The Tatami Galaxy

The Tatami Galaxy (四畳半神話大系) is a 2004 Japanese varsity novel written by Tomihiko Morimi and published by Ohta Publishing. Its first-person narrator is an unnamed upperclassman at Kyoto University reminiscing on the misadventures of his previous years of campus life, with each of the four chapters taking place in parallel universes in which he is enrolled in a different student society.

A sequel, The Tatami Time Machine Blues (四畳半タイムマシンブルース), was published in 2020, which combines the characters of The Tatami Galaxy with the plot of Makoto Ueda's play and film Summer Time Machine Blues. English translations of both novels were published by HarperCollins in December 2022 and November 2023, respectively.

The Tatami Galaxy was adapted into an 11-episode anime television series produced by Madhouse and directed by Masaaki Yuasa, which aired on Fuji TV's late-night Noitamina programming block in 2010. The adaptation was critically acclaimed, winning the 2010 Japan Media Arts Festival Grand Prize in the Animation Division and the 2011 Tokyo Anime Award in the Television Category. An original net animation adaptation of The Tatami Time Machine Blues produced by Science Saru premiered in September 2022 on Hulu in the United States and Disney+ internationally.

Plot

The Tatami Galaxy follows an unnamed third-year student at Kyoto University, using parallel universes as a plot device to explore how his life would have differed had he joined a particular student society (called a "circle" in Japan). The original novel follows four different timelines. The first has him joining the Film Ablutions Club where he works under the tyrannical rule of upperclassman Jōgasaki, the second timeline has him answer a "Disciples Wanted" notice where he is joined by fellow classman Ozu and Akashi to perform tasks for the eccentric Seitarō Higuchi, the third timeline has him joining the Mellow Softball Club, a cult-like group that he ultimately leaves, before he is thrown into a conflict involving Ozu and Jōgasaki's pristine love doll Kaori, and the fourth timeline has him join the underground Lucky Cat Chinese Food group, which he ultimately leaves due to their cruel methods.

In each timeline, the protagonist constantly runs into the devious Ozu who, despite his malicious and diabolical mind, considers him his closest friend. He also meets Akashi, a girl who is a year younger than him whom he slowly develops a close romantic kinship with, thanks to a mochiguman keychain she lost. Other characters he frequently meets, in differing situations thanks to the parallel universe theme, are the eccentric master Seitarō Higuchi, the jock-like film club leader Masaki Jōgasaki, and the lively alcoholic dental hygienist Ryōko Hanuki. Within each further timeline, the protagonist is convinced that life would be much different if he had chosen another club, mainly to avoid people like Ozu, only for this to be disproven with each timeline. His closeness to Akashi also changes from that of mutual respect, to that of genuine love.

He encounters a fortune teller who tells him that he is to pursue some kind of chance that he must take, adding that even if he was to pass it up, it will still come to him at some point. The prediction is "Colosseo", with the protagonist finding something in each timeline that seems to have a loose connection to it. This culminates in the last timeline: the protagonist decides that he no longer wants to attend any meetings or meet anyone, and finds himself in an endless universe of four-and-a-half mat tatami rooms (the titular Tatami Galaxy). He traverses the endless Tatami Galaxy for eighty days (from his perspective), during which he discovers that each tatami room is actually an alternate timeline. Coming to the conclusion that he misses his friends and that no matter what he did, he was never going to achieve a "rose-colored campus life", he finally escapes the Tatami Galaxy.

Each timeline ends with the protagonist, and a few of the associated characters, chasing Ozu onto a bridge above the Kamo River Delta, following him pulling one too many devious actions. A swarm of moths fly in (during which the final timeline reveals had come from the Tatami Galaxy) and coats the entire area. It always ends with Akashi running in terror from the moths (her biggest phobia) and Ozu falling into the Delta and breaking his leg. The protagonist comforts and later asks Akashi out (telling the reader that he doesn't want to "bore" them about his new relationship with her), and meets with Ozu in the hospital where he makes amends with him. The first three chapters end with a malicious Ozu telling the protagonist that he likes to show his "love" to him with his weird habits, while the final chapter has the newly appreciative protagonist turn the tables on Ozu's "affection".

Characters

• Protagonist / "Me" (私)
• An unnamed college student in Kyoto reflecting on his past two years of college life. He entered college with dreams of finding a "rose-colored campus life" and the love of a "raven-haired maiden," but is continually disillusioned when he is unable to achieve this ideal. He is shy, self-regarding, and easily manipulated by others.

• Ozu (小津)
• A troublemaking student who claims he is bound to the protagonist by the black thread of fate, and who often encourages the protagonist to make morally questionable choices. His mischievous nature is personified in his pale and unsettling appearance, resembling a yōkai.

• Akashi (明石)
• An engineering student who is commonly (but not always) the center of the protagonist's affections, and who often appears in the same club that the protagonist joins. She has a cold and rational personality, but shows hints of softness and helpfulness towards the protagonist. She suffers from a severe fear of moths.

• Seitarō Higuchi (樋口 清太郎)
• Though he claims be a god of matchmaking in the first episode, Higuchi—also referred to as "Master Higuchi", or simply "the Master" (Shishō)—is an eighth-year super senior living in the same dorm as the protagonist. He has a wise, distant, and nonchalant personality, and is always seen wearing a yukata. Higuchi, Hanuki, the ramen stall owner, and Jōgasaki were formerly classmates; Higuchi has an ongoing rivalry with the lattermost, called the "proxy-proxy war".

• Masaki Jōgasaki (城ヶ崎 マサキ)
• An eighth-year super senior and president of the movie circle. Though handsome and popular, he is privately lecherous and owns a love doll named Kaori. He often takes an antagonistic role relative to the protagonist, and is often assisted by Ozu in a way that is detrimental to the protagonist's progress, in spite of the fact that Ozu is helping the protagonist at the same time. Has an ongoing rivalry with Higuchi.

• Ryōko Hanuki (羽貫 涼子)
• A dental hygienist and former classmate of Higuchi and Jōgasaki. A frequent drinker, she drastically loses her sense of judgement when inebriated; aware of this, she is cautious about choosing who she goes drinking with.

• Kaori (香織)
• A love doll owned by Jōgasaki.

• Aijima (相島)
• A subordinate in the film circle who secretly leads the Secret Society Lucky Cat Chinese Restaurant.

• Keiko Higuchi (樋口 景子)
• A person the protagonist believes to be an elegant girl with whom he exchanges letters. She is actually Akashi, who writes the letters to the protagonist as a prank at Ozu's behest.

• Fortune teller (老婆)
• An old woman who appears in every episode, almost always along Kiyamachi Street, and tells the protagonist (often but not always at his behest) to seize the opportunities before him (or a variation thereof). She increases the price for her services by ¥1000 in each subsequent episode.

• Cat Ramen stall owner (猫ラーメン店主)
• The owner of the ramen shop the protagonist favors. He is mostly silent, occasionally putting in a short, new insight into the protagonist's current conversations or problems. He occasionally takes on a more active role in the protagonist's adventures, always a helpful one.

• Johnny (ジョニー)
• A cowboy representing the protagonist's libido, who constantly bickers with the protagonist.

• Tamura (田村)
• A character from The Tatami Time Machine Blues. He is a college freshman from 25 years in the future who helped build a time machine and tested it out. He is later revealed to be the future child of Akashi and, most likely, the protagonist.

Media

Reception

The Tatami Galaxy won the grand prize in the animation category at the 14th Japan Media Arts Festival on December 8, 2010, making it the first television series to win the award, with the jury describing the series in their justification as a "richly expressive work that turns the limitations of TV on its head" and complimenting its "unique scene layouts, characters' actions and color scheme."[25][26] It also won the Television Category award at the 10th Tokyo Anime Awards in 2011.[27]

In 2019, Polygon staff named The Tatami Galaxy as one of the best anime of the 2010s; writer Julia Lee commented, "This is my all-time favorite anime. It's wordy, it's fun, and it has this great, over exaggerated art style".[28] In a 2019 Forbes article about the best anime of the 2010s decade, Lauren Orsini considered it to be one of the five best anime of 2010; she wrote, "With thoughtful wordplay and deep insight into the human condition, this Bildungsroman bridges fantasy and reality with a cast of characters just on the other side of absurd".[29]

External links

• Official Japanese website of the television series
• Detailed posts on individual episodes at AniPages Daily
• Review of the program at Twitch Film