The Tatami Galaxy is an interesting show. The art style might ring some bells if you have seen Ping Pong the Animation or Kaiba, both from the same director Yuasa Masaaki. It´s based on a novel from Tomihiko Morimi, which I’m yet to read, but it shows that the story is wasn´t designed for an anime and the series storytelling must go to unconventional places in order to deliver the story correctly. The show follows our nameless main protagonist during his college days. He joins a club and his hopes for the perfect student life are crushed by the circumstances. While I don´t want to spoil anything, it’s important to remark the main mechanic of the show. The show kicks off with the protagonist joining a club in the first year and dealing with this choice until his third year. When we begin the next one, he decides for a different club in the first year and a different story unfolds. This might not sound that realistic as I claimed at the beginning, but bear with me. The storytelling changes further into the series, nonetheless knowing this mechanic is better to not be caught off-guard in the beginning. That is all that there is to say regarding the plot, apart from celebrating the ending as it's probably my favorite part of the show.
From now on, the story keeps developing with a number of recurrent cast members. The stories often sound like that might actually have some truth in them, but with a narrator that is obviously exaggerating what is happening for the sake of comedy. The way on how these unrealistic stories occur in a college context give the series some kind of realistic feel, it´s the kind of tale you would hear from a dizzy classmate while resting in campus. While the character development is almost inexistent apart from the main protagonist, this is not a bad thing. The characters don´t evolve, the audience just learns more about them and their past actions take a different light. This is a really cool concept and one of the strongest points in Tatami Galaxy. The art is also really striking and one of the main reasons why I started reading about the show. And it doesn´t disappoint, it stays true to its unique style until the end, even mixing it up with photography at some points to create an even more interesting atmosphere. The connection between art/plot it´s also really clever, hard to realize to some extent but really cool to discuss. The OP and ED also live up to the rest of the quality of the show, both gorgeous in audio, visuals and meaning.
In the end, Tatami Galaxy comes out as a puzzle. It´s hard to grasp at the begging, but in the end everything (from the plot to the art) combines into a coherent big image. This is probably the main reason of why the show became so popular, the episodic format tends to be weak in coherence and this show uses that to its advantage. But, of course, there are also bad things.
The first thing is a detail, but it can be a relevant one, especially if you are reading the subtitles/listening in any other language other than your mother tongue. The talking and monologs get fast, like real fast, and it´s really easy to get lost in track and miss precious information. The pause button is going to be your friend in these situations, so don´t be afraid to use it. Of course, this is a circumstantial detail, but still important. Then there´s the middle chapters. It would be cruel to call them bad because they maintain quality, but the storytelling just fails in these ones. We start with an episodic format and end with a coherent big image, so it´s no surprise that the middle ended up suffering. The pace is slow, the stories are not that interesting until later on and the characters fail to use all of their potential as characters. The finale makes up for this joining the stories, but the middle was sad to watch for me. I would have given the series a solid 10 if it weren´t for these episodes, but it´s also true that the show just wouldn´t have worked without them. It´s also true that the experiences in these stories just didn´t get me as much as the other, so it´s highly probably that you might feel some kind of connection with them and thus enjoying them much more. There´s also the fact that the man in a dress “joke” is thrown away a few times, yet it´s not played for laughs. It´s more of a part of the plot than a transphobic joke. It might bother you anyways, so watch out.
So yeah, it´s a good show. It has superb art, truly multifaceted characters and a finale that wraps up the plot in a brilliant way. With storytelling flaws at the middle and some unnecessary details, but still worth the watch.
