TV Tokyo's Takayuki Hirobe comments on anime's surprising rise in popularity

The Sunday edition of the Tokyo Shimbun paper published a feature about the success of the comedy anime Mr. Osomatsu (Osomatsu-san) among young women. The feature includes an interview with Takayuki Hirobe, TV Tokyo's 46-year-old project planner of the anime, and TV Tokyo's 42-year-old anime production department member Makoto Hijikata. Hirobe remarked on the astonishing fast rise in the anime's popularity, and noted the official Twitter account garnered 380,000 followers after just one cour (one quarter of a year). He then added, "We originally planned on making two cours, but we haven't said, 'It'll end after two cours.'"

Fujio Akatsuka's original Osomatsu-kun manga and "high tension comedy" television anime from the 1960s centered on the Matsuno household, which has six naughty and mischievous sons (who are sextuplets). All of the sextuplets, including the eldest Osomatsu, are all in love with the same girl, Totoko. The original series followed the family when the sons were 10 years old. The current Mr. Osomatsu show re-imagines the original manga and TV anime with the sextuplets as adults.

The current Mr. Osomatsu series premiered last October, and Crunchyroll is streaming the series as it airs in Japan. The second cour premiered on January 4, and the official Twitter account now has over 414,000 followers. The series is inspiring a text novel, a smartphone game, and three PC browser games.

Akatsuka launched the original Osomatsu-kun manga in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine in 1962, and the manga ran in the magazine until 1969. The manga then ran in Weekly Shonen King from 1972-1973, and then in Comic BonBon from 1987-1990. The compiled manga volumes have more than 10 million copies in print.

[Via Nijimen]