Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei

An insight into University life the parents knew to be true but is afraid to admit it is how their children might end up. The Tatami Galaxy introduces these horrors directly to their well-groomed kids in the form of an educational, animated series. It is informative, illuminative and it is to be laughed at.

Released two years after Kaiba, directed by the same man; no anime had my eyes roll faster in reading subtitles. Even Shaft productions required assistance in the form of wall scribbles.

The Tatami Galaxy is an unusual storytelling of an unnamed, 20 year-old student, participating in club activities to find true love. We ... saw the most important and life defining moments over his two years at University from different propositions. Each time, I laughed at his miserable attempts to see rainbows and roses only to ultimately steer into the same hole, drenched, forever alone. We know him only as “Watashi”, a pessimist, with the power to turn back time and re-run his life. Throughout the 11 episodes, the MC continues to do so until he reaches a point of satisfaction. For a series based around a student and campus life, the protagonist was hardly seen attending lectures and there were little University specific relations. Like watching the life of a true college dropout, which to be fair, he was. A stereotypical good-for-nothing, unexpectedly, meets up for the “very first time”, but on multiple occasions, with Ozu, his compatriot, who is very sly and is a great talker. He is also an ogre. Instead of being the MC’s right-hand man to help him hit on girls he so desperately desires, Ozu only brings “Watashi” bad luck and misery. Each time our protagonist presses the reset button, Ozu always, somehow, tracks him down as if they were connected by a “black thread of fate”.

The life of “Watashi” is so depressing it makes most viewers feel lucky. Betrayed by friends and had his brand new bike stolen in front of his eyes, he wasn’t able to enjoy the simple things many of us take for granted. The only roads for a character such as him to head to are pretty obvious, even for a 13-year old. While this might explain why the series is rated PG-13, “Watashi’s” and Ozu’s characters should not be mistaken as plain or transparent. For these two characters reveal different sides of their personalities more towards the ends of the series and might surprise some. The supporting characters pop up whenever necessary for repeated performances or otherwise, but were mainly there to provide us with humour and create new playgrounds for the director to plant foreshadow and clever linkages. Their relationships with the main character were never allowed to build upon because the restart button was applied episodically. Having said that, the director had to allow some elements from the previous dealings to seep through in order for him to produce a complete conclusion; the result is our characters act as if they have some sort of partial amnesia.

Akashi might not be a tsundere but she certainly is one of the coldest girls out there. She is not the best looking but then again, the art style is not the right instrument to make her so. The only other living creature with her face shown was Ryouko Hanuki, who has really long eye lashes and a decent fashion sense. She is older than Akashi and is more mature. Her face matches proudly to her figure and is without a doubt, the hottest character in the series. As a PG-13, The Tatami Galaxy has some arousing scenes and mature scripting that are probably not appropriate.

Simple and jagged drawings standing in front of real-life imageries could be considered abstract art to some, keeping in tune with Yuasa Masaaki's other works, it is an acquired taste. If it was committing to the same art style as the original creator, then fair enough. But The Tatami Galaxy is based on a novel so the art gets no sympathy from me. It was nowhere near as fluid as Kaiba. Many scenes are in black & white; especially when the protagonist is alone. Other scenes are sepia or unusually coloured like different roses as if everything on screen is dyed into the same colour. Sound-wise is very average, the sound director didn't need to work very hard as all he needed to do was play the lone voice of “Watashi” half the time.
The opening and ending theme songs are played behind tatami multiplying like bacteria and Yakushimaru's cute voice for the ending theme song was always looked forward to.


The Tatami Galaxy has some great scripting, often genius and amusing. But such long winded conversations and monologues require obligatory scenes to fit the screen time. The fast monologue in a different language is annoying. I like Japanese rap songs but this, without some beats, is mere noise. By around seven's episode it started to hurt my ears. If it was fast dialogue between two or more people, it might have been acceptable.

There should be an Art/Cultural genre defining series such as these which often teaches its viewers meanings of life and remind us of what is out there in life. There are two ways of looking at this series; call it intelligently written for episodes are connected with reused scenes and situations, or label it as making-up new acts to reach the same rundown. The second one looks more reasonable for many episodes have too many plot holes in their attempts to link and filling gaps are never smooth. But realistically, it's a combination of both.

The final episode has many questions answered but the Time Lord element was there for viewers to accept without challenge. A surprise end to the series which changed my preferences of certain characters and my attachments to some, felt like a run-and-hit and even a little done by. But thinking back, I realised it was a sagacious piece of work that deserved some praise.

A very monologue and dialogue heavy series that doesn’t have enough action to play out, protagonist talks to its viewers on-air and asks questions we ask ourselves. What felt like a taunting task to watch was quite rewarding at curtain call. Not a bad anime for a small cast with cheap production, but it made me work hard with few immediate rewards in between.

If you liked this, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is a good bet.


(Thanks to Vis4Vanity for recommending this series)

Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei is one of those rare anime that doesn't conform to the norm in terms of storytelling and art direction, something that's quite refreshing. This coming of age anime is packed with beautiful art and animations, great use of symbolism, and poetic dialogue.

Its unique story structure helps make every episode act like a stand-alone episode, while also being a puzzle that leads up to a very satisfying conclusion by the final episode. It's an interesting way to tell a story, although it can get very repetitive and predictable.

On the other hand, I find the plot to be quite dull, and the presentation/direction ... is best described as pretentious. The narration comes across as bombastic, with excessively wordy and verbose dialogue that doesn't always mean anything. There's a lot of emphasis on style, but not enough substance. Oh and speaking of dialogue... boy is it fast compared to most other anime out there.

The speedy dialogue is very much like a double-edged sword. Having to pause every so often in order to process the fast-paced dialogue can become a frustrating experience from the get-go. When most of one's concentration is focused on keeping up with the narration's speed, it becomes difficult to simultaneously notice and enjoy background elements/scenes. The main character Watari often switches from one topic to another completely random topic within seconds, making it difficult to figure out the point of what he's trying to say at times. On the bright side, there's extra ideas and content squeezed into each episode, which is always a good thing.

Overall, this anime is truly unique in many ways, but that doesn't always equate to it being “genius." To be specific, I'd say it's more along the lines of creative, poetic, avant-garde, and experimental. Even though this anime is personally not my cup of tea, it's still a one-of-a-kind anime that’s worth trying out at least once in your life.

Alarmingly in tune with my own experiences of life, The Tatami Galaxy feels like something I should be deeply moved by and passionately in favour of, and yet, I'm not. While the series admirably leans in to the ambition of it's premise through the fantastic visual style, inventive animation and unique methods of storytelling, these strong points are left hanging by the show's apparent lack of depth, and so the experience of watching it feels hollow come the conclusion.

What the Tatami Galaxy suffers from so greatly is how it only manages to explore it's ideas on the surface. From as early as the first 10 ... minutes, you can immediately deduce what the point of the series is and what the story will culminate into. And yet, the show nominates to continue along this exact path for the remainder of it's 9 formulaic episodes, slowly revealing it's hand to the audience like it's meant to come with any surprise.

In many ways, the quality of this series is strangely contradictory. The extreme level of focus that is put on exploring the protagonist's endless possible lives is betrayed by how linear and indistinct many of those lives are. Because an overwhelming majority of the series is spent being episodic, the show's attempt at character development is unfulfilling come the conclusion. Despite being clearly telegraphed, the show manages to culminate into a fantastic climax, showcasing all the rich creativity, nuanced introspection and emotional core that the series has become revered for. Because of these inconsistencies, The Tatami Galaxy falls right down the middle for me. It managed to surprise me in it's own unremarkable way, and for that I have a conflicted sense of appreciation for it.

For those willing to bear with the faults of a show just to see the full scope of it's artistic vision, appreciate stories that you're able to gain a lot from on repeat viewing or just like shows that give you an experience through the way they're watched, I can cautiously recommend The Tatami Galaxy. Otherwise, if you don't have a tolerance for monotony or prefer stories with compelling character development and introspection, I suggest you look elsewhere.

"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean

That's what Tatami is all about, for real. It gets such a high score on MAL, widely being praised everywhere, because The Tatami Galaxy also speaks to the audience about this, and some people is just really a perfectionist in the first place which makes the unnamed protagonist (Watashi) relatable for them.

Having a message to convey to the audiences doesn't equate to a good story, and having surreal and "distinctive" artstyle doesn't mean the artstyle is good. But still needless to say, they exists here, and it adds up some merit ... for it. And in the end, fun things are fun.

So here it is guys, my updated review of Tatami Galaxy, and of course, it's still a 6/10. Keep in mind that spoilers will be inevitable for this review due to Tatami Galaxy's story structure, which is some perfectionist guy keep resetting time to redo his 2 years to seek for the perfect life he refer as "Rose colored campus life", and episode 1-10 shows how he began his new life in a different club after his attempt to reset time.

My first problem for Tatami is well, it doesn't really have a genre in which it excel itself upon. I've seen better mysteries (Haruhi, Shinsekai Yori, etc), I've seen WAY more better romances (Honey & Clover, Spice & Wolf, Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, even Kimi ni Todoke which is a really simple romance, etc), and also I've seen many better comedies (Inferno Cop, Kill la Kill, etc).

The characterization of this anime was viewed from Watashi's perspective, each time he resets time, you'll find more characters and learn more about the already introduced character about their life, and of course this protagonist develops from his stubbornness in the very end, which resonates well with the story theme, adding the quality merits of the show remarkably. But aside on Watashi's character development and one life lessons it constantly emphasized upon on how there is no perfections in life, I don't see anything special about this anime. Perhaps I have never experienced things like Watashi did, but for sure, a lot of people do. If you found the protagonist really relatable with you, then good for you, since according to the fans, it's the charm of this series. Unfortunately, I failed to perceive it so.

Going deeper through this series, I'd like to say that I got pretty disappointed knowing that the time travel cause has never been explored (well some people complaint upon ERASED on being so but then hey why didn't anyone who complaint about it got bothered with Tatami), and I found that none of the characters have any backstory to justify why they acted like that, which the most important thing for me goes to the protagonist himself, since he was so stickler to his "Rose colored campus life". One doesn't simply become so idealistic to their life like him out of nowhere, IMO. Side characters here can barely attach to me because the story being too protagonist-centric. The side characters is nothing abysmal, they have their quirks quite well, but nothing really fleshed out, but it's totally understandable since the narrations is Watashi-centric, which sadly, crash with one of its themes presentation, which leads to my biggest issue with The Tatami Galaxy.

The biggest complaint for The Tatami Galaxy of mine, is the romances, which this part is that I should say it's below average. Sure the show trying to imply to us that you can't do the impossible (this is why I wonder on why people who likes Tatami likes TTGL) and just chase the best opportunity that this world has offered you, but is his final choice really the best opportunity for Watashi that he can do after the 2 years? No, not for me. Regarding this opportunity, I wouldn't deny that it's heavily revolve with the romance, since one of Watashi's prior goals is to "find a long raven haired girl". And here's where I think, the buildup to make said "opportunity" interesting is poorly executed. Why? Let's see into the character persona now. Which one is more talkactive? Watashi or Ozu? It's Ozu right? Extroverted guy should get along with introverted girl, because it gives a nice romance dynamics, as one would be the talker and the other would be more of a hearer. This was spoken by me as an introverted guy myself. I like assertive girl more than the silent one, and that's should be the opposite for those guys who talks much IRL. Pairing an introvert with an introvert would be bad as hell, as noone would take the initiative to do something. There is one girl which is really assertive (shown on episode 6-8), which is for me, the better couple for Watashi. You might say that Watashi has been given an opportunity (the mochiguman) to get with his goal, and I have to admit that this empowered said opportunity value by a bit, but is that mean that he doesn't have one with others? I don't think so, if he just didn't run on the episode 6-8, he will be hers. The winning girl character seems to have attached to most of the viewers as how I see that she got much favorites too here on MAL, about 65% compared to the protagonist Watashi, but she just don't stick well with me. Throwing one or two scene where she talked with him can't make me attached to a character (like I said before, other characters are barely affectionate), besides the fact that I never liked ice-cold personality in the first place, there's always exceptions. One of my favorite characters is a tsundere which is well, a trope that I used to generally dislikes even more, but the story can make me emotionally attached to her thanks to how it gives her a lot of perspectiveness, which Tatami lacks of besides having explore other characters activities on each loop. Love is a double-sided relationship, and failing to achieve this means that makes a bad love story.

Another part I dislike is that he went to a sex doll which isn't even his belongings first (episode 7) before seeking through his penfriend (episode 8). A sane person will do the contrary for me. It might be not that important for some people but that scene is what infuriates me the most to this anime that I give a heavy facepalm.

Aside for my "rant", I actually enjoyed some moments of this anime, notably the end of episode 1 when he got his first misfortune, and how Ozu appears out of nowhere. So that means it's not that it gives me cringe from the beginning of the story until the end but rather, has a mixed feelings on it in terms of enjoyment. People often complaint on how fast the protagonist narrates the story and that's not necessarily a problem to me, but yeah here goes my reminder for it.

As for the OST, I can't say much, the OP is pretty refreshing, people usually liked the ED more, but it was just not for me. Some people also tend overanalyze on how on the last episode when the protagonist realized what he have done all the time and gained resolve to fix it, it's intentionally reversed to create the image that his way of thinking already been changed from being a dreamer to an opportunity seeker, but for me it's just how like most anime is, many other anime has their last episode OP played when the story ends too. And to be frank, the OP of episode 1-10 hints on the twists happens on episode 10, but can still keep it subtle that it won't spoils you like many other OP/EDs.

People generally attracted to its wacky and surreal artstyle because its "distinctive" but surrealism=/=instantly good for me, and moreover has a two off-model scenes which I used to rant a lot about it (The weird elbow shape on episode 10 and the bag disappearance) but I don't really care that much as for now, but more of because it's being surreal just for the sake of being surreal. My favorite series of all time is heavily surreal and it has a very good reasons of it because it was told from the perspective of a character who has a severe delusions. I also don't mind with supernatural anime or any anime where the character is getting high for being surreal but in the end, Tatami doesn't have any of it. It's just an anime about how a guy strives for ideal life which will never going to happen. But that doesn't make that the art is horrible, it just doesn't adds so much to the quality (it adds a bit, really).

I don't know if you might been this idealist or perfectionist before but well I never have great expectations for life afterall. Also other personal reasons is that I'm a firm believer that romance relationship is once in a lifetime commitment so once again I have to reiterate my statement that, Watashi's final decisions is kinda, eh? But in the end, The Tatami Galaxy tries to destroy how many people expects too much about life, which makes you can relate to the protagonist much. It's a great message, I like it so much despite not struck me like other audiences, but the presentation of this theme to the story is just, meh.

So well if you feel like you're just a normal or below average guy who has been an idealist all the time, I recommend this anime for you highly. But if you look for a story which cares a lot about character dynamics, and want to also being attached to the side characters, or want a story that has a detailed explanation about how the world works, this series is weak on it so don't go for this one and just watch something like Legend of the Galactic Heroes where there is an actual narrator who become a Mr. Exposition with bunch of episodes and casts. But which elements does a great story must consists of for you? A detailed exposition which covers up all questions you have with even characterization? Or those that speaks to the audiences? Certainly both for me, but if I have to choose, I'll go with the former, unless the story intended to end it with an open interpretations.

Honestly speaking, this anime is more fitting to be a novel. In reality it has some wisdom to offer and themes to be discussed so I believe everyone has to give it a try because It's fun to talk about.

Firstly, there are a lot of positive reviews which are justified. From its glorious animation to the peculiar pace of narrating. After watching it you must sit down and think about the themes it brings to the table since you might be unsure of what you just watched. The mundane magic of our lives, the everyday decisions that move our lives forward and the people along ... the way are prominent themes and are very well executed even with the strange looking and sometimes whimsical settings and scenarios.

However, as stated in the beginning this is more of a novel. With the high pace of narration it's hard to follow not only with the subtitles on but even just listening to it. You must give it a 100% of your attention and with the amount of text you are reading you will hardly notice the beautiful animation. The theme is supposed to be our thoughts being high paced and all over the place but the anime should still be watchable. Also, if you have it in a book format you might be able to stop whenever you feel like is good for you, read at your own pace and digest the information it's offering without feeling like you are racing with the clock.

As I see it, this anime's beauty lies in its simplicity. People dig too deep and live out their fantasy of being modern philosophers and destroy something beautiful by overanalizing its themes, while this anime has more of a "talk with a friend about its relatability" vibe. For example, having your bike stolen, or getting embarassed in front of a girl you like.

In conclusion, you should try out the anime even if you find out that it's not your cup of tea. You can still talk about it and share the experience of trying it with other people online or IRL and have a blast talking about your mundane life through it.

I get what the message is here. I really do. In fact, I'm the guy who SHOULD be getting the most out of this series, considering I'm around the same age as the protagonist and have many similar experiences. But I felt like the message just fell flat, for various reasons.

The anime "The Tatami Galaxy" is an episodic anime, so the episodes, for the most part, don't relate to each other (aside from the fact that the protagonist is going back in time to relive a part of his life a different way each episode). Seeing the different ways the protagonist lived his life as ... well as the various running gags playing out differently each time was entertaining.

However, as I'm giving this series a 6/10, there are a few problems. First off, at LEAST one of the episodes was honestly just too weird for me. And this is coming from a guy who has watched a LOT of anime. I couldn't relate to the events happening and I couldn't tell if they were supposed to be played straight or played for comedy.

Second, and more importantly, I could tell that the series was building up to some sort of grand conclusion that tied everything together. The protagonist was going to find love, pick the right girl, etc. That's what was hinted at the whole time. But then the series wove another message into the story, and the big reveal of that came two episodes BEFORE the final episode. This left the final two episodes to have another random rewind, and those two episodes were honestly just tedious and boring.

Then the "real" ending. The real ending, in my opinion, was bad. First off, the protagonist realizes something about another main character that, honestly, I did not believe. The series did not do a good enough job convincing me of that point, so it fell horribly flat. Then, they finally get to that big "do the right thing" moment, and...they blow it off. The "resolution" happens in 3 seconds and then they LAUGH about not showing more of it. Yes, in the actual show.

So basically, for me, everything the show built up to fell flat. I'm the kind of guy that needs a good ending to tie a story together. If the ending doesn't satisfy me, ultimately it leaves the whole show in a bad light. If you can appreciate the journey a bit more than I do, or if you can except the premise they introduce at the end, you might really enjoy this series. I, on the other hand, found it only average.

The Tatami Galaxy is good but not that special as they said!

Lemme here to make fair review as much as i can without carried away by perfect score hype or lowest score near zero. The tatami galaxy story mostly around college student (we assume him as "watashi" cause take from mc pov) who wanna make campus life youth debut especially about fallen in love or finding the girlfriend. Anime type is episodic with if scenario if mc choose different choice like club or chase different girl scenario. If he failed, next episode will jump back to the past-time when he still in fresh year with ... different choices (different parallel world).

I will start with positive side from anime which i can appraise is unique style animation similar like cubism art type. For someone who wanna explore not your average art style, this anime is fit for you. This anime is also dare to try different than other usual romance or comedy or slice of life anime when usual anime is use idealistic character thinking or unrealistic settings meanwhile this anime delivered realistic setting in real life convert to animation media. Time travel-different world is good concept too.

Before continue to thing which have to be criticized, lemme make claim first, i can relate with this anime cause i'm still in college (now is almost my final year). Even though this anime wanna try to be different or unique but it still lack impact for me. The anime failed make me sympathize with character especially mc, Ozu just a bit sympathize. Just make me this straight, i feel mc is a loser who lost his way just hastily chase after for girlfriend so he is blind with what he already has near him. So what? The reason you are going to college just become love slave and not bother find best friend (socialize with other people) or never care about study in college? I must struggle to motivate myself continuing next episode. Even Ozu make me sympathize him slightly better than mc such as i don't like Ozu ruining mc life repeatedly at first but he get what he did at later. I can feel dynamic tension from Ozu at last episode but not with mc. Akashi cover the weakness from mc so i can finish this anime.

Speaking of which time travel-different world, i said before this is a good concept but unfortunately anime failed make story become dynamic and then become bland episodic anime. Example suggestion for me, from that concept, anime can make mc feel strange feeling increase and accumulated to strong regretting when he saw the doll strap repeatedly multiple times. Honestly, for me better to also put a bit Akashi pov about mc in different parallel world so probably i can value mc for better.

That is my judgement from this anime. I give it as average around 7 in my rating scale, in mal rating scale (1 - 10 score) i give it around 5-6. Shortly, if you wanna watch unique style or unique concept story this anime is for you, meanwhile if you wanna get romance experience or deep-feel anime story or feeling dynamic story then this anime is not for you.

This story sounded better when I heard it from a fan: a boy repeating his high school life who needs to 'seize the opportunity.' My kind of story but I guess for that reason, through his perspective, other characters missed some development. It wasn't all bad. I didn't feel like it was pretentious. The art was experimental, usually a treat, and the best of what this anime offered. I enjoyed the song by Higuchi, the proxy war, the lewd scenes. Just as the art was weird so was the story. But there was too much reused lines and familiar scenes. This anime could have done ... with less episodes or a shift in character development. I would have liked Akashi to be written with more depth and more screen time. It was funny at times, worth the casual watch, but not memorable, sadly. Overall 6.5/10.

Watashi is supposed to 'seize the moment' by connecting with Akashi, his crush--well, crushes are a dime a dozen. As a teenager that can be an appealing theme, however, and that 'what if' sentiment gets us started, but I posit that you can seize the moment by connecting with anyone that you're interested in. Eventually that experience will help with your love interests. It might do more harm than good to treat your crushes as important, superior, or as idols. Try to manage your romantic emotions and treat them as equals. Often in life, we have to leave a lot of people behind. We meet and forget. If you like someone start with hello, what's your name; practice your small talk; sustain that; improve; and then plan something and invite them. Every step is always an act of courage, nothing's forever.

~SPOILERS~









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The Tatami Galaxy is an idiosyncratic fish in a sea of slice-of-life shows. This, however, doesn't mean it's a masterpiece. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was a decent show. It features a fast-paced stream-of-consciousness-style narrative with quick and witty dialogue. Whether you like it or not is ultimately up to you. Nobody else can decide for you. That said, I believe the show was relatively boring, but you can be the judge of that. I'm only here to provide a fair review.

The premise of this anime is as follows. A university student called Watashi finds himself repeating his past 2 years at school over and over again, trying out different approaches to his campus life each time. His ultimate goal is the rose-colored campus life, complete with fun social clubs and a fulfilling romance. The story revolves around Watashi's repeated attempts to find the perfect campus life by joining different university clubs, each episode focusing on a different social club.

The art-style, while unique, doesn't really turn any heads. In my opinion it was rather bland and, at times, felt poorly done. The character design didn't stand out and the animation wasn't the best. The visuals weren't terrible, but they didn't strike me as particularly good either. I found it to be quite uninteresting, but I do have to give credit to their surrealistic style. That one aspect stood out to me, and makes things fun to watch, in spite of the show's boring colour palette.

The sound was...okay I guess. The show's music wasn't bad by any means, but isn't spectacular either. Like the artstyle, it suffers from a case of mediocrity.

The characters are one of this show's main strengths. Everyone in the main cast was nuanced and fleshed out. More importantly, they all receive rounded out arcs that adhered to the underlying philosophies of the anime. The show's well written characters are its main talking point, and I highly recommend you watch this show for that sole reason.

Now here's the question that we all want answered: is The Tatami Galaxy enjoyable to watch? Personally I found it rather boring. The premise was interesting at first, but once I got through the first half of the show, I found myself completely and utterly bored. It got a little better by episode 11, but I still didn't enjoy it as much I could've. To be honest I would've rated this show higher had I found it more entertaining, but that unfortunately isn't the case. As for whether you'd like it, I can't give you the answer to that. You'll just have to decide for yourself once you watch the show.

Overall, I give this show a 6.5. At the end of the day, it qualifies as a "good show," but given that the sound and art were mediocre and the plot wasn't particularly entertaining, I'm inclined to not rate it as high. It's still worth a watch. It might not be your cup of tea (like in my case), but I still recommend you check it out for yourself.

My friend wrote a review of Tatami Galaxy and I will quote their introduction as it explains the premise of the show well.

"This show is very hard to review, because this show structures itself around a meaning, a message. The story is a simple set-up of the main character entering college in search of a happy, pink-colored college life he was always dreaming of, to find an ideal girl. But soon after picking a club he gets into a lot of trouble, because of his friend Ozu building petty schemes and mad feuds, to the point he gets to the end of his two years ... realizing he has wasted his two years of life at college, he blames his friend, fate, or anything that he can blame, then the narrative stops and returns back to the beginning, showing now a whole new different possibility of his life, meaning that every episode is a re-telling of the same story with a big twist as to what club he goes to or what girl he decides to get close to, all of which end in him being in despair in a very unfavorable situation and thinking that he wasted his two years of college life."

The show is not hard to review at all and its message, and meaning, are very simple. Just how the protag felt like he wasted 2 years of his college life, I also feel like I wasted 2 hours of my time watching this anime. Mind you, the anime has a 4-hour total runtime. The concept is simple and doesn't change at all until the last 2 episodes. If you watched the first 2-3 episodes and think like you have a pretty good idea of what's going on and feel like you understand the message then you probably do and there is no reason for you to keep watching the anime. Unless you find non-existent characters enjoyable and some predicaments that the protag gets into as mildly entertaining - I didn't. The show feels like it's meandering around the same message without introducing anything new or developing anything that already exists. The time that the show spends regurgitating the nearly exact same scenes in the majority of the episodes doesn't add anything and stops being a fun gimmick after the 3rd time. As such, some parts of the show feel like a waste of time. Maybe that's the point? The art is cool. I liked it. Music is not extremely memorable but it fits. There are some fun episodes here. There is some good but unconventional high-energy animation here.

If you're a young adolescent and feel like the show has given you something, I'm happy for you. The show has enough objectively good qualities to deserve at least an average score compared to those low 2s and 3s that some people who disliked it are giving it. I don't see how this could be a 10 at all. My problem is with the repetition. I was waiting for something new to finally happen and it never really did. As I was going into every subsequent episode of Tatami Galaxy I thought, "These 24 minutes will be different". They weren't. The joke's on me. I tend to look for positive in everything, and in the meta way, the show kind of plays a joke on those that want the show to be something different, and maybe that's a reflection on those individuals who are severely unsatisfied with this one. I appreciate that creative decision and the commitment to the idea. I question its entertainment value though.

Story

The overall message of this series is actually very simple and striaght foward. Nothing revolutionary or new. I agree with the message but I saw it coming by the end of episode 2, so it was predictable. The journey to the destination is as important if not more important, but I felt it was kinda like a chore during the middle portion as I continued watching to the end. I think the series could have been shorter and still get the message across depsite only being 11 episodes.

Art

The art style is unique, but not my cup of tea. Fortunately, the animation is very smooth and ... slick.

Sound

The ending theme is great. Nothing else is super noticeable

Character

Main lead and Ozu carry the majority of the show and I think they are alright. Supporting cast is also alright. Nothing revolutionary

Enjoyment

I heard great things about this series and how deep and thought provoking it was. I do not think that was the case. This series is rather straight foward and simple. The characters tend to speak very quickly and some references might be missed if they do not have a frim grasp of Japanese customs and the language. I was expecting a more dramatic show, but I found it very light hearted. I would say its decent, but the middle part is a chore to get through.

Overall

I was expecting more, but I think this is a decent light hearted series that is neither pretentious or deep, but more simple or middle of the road. Other than the middle part, I would say this was worth a watch.