A live-action movie was announced for popular gag anime Osomatsu San featuring the sextuplet Matsuno brothers, except it'll seemingly be considerably different from the original anime on several aspects.

The Osomatsu San anime first aired in 2015, and was loosely based on a manga from 1962 by Fujio Akatsuka. Osomatsu San already had three seasons, an anime movie, and stage plays, but this is the first time it's getting a live-action adaptation. It's also important to note the series is incredibly popular in Japan among female anime fans.

Osomatsu San Live-Action movie explained, staff, cast

The Osomatsu San movie will be directed by Tsutomu Hanabusa, who also worked on the Kakegurui live-action. The screenplay will be handled by Ryoichi Tsuchiya. The filming will begin soon, and the movie will release in Spring 2022 in Japan.

The movie's cast features the nine members of Snow Man, a Johnny's band:

  • Iwamoto Hikaru Image color: Yellow
  • Fukazawa Tatsuya Image color: Purple
  • Raul Image color: White
  • Watanabe Shota  Image color: Blue
  • Mukai Koji Image color: Orange
  • Abe Ryohei Image color: Green
  • Meguro Ren Image color: Black
  • Miyadate Ryota  Image color: Red
  • Sakuma Daisuke Image color: Pink

In case you don't know about Johnny's, it's basically the biggest agency for boys bands in Japan. Some of the most popular boys bands in the history of all of Asia were born there, such as the defunct boys band Smap, whose sole member is now Takuya Kimura (The actor of Yagami in Judgment).

Arashi, Kinki Kids, Kat Tun, are all names you should be familiar with as well if you've been watching anime for a while. The Johnny's agency also has a dark side to it, with sexual abuse allegations. There were definitely people who cheered when its founder Johnny Kitagawa passed away in 2019.

Why Osomatsu San fans are unhappy on Twitter

This is where it's getting complicated though. Ever since the movie's announcement a few hours ago, there's been heated debate on Twitter for several reasons. The word "原作", "original work" in Japanese, has been trending alongside Osomatsu San and Snow Man.

First off, the Sextuplets in the Osomatsu San anime are color-coded so they're easy to tell apart. However, it doesn't seem like the live-action will respect these colors. This isn't a big issue as they usually wear completely different clothing styles though.

Furthermore, in order to give every member of Snow Man a role, three different original characters will be included in the Live-Action. Specifically made for the occasion. Usually, projects like these get one, maybe two original characters. But three is a bit of a stretch, and many fans of the original work are worried about how this will turn out.

Lastly, many fans of the original Osomatsu San are worried about seeing Johnny's group Snow Man picked to act the characters. Johnny's group members aren't necessarily all great actors.

Some fans on Twitter even made summarized lists of their grievances and the complaints they've seen the most in the Osomatsu fandom. There's also how the movie feels like some quick cash grab. It's common knowledge the Osomatsu fanbase is mainly made of women; So it's possible it went for a boys band to capitalize on that. This is also viewed as a lack of understanding of the fanbase by some of its members. As many Osomatsu fans aren't interested in 3D boys bands and only love 2D characters.

In any case, it's pretty interesting to see all the discussion happening on Japanese Twitter right now, with fujoshi Osomatsu San original fans discussing with Johnny's fans. We'll see how it all pans out. Keep in mind you can reach out to me on Twitter @A_iyane07.