'The Tatami Galaxy,' based on a novel by Tomihiko Morimi and directed by Masaaki Yuasa, is a high-concept YA mini-series with an intriguingly bizarre premise: a young nameless student arrives at college with high hopes of experiencing an idealized "rose-colored campus life," joins an activity circle that he eventually becomes disillusioned with when it fails to lead to his ideal college life, gets mixed up in a series of ludicrous situations, and finally wishes to start over and join a different activity circle, causing time to rewind and prompting him to start over again. However, choosing a different activity makes no difference, as the protagonist gets bogged down by the same disappointments, gets embroiled in escapades with the same level of lunacy, and even gets faced with the same eccentric cast of characters.
The protagonist's constant striving and failing to achieve his desired lifestyle gives the show a quirky and darkly humorous streak that also comes across as nihilistic. It also gives the show a vehicle through which to deliver its central themes.
'The Tatami Galaxy' is a show that warns its viewers to not expect too much and to embrace what they get instead. This is showcased through the journey of the nameless student. Every time the intellectual youngster goes back in time and redoes his first two years at college, he fails to recognize many of the good things that made up those two years due to his arrogance in pursuing the perfect life.
The show also relies heavily on an atmosphere of loss and the sense that something is missing or missed out on. This sense of incompletion is ever-present in the protagonist and his escapades as he completely misses all that made his life at college precious. Likewise, viewers of the show experience the feeling that they have missed something as 'The Tatami Galaxy' is an extremely fast-paced show where every episode flies by in blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments (and blink-and-you'll-miss-it subtitles), so fast that two years of the protagonist's life go by in 22 minutes! This rapid-fire pace is concurrent with another core theme of 'The Tatami Galaxy.' The speed of the show emphasizes the fact that life doesn't stop for anyone (even if one can go back in time and relive his last two years), so one must appreciate and enjoy those amazing moments while they last. As Ferris Bueller once said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
Life does move fast in 'The Tatami Galaxy,' and every moment that flies by in each episode is unlike anything ever seen. From a bike-stealing agency whose sole purpose is to spoil one's day to a lifelong war of pranks between a zen-like super senior and a lecherous club president to a love doll that gets treated as a real person by any individual who comes across it, every episode of 'The Tatami Galaxy' is chockful of creative absurdities that make for an entertaining experience. It embraces weirdness while remaining grounded in the ugliness of human error, all the while reminding viewers that they are capable of avoiding the same mistakes and enjoying life for what it is. It is an enjoyable show, and I recommend it for anyone looking for something different to watch.
