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The Tatami Galaxy – Review

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The Tatami Galaxy - Review 1Title: The Tatami Galaxy
Published by:
Siren Visual (Australia)
Audio: Japanese Dubs
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Runtime: 250 Minutes
Cost: $49.95
Classification: This title has been classified M for Violence, Sexual References and Themes (Sexual themes or just themes…. dunno).
Blurb: “If you thought Welcome to Irabu’s Office was insanely odd, welcome to the Tatami Galaxy, a series where everything is odd, time jumps are a regular occurance and where there is a ramen stall which may or may not use cats in its broth. Some interesting voice acting and graphic design, but the storyline would not be to everyones tastes.”
Special Thanks: Thanks goes to the team at Siren Visual for providing me with a review sample of this title.

I loved Welcome to Irabu’s Office full stop. It might have been odd at times, however it had that level of comedy that is rare to find in an anime…. where it isnt haha funny, but it makes you giggle simply due to the design technique or the complete oddity of it. I am not sure if Irabu’s Office or The Tatami Galaxy came first, however it is evident to see that whilst having similarities the series are different in many ways. Was I able to keep up with the, at times, 500 words per minute at times, or was the series plain boring? Read on for my review of The Tatami Galaxy.

The Tatami Galaxy - Review 2

A chance meeting at a late-night ramen stand causes a nameless university student to dismantle the pretentious social barriers he has imposed on himself. His friend Ozu (a reckless class clown who takes the pleasure in torment) seems to wield a psychic grip on trouble, and when not cross-dressing or shooting fireworks at crowds of strangers, seeks guidance from a familiar self-proclaimed diety.

And so a secret society within a Chinese restraunt, a seemingly living love doll (Which belongs to the most popular deviant on campus), a gum massage from a dental hygienist, a health food cult, a mystical tortoise hairbrush and a ramen cart which may or may not use cats in their food all seem normal on 4.5 tatami mats.

Every storyline generally follows a similar plot where at the beginning of the episode, the unnamed protagonist (Hereforth known as Student) decides to join a different club activity where he aims to achieve the rosy campus life, and has him meeting other recurring characters such as Ozu (Aka. His Worst Friend) and Akashi, a girl who is his romantic interest for most of his club choices. He then endures two years of hardships associated with being unpopular with most and decides to do something about it, such as making a libelous movie of the leader of the movie club for example. The episode ends with time reversing and him choosing a different club activity in the next episode.

The Tatami Galaxy - Review 3

Honestly, this series took me the longest to watch, and even after a week I had not been able to watch it. After one episode I often found myself inattentive or asleep on the couch. There is a considerable amount of comedy and plotline, however it does not have the impact factor that has managed to keep me interested. The characters are interesting but never seem to get enough character development in an episode before they go back in time and I think each activity would have benefitted from another episode or two, even at the cost of a few of the activities being excluded. However, the time loop concept and how he learnt from each of the events was a rather good concept, and allowed him to avoid repeating activities, which would have been boring to the viewer…. as even if seeing them set off fireworks at a crowd of people is funny, after 12 episodes it would have gotten very old. The best part of the series would have to be the ending few episodes, these were actually well throught out and tied all the time loops together quite well.

The Tatami Galaxy - Review 4

As it was with Irabu’s Office, the art style is…. different from the norm. Whilst Irabu’s Office merged real life and anime, Tatami Galaxy merges anime with characters that look like they came off a white A4 sheet of paper. Whilst I wouldnt consider it the best design I have seen, the concept is interesting, and helps draw out the detail of the backgrounds. The characters have a mix of normal and over the top expressions, that work well with the design choice, and do have a sort of realistic look to them. Backgrounds on the other hand are absolutely brilliant, I like how they have added to much detail to them a majority of the time and even if you consider the character designs to be simplistic, the backgrounds will definately change your mind about the entirety of the design being bland.

The Tatami Galaxy - Review 5

Opening Theme
Koinu to Ame no Bīto by Asian Kung-Fu Generation
I wouldn’t call this a fun opening theme, but it is very interesting in terms of animation. The animation has a camera scrolling around the corridors of a club activity building whilst credits and characters come flying at the camera… I did like this a lot and thought it was very creative. The song however was average and not something I would readily listen to in my free time.

Ending Theme
Kami-sama no Iu Tōri  by Junji Ishiwatari, Yoshinori Sunahara and Etsuko Yakushimaru
Hold onto your hats everyone because I shall say something I very rarely say on this blog. The ending theme was much better then the opening theme. The song was rather slow paced, however it had the same charms as the ending theme of Moon Phase, and was overall plesant as both the main ending theme, and theme of the DVD’s menus. The animation used the Tatami theme to its advantage, by turning tatami tiles into a sort of constantly shifting floorplan of different colours which was very effective.

The music was very soft, and audiably non-existant I found for the most part of the series. Upon closer listening, I found that the music tracks they had were good, however too simplistic and were drowned out by all the other elements of the series. The voice acting cast however was fairly good with Shintaro Asanuma, Keiji Fujiwara and Maaya Sakamoto who voice Student, Higuchi and Akashi respectively are all voice actors I have heard before and lived up to a standard I would have expected of them. Hiroyuki Yoshino who voices Ozu does the best job at voicing his seemingly multiple personality character and his voice is well suited to him.

The Tatami Galaxy - Review 6

At the very least, they have included a large number of bonus extras for your watching pleasure. Included are:

  • A Behind the Scenes look at the production of the series.
  • Bonus mini-episodes totalling 22ish minutes.
  • Textless Openings and Endings
  • Trailers for Welcome to Irabu’s Office, The Tatami Galaxy (Uhh….) and House of Five Leaves (A Noitamina title that is being released over here THIS MONTH).
  • Several Promo and TV Spot Trailers.

Also included is the Siren Visual Slipcases which are as always, a nice little thing to have, but I am a little bit disappointed that unlike most others, there is no unique artwork on the front of the case, instead having the same cover as the DVD cover.

The Tatami Galaxy - Review 7

Personally, I cannot recommend this title like I have most others. This title would come under Siren’s “Alternative Interests” anime series, and unlike Irabu’s Office, did not really appeal to me. However, if you trust the comments of those on the facebook page, the feedback seems a lot more positive. The series does have some good points, especially in voice acting and design, but I feel falls below the bar in storyline.

Final Score

Storyline: D
Character Development: D
Design: A
OP/ED Themes: B
Music: D
Voice Acting: A
Extras: A
Personal Opinion: D+

Final Score: D+

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

7 COMMENTS

  1. D+ ? Surely, it deserves better.

    The story, at first, is overwhelming because of the constant repetition of pretty much the same events. But the kicker here is that, unlike Endless Eight, there are very small and subtle instances of character development. There are icky little details that one can’t notice when watched at a stretch. Watching one or two episodes a day should allow one ample room to think about the differences.

    The first 9 episodes are a major build up to (the fabulous) last 2 episodes. It’s when everything falls into place and it all makes sense.

    But hey, to each his own, right 🙂 ?

    • Haha, perhaps I was a bit harsh. But the storyline was really painful to get through and even after the first couple of episodes, I was really struggling to even motivate myself to continue….. I do agree through that the ending was really good and hey, I do think a lot of people would enjoy it….. those people not including me =P.

      If I get some free time, I might take your advice and watch one or two episodes a day…. I prefer to watch my anime in bulk, so it will be an interesting change.

  2. Here’s a tip — The only thing that determines how good an anime is, like music and other muses, is how much it can hold one’s interest, from beggining to end, each time it is viewed/heard. If it can’t hold one’s interest, it isn’t very good no matter how exciting it may be. Similarly, if it can’t get the audience excited, it isn’t very good no matter how interesting it may be. Hope that helps.

  3. no way! this was my fav release so far and i loved the opening theme song! Please do watch it again 🙂 It’s such a great series 😀

  4. Unfortunately, I’m afraid I didn’t find your review adequate, and needless to say i disagreed with your thoughts. That said it’s your review so that hardly matters.

    I found a few areas where you didn’t seem to have understood the characters/story [examples removed for brevity’s sake] to be distracting. Your appraisal of the show managed to take a back seat to the occasional error.

    I think the pace of delivery was exhilarating and refreshing, and though it might be hard to keep up with the subtitles I don’t find that to be a detraction, rather i think the series would feature an added layer of humor to a fluent speaker of the language.

    I also loved the opening song, I thought it was lively and refreshing, conversely I thought the ending music was, while very good, very ‘winding-down’ and, physically (not emotionally), depressing. My appraisal of the music is that the opening theme reflects the ultimate spirit of the series whereas the ending music reflects the plodding repetition of the time-loop plot device. Hence it’s being used at the start of the final episode rather than the end.

    I just noticed my girlfriend’s posted here, she’s said the positive stuff 😛 I’ll just leave off here.

  5. One of the more artistically relevant titles in the last few years. It’s not surprising that your average anime fan wouldn’t like it, but someone with an appreciation for design choices and bold narrative elements should be able to appreciate it.
    Masaaki Yuasa is, without exaggeration, the most important director in anime currently. It’s disheartening, but not particularly surprising, to see him slightly under-appreciated, but this is often the case with those one the frontier versus those in the safety net of proven grounds.

    For a more literary crowd, perhaps…

  6. you gave that derivative bore Arrietty an A…and gave this and Kaiba such crappy scores…guess you’re into those simple cliche plots

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