The Tatami Galaxy, or 4.5 Tatami Mythological Tales (四畳半神話大系) is an 11 episode surreal romantic comedy based on the book of the same name by Morimi Tomihiko. The series was produced by Madhouse and aired in Japan during the spring of 2010.
The story is narrated by the unnamed main character, a student at a university in Kyoto, as he reflects on the successes and failures of his life over the first few years in college. His entire goal as a student has been to change his life around by joining the right club and becoming a man of action and popularity, eventually landing himself the raven haired woman of his dreams. Sadly he has yet to realize his ambitions, instead he finds himself rejected and on the outskirts of the club, his only friend the fiendish and influential Ozu. Much to the detriment of the narrators character, he and Ozu execute a number of pranks and stealthy attacks on various people and clubs. The narrator laments about his poor life choices and yearns to perhaps avoid the situation he finds himself in, as a 3rd year college student.
Unknown to him, time continues to reverse its course, setting him up to redo those first years of adulthood. Yet each time he makes disastrous mistakes, gets wrapped up in Ozu's mischievous ways and fails to realize his dreams have been with in his reach the entire time. Each time fate rewinds he finds himself joining some club at school with the same lofty ambitions, only to crash down again in self inflicted disaster. Going from the tennis club where Ozu and he retaliate from ostracism by attacking them with a barrage of fireworks. To the film club were Ozu and he expose the club leaders perverted habits in order to destroy his perfect visage.
The artwork in this series is very avant garde and reminded me a number of times of Sayonara Zetsubo-sensei, which worked very well to enhance the oddity of this bizarre comedy. The character designs are simplistic and the backgrounds are many times over laid on real life. The last two episodes in particular used a good amount of altered live footage. There are color schemes through out the show that have more symbolic meanings with the story that are not evident until the end. In fact there is a lot of hidden imagery and clues through out the story. I should probably re-watch it to see how many references to latter events I can discover. The show is very art-house in art style and delivery.
Story wise, for the most part it is really the main character reliving the first 2+ years of his college life in narrative fashion. Each of the first few episodes encompasses one iteration of his college life at a time, rewinding at the end of the episode to start over. Patterns start to emerge over the course of the short series that click into place for the over all narrative. There is a lot of dialogue, most of it monologue and it is snide and witty in delivery and subject. Along with the artwork the quick wit and delivery reminded me of Zetsubo-sensei as well as another series by that crew, Arakawa Under the Bridge.
This is a fresh series in the abysmal wasteland of romance anime that exist. It's off beat, completely unconventional and not directed at the fan base. Its a great example of the freedom of expression that is an important part of the anime industry, a part that sadly is hard to express, particularly with the current industry convention. I seriously enjoyed this crazed mind warp of a series. Time travel and surrealism are favorite styles of mine. This series takes it in a direction that isn't often done to this effect. But, the series isn't for everyone, its off beat and unconventional, so it won't attract much attention out of the core anime fan's. I highly recommend it for people looking for a change of pace or for fans of Sayonara Zetsubo-sensei.
The series is currently available online via FUNimation but sadly the disc releases are difficult and expensive to come by.
The story is narrated by the unnamed main character, a student at a university in Kyoto, as he reflects on the successes and failures of his life over the first few years in college. His entire goal as a student has been to change his life around by joining the right club and becoming a man of action and popularity, eventually landing himself the raven haired woman of his dreams. Sadly he has yet to realize his ambitions, instead he finds himself rejected and on the outskirts of the club, his only friend the fiendish and influential Ozu. Much to the detriment of the narrators character, he and Ozu execute a number of pranks and stealthy attacks on various people and clubs. The narrator laments about his poor life choices and yearns to perhaps avoid the situation he finds himself in, as a 3rd year college student.
Unknown to him, time continues to reverse its course, setting him up to redo those first years of adulthood. Yet each time he makes disastrous mistakes, gets wrapped up in Ozu's mischievous ways and fails to realize his dreams have been with in his reach the entire time. Each time fate rewinds he finds himself joining some club at school with the same lofty ambitions, only to crash down again in self inflicted disaster. Going from the tennis club where Ozu and he retaliate from ostracism by attacking them with a barrage of fireworks. To the film club were Ozu and he expose the club leaders perverted habits in order to destroy his perfect visage.
The artwork in this series is very avant garde and reminded me a number of times of Sayonara Zetsubo-sensei, which worked very well to enhance the oddity of this bizarre comedy. The character designs are simplistic and the backgrounds are many times over laid on real life. The last two episodes in particular used a good amount of altered live footage. There are color schemes through out the show that have more symbolic meanings with the story that are not evident until the end. In fact there is a lot of hidden imagery and clues through out the story. I should probably re-watch it to see how many references to latter events I can discover. The show is very art-house in art style and delivery.
Story wise, for the most part it is really the main character reliving the first 2+ years of his college life in narrative fashion. Each of the first few episodes encompasses one iteration of his college life at a time, rewinding at the end of the episode to start over. Patterns start to emerge over the course of the short series that click into place for the over all narrative. There is a lot of dialogue, most of it monologue and it is snide and witty in delivery and subject. Along with the artwork the quick wit and delivery reminded me of Zetsubo-sensei as well as another series by that crew, Arakawa Under the Bridge.
This is a fresh series in the abysmal wasteland of romance anime that exist. It's off beat, completely unconventional and not directed at the fan base. Its a great example of the freedom of expression that is an important part of the anime industry, a part that sadly is hard to express, particularly with the current industry convention. I seriously enjoyed this crazed mind warp of a series. Time travel and surrealism are favorite styles of mine. This series takes it in a direction that isn't often done to this effect. But, the series isn't for everyone, its off beat and unconventional, so it won't attract much attention out of the core anime fan's. I highly recommend it for people looking for a change of pace or for fans of Sayonara Zetsubo-sensei.
The series is currently available online via FUNimation but sadly the disc releases are difficult and expensive to come by.
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