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.