INTRODUCTION
So after months and months of putting it off, I finally sat down to watch The Tatami Time Machine Blues, the much-anticipated sequel/spinoff anime of the 2010 anime, The Tatami Galaxy.
I don’t know why I put it off really. The Tatami Galaxy is probably my favourite anime of all-time. It’s an anime I hold very close to my heart, especially as someone who struggled to initiate into university life and felt the same frustrations that the main character did. I think its sense of humour, comedic timing, and creativity are unparalleled to any anime I’ve ever seen - some episodes had me laughing all the way through. Perhaps I was subconsciously worried that a spinoff would change my view on the main series.
I love The Tatami Galaxy so much, I even have it on DVD (you don’t how fucking hard it is to find an Australian copy of it! I had to get it shipped from some random ass country town in New South Wales - it was that elusive!).
BRIEF SYNOPSIS
It follows the same cast of characters from the original anime - “Watashi”, Ozu, Akashi, Hanuki, Master Higuchi, and Jougasaki (and Aijima, I guess, but who cares about him) who, after shooting an amateur movie for the film society, discover unusual things happening around them.
As the title suggests, they suddenly uncover a time machine hidden in the closet of "Watashi"'s dormitory. The anime follows the characters experimenting with the time machine, fixing the messed-up timelines they’ve caused, and an encounter with a strange boy named Tamura.
Prior knowledge of The Tatami Galaxy or The Night is Short, Walk on Girl - whilst handy for jokes that service fans - is not required when watching this. In the first episode, they introduce each character again for the uninitiated.
THOUGHTS
It’s so nice to see the characters that I’ve grown to love again, especially in a setting that allows the characters to all be together. In The Tatami Galaxy, you hardly ever get to see more than one or two characters interact with “Watashi” at one time (due to how fast-paced that anime is and the main focus being on “Watashi”'s experience). The Tatami Time Machine Blues is slower-paced and features a scenario which involves all of the characters, so I really appreciated that aspect.
The time travel element is interesting and entertaining, but I can’t help but feel that that concept could’ve been utilised a bit better, especially for such a zany and cleverly-written franchise like The Tatami Galaxy. Anime like Haruhi Suzumiya were definitely more playful and successful with it. For a time travel show, it’s slightly above average.
Hell, I think The Simpsons did time travel better with that toaster short haha. That utterly wild and unpredictable nature of that short is probably what this anime should’ve gone for.
Which brings me to my next point: the direction. Contrary to what I initially thought when going into this anime, it isn’t actually directed by Masaaki Yuasa (who directed The Tatami Galaxy).
Instead, it’s directed by Shingo Natsume, who appears to have directed Madhouse anime like the 2019 version of Boogiepop Phantom and Sonny Boy. He also helped direct Ep. 6 of The Tatami Galaxy (which is probably my favourite episode haha).
To be frank, I wasn’t very impressed with his direction in this anime. Although can you blame him? Masaaki Yuasa is a genius! He has this incredible ability to wring so much humour out of every scene through subtle yet effective stylistic choices.
Natsume has identified the stylistic choices that Yuasa made but doesn’t use them to full effect, thus wasting some of the potential humour and direction that made The Tatami Galaxy so unique in the first place. He does reuse some of Yuasa’s visual gags, but they don’t land as well as they originally did (although I was surprised that he didn’t include the classic Masaaki Yuasa ‘gulp’ animation. Lol that gag never gets old).
But who knows? Perhaps my enjoyment for the humour of The Tatami Galaxy has a lot to do with the fast-paced nature of it. As I mentioned before, The Tatami Time Machine Blues is much slower-paced so maybe the humour didn't click for me this time.
However, I do know some people who had an issue with the fast-paced nature of The Tatami Galaxy so if you're one of those people, you'll definitely appreciate this anime more!
Except for the OP and ED, the anime also reuses the soundtrack from The Tatami Galaxy. I liked that - it reminded me of how brilliant the soundtrack is (there’s a good video essay on YouTube explaining how well the soundtrack aids in the development of the characters). The soundtrack doesn’t quite hit the same in The Tatami Time Machine Blues, although there aren’t as many profound or introspective scenes in this anime to pair the soundtrack to. I was also expecting some actual blues music tracks as well haha but nope.
Apart from the direction, there are two small complaints I have with this anime (although I’ll have to get into spoilers).
First
Spoiler, click to view
The twist that Tamura is Akashi and “Watashi”’s son (and that Tamura is a fake name) is soooooooooooooo obvious! You can see it coming a mile away.Even just looking at his character design, you can see the mole under his eye that Akashi has, and the messy hair that “Watashi” has.
Despite that, he’s a fun character to be around (even though he ultimately doesn't have that much screen time) so I’m not complaining too much.
Second
Spoiler, click to view
Despite the arc properly concluding in Episode 5, Episode 6 acts as a hidden twelfth episode to The Tatami Galaxy, which shows how “Watashi” got to the events of The Tatami Time Machine Blues.It shows him joining a club of railway enthusiasts who get torn apart due to Ozu’s meddling. “Watashi” then hangs out with Ozu, before meeting Akashi in which he returns the white Mochiguman which she drops right in front of him, and they become friends and so on and so forth.
I have slightly mixed feelings about this. This implies that there was a ‘correct’ club for “Watashi” to join that allowed him to find contentment, a big circle of friends, and a way to Akashi’s heart without having to go through much of an ordeal.
I think this defeats the purpose of the original Tatami Galaxy anime. There was no correct club in that anime. Instead, it was “Watashi”’s fault for being stubborn and not making the most of what he had.
But who knows? Maybe The Tatami Time Machine Blues might not be considered canon to the original anime (in which case, I'll accept it)
CONCLUSION
The Tatami Time Machine Blues isn’t as profound or as crazy as its predecessor, but I don’t think it’s trying to be. It’s a fun little side quest where you can spend more time with all of the characters. People who were put off by the sheer absurdity and rapid pacing of the original anime will probably like this one a lot more.