How to describe the 2010 anime Tatami Galaxy directed by Masaaki Yuasa and featuring the art-work of Nakamura Yusuke... I have never struggled so hard to keep up with the dialogue like in this anime because of the speed with which its delivered. Which is a shame because the animation needs time to be appreciated. And time is what the viewer doesn't have. Tatami Galaxy depicts the life of a Kyoto University student plagued by indecision about his love life and an over inflated sense of his own worth. He pursues his dream of enjoying a rose-coloured campus life at Kyoto University but he is unable to choose between three women: Keiko, to whom he is writing letters; Kaori, the elegantly dressed love-doll that belongs to Jogasaki senpai and Hanuki, the oral hygiene assistant who is being pursued by a perverted dentist. Each episode shows him go so far before he makes a hasty retreat only to start all over again in a new direction in the next episode. But, of course, each episode is connected. Like the 4.5 tatami mats in his room and like the blocks of colour in a Mondrian painting the dialogue is a rapid review and retracing of previous episodes before new directions and new information is presented. By the time the final episode arrives, the narrator is trapped in a boarding house full of the 4.5 tatami mats rooms which represent the lives he would have lived if he had taken that particular direction. The animation is put together in a combination of styles in a way that subverts a conventional narrative structure. Apart from the integration of photographs with animation, colour with black and white cells and the reworking of previous scenes into new scenes without treating them as conventional flashbacks, ultimately, the characters are shown to be working to a script that comes from the narrator's own head. These are scenes that he wrote whilst he was a member of the film circle. Ultimately, however, he has the missing charm that Akashi san lost and which he found at the laundry-mat when he was washing his underwear at the start of the program. And it is this charm that dangles before him in the credits at the start of each episode that will presumably lead him to return the charm and win her love.
He is, however, his own worst enemy. When Hanuki, the dental hygiene nurse, finally invites him out for a drink and begins licking his face when she gets drunk he is aroused but locks himself in the toilet so as not to lose his purity. His libido, personified by the cowboy Johnny, is raring to go and can't believe that he is going to let this opportunity go. He returns home to spend time with Kaori and decides to elope with her but she is taken away by Jogasaki senpai. He is relieved that he has been saved from his own lecherous thoughts. Finally, it turns out that the letters he has been receiving from 'Keiko' have really been written as a joke by Akashi san. As the un-named narrator is thus frustrated at each and every turn, a mischievous imp named Ozu manages to ingratiate himself to all and sundry ensuring that all their plans go astray whilst he is busy planning to steal a rocket to go on a date with the daughter of the owner of the Honwaka health foods company.
Needless to say, all of these threads are connected and there is a fortune teller who charges 1,000 yen more for each piece of advice from whom he can't get any clear answers. And did I mention the pop-up ramen stand known as the nekko ramenya? This is rumoured to use cat meat in its broth but provides a sanctuary for our hero to take a break from his troubles. And so in each episode, at break-neck speed, our un-named protagonist lurches forward only to find himself back at the start on the board game of love.
He is, however, his own worst enemy. When Hanuki, the dental hygiene nurse, finally invites him out for a drink and begins licking his face when she gets drunk he is aroused but locks himself in the toilet so as not to lose his purity. His libido, personified by the cowboy Johnny, is raring to go and can't believe that he is going to let this opportunity go. He returns home to spend time with Kaori and decides to elope with her but she is taken away by Jogasaki senpai. He is relieved that he has been saved from his own lecherous thoughts. Finally, it turns out that the letters he has been receiving from 'Keiko' have really been written as a joke by Akashi san. As the un-named narrator is thus frustrated at each and every turn, a mischievous imp named Ozu manages to ingratiate himself to all and sundry ensuring that all their plans go astray whilst he is busy planning to steal a rocket to go on a date with the daughter of the owner of the Honwaka health foods company.
Needless to say, all of these threads are connected and there is a fortune teller who charges 1,000 yen more for each piece of advice from whom he can't get any clear answers. And did I mention the pop-up ramen stand known as the nekko ramenya? This is rumoured to use cat meat in its broth but provides a sanctuary for our hero to take a break from his troubles. And so in each episode, at break-neck speed, our un-named protagonist lurches forward only to find himself back at the start on the board game of love.
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