One could view this cynically. A spin-off of an established and ground-breaking work and style, from a director who had just created his own ground-breaking work and style. It could be seen as a disappointing tangent from the passion and creativity of Natsume's Sonny Boy, with Tatami Blues a work that almost entirely retreads the entire stylisation of its parent, and even some dialogue and themes. However, that would be doing it a disservice. I would say this is instead a different form of passion. Tatami Galaxy is of course Natsume's roots, something he really wanted to participate in. I see this more as a precise love letter to recreating a formative favourite. Passion and skill of a different kind.

However, in my opinion this is nevertheless still lacking. It is nowhere near as phrenetic as Tatami Galaxy, with its differing structure, pacing, and such. Additionally, it's thematic core is less jaw dropping separated from full context and the unbelievable final episodes of that work, which were visual and narrative masterpieces that few things rival for me. Tatami Galaxy is an incredibly high bar.

The first episode particularly had me worried, due to this lack of energy, beyond some great transitions in the early part of the episode, such as the tatami desert. ▶ Video However, the second episode affirmed that this would be something very enjoyable for me. Its pacing was different, its structure different, but it had its own zany story to tell with some silly time machine antics and character interactions. Moreover, its visual style was still immensely enjoyable for the most part. Episode three, four and five continued to be great. It was not Tatami Galaxy, but it was what I wanted, a fun revisit of the characters and visuals of that masterpiece, with its own individual direction. Simply, it was fun, and its own thing, as I had wished.

Episode 6, however, felt like an almost exact retread of Tatami Galaxy, at least in its first half. That first half was still fun, but it was frankly an episode of Tatami Galaxy prior to a rewind. Of course, I understand the thematic point of this. It is an episode of Tatami Galaxy, but there is no rewind, as that show has already stressed the fact such a thing will not give you a rose coloured campus life. It is a necessary continuation in time, affirming the show's themes. Tatami Blues itself then states that the events of the past 5 episodes could not be predicted, not even by Ozu, solidifying that theme. Unpredictability has worth. Themes of fate. An idea of being able to do anything not knowing the future, to paraphrase episode 5. Plenty of shots of Akashi in this episode (and previous episode implications) also add to the "nothing more boring than a fulfilled romance" angle.

However, it still felt a tad bland and frustrating to me, especially with how out of place it felt after episode 2 through to 5 felt more individualistic. Some dialogue from its parent is reiterated at a greater rate than the snippets in previous episodes, first contact worst contact, black string of fate (with a reminiscent visualisation too), etc. I respect what it was going for, yet it still felt discordant from the prior episodes to me. Moreover, as well as just feeling off to me, I almost want to say that while I respect the themes and choice, very similar theme explorations to this episode were already brilliantly completed in Tatami Galaxy; it's point made. This may of course be a me problem, everyone experiences media differently.

So to conclude. This was fun, I liked it. Did I love it? Nearly, and in snippets; I loved episodes 2 through to 5. Am I disappointed? A tad, but not really, it's around as good as I expected. We get to see the visual style and characters of Tatami Galaxy again, with a similar sense of comedy and structure, and a fun sense of individualism in its story that separates it from that work. It is not wholly individual, it feels intentionally nostalgic in a good way, but it's intent on revisiting some of the themes and even structure of it's parent in episode 6, while respectable, and certainly effective at solidifying and conveying it's themes and purpose, felt too disparate, personally frustrating, and arguably not fully necessary, for the show to stick the finale for me.

Very good overall though, 7.5, closing in on an 8. Shingo Natsume is a fantastic director, and I am excited to see what he puts his passion and skills to next, as well as what other exciting staff from this, such as Moko-chan, do next.

As an aside, the purples and blues at the end of episode 5 are my aesthetic.