SingleH

Disclaimer: An entire bottle of Mount Gay Black Barrel, an undisclosed amount of Appleton 21, and multiple cans of Bacardi Rum Punch (to use as chasers) were consulted in the creation of this review. Plus however much Barrell Armida is in this rocks glass. This entire show and this entire review itself were both additionally and respectively viewed and created over the course of about nineteen hours. Alcohol and its affects were therefore heavily involved in all relevant processes. Hopefully you enjoy… Being a drunk corpse, I figured a much more pertinent use of my time than watching Cyberpunk: Edgerunners—as much fun as that show was—wouldbe to take a leap back in time to once again reacquaint myself with the 4.5 Tatami Ideologue, and I must say, it was more than happily worth my time. Maybe I would’ve felt differently about the series if I had watched it first at the appropriate age, but personally, The Tatami Galaxy had always been one of those anime whose reputation seemed completely incongruous with my own experience. It was always spoken of as being this “pretentious,” “elitist,” “pseudo-intellectual” anime, and I could never understand why. I obviously understand that in the context of their common usage, these phrases are buzzwords that mean nothing and whose actual definitions are completely unknown and misunderstood to those using them, but still, these buzzwords have always been used to describe artsy, confusing, abstruse anime which the casual viewer would consider annoyingly if not purposefully difficult to parse. Anything written by Chiaki Konaka; anything directed by Mamoru Oshii; anything touched with a ten-foot pole by Kunihiko Ikuhara; even shit like Evangelion. These to me are anime which most of these people would call “pretentious,” “elitist,” whatever. But even if I find things like this to be relatively easy to understand, I at least understand why others wouldn’t. Lots of weird symbolism, unstated themes, non-linear storytelling, etc. But The Tatami Galaxy doesn’t really have any of that. It’s just a show about a college kid losing his mind in his dorm room, because he doesn’t know how to grapple with his newfound freedom to choose his own path and frankly thinks he REALLY should’ve gotten laid by now…which is a station in life pretty much anyone over the age of twenty can empathize with…right? Unless everyone on the internet whose ever used those buzzwords to describe The Tatami Galaxy was fucking fourteen (which I highly doubt), then the idea that such an anime would be lumped in with the taste of someone who’d be super into Serial Experiments Lain for example seemed completely ridiculous to me. What could possibly be less “pretentious” than a story such as this, let alone one presented with this much emotional honestly and this many details which reveal it all to come from a place of the author’s intensely personal experience? At the end, seeing the main character being the one to tease Ozu in the hospital bed is among the most cathartic character arcs I’ve ever seen executed on screen, and the idea anyone could see something this sappy and adorable and think “elitist” is downright alien to me. And Masaaki Yuasa had at that point had already established himself as a master of this specific craft. Mind Game, Kemonozume, Kaiba—they all vary in subject matter, in theme, and—let’s be honest—in overall quality, but they all share this emotional openness that characterizes a great deal of his catalog, and The Tatami Galaxy was far from being an exception. Even characters who you weren’t strictly supposed to relate to, I found to be open books. Far more than the main character and his isolated arrogance, I personally found Akashi to be a much more empathetic presence, because depending on how you look at it, she is failing to reach out and “grasp the opportunity” just as egregiously as he is. Even in the early episodes, it’s completely obvious that she’s trying to get this guy’s attention, and yet she stops short of making any moves on him despite the fact he’s clearly fucking oblivious. And that’s fine—The Tatami Galaxy is very much a male show, meant to teach a lesson to a male audience. But the fact it can nevertheless have so many angles to appreciate it from speaks volumes. If there was one human being on Earth who I would think to be a good-enough Yuasa replacement to take the reins of Yojouhan Time Machine Blues, Shingo Natsume would most probably be the one. Not only did he work as an episode director on the original show, and not only is he a genius director on his own rights, but his style simply fits this project perfectly. And this project was, if it needed to be stated, an exercise in pure nostalgia. Never have I felt more warm in my heart and at home in my soul than I did as soon as that Asian Kung-Fu Generation OP kicked on. I don’t know what exactly it is about the music they’ve done for this series, but it fits so wonderfully. Seeing all these faces I’ve known for over a decade now felt like…well, it felt like seeing faces I’ve known for over a decade now. I didn’t even have to look at the screen in that opening scene. I was on the other side of the room, pouring this glass, but hearing Jougasaki, Hanuki, Higuchi, Ozu, and Akashi speak—I didn’t need to see the screen to know the expressions on their faces. I was actually just talking to my hairdresser about this earlier today, because, not to brag or anything, but next week I’m getting transferred and promoted. And the people I’m going to be presiding over now are angels send down from Heaven to save me from the fiery depths of hell. I was talking to her about how it’s been so long since I’ve been able to spend time around people who actually LIKE me. People who actually know something about me, and who I know something about, who ACTUALLY like me. We like being around each other, and it’s cute. This department in particular has, more than any other department I interact in the vicinity of, a distinct “work culture,” for lack of a better term. And it’s because they like and know each other. They spend time together. This series has absolutely succeeding in capturing that aura of…I don’t know…that aura of people. It was so funny. The morning I posted my most recent project, I was so happy, so excited, so optimistic for the future, and within hours it was humiliatingly raped and destroyed, and I sunk deep, deep, deep back into the bottle, to a depth and darkness which I still have yet to escape. Night is Short, Walk on Girl, another companion piece to The Tatami Galaxy, is a movie which I’ve slowly over the years come to appreciate as a film which can only be properly enjoyed while intoxicated, and I say this seriously with a straight face. All her talk of cocktails, and how she wishes the Pacific Ocean was made of rum is, yes, #SoRelatable, but it is also in all seriousness a legitimate guide to enjoying the film. The serendipitous, jovial nonsense; the attitude of gleeful abandon; the endless shifting from one adventure to the next, all while keeping the overall emotional arc in mind. The way the film flows is very much reminiscent of an actual night on the town, and I don’t think I ever truly experienced that film until I did so drunk. And I did this; I’m typing this sentence separately, but I did this, and it was life-altering. This is ironic not simply for obvious reasons, but also because becoming a proper alcoholic has utterly decimated my short-term memory. I can’t really remember anything anymore. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nothing. なし. I can’t remember anything, but I do remember this series. And what does that say? Well, first of all, it’s actually good, but moreover, it’s memorable and worthwhile enough to warrant not only enjoyment, but a rewatch of the entire series. Typically, I write to slow, lyric-less music. Anything else I think would be too distracting, and so I write to the tune of shit you could fall asleep to—shit I actively do fall asleep to on occasion. But this time, sippin’ whiskey, of course, I felt it would be an utter sacrilege to type to the tune of anything other than the titular blues. Now if only I had a time machine to go with… Thank you for reading.

Mcsuper

First of all, let me be clear here, this show is not a sequel for The Tatami Galaxy, but I highly recommend you to watch it to get the most out of this show. This review will be written in a way that assumes you have watched The Tatami Galaxy. This show was essentially a side story in the universe of “The Tatami Galaxy”, and for many fans of that show, this would be extremely nostalgic, seeing the likes of Watashi, Akashi, and Ozu back at it with their ridiculous shenanigans. At its core, this show revolves around the same aspects as the Tatami Galaxy did,themes about grasping what’s in front of you, and the fact that time only goes forward, and you can’t change your past mistakes. Though, where The Tatami Galaxy used a more philosophical approach to the whole time travel mechanics, Time Machine Blues uses it in a bit more of a comedic approach. In a nutshell, Watashi’s friend, Ozu, spills liquid onto the air conditioning remote in Watashi’s apartment, causing it to break down, and the characters have to find a way to fix it. Pretty dumb, I know, but for a show set in such a ridiculous universe to begin with, it works. The story is quite a lot to take in, and you have to keep up with the rapid speaking, but overall, it felt slightly slower paced than The Tatami Galaxy. Art-wise, it looks good, though it does lack the eccentricity of Yuasa’s style, but Shingo Natsume also worked under him for a while, so I did see some shades of that uniqueness, but not to Yuasa’s scale. The facial expressions are a joy to watch still. Character-wise, it’s very nostalgic, and everyone is quite eccentric in their own ways. Ozu is still extremely funny to watch at times, and each character has their own nice comedic bits to them. Thematically, it’s a bit all over the place, and it’s nowhere near as thought-provoking as The Tatami Galaxy, and that’s not the show’s goal. It serves a light hearted side story, and it does that well enough. Simply put, if you enjoyed The Tatami Galaxy, you’ll likely enjoy this as well. If you didn’t enjoy the original, then you won’t. This show was just a fun time, and there’s not much to take away from it other than that.