The Tatami Galaxy

The anime does have very good animation, the hero and the story don't follow the template; but unfortunately I still didn't enjoy it at all. I almost found it so weird that it became unwatchable for me. Art? I was annoyed by the way the main character kept babbling on and on at mach three speed. If you're not interested in the first three episodes, there's no point in continuing. If you do, you're home, put your feet up and enjoy. (06/22/2015)

The Tatami Galaxy is a unique and original anime series with a very interesting animation style. If I were not familiar with Kaiba, Steins;Gate, and Haruhi Suzumiya, I would have been able to get into this a lot more. However, I have seen enough narratives about parallel universes and time travel, stories accompanied by pompous inner monologues and thoughts of the main protagonist, and even stories with original and novel visuals before, and I would say at a higher standard. Nevertheless, this is still an above-average show that combines these themes masterfully, and even the main idea of this show is more than interesting. Another positive thing is the very interesting characters, and the episode with the "irresistible heroine" Kaori was great. Plus, the fact that the anime's creators dealt with this kind of love gets another significant plus point from me. 8/10. (02/08/2015)

The Tatami Galaxy is not easy for me to rate with stars. It is obvious that director Juasa is very picky in his choice of material to adapt, and does not sign up for something totally bland, meaning he would have to pass up on the opportunity to let loose and show off his creativity to the fullest. Given the nature of his work to date, it is not too surprising that he took a liking to the similarly idiosyncratic writer Tomihiko Morimi, who wrote, among other things, the premise for The Eccentric Family. As is usual with this gentleman, his stories are set in Kyoto, so the reality of life in Kyoto and urban fantasy elements are not spared in them at all, and his works are literally peppered with all sorts of turns of phrase from poems and older books and subtle metaphors, so that reading his novels can sometimes feel like you have been reading old Japanese literature for hours. Juasa therefore attempted to bring this style to the screen alongside his idiosyncratic audiovisual style, combined with the killer pace of the main hero’s chattiness, so that in the end it does not matter if you are a foreigner who cannot follow the subtitles or a Japanese person who cannot keep up with the linguistic puns blasting out of the speakers at the speed of a salvo from a machine-gun - you would both break a sweat watching this. Only a complete ignoramus would deny this anime its originality and inventiveness, but let it be a clear warning that originality is far from everything. Originality does not necessarily mean an entertaining show, and while the formulaic story was certainly intentional here, this anime is overly burdened by its desperate attempt to be as imaginative as possible, and it is at times almost soul-destroying to watch it. Although the last two episodes try to balance out the content anemia and bring the audience out of their lethargy, it gives the impression of an apology from someone trying to make up with you after they were at a party kicking back one shot after another, taking a photo of you looking awful, and putting it on Instagram, them singing drinking songs while dancing on the table, spiking your cola while your back was turned and pretending they had nothing to do with it, trying to break into the toilet when you were on it, accidentally spilling a glass of beer all over you, throwing up outside, and then falling asleep with one shoe left on the curb somewhere, saliva dripping from their open mouth. However, it is definitely still worth seeing whether or not this very imaginative play on the audience's patience suits you. For me it was kind of 50/50, so I give it 3 stars. (02/09/2020)