Background

Osomatsu-kun was Mainichi Broadcasting's first entry into the anime broadcasting. (Until the broadcast of in 2012, the network did not air an anime adaptation of a Shounen Sunday manga for 45 years.) The series later aired on Tokyo 12 Channel (later known as TV Tokyo) between the late 1960s and early 1970s. Osomatsu-kun was never broadcast again after the 1970s, and the original prints were thought to be lost until they were found in storage at the Senrioka studio of Mainichi Broadcasting in 1990. The series was finally released on DVD between 2001 and 2003.