Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
1stDecame4Danime
Pure filler. If you insist on watching this garbage, take my advice: Watch episodes 1-2 and skip as much as you want (ideally everything) to 11-12. The show as a whole and eps 11-12 are actually made worse by having seen the redundant filler in between since it's all recapped anyway and becomes boringly spoonfed redundancy of beating an uninteresting dead horse otherwise.
The MC is the generic turbo-virgin 3000 who refuses to ever actually have romance with a woman despite his sole character trait/motivation of wanting to have romance (so he spends the entire show pointlessly cockblocking himself for no reason other than the usual that the author is incapable of writing romance and so strings the audience along writing filler instead).
This isn't romance, nor mystery, nor suspense, and…
Read at the sourceRESOLVING_POWER
I watched Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei (including the specials), also known as The Tatami Galaxy. Here are my thoughts:
Once I realized that the MC was a self-pitying young man who was envious of his peers and pining for romantic affection, I knew I was going to have a bad time. Seriously, I can't stand this kind of character. If you find this garbage relatable then you need to take a serious look at what kind of person you are.
The two central characters (MC and Ozu) are pieces of shit, and the story consists of them acting like pieces of shit but with some time-loop stuff thrown in. I pretty much hated everything about the writing in this anime. My enjoyment was significantly impeded by this. Most of the story revolves around the MC being the pathetic worm that he is and treating everyone a…
Read at the sourceKarhu
I watched Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei back in 2011. I was a noob and thought it was a masterpiece and the best thing ever. Recently, I rewatched it and came to realize that it was just the wannabe-elitist in me thinking this show is any good. It's basically the same as Sword Art Online, just the other end of the same shit-stick.
The story of this series is identical to Endless Eight from Suzumiya Haruhi S02. Only this time it is apparently meaningful and deep and provokes some thoughts in people. All I see is yet another teenage drama aimed for people who are lost in life, executed in style over substance manner so people who wouldn't like it could just be told they didn't get it.
When it comes to this being like SAO, instead of focusing on an overpowered gary-stu isekai jesus who gets all…
Read at the sourceShrabster
There isn’t much to Tatami Galaxy. A nameless protagonist, here by referred to as Watashi, wants another chance at a “rose colored campus life with a raven haired maiden”. Through mystical means he is granted the opportunity to do so, thus beginning his journey for that rose colored campus life he so desperately wants though it might just be right in front of him. With such a setup there are not many places to go, and Tatami Galaxy quickly finds itself trapped.
Most episodes follow the same structure of Watashi joining a club in order to reach his goal and falling just short of it due to his "friend" Ozu’s schemes. In his defeats Watashi gets closer and closer to asking out his main love interest Akashi but fails to do so and the cycle starts again. Throughout the series Watashi fails to…
Read at the sourceRunariNoctis
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 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 o…
Read at the sourceLIQfilms
The idea of perfection is something that, I believe, not any piece of media has been able to attain, and that makes sense. Nothing is 'truly perfect' and every piece of media, no matter how great that product actually is, will still have flaws in one way or another and this philosophy also applies when I give tens to shows. When I do so, I don't reward an anime a ten because I believe it is perfect. I reward a ten to an anime that does the most good or is a shining example of what the medium is capable of. The Tatami Galaxy is one such example of this. A show that perfectly conveys the power of the medium and all of the limitless possibilities it contains, this show, despite the medium's tropes and cliches, still remains an anime unbound by genre convention and is oozing with so much creat…
Read at the sourcejennyj270687
I decided to watch "Tatami Galaxy" because of the overwhelming numbers of positive reviews, many giving it a perfect 10/10.
How disappointed was I when I started the series. The narrator speaks in a very very fast manner, making a lot of his narration unintelligible. Even with the subtitles on, it was very difficult to follow. I thought after a few episodes I would adapt to the pace, but unfortunately it did not happen.
My second problem with this anime was the amount of repetition. As the protagonist relives some of his days with a difference going from slight to more pronounced. But I grew tired of this rather quickly.
The third problem was the visuals : some may like the color palette, or the character design which I can only describe as minimalist. It is a matter of personal prefer…
Read at the sourceCynthesizer
Beware, spoiler-ish review.
It is a given that choices are very important for all of us, for just a minute of thought or two can change the outcome of many things in our lives, that be a relationship, that be a friendship, that be our well-being, anything I dare say. Before going to sleep, I personally reminisce of my actions, coming from my choices, which in turn come from my thoughts, and make a conclusion as of whether these actions were the right thing to do for myself. Ever thought of how much of a toll a choice can take in your life? Additionally, have you ever thought of something depicting that matter of fact in a way that is both gripping, personal and goosebumps-inducing? That is what The Tatami Galaxy did to me. It touched me so much, I could relate to it in such a manner, that…
Read at the sourceNervin
Anyone may have wondered whether their past or current student life matched with their expectations, and in some cases, if not on most, they may find themselves pondering whether decisions made were correct, or if some improvement could have been made. Expectations of a rose-coloured campus life and regrets are no exception either; such is the case of Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei, also known as Tatami Galaxy, in which a nameless protagonist exactly has these issues. It is a fantastic journey into the realm of university life, mingled with time travelling.
~Story~
The premise of Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei may be of simple nature at first glance, having the nameless protagonist, often referred to as "Watashi", live a rather lackluster life in comparison with his own expectations. This is due to main…
Read at the sourceMaridiuS
"This opportunity is always dangling in front of your eyes. You must grab this opportunity and act on it. And if you not, you will walk this life as now, ever unchanging." For starters, the opportunity would be this anime, and you shouldn't miss it, as it will impact your life, just as the quote suggests.
This starts off with a fast dialog quickly summing you up on the "world" the main characters lives in. You will quickly notice the special art that is very different from regular anime in any age. It doesn't resemble any art on any anime ever made, it might rather resemble a little bit of a regular cartoon. It could suit your taste, or you can just live on with it, however, this kind of artstyle is very open to symbolic images. Rather then watching how the plot progresses, the animation…
Read at the sourceliteraturenerd
Overview:
Tatami Galaxy is a VERY unusual anime. This is an oddly drawn existentialist comedy that attempts to tackle the meaning of life over 11 episodes, that are all basically the same episode except the last one. Tatami doesn't look like an anime. At no point does it ever feel like an anime. It is Japanese and is animated, so it is technically an anime. However, this is less Bleach and Naruto and more an Avant Garde, European art film.
Plot: 9/10
The plot is that a hapless college student is aiming to have "the greatest college life ever" and has impossibly large dreams after a rather lonely and sad high school experience. He doesn't instantly become a Casanova and is filled with bitterness and anger. He then meets a Mephistopheles like tempter named Ozu. Ozu persuades our hero to…
Read at the sourceLink_of_Hyrule
**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**
There’s no such thing as a perfect anime; everybody knows that. Due to the fact that different human beings value very different things across all mediums of art, it is impossible to create a work that everybody will agree is flawless. However, there IS such a thing as an anime that could not possibly be more effective in the delivery of its narrative, characters, animation, themes, and soundtrack under the given circumstances; an anime that is as close to perfect as you can possibly get. That anime is called The Tatami Galaxy. There is little debate among those who have indulged in this brilliant creation that The Tatami Galaxy is an absolute masterpiece. It’s the hardest anime to criticize simply because it’s thematically bulletproof; the only possible criticisms…
Read at the sourceVene
~Multilingual review, English & Español: The Tatami Galaxy~.
Life wouldn't be less than a simple and plain matter of choices, wherever our life is right now is due to the choices we've made in the past, we're doing and we'll probably make in the future, considering everything said "Life" would just be an abbreviation of the sum of choices we've made up until now.
So...?
Have you ever thought about them?, the choices you've made I mean, I’m pretty sure everyone have dedicated, at least a little moment of their time, to muse about the choices we've made so far in our lives, important or mundane ones, it matters not. The best moment would be maybe while we're spacing out during a boring lesson in our classroom or when we're just slacking off a bit at our working place, or if our personalit…
Read at the sourcebellellis
J. D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" despite being a novel intended for adults, in many ways laid the groundworks for the typical young adult story, where an above average intelligent teen tells about their life and problems, in a very self-conscious, humorously wanna-be literate way. Examples range from the now aging Adrian Mole books, to mostly anything by John Green, and the recent British film "Submarine". Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei, or Tatami Galaxy, is also a rendition of this trope, though seemingly with a pinch of some hallucinogenic drug.
The never named main character's story of university level loneliness, as it happens, is told with abnormally badly drawn characters, weird color use and bits of live action. Which might have been interesting under some circumstances, but only…
Read at the sourceiSuckAtWriting
The choices you make might change, but the end result will always be the same.
For our unnamed main character—we’ll call him Watashi—this couldn’t be more true. He’s a college dropout at the end of his rope, eating a meal at the end of the night at a ramen stand. There, he meets a (self proclaimed) God of Matrimony. After this God’s inexplicably large chin tells Watashi that he basically knows everything about him, our hapless main character is sent on a flashback to his not so great college years.
The flashback of his college years zips on by, and so does Watashi’s narration of events. He talks at a thousand miles per hour, and that might keep people away from watching this show since the dialog is hard to follow. Don’t. Watashi is hard to follow, but the show he’s in isn’t. Think of hi…
Read at the sourceAnimeCrusader
From time to time, I desire a show that will deliver a simple and grounded in reality plot in an unorthodox way with great success. Yes, you should already understand that Tatami Galaxy holds no need for superficial or amazing concepts to be successful, just a realistic story executed in a masterful way.
Story : 10 / 10 "Masterful"
Tatami Galaxy is set on a fictional universe, specifically a town, which seems pretty close to the modern Japanese towns. Our main character, Watashi, expects to find the rose colored campus life that he always dreamed of, entering a campus club. Instead, he finds mischief and disappointment in every way possible. Every time he joins a club, everything seem to go wrong and he ends up regretting his choice, wanting to go back to the moment of choosing it and r…
Read at the sourceNonOtaku
If there was ever a time to slow clap it out, this would be the precise time to.
This series really is why I love episodic series. The bad ones obviously suck beyond belief, but when shows like this one make optimal use of them they can really turn into something unique, and the short stories can allow for ideas that would normally not fit within a linear storyline. A lot of things have to be done right in order to get a good episodic series, though, but to me the key seems to be creativity, along with somehow finding a way to build-up: connecting the different episodes together. I believe that if these aren’t present, you’re just better off with a linear storyline in order to get the best out of your characters. But Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei has both of them.
A man is miserable. Despite al…
Read at the sourceAnnoKano
When you look back on your life up until now, do you find yourself feeling somewhat dissatisfied with how things have turned out? Do you find yourself regretting choices you’ve made, the people you’ve met and end up wishing you could just give it another shot, knowing that this time around, everything would work out so much better for you?
If you are just such a person, then watching Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei -or The Tatami Galaxy as it has come to be known in English- is one opportunity that you simply can't afford to pass up.
The story of a nameless (referred to as 'Watashi') young man in his third year at Kyoto University, looking back on the numerous adventures, expeditions and escapades he has experienced during his time on campus. However, rather than fond memories, he finds himself f…
Read at the sourceLindle
Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei (or The Tatami Galaxy) is an anime about a university student stuck in a Groundhog Day-esque time loop. In the span of each episode, our nameless main character (he is referred to as Watashi, basically meaning "myself") goes over the same two years of university, unaware of the loop, each time joining a different club, in search of a "rose-coloured campus life".
Yojouhan is a rare example of a series with time loops where the loops themselves are actually played with. Throughout the 11 episodes, there are several different stories, but many of the episodes focus on the same stories as others. What makes these episodes work is that we see the stories from different angles. In some episodes, we see segments of the story that aren't entirely clear, though at the time a…
Read at the sourceDetective
I don't mean to get deep and definitely not right off the bat, but it's pretty true that small events can change the course of your life whether you're aware or not and that is what Yojou-han Shinwa Taikei (or the 4.5 Tatami Mat Galaxy) is all about. Sure it's also about pleasing your Johnny, hijacking blimps, engaging in prank wars, being ripped off by fortune tellers, joining the local power ranger squad, and eating cats and castella, but that's all trivial. Brought to you by the same guy who brought you Mind Game, Cat Soup, and Kaiba, Masaaki Yuasa, brings you what I would like to refer to as his best work yet.
Story: 9/10
A nameless protagonist, referred to as Watashi ('I') by himself, has just entered college, and the story more or less follows his many lives and many misfortunes. Ea…
Read at the source