomatsu and Choromatsu blasting off into space with TotokOrihime. They get spotted by a pair of “watermelon aliens” who decide to invade the Earth via mind-controlling watermelon seeds.

There are some laughs here, though on balance it’s a pretty low-key effort by Osomatsu standards. The sort of episode which doesn’t necessarily inspire a post, in other words. I think that’s going to be the strategy going forward with this one – play it as it lies and take it week to week.