LogFAQs > #971068971

BONUS. The Tatami Galaxy
https://myanimelist.net/anime/7785/Yojouhan_Shinwa_Taikei
Spring 2010 (11 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 8.57/10
Best Character: Akashi
Recommended by: @Sceptilesolar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkH8ti1gakE

Premise: A college student laments wasting his first few years of campus life, mostly because of the bad influence of his friend Ozu. Maybe things would've turned out better if he made a different decision at the very beginning?

The Good: The Tatami Galaxy is a stylish anime with elements of comedy, mystery, and romance. The story essentially follows a nameless protagonist through his college years. He's never satisfied with the choices he made, so each episode examines what would've happened if he'd chosen a different club. There are some constants in each parallel world, such as a ghoulish friend named Ozu who the protagonist always regrets meeting. There's also a girl, Akashi, who the protagonist appears to have feelings for, but he can never seem to grasp the opportunity to make anything happen between them. These are all interesting ideas. I'm a big fan of time travel and parallel worlds, and this is kind of an odd mixture of both. I'm also a big fan of examining different facets of a character, and this whole show is about seeing him through various iterations. Still, the most notable thing about this anime is the stylishness of both its narrative and the animation. I don't think any description I could write would do it justice, so for anyone interested, just watch the OP linked above to get a rough idea. Moreso than the story, I feel like the style will make or break people's opinion on this show. I thought it was interesting, and there were times where it really worked for me. The ED in particular was oddly hypnotic. The frequent use of live-action with, like, an animation filter was neat too (even though I obviously don't know enough about animation techniques to properly describe it).

The Bad: The story definitely had some neat ideas, but I felt like it was missing something to really bring it all together. I would've preferred it if there was more of a focus on the main dude and Akashi. She was my favorite character from what I saw of her, but there were a number of loops where her presence was minimal at best. This is a technical complaint, but the subtitles on Funimation were also some of the worst I've ever seen. The narration was incredibly fast and would've been difficult to keep up with under normal circumstances, but Funi subtitles made it even harder. Sometimes two long lines of subtitles would appear at the bottom of the screen, then something noteworthy would start happening at the bottom so the subtitles would jump to the top of the screen. Switching which part of the screen I'm reading from mid-sentence wasnt easy. They also did that thing where onscreen text from signs and stuff would be subtitled too alongside the dialogue. When one line was long sign text, one line was lightning fast narration text, and sometimes it would all randomly jump between the top and bottom of the screen, that wasn't fun! It isn't fair to hold Funimation's crappy subtitles against the show itself, but man did it ever bug me.

Overall: I can definitely see how The Tatami Galaxy could appeal to someone a lot. It uses a fantastical premise to examine some pretty relatable themes about regret, love, and friendship. The animation and storytelling styles were also exceedingly unique. I appreciated it as something where I could sit back and enjoy the crazy ride it was taking me on. Sadly, the characters and overall themes weren't quite handled in a way that resonated with me. I would've preferred a story with a lot more of a focus on Akashi and less on Ozu and the rest. In the end, I'll probably give this a 4/10, which isn't a bad score from me! It mostly just means I didn't love it enough to justify ranking it any higher. Still, thanks for the recommendation, Sceptilesolar! This is the kind of show I likely never would've seen otherwise, and it was certainly a fun ride.