liammuu

ok, so some of you may know that shu matsubara, the head writer of ososan, also wrote for gintama. but did you guys know that he also has a music project that he works on called charisma house?

*important disclaimer before i continue*: charisma house deals with some very triggering topics in a very facetious manner, namely suicide. another aspect of charisma house that is problematic is fascist/imperialist imagery in a few of the music videos. this includes rising sun-like imagery and nazi-adjacent imagery in one of their music videos (no outright hate symbols, but still similar enough). this is inexcusable and many fans have drawn attention to how unacceptable the usage of such imagery is, regardless of intent. there is nothing in the actual series that alludes to antisemitism or imperialism and i'm pretty sure matsubara has nothing to do with the music videos. however, i think it's important to acknowledge these things before talking about the characters. consume charisma house at your own risk.

ok, so as a few of you know, i first watched ososan in 2020 and liked it, but never really got into the fandom in any capacity. at the same time, i was really into hypnosis mic, which is a multimedia music project created by king records. in 2023, hypnosis mic was in a lull and people were starting to talk about charisma house, which is hypnosis mic's cousin franchise (they're both produced by king records)

so in 2023, i started watching all of the "episodes" of charisma house on youtube and really enjoyed it. I put episodes in quotations because if anything, they're mainly just glorified drama tracks with bare bones editing to show which character is talking, there's no real animation involved.

at the time, i knew vaguely that matsubara was the head writer of charisma house and also the ososan guy. when charisma house season 2 came to a close, soon after season 4 of ososan was announced and the rest was history.

i recently decided to rewatch charisma house and my god, the humor is so much more similar to ososan than i originally thought. you could take some of the bits from charisma house and plaster the sextuplets faces onto it and it would be near indistinguishable. despite the characters being very different from the sextuplets, it's their dynamics with each other that is very reminiscent to ososan. also both are basically about 6-7 (haha) eccentric dudes living together that are all seen as outcasts by society and the bonds they form with each other.

so this post is basically a fun little comparison between the sextuplets and the charisma house character they are most similar to.

rikai and choromatsu

ok so these 2 are your straight man/tsukkomi characters, except they also fulfill a really fun archetype that i think matsubara really likes to write: straight man that is secretly the most unhinged/crazy one of all. it's funny because choro becomes more unhinged as time goes on whereas rikai mellows out and becomes less aggressive. these 2 are the most similar of all the characters i feel.

they are both really obsessed with the idea of being proper, but in rikai's case he wants to maintain order. they are also both virgins and get flustered very easily around women. in most cases, they play the role of the straight man who eventually starts yelling at everyone. There are a few key differences between them though. choromatsu is much more caught up with appearances and so he'll say what seems appropriate in order to maintain the appearance that he's a proper person in society. rikai is fully aware that others view him as odd, but sticks to his guns regardless. his form of tsukkomi is rooted in his own beliefs and convictions, rather than being normal or proper.

Amahiko and Karamatsu

these two are also very very similar in terms of their dynamics with the other characters. both are disliked at first because their respective schticks are seen as annoying (bordering harassment in amahiko's case). with kara, it's his cringe factor. with amahiko, it's his perversion. they are stubborn in their beliefs, never bending despite the backlash they receive. kara is still narcissistic/cringey, though less so now (barely at all in the 4th season, but that's by design i think) and amahiko never stopped being a pervert (this is a compliment to him, i'm using this term neutrally lol).

eventually though, everyone comes around to their idiosyncrasies, though they still have their moments where others call them out on how painful/perverted they are. another fun detail is that they both have trademark bad english phrases.

one key difference is that amahiko, while closed off, doesn't have that characteristic exclusiveness that kara has. he's pretty much an open book, at least compared to some of the other characters. kara is also more concerned about his role within his family and his desire to be a kind and cool older brother than amahiko is about his role within the house. amahiko doesn't have that same fandom dilemma of whether the nice things he does are sincere, he's just an overall good dude and doesn't concern himelf with how he appears to his housemates.

Ichimatus and Ohse

So, whats funny about these two is that they are basically the same character at their core, but in opposite directions. Both characters are driven by their intense self-hatred, which motivates their actions and the way they interact with other characters. However, where ichimatsu expresses his self loathing through aggression to people who care about him, ohse directs all that aggression towards himself and actively attempts suicide whenever he feels he inconvenienced someone (which is all the time).

Another way they converge is that, while they both care deeply about their friends/brothers, ohse plays a very active role in reaching out to them and attempting to help them, whereas ichimatsu takes the backseat and observes. While he does go out of his way to help them (like shaving his head to make them laugh), he would never say that’s why he’s doing it.

Ohse is very direct and often says what others will not. They both approach these issues in the name of self-hatred, ichimatsu won’t actively reach out to his brothers because he thinks of himself as trash and tries to live up to his perception of himself, by acting badly towards his brothers. Ohse believes himself to be human garbage, but he’ll go out of his way to ask his friends about their problems because he doesn’t see himself as a peer to them. 

todomatsu and terra

So these two are similar less in their character but more in vibe and their dynamics with the others. Both are very blunt and dry, but they’re honest and speak their mind, often playing the straight-man role. They’re also very self-centered, terra to a ridiculous degree, but todo in the sense that he’s willing to sacrifice his other brothers for his own sake.

They both speak in a very feminine manner and are very feminine in their aesthetics. You could give miyu some of terra’s lines and slap todos face on it and there would be no difference. However, while they’re both blunt, they both have their own lives independent from their housemates and are very capable. Terra being the only one with a confirmed job (fashion designer) and todo being the only one with a part time job. They’re also very concerned with their appearance….I lied, these two are basically the same actually.

So now we’re getting to muddied waters where the characters are becoming less and less similar to each other. Lets start with the basics, Fumiya and Oso are both the definitive “leader” characters. They both have their quirks that are easily understandable by their peers (oso loves beer and gambling, fumiya loves sweets). However, they both have an air of mystery, fumiya much more than oso, but both conceal their true thoughts and feelings.

They’re also both very blunt and can be manipulative to others, using them for money. Now here are the big differences: fumiya is the youngest of the group by far (he’s 19 and the others are 21-30). Fumiya is also far more subdued and monotone than oso, who is loud and obnoxious (said with love).

However, in terms of their dynamics with the others, they both take the role as the “trouble maker” in a sense. Where they drag the others into crappy situations and they are fed up with them by the end of it. 

uh... jysuhi, iori, and saru?

Okay… now we’re admittedly beginning to grasp at straws here. I think the only real similarities these two very different characters have with jyushi are that saru is the crazy wildcard character who plays the role of the straight man. Iori also has a very jyushi-like sense of mania and insanity at times that scares the other characters. Something fun though is that unlike jyushi and ichi, iori and ohse are always at odds with each other because they both want to be inferior to the other. 

So there may be a few reasons why matsubara wrote the characters like this. For one, there’s a chance that king records wanted to grab a couple osomatsu san fans with characters that were juuuuust similar enough to the sextuplets for them to appeal to the same audience. That said, i don’t see too many ososan fans that are also fans of charisma house, so that was a flop.

Another reason could be that these are just the dynamics that matsubara is used to and enjoys writing, so that’s what he did. It would make sense, as he can write these characters however he wanted without worrying about a huge fanbase’s perception of it, especially because charisma house is relatively new.

I think something very plausible is that king records may have wanted to phone it in that this franchise is kind of the “unserious” anti-idol project, so introducing somewhat scummy characters that resemble even scummier characters that we know and love is a smart move. 

Like throughout the show I just found myself relating his experiences with mine in terms of being Aro so maybe it’s like 50% projection but I have evidence for the other 50 I promise hear me out.

One thing I thought of was the fact that Osomatsu was the only brother who didn’t take the rental gf’s out on a date. He only asked for a single hug and he only went on a date when all of his brothers went on a huge date with all of them.

I know the point of the scene was to be funny and that Osomatsu gave away all this stuff for a split second hug but he’s never shown wanting to spend time with these girls actually on a date until he has company around him.

Osomatsu also quickly grew bored of watching Jyushi on his date. Sometimes Aromantic people don’t have an interest in romantic relationships and things such as dates. The rest of the brothers follow the couple nearly all day and Osomatsu seemed to have left once he was sure Jyushimatsu was safe and everything was fine.

‘The way home’ Osomatsu doesn’t mention a thing about wanting to be married or having a partner to love. He even says that he specifically doesn’t want to live with somebody else.

Then there’s the episode with the drug store girl that Karamatsu and Todomatsu fight over

Osomatsu and Jyushimatsu are the only ones to see the situation for what it is. It makes sense for Jyushi, not just because he’s not that stupid but also because he’s been in love before and knows the difference. You’d assume Osomatsu would also be all over this because just look at him- but he’s not, he just gives that same ‘are you serious?’ stare the entire episode. Maybe that could be because his ego is so small, but I believe he doesn’t have that level of interest in anyone so that means he can see right through it all. (Like how Aro people tend to be better judges of romantic situations because they don’t have those feelings (or don’t have them as intensely)

I think the biggest piece of evidence I have is the entirety of the episode ’just don’t’. Osomatsu clearly had no interest in dating and didn’t even remember Nyya until she told him they’d met before. He even jokes about going on a date before laughing and waving it off.

When Nyya admits she does want to date him Osomatsu completely freaks and hides away. We see him really struggling with this decision and we know that he accepted her offer but he clearly wanted to take it back. Even offering one of his brothers to take his place. (It was his opportunity to finally have something over them, we see how much he loves rubbing this kind of thing in their faces and yet he completely surrenders his sweater to them and lets them fight over it)

Osomatsu, the one who always says he would be fun on dates and loves holding achievements over his brothers head, who does and says whatever he feels like, was too scared to go on a date and nearly flaked.

I think the scene can be read both ways. On one hand Osomatsu doesn’t have the biggest ego. It’s actually the smallest out of all the brothers. So it could be read as him being afraid to go on this date because he feels he’d ruin it or that he didn’t deserve to. Also because having someone love him as he is, piece of shit and all, is terrifying.

But I also think it could be seen in an Aromantic lens. Osomatsu felt pressured to say yes because that’s the natural order of things and when he doesn’t feel the way he thinks he should he gets scared and hides away. He looses sleep over this revelation and only when Totoko gives him a talk does he give it a chance. When he’s rejected he freaks because not only does it establish he’s unlovable as he is but if he can’t force himself to fall in love then does that mean he’s going to be alone forever?

Obviously not, but the point still stands. Some people before they realize they’re Aromantic assume they’re destined to be lonely or that they’re broken in some sense and while it isn’t true, it’s a thought even I had before I realized I was Aromantic. I believe that’s what happened to Osomatsu in that moment. The fear of being different, the dread of realizing something doesn’t feel as it should.

ID: doodle of jyushimatsu floating in a galaxy /end ID.

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