Max Mittelman And Ray Chase Begged To Dub The Banned Mr. Osomatsu Episode
"Mr. Osomatsu" may be one of the most surprising anime success stories of the past decade. This raunchy, Adult Swim-style reboot of the old "Osomatsu-kun" anime, in which the wacky sextuplet children from the original series are now unemployed twenty-something losers, burst onto the scene in 2015 — then managed to stay popular for three seasons, get both animated and live-action movie spinoffs, and produce a ton of merchandise. Yet the very first episode, which hilariously introduced the show's meta concept by parodying basically every other popular anime in existence, can't be viewed legally anywhere.
Two of the "Mr. Osomatsu" English dub voice actors, Ray Chase (who plays the cool Karamatsu) and Max Mittelman (who plays the cutesy Todomatsu), were guests at Anime Boston 2022, performing alongside fellow voice actor Robbie Daymond as part of the "Loud, Annoying, and Very Annoying" improv group. Looper got the chance to ask Chase and Mittelman at the convention if there were ever any attempts to dub the first episode in English.
Too many parodies caused legal hassles
Max Mittelman was emphatic that dubbing "Mr. Osomatsu" Episode 1 was "all we wanted to do!" He went so far as to call it "the best episode of anime ever," praising the mix of animation styles used to "lampoon every anime that's ever been made all at once." Ray Chase said they "begged" to do it, and Mittelman added that Viz, the show's American licensor, was interested as well. The issue, Mittelman said, is that "they couldn't get the clearance to put that many references in an American show."
Mittelman and Chase talked about this as being a specifically American issue, with Chase comparing the various anime parodies in the episode to how characters and Stand powers in "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" are often named after rock stars in the original Japanese but have to use different names in the English dub for legal reasons. However, "Mr. Osomatsu" Episode 1 was also pulled from streaming and home video release in Japan (via Anime News Network). The Season 2 premiere specifically made fun of the show getting in trouble for its parodies.
Robbie Daymond, Ray Chase, and Max Mittelman's "Loud, Annoying, and Very Annoying" Twitch channel streams on Wednesday nights at 10:00 p.m. ET.