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

Ozaki, Noriko Producer

Fujio, Tsutomu Producer

Takeuchi, Fumie Producer

Yuasa, Masaaki Director, Episode Director, Script, Storyboard

Reviews

Feb 10, 2025

Anikeey

Recommended

A story of a young man who wants to experience everything out of his college life, but who is bound to his own reality. What is a rose-pink, perfect college life, when you can have a whole galaxy inside your mind, rerolling possibilities, all stored inside four and a half tatami's worth of space? The rejection of a choice's limitations is a choice in itself, just like the denial of its consequences is. Reality gives The Possibility—and while you may not be able to explore the whole galaxy, you always possess the right to accept your own path.

"Tatami Galaxy" is a slow burn. Its ... first half can leave a dry aftertaste with its repetitiveness, but the closer you get to the ending, the clearer you can see the whole image—not that sophisticated, but simply beautiful; humanly warm, like a holding pair of hands, or laughing in unison. Each episode adds one more piece to a small and obvious puzzle of life—and the finale bravely puts it on par with those great, simple at their core, yet so life-affirming series about coming of age.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 31, 2025

Supersonic_Pain

Mixed Feelings

Tatami Galaxy is a show that deeply frustrates me

If I stopped anywhere before Episode 10, I would have written a scathing review (a lot of remnants of which remain in this one) about how much this show sucks and is overrated.

And then it pulls an 11th hour face turn.

This show has a lot in common with Welcome to the NHK for me, a show which I also didn't particularly enjoy, but it's fascinating to compare them for me.

I'll start with the cast.

... I hate this cast.

The nameless MC (who I guess is named Watashi according to MAL) is a complete and utter jackass. I am pretty sure the show is aware of it but that doesn't make it more enjoyable. He spends the show joining random clubs for his "rose-colored campus life" so he can get a "raven-haired maiden" (ick) and fucking it up because he's, as mentioned before, a jackass. He then meets Ozu and has a passing glance at Akashi, blah blah blah, then he goes "man, life sucks, I want a redo" and time rewinds.

It is infinitely frustrating to see Watashi's love quest for a Boyfriend-Free Girl because bro, hello? I get the fortune teller was telling him all along to just hit that, but it makes it no less frustrating. Would you want to sit next to some guy going "ha ha, damn, bro, I need me a goth baddie" all while he's getting AirDropped nudes from said goth baddie? It's not like she's ugly or has a bad personality or has some other factor (like she's too young or she's in another country or she's already engaged) at play, he's just a chickenshit.

Not to mention he's such a bitter dick that he goes around trying to break up couples. Opening with the first episode where he and Ozu are actively trying to break up couples ruined any chance of me wanting to see Watashi succeed in his quest. He never really repents for that either, he's just rewarded with Akashi's love for no real reason.

Speaking of Akashi... you'd think for being the biggest person on the poster, she'd actually, you know, BE IN THE STORY. Did Maaya Sakamoto take a piss on Masaaki Yuasa's flowers (ignore the fact that this is based on a novel where presumably the fictional character of Akashi pissed on the author's flowers)? She's hardly in the story except for, like, the cycling episode. Other than that, he's just like "oh yeah, I met Akashi at [place], she sure exists". He literally goes OUT OF HIS WAY to say "oh yeah, you don't really want to see me with Akashi, I wouldn't want to waste your time" like huh???

We have time for you to join a cult and abduct sex dolls but not for you to have an extended interaction with the fucking deuteragonist?

It's so dumb too because he's all whiney about his Love Quest when he has had a BUILT-IN excuse to talk to her for YEARS.

Since she gets so little time, we barely get any time to know her either. She likes the funny Mochiguman mascots, she hates moths... she's called "unsociable but kind-hearted" and I guess unsociable fits given the little we see her but we barely get any time to see her be kind-hearted because she's BARELY IN THE STORY.

Our last "main" character is Ozu. He's an unrepentant piece of shit and takes the "traditional" role of the antagonist, so whatever, fine, I don't mind him. I guess if you put a nuclear bomb to my head, I'd say he's my "favorite" character since he at least has an excuse to be a piece of shit and I do like how he turns out in the last couple episodes. I almost kind of wish he was gay for Watashi but I don't mind where they went with him instead.

I only really want to talk about 2 of the side characters because I don't really have all that much to say about, like, Higuchi or Hanuki.

Jougasaki at least made enough of an impression of me to mention him. Idk, I think they should've picked between "boob fiend" and "clean freak" because the fact that he's obsessed with boobs but also has a love doll because he's a clean freak, it kind of mixed like oil and water for me. You can have a boob fiend (not that I'd like that but, I mean, you can) OR you can have a guy who is in love with a love doll but it never really clicked for me.

The other character I want to mention is, of all people, Johnny.

Fuck this character. I didn't want to hear Uzu Sanageyama himself yelling at top volume about how much he needs Watashi to take advantage of a drunk girl or a love doll (that isn't even his). I saw Johnny in the OP and thought a cartoony cowboy would be so funny but it's just a euphemism for Watashi's junk which whatever.

Not a single character in this cast invoked positive feelings for me and it made the show unbearable to watch.

As such, the WaCkY shenanigans they get up to in the likes of the cycling or softball episodes didn't really land for me. They then spend 3 episodes kind of treading the stomping grounds of the same scenario but from three different angles to the point where 2 of the 3 clubs of those episodes are little more than setups for how he got in a certain situation, even more than the usual throwawayness of the club.

However, around the tenth episode (of 11, mind you), it actually starts turning around.

Near the end of the ninth episode, they get to the point of the show: there is no rose-colored campus life, even if you fail and do some dumb shit, you're still the person you are today and you've gotta live with that.

The tenth episode plays with the nihilistic interpretation of this but the positive interpretation (yeah, you won't and can't have a perfect life no matter what situation you're in, you just have to go forth and make the best of what you can) actually really hit home for me.

I mentioned Welcome to the NHK and while I preferred watching that show if nothing else than because I liked the cast (Misaki aside, although even to HER credit, at least she's IN the story and has a personality and has some sort of reason to fall for the MC, not to mention reasons for the MC to rebuff her advances if he so chose) more, I didn't really "get" anything out of it. Yeah, his life sucked, but it's not like I aspired to be a hikikomori in the first place, not to mention I wasn't really a fan of how that show ended.

With Tatami Galaxy, it kind of hit home as someone who has been to college (not that I think you need to have gone for it to hit home) and, by definition, lived some kind of campus life.

Which is why, despite the low score (which would usually warrant a "Not Recommended"), I'm giving it a Mixed Feelings.

As a side note, I really enjoyed the direction. The visuals aren't exactly "stunning", but they are unique and look good. I felt it enhanced the qualities of the anime more than a more traditional look would have, especially with all the unique stuff Yuasa did. I'll never knock a show for having the guts to have a unique look (although if I don't like the look, I'll still say that).

I loved how the end of the episode looped into the ED, that was just perfection.

But yeah.

I hated watching the vast majority of the show, it was insufferable to get through, but I think the message was worthwhile (even if I do have a couple gripes about how Watashi's life ended up in the end).

I can't in all good consciousness recommend it wholeheartedly because I hated the process of watching it, but I would recommend checking it out because of what it's trying to say.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Mar 11, 2025

AmatoresAnime

Not Recommended

**Through the years, this work has been repeatedly venerated as a masterpiece, its status seemingly unassailable.**

Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei (The Tatami Galaxy), an adaptation of Tomihiko Morimi’s novel by the inimitable Masaaki Yuasa, is less a conventional narrative and more a fevered meditation on the labyrinthine nature of choice, regret, and the illusory pursuit of an idealized existence. Within its kaleidoscopic structure, time does not adhere to the rigid linearity of cause and effect but instead loops back upon itself in an endless recursion—a purgatorial reel of youthful disillusionment where every path, no matter how meticulously selected, inexorably leads to some permutation of disappointment.

*Disclaimer: This is ... an earnest reflection, written with complete honesty and the true depth of my feelings.

Beneath its frenetic dialogue and riotous animation, the series harbors a philosophical inquiry of disquieting profundity: If every decision yields a different reality, each imbued with its own brand of dissatisfaction, does the notion of a "correct" choice hold any meaning at all? The nameless protagonist—adrift in a world of infinite possibilities—seeks the elusive rose-colored campus life, believing that the optimal trajectory is but one impeccable decision away. Yet each attempt to engineer a utopian existence culminates in stagnation, disillusionment, and an ever-intensifying awareness of life’s Sisyphean cruelty.

The Tatami Galaxy operates in the liminal space between absurdity and poignancy, a realm where the grotesque humor of human folly gives way to the stark realization that the relentless pursuit of an unattainable ideal precludes one from engaging with the present. The labyrinthine tatami rooms that stretch into eternity become not just a visual motif, but a symbol of the protagonist’s self-imposed exile—a prison of his own making, woven from the threads of indecision and nostalgic longing.

Yet, as the series unfolds towards its inevitable, the suffocating rigidity of determinism begins to fracture. The past is not a chain binding one to despair, nor is the future an ever-receding horizon of lost possibilities. Instead, meaning emerges in the simple act of inhabiting the now—of grasping, however belatedly, that fulfillment does not reside in the meticulous curation of experience but in the raw, imperfect, and unrepeatable immediacy of lived reality.


The Tatami Galaxy is, at first glance, a whimsical odyssey of youthful misdirection, a feverish recounting of an unnamed protagonist’s ceaseless pursuit of an idealized university life—yet beneath its frenetic narration and kaleidoscopic visual landscape lies a far more profound meditation on regret, determinism, and the illusory nature of choice. It is not merely a coming-of-age tale, but rather a metaphysical parable on the futility of seeking a singular, optimal path through life, a path unblemished by disappointment or self-reproach.

At its core, the series deftly dismantles the protagonist’s foundational assumption: that happiness is an equation to be solved, a prize awaiting those who make the “right” decisions. He believes, with unwavering conviction, that had he simply chosen the correct club, befriended the right people, or seized an ephemeral opportunity, his existence would have seamlessly unfolded into the fabled rose-colored campus life he so desperately covets. Yet, as the narrative unfurls in its recursive structure—each loop a distorted reflection of the last—it becomes painfully evident that no permutation of choices will ever yield the utopia he envisions. The illusion of a perfect reality, perpetually out of reach, is his prison, and the more he chases it, the tighter the walls of his self-imposed confinement close in around him.

This, perhaps, is where The Tatami Galaxy achieves its most poignant revelation: regret is not merely the residue of poor decisions but an inescapable condition of human existence. To live is to be haunted by the ghosts of unrealized possibilities, by the infinite permutations of a life not lived. The ever-constricting tatami room—its walls encroaching upon the protagonist until he is left with only the suffocating weight of his own indecision—is a manifestation of his psychological entrapment, his refusal to embrace the irrevocability of the present moment.

Yet, for all its existential musings, The Tatami Galaxy does not succumb to despair. If Neon Genesis Evangelion subjects its audience to an unrelenting excavation of trauma, and if Serial Experiments Lain dissolves the very boundaries of perception and reality, then The Tatami Galaxy stands apart as something altogether different: a wry, philosophical acknowledgment that life is neither a grand puzzle to be solved nor a script to be revised, but rather an ever-unfolding narrative, defined not by its hypothetical alternatives but by the imperfect beauty of its lived experience. Rather than imprisoning oneself in the infinitude of what-ifs, the series suggests, perhaps the only way forward is to simply open the door.


If The Tatami Galaxy were truly themasterpiece its admirers claim, it would dare to descend into the abyss, to wrestle with the unfathomable despair that lingers beneath its mind-chaos. But instead, it remains suspended in a purgatorial loop of self-aware indulgence, far more enamored with the aesthetics of philosophical inquiry than with the harrowing process of actually engaging with it. It is, in this sense, the Run Lola Run of anime—a film that, for all its temporal experimentation, ultimately resolves itself into something facile, a puzzle box that snaps shut without ever threatening to upend the comfortable reality of its audience. Unlike Synecdoche, New York, which unspools the infinite regress of the self until nothing remains but decay and futility, The Tatami Galaxy pulls its punches, ensuring that every detour through the labyrinth leads, inevitably, to a neatly assembled moral lesson.

This is where it falters most grievously. Consider the works of Kierkegaard, whose Either/Or lays bare the crushing weight of choice, or Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence, in which one must confront the horror of living the same life again and again, not as a hypothetical but as a test of one's will to affirm existence. Were The Tatami Galaxy to take these ideas seriously, it would not permit its protagonist a redemptive epiphany as convenient as "embracing the present." True existentialism does not offer such absolution. The unexamined life is not rectified by mere recognition of its patterns but by the agonizing, irreversible act of breaking them.

One cannot help but juxtapose this series against The Holy Mountain, where Alejandro Jodorowsky deconstructs identity, power, and the pursuit of meaning until all that remains is an empty frame—an acknowledgment that narrative itself is an illusion. Yuasa, by contrast, is unwilling to strip his artifice down to its bones; he stops just short of dismantling his protagonist’s ego, allowing him instead to settle into a conclusion that reassures rather than devastates. It is as if The Tatami Galaxy wishes to be seen as profound without enduring the sacrifice necessary to be profound.

Compare this, too, with Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, where Death is not merely a metaphor or a narrative device but an unrelenting presence, a specter that refuses to be ignored. When Antonius Block plays chess with Death, it is not a game with multiple resets, nor is it a whimsical trial meant to nudge him toward a sentimental realization about life’s beauty. It is final, merciless, unyielding. In The Tatami Galaxy, however, consequences are soft, cushioned by the playful elasticity of its structure. This is not an honest depiction of existential despair—it is a gamified facsimile, an amusement park ride through the anxieties of youth that ultimately deposits its passengers safely back where they started, now equipped with a conveniently digestible moral.

If anything, The Tatami Galaxy is a testament to the ways in which modern storytelling often dilutes existentialism into a palatable aesthetic rather than a genuine confrontation. It dances around the void but never plunges into it, perpetually circling the perimeter of something greater, more terrifying, and more real. If true profundity is measured by the wounds it leaves, the scars it etches into the viewer’s psyche, then The Tatami Galaxy is little more than a clever distraction, a work that gestures at the nature of eternity while remaining comfortably ensconced in the ephemeral.


The Tatami Galaxy operates with the air of a work that demands to be perceived as intelligent—relentlessly clever, dizzyingly fast, and brimming with existential rhetoric that, at first glance, seems profound. Yet, upon closer scrutiny, one must ask: does it truly wrestle with the weight of its ideas, or does it merely perform intelligence, spinning in circles rather than daring to break free?

Beneath the spectacle of recursion and regret lies a safe, almost glib answer to the very questions it raises. It presents the illusion of depth without the sacrifice required to attain it, resolving itself into a neatly packaged moral realization rather than the abyssal confrontation its premise promises. It flirts with the terror of infinite choice, only to retreat into a conclusion that soothes rather than unsettles. Unlike works that truly dissect existential paralysis—where revelation is not a comfort but a wound—The Tatami Galaxy prefers to reassure its audience rather than leave them irreversibly altered.

Thank you for reading. Thus stands my analysis—uncompromising, unembellished, and spoken with the full honesty of my heart.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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