Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei

One autumn evening at a mysterious ramen stand behind the Shimogamo Shrine, a lonely third-year college student bumps into a man with an eggplant-shaped head who calls himself a god of matrimony. Meeting this man causes the student to reflect upon his past two years at college—two years bitterly spent trying to break up couples on campus with his only friend Ozu, a ghoulish-looking man seemingly set on making his life as miserable as possible. Resolving to make the most out of the rest of his college life, the student attempts to ask out the unsociable but kind-hearted underclassman Akashi, yet fails to follow through, prompting him to regret not living out his college life differently. As soon as this thought passes through his head, however, he is hurtled through time and space to the beginning of his years at college and given another chance to live his life.

Surreal, artistic, and mind-bending, Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei chronicles the misadventures of a young man on a journey to make friends, find love, and experience the rose-colored campus life he always dreamed of.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Watashi Main

Asanuma, Shintaro Japanese

Akashi Main

Sakamoto, Maaya Japanese

Ozu Main

Yoshino, Hiroyuki Japanese

Higuchi, Seitarou Supporting

Fujiwara, Keiji Japanese

Johnny Supporting

Hiyama, Nobuyuki Japanese

Hanuki, Ryouko Supporting

Kaida, Yuuko Japanese

Jougasaki, Masaki Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Kaori Supporting

Asanuma, Shintaro Japanese

Fortune Teller Supporting

Mayama, Ako Japanese

Aijima Supporting

Satou, Setsuji Japanese

Fujio, Tsutomu Producer

Ozaki, Noriko Producer

Takeuchi, Fumie Producer

Yuasa, Masaaki Director, Episode Director, Script, Storyboard

Reviews

Jul 21, 2014

Vene

Recommended

~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 personality is that of the "pensive" type we already have a space in our schedule to muse about the little events in our lives, leaving aside the type of personality we've, I'm pretty sure we do all have asked ourselves the unavoidable question "What if..." didn't we?.

"Maybe I should have seated next to that pretty girl in the bus, but instead I’ve decided to stand up".

Just an example, how can my life change due to that mundane and maybe insignificant event?, impossible to know it and for that I question myself now "What if I’ve seated with that girl?", a quick reply to that question could be, even if it’s a little creative, that I could have talked with her a little during the ridesharing, I could have found that she's a wonderful girl and she thinks nice of me, next day she could have reserved the sit for me and again we start to talk, this could have lead me to ask her out, to fall in love, get engaged and when I didn't even realize it I've already married that girl. What was the triggering event for that?, "a stupid and mundane choice when I was young" would be the answer of an older version of myself, or maybe, a more realistic scenery would be that the girl gets off of that bus and it was the last time I saw her, anyway it wouldn't be completely wrong to say that we're the product of our choices, but not only, since also the people we meet have the power to change us considerably; maybe you're asking "what does all this things have to do with the review and with this anime?" to that I reply "quite everything", since "we're the product of our Choices" is the main theme of the anime I'm now going to introduce you, The Tatami Galaxy.

(Since our protagonist is nameless I shall now refer to him, from now on, as "The Protagonist")

Throughout the development of the story, we can see how different can be the life of The Protagonist based on the choices he had made and the people he had meet during his first year of University. The premise of this anime is to show us how different could be our lives due to a choice, in our protagonist's case, the choice of a Club to join. How can the choice of joining a certain Club be considered as something important, something that could change completely our lives?, at a first gaze I would say “it’s quite improbable" but I couldn't be more wrong and for our protagonist that couldn't be more true. The Cinema Club?, Tennis Club?, Softball Club?, English Club?, it doesn't matter; all of this show is about The Protagonist's pursuit of his “rose-colored campus life” and what would be that? well it's Everyone's dream: being popular, a lot of friends and a cute girlfriend but that's something that reveals to be a particulary difficult goal to reach for our timid protagonist and lucky isn't even by his side since someone is obstructing him and that obstruction it's represented by a physical person, another character of this anime, Ozu. The relation between Ozu and The Protagonist is a bit weird but I totally loved it, Ozu could be or your best friend or you worst enemy, depending how you approach him. So through many of the clubs The Protagonist joins we're the audience of what would happen to his life if he had only joined a different club in his first year.

The story telling of this anime is unique, incredible unique if I must say it. We need to think of it as a puzzle, a puzzle with 11 parts (11 as the episodes of this anime), so little by little we need to fill the missing parts until it gets finished, at that moment we can actually gaze the wonderfully picture that have been created.

The first thing that strike us are the characters, they're unique in their own way, all of them have a characteristic that would lead them to being crafted into our minds, starting from The Protagonist to the Fortune Teller (you'll love that old baba!) since they are made of a simplicity and yet they're so unique that you'll have a hard time trying to get them off your head (admitted if you want to). First we have The Protagonist, he's a first year University student, quite shy and easily manipulated by the other characters of this show, especially Ozu, whose failing to obtain his precious rose colored life consider his life a total waste. Ozu, whose The Protagonist usually describe his first meet with him as "the first as well as worst", he's a devil like little guy but not only because of his behavior which is indeed evil ("He eats people's unhappiness with three helpings of rice" - The Protagonist's words) but also because of his appearance, he's also the best and only friend of our protagonist. These two are the most important characters in the show, I won't talk about each of them since Tatami Galaxy's really offer a large and above all, original and interesting cast of characters, otherwise this review could get really long. Even if the story revolves around The Protagonist, the other characters aren't less important, I would say actually they're more important than him for the development since our protagonist is a passive character; Remember?...not only the choices are important but also the people we meet could lead our lives to an unexpected turn. This anime goes that far too actually made us understand that not experiencing something is actually an experience itself, and we won't understand that until we finish this anime. The ending is something special; it gives the whole meaning for this show. Comedy isn't missing neither, this show stands out also for its comedy scenes, and every character will make you laugh in a different way, their own way. Johnny' scenes, a character's show, are memorable.

The art is quite particular too, even if you may find it weird at the first sight, we get used to it quite fast and maybe we ask ourselves "Why there aren't more shows like this?”, The animation is Madhouse Studio, so we can count with an incredible high level animation, characteristic trademark of this studio. The OST suited perfectly every scene, from those more " lively" ones to those passives, but for one strange reason we don't give the deserved attention to them, that’s because The Protagonist's speed light monologues will take most of our concentration, leaving the OST in the background, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Both OP/ED are amazing too, I especially liked more the OP single.

Unless you're able to read very quickly you won't be able to leave the Pause button aside, since The Protagonist usually talks in a very speedy way that sometimes we aren't able to read the subtitles in time but that won't be the only thing to interrupt us during the vision of this anime, there are also those The Protagonist's monologues which are so filled with meaning and extremely well written that we could actually feel the urgent of going back to rewatch them, an action I actually repeat many times. It’s incredible but every single phrase pronounced in this show has its own charming and filled with meaning, Wikiquote would have a lot of pages filled with our characters phrases, and I'm not referring to those cliché ones we find everywhere, Tatami Galaxy's ones are all original.

There are anime with meaning and moral, there are anime with funny characters, there are anime with an incredible story and unique storytelling, but I need to say that The Tatami Galaxy was composed by all of them. I would recommend (personal experience) to rewatch this anime after some time, because its incredible the amount of particulars that could be missed the first time, after all, re-watching an anime to us dear let us appreciate those little particulars we could have missed the first time, and in The Tatami Galaxy's case I can assure you'll be surprised.

I've expressed myself the best I could, I hope this review moves someone into watching this anime because it’s really worth. I'm going to leave you, the readers, to visualize the whole bocón of things said in this review, don't hesitate and jump into it you won’t regret it, in that case I’ve realized my main point for this review, otherwise I apologize for being unable to send my feelings towards this incredible anime to you since it's only my fault as a novice reviewer as I'm.

In any case, I appreciate the time you took for reading it.


[Español]

La Vida se reduce a las decisiones tomadas. Cualquiera sea el modo en que esté nuestra vida ahora, se debe exclusivamente a las decisiones que hemos hecho en el pasado. Lo que nos lleva a decir que no estaríamos del todo en error al decir que la Vida no es nada más que la suma de nuestras decisiones. Personalmente soy una persona que no cree en el Destino, pues me gusta pensar que tenemos el control total de nuestras vidas, el control de las decisiones que tendremos que afrontar. Me gusta pensar que tenemos frente a nosotros una cantidad infinita de puertas en vez de una sola.

¿Alguna vez has pensado en ellas, las decisiones que has tomado? Estoy seguro que cualquiera ha dedicado, aunque sea un poco de tiempo, para meditar sobre ellas. Importantes o no, el mejor momento para ello podría ser cuando estamos ociando durante una lección aburrida en la escuela, o mientras ociamos un poco en el trabajo o, si somos del tipo pensativo, no necesitamos estar aburridos para dedicar un poco de nuestro tiempo a meditar sobre todo. Estoy seguro que al menos una vez nos hemos preguntado "¿Cómo sería si..?".

"Tal vez debería haberme sentado al lado de esa chica, pero decidí quedarme de pie"

Es sólo un ejemplo, ¿cómo cambiaría mi vida debido a ese evento tan común y corriente?. No soy capaz de saberlo y por eso si me pregunto "¿y si me hubiese sentado con ella?" una respuesta veloz, aunque un poco creativa, sería que habría comenzado a charlar con ella y me daría cuenta que es una chica estupenda y de que, sorprendentement,e ella piensa lo mismo sobre mí. Al día siguiente me la encuentro de nuevo y comenzamos a charlar otra vez, y esto me lleva a pedirle un día de salir conmigo, a enamorarme de ella y así sucesivamente al matrimonio. ¿Cuál sería el evento que me llevó a todo eso? "Una decisión común y corriente cuando era joven" sería la respuesta de mi Yo anciano o, siendo más realista, la chica se baja del tren y esa fue la última vez que la vi. No estaríamos del todo errados al decir que nosotros somos el producto de decisiones, pero no solamente nuestras decisiones, pues las personas que encontramos a lo largo de nuestro camino tienen el increíble poder de cambiarnos…Tal vez os estés preguntado "¿Qué tiene que ver todo esto con la review o con el anime?" y a eso le respondo: "prácticamente todo", porque "Somos el producto de nuestras decisiones" es el tema principal de la serie que ahora les voy a presentar, The Tatami Galaxy.

(Siendo nuestro protagonista un sin nombre, lo llamaré, a partir de ahora, El Protagonista)

A lo largo del desarrollo de la historia, podremos ver como sería la vida de nuestro protagonista en base a las decisiones que escoge el primer año de universidad y a las personas que encuentra en ella. La premisa de esta historia es mostrarnos cuan diferente pueden ser nuestras vidas debido a una decisión que tomamos. En el caso de nuestro protagonista, la decisión de un Club al cual unirse. ¿Cómo podría revelarse ser una decisión que cambiaría nuestras vidas el escoger a cuál club pertenecer? Es algo que consideré imposible a una primera impresión, algo que se puede considerar una deducción completamente errónea después. ¿El Club de Cine? ¿Club de Tenis?, ¿Football Club? ¿El Club de Ingles? No tendría importancia de verdad pues el objetivo de nuestro protagonista es encontrar lo que él considera "La vida color rosa". ¿De qué se trata esta? Pues eso sería el sueño de todo el mundo: Ser popular, muchos amigos y una bella novia, algo que, claramente, para nuestro tímido protagonista se revela ser una misión imposible. Ni siquiera la buena suerte lo acompaña, pues se encuentra siempre siendo obstaculizado. El obstáculo en este caso es una persona física, otro personaje de este anime, mi favorito, Ozu. La relación entre Ozu y El Protagonista es una de las más geniales que he visto. Fuera de lo normal, pero algo que completamente amé. Ozu o podría ser tu mejor amigo o tu peor enemigo, depende de cómo te le acerques en vuestro primer encuentro. Entonces, a lo largo de este anime, nosotros seremos los espectadores de cómo seria la vida de nuestro pobre protagonista, y cómo esta sería diferente si sólo se hubiera unido a otro club su primer año.

La narración de esta historia es única, increíblemente única si tengo que precisar. Si queremos podemos pensar de esta como un rompecabezas: un rompecabezas de 11 piezas (11 como los episodios de este anime) que poco a poco va cogiendo forma, sólo colocando la última pieza es que podremos apreciar la imagen completa y admirarla es todo su esplendor.

La primera cosa que nos impactará en esta serie serían sus personajes, los cuales son únicos en su forma de ser, hasta dejar una huella en nuestras mentes que difícilmente desaparecerá. Comenzando por El Protagonista hasta la Vieja Adivina (¡Adorarás a esa vieja!), todos son tan simples, pero a la vez son tan únicos que difícilmente los encontrarás aburridos. Primero que todo tenemos a nuestro protagonista, un chico bastante tímido y reservado fácilmente manipulable por otros, especialmente Ozu, el cual al haber fallado en su búsqueda por la "vida color rosa" siente que su vida hasta ahora ha sido un completo desperdicio. Después tenemos a Ozu, sl cual el protagonista suele describir su primer encuentro con el como "el primero al igual que el peor".

Él es un chicho malévolo, y no sólo por su comportamiento ("Él se come la infelicidad de la gente con un contorno de arroz" palabras de nuestro protagonista), sino también por su apariencia que, es de hecho, demoníaca. Estos dos son los personajes más importantes del show. No me pondré a hablar sobre los demás porque Tatami Galaxy ofrece un cast de personajes muy amplio, pero, sobre todo, interesante y original, lo cual me tomaría mucho tiempo y esta review se pondría muy larga. Si bien la historia gira entorno a El Protagonista, los otros personajes no son menos notables. Yo diría que son hasta más importantes para el desarrollo de la historia que el propio protagonista, debido a que este último es un personaje pasivo, ¿Recuerdas?... No sólo las decisiones son importantes, porque también están las personajes las cuales le pueden dar un gran giro inesperado a nuestras vidas. Este anime llega tan lejos tanto da mostrarnos que no experimentar algo es una experiencia en sí y eso no lo llegaremos a comprender hasta el final de este anime. El final es algo especial, algo que le da todo un significado a la experiencia que hemos visto. La comedia no falta, de hecho este anime resalta sobretodo por su comedia, cada personaje te hará reír en un modo diferente, el modo de cada uno de ellos. Las partes de Johnny, un personaje del show, son memorables.

Los diseños son bastantes particulares también. Aunque se pueden encontrar extravagantes en principio, nos acostumbramos de una manera veloz a ellos, a tal modo que nos preguntamos "¿Por qué no hay más como estos?". La animación está hecha por el estudio Madhouse, famoso por la atención y la extrema precisión en sus trabajos. Es de verdad muy fluida y perfecta. El OST encaja perfectamente en cada escena de la serie, desde las más pasivas hasta las más activas. , un particular extraño es que por la mayor parte el OST pasa desapercibido, debido a que los monólogos a la velocidad de la luz de nuestro protagonista se llevan la mayor parte de nuestra atención, dejando el OST en un plano fuera de nuestra percepción, lo cual no es necesariamente algo malo. OP/ED fueron muy buenos, a mí me gustó mucho más el OP single.

Si tu capacidad de lectura no es lo suficientemente veloz estarás pegado al botón de pausa. Eso es porque El Protagonista habla de una manera tan veloz que es casi imposible seguirlo, haciendo la comprensión algo difícil. Pero esa no será la única vez que echaremos el video para atrás, porque también los monólogos de nuestro protagonista están tan llenos de significado que los querremos leer de nuevo. Puede ser increíble, pero cada frase dicha en esta serie es tan llena de significado y resplandece con tanta luz propia que Wikiquote tendría páginas enteras sólo con los diálogos de nuestros personajes… Y no estoy hablando de esas frases baratas que se consiguen en todas las series, las de Tatami Galaxy son todas originales.

Hay animes con significado y moral, los hay con personajes divertidos, hay animes con una increíble narración y desarrollo de la historia, pero tengo que decir que The Tatami Galaxy tiene todo esto y más. Yo recomendaría (experiencia personal) ver de nuevo esta serie después de un tiempo. De eso modo nos podemos dar cuenta de la increíble cantidad de particulares que se dejan atrás mientras los estamos viendo por primera vez. Porque, después de todo, mirar de nuevo un anime que nos gustó nos da la posibilidad de apreciar esos pequeños detalles que nos pudimos haber saltado, y en este caso hay bastantes.

Me exprese lo mejor que he podido, espero que esta review les ayude a decidiros a dedicar vuestro tiempo en este anime, porque de verdad lo vale. Ahora voy a dejar a ustedes, los lectores, el tiempo de visualizar todo lo que se dijo hasta ahora. Si acaso encuentran a este un poco interesante, les digo que no lo duden y denle una oportunidad, ese es el objetivo principal de esta review. Si no es así, pues no logré trasmitir mis emociones sobre esta gran serie con éxito al ser aún un principiante.

En cualquier caso, les agradezco su tiempo.

Gracias.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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May 15, 2023

GinInYourJuice

Mixed Feelings

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 very 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 of emphasis on style, but not enough substance. Oh and speaking of dialogue... boy is it fast compared to most other anime out there.

The speedy dialogue is very much like a double-edged sword. Having to pause every so often in order to process the fast-paced dialogue can become a frustrating experience from the get-go. When most of one's concentration is focused on keeping up with the narration's speed, it becomes difficult to simultaneously notice and enjoy background elements/scenes. The main character Watari often switches from one topic to another completely random topic within seconds, making it difficult to figure out the point of what he's trying to say at times. On the bright side, there's extra ideas and content squeezed into each episode, which is always a good thing.

Overall, this anime is truly unique in many ways, but that doesn't always equate to it being “genius." To be specific, I'd say it's more along the lines of creative, poetic, avant-garde, and experimental. Even though this anime is personally not my cup of tea, it's still a one-of-a-kind anime that’s worth trying out at least once in your life.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Sep 6, 2018

Karhu

Not Recommended

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 the bitches and is best at everything he does, Tatami Galaxy focuses on a man who is practicing escapism in a timeloop and dwelling on self-pity. The main difference is the comfort which has changed from "it's all good now" to "pretty much everyone else fucked it up too." Same shit-stick, same level of escapism, other end.

The characters are the worst part of this show. They are such an empty shells it's almost as if the viewer is supposed to put their own personality and buddies + high school crush in these shells and act like this is me. This is so me. Just like Kirito and his harem.

Back in 2011, I thought Yuusa Masaki was god. A gift to the anime industry. After seeing everything he has ever done, I can only call him a try-hard attempt of being the next Satoshi Kon. So try-hard even Netflix wanted to hire the guy. Speak of mainstream appeal. Also, I am pretty sure this series was created for western weebs in purpose of trolling. Why else would a male main character be called Watashi instead of Boku.

I recommend Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei to 15-20 year old audience, this will help you feel less shit about your past mistakes and deal with them. Make sure to never rewatch this, tho, you will/might only come to see what I am now seeing.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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