Tatami Galaxy

all this while we spent our lives hoping for solely great things to occur in every phase we go through. one of those phases is undoubtedly college life which has a remarkable impact considering it’s an advanced stage of our transition into adultery. this makes me notice the reason why most of the best anime series i’ve watched so far revolved around college life theme like Honey and Clover, and now it's Tatami Galaxy (Yojōhan Shinwa Taikei). honestly I couldn’t emphasize enough why this series is a masterpiece since nearly aspect in it is notably unique, unorthodox, and thought provoking.

the story follows an unnamed protagonist called Watashi – literally “I” in Japanese, who’s looking forward to experiencing a “rose-colored campus life”, but once again reality is our ultimate enemy and not all things would go as planned, right? Watashi stumbled upon numerous unpredictable events from jumping into eccentric club activities, getting acquainted with a guy who secretly fetishizes a love doll and indoor plastic breasts rock climbing (yeah YEAH i know), lovely crush akashi, to someone named ozu who brings him nothing but disaster, at least according to Watashi. once in a while he would also meet a fortune teller who keeps on saying similar things to him, that opportunity is always dangling right in front of his eyes and if he doesn't grab it his life would remain unchanged.

never had i thought endless repetition would make a series interesting and Tatami Galaxy successfully wiped it away. it has a very rich and challenging narrative that goes 10 miles of words per sec but they're not simply just words being spewed here and there. the script is very remarkable that each sentence will drown you deeper into various thoughts every time you reread it. other than the narration i gotta applaud the animation style as well. watching Tatami Galaxy is like viewing an endless motion of art from the beginning till the end. they aren't afraid of playing with lines, colors, up to the point of breaking the classic barrier of anime 'style' by combining motion graphic with live action outlook as seen in one of the b&w scenes below.

for some viewers Tatami Galaxy might feel like a long road trip to reach the top of the mountain. to me, the cathartic ending serves a decent experience to this overall 'trip'. the message its trying to present doesn't feel preachy at all and it's enjoyable to relate instead. i won't start with the metaphors because they are scattered everywhere throughout the show and furthermore everyone might have different interpretations regarding those but i love how Tatami Galaxy will always be there to remind us about the basic principle in life: never regret anything.

allowing ourselves to wallow in remorse would only take us nowhere anyway so why not get our feet off the ground to find something that we can do about it? and Tatami Galaxy perfectly shows how difficult it is to cope with such matter. as Ozu said "it doesn't matter which path you took, you'd keep ending up where you are now." you know, possibilities are either spread across the galaxy or simply a 4½ tatami room; but friendly reminder that they're actually always placed inside our hands.

as a cherry on top here's a chunk of Tatami Galaxy's fine soundtrack by the genius and versatile composer, Michiru Oshima. it's really gorgeous that i haven't been able to put it down ever since i finished this series and yes wished i had watched Tatami Galaxy at earlier points in my life. 

Assassination Classroom

after neglecting it midway for almost a month I'm glad that I could finally catch up with this series! Assassination Classroom (or Ansatsu Kyoshitsu) started off as a manga series written and illustrated by Yusei Matsui, which eventually hit a popular mark in Japan with over 10 million circulated copies. the plot itself sparked my curiosity at first like How could a bunch of junior high students assassinate an inhuman creature who's powerful enough to blow 70% part of planet moon?? well apparently that's the main thread that connects us to class 3-E of kunigigaoka junior high school.

first of all, does the characters' design remind you of something? Yeah the anime is directed by Seiji Kishi who previously did Dangan Ronpa, so no wonder the vibe is rather familiar. The main character in Assassination Classroom itself is a big yellow octopus who plans to destroy the earth within a year period. Equipped with a special ability to accelerate in speed of mach 20 it's definitely tough to knock him off even by using the entire forces of government's special unit. But this Korosensei has another deal to offer, in which he would like to teach the specific underdog Class 3-E how to assassinate him before he blows up planet earth in a snap. The whacky plot continues as we discover unique students in this class with their own interesting characteristics. There's Nagisa, who's practically the main protag with striking baby blue twin tails and superbly collected and observant personality, also Karma (coughs my golden son coughs), a slick minded and brilliant student who got thrown off to class 3-E because of an unpleasant event in the past. As the story goes there are many other remarkable characters that got introduced like the special agent Karasuma or a professional yet hilarious hitwoman, Irina Jelavic (Bitch-sensei!).

Contrary to the title itself, Assassination Classroom doesn't serve bloody sequences let alone the actual act of assassination itself, well at least until now. Instead it provides a 'sweet' progress of how Korosensei embraces their students just like his own precious children then patiently lectures them so they could achieve great remarks and not getting bullied by other students in higher classes. At certain points we are taken into conflicting process from despising a character with seemingly bad motive to realizing that some motives are only classified as bad when we look at the mere surface. Korosensei might seem sus enough with his initial mission but later there are other parties with even more dubious plans coming up that might or might not lead to way worse result.

I know it sounds pretty weird to call this series 'heartwarming' but despite of its raw premise Assassination Classroom is indeed enjoyable to watch and tends to leave us with lingering smile at the end of each episode. I could relate to the students of class 3-E so much that are struggling to go on even though their lack of self confidence keep them below the ground. The X factor they need is a right figure to motivate and guide them to spark the inner abilities that lie within themselves, and the figure is none other than Korosensei himself, of course. 

For the drawback I kinda wished they would focus more on each student instead of introducing more and more assassins along the way. Maybe it would be a little packed considering the amount of kids isn't anywhere near few But hey, since even Korosensei only wants his own students to assassinate himself then why not making use of the chance to put these adorable kids under the spotlights? Furthermore we're also curious of the lecturer's past and the closest way to reveal it is through his utmost trusted companies, yes, the students of class 3-E. I think it's such a unique bond that you won't always encounter in most generic series.

Overall Assassination Classroom is a decent pick when you're looking for a light and fun series to lift up your day. It's also enriched with tickling humor that are situated in smart sequences. I took a sneak peak on its manga chapters and apparently the anime is pretty loyal with the contents. The first season hasn't even finished yet for now but considering the hype it builds I heard they're already preparing for a second season, not to mention a live action movie on the line and the on-going manga itself. Assassination Classroom seems to run for nothing but a bright future, at least until we can determine what would eventually come to Korosensei's fate at the end.