The Tatami Galaxy (Tatami Series, #1) (2025)

The book that inspired Masaaki Yuasa’s cult anime series. Award-winning author Tomihiko Morimi’s narrative plays out like an angst-ridden variation on Happy Death Day. It’s set in Kyoto, where a nameless, isolated, struggling college student regrets his choices in life, chiefly his fraught friendship with the obnoxious Ozu – a nod to the iconic director – who looks and acts like a kind of yokai, and keeps dragging him into his hare-brained, dodgy schemes; not to mention his obsession with Akashi a girl he seems destined to disappoint. But then he bumps into a mysterious stranger at a local ramen stand who offers him a chance to do everything all over again and maybe change his fate. But as time rewinds, things are not so simple. I found a surprising amount to like in this strange, offbeat, slightly-surreal story. There’s a wealth of startling, memorable imagery, and some wonderful, moments of dark, absurdist humour featuring swarms of moths, plushie bears, a life-size love doll and a copy of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, although the writing style can be a bit awkward, and some parts definitely drag. I also liked the conclusion with its lowkey, unexpectedly-positive message. Translated by Emily Balestrieri.

Thanks to Edelweiss and publisher HarperVia for an ARC

2.5 Stars
I thought I would absolutely love this one because I typically adore anime style narratives. Unfortunately I was disappointed. The main character was just so annoying that it made it hard to enjoy a story centered around this particular protagonist. I typically don't need likeable characters but I just did not want to read about this guy. Wow.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this audiobook via LibroFM.

Incredible anime series, dull book.

Worst description of fear, ever:

"GYEEEEEEE" Akashi-san screamed as though she were a character from a manga.

Worst conversation with penis, ever:

"Don't cry," he consoled me. "I'm sorry I was being selfish."
"Sorry," I muttered.
And so, I made peace with my Johnny.

*spoilers*
The TV series closely based on this book is far, far better because the protagonist progresses toward a clear goal.

In both the book and miniseries, a similar series of events is retold, but the TV miniseries presents this as a progression of the protagonist coming closer to his goal and therefore paints this as a philosophical mediation on finalism. The book instead is more nihilistic as the protagonist reaches the exact same end no matter what he does. The greatest criticism of the book but not the series is that when he achieves success he still wants to change his past.

I cannot feel anything about a character that is unhappy after effortlessly achieving success that was not clearly their goal. For me, simply put, a character must have an intent, effort or preference to be considered human.

what a bizarre little book. kept me entertained for sure though.

A trippy and quirky read that is a way less pretentious approach to self-growth through the exploration of multiverses than The Midnight Library was, but in some instances, also the more annoying one.

The Tatami Galaxy apparently inspired an anime that seems to have quite a lot of fans, so I'm not even sure how many of you need a plot summary! We basically follow an unnamed protagonist around Kyoto University, where he realises that he has made a lot of mistakes in the past. Through a series of crazy events, he gets to explore different versions of his life in parallel universes.

This is written in a refreshing and bold way that will not be everyone's cup of tea, but there's much to like about it. It's quick and funny and I can totally see why this would work as an anime – there's so much drama in these little sentences and it's all very visual, almost like the novelisation of a manga. The characters also feel almost like caricatures, like the protagonist's best friend Ozu, who is mischievous and obnoxious in the most striking way. It's hard to put your finger on what makes this feel so different to Western literature, but there's almost something awkward in the writing and the way the protagonist is handling situations.

Some parts drag a bit. The repetitiveness is part of the plot, after all, the protagonist explores what would have been different if he made other choices in his past, but the thing is that a lot remains the same, so as a reader you have to go through passages of the same thing being repeated. I mean word for word. It does make you go slightly mad.

I like how you can read this as a nihilistic depiction of fate, or as a consolation. The protagonist is sure that if only this or that would have been different, his life could have been an entirely different (in his imagination – better) thing, but the parallel worlds clearly show him that he'd still be himself in all of these versions of reality, which results in him making the same choices just in slightly different ways. You can read this as a "hey, there's no point in anything", but also as a more comforting "everything will be okay in the end and you will be where you belong" kind of way. I enjoyed that duality.

This is a cool story that felt different to a lot of other novels tackling the subject of alternative realities. I enjoyed it!

Thanks to Libro.fm and the publisher for allowing me to dive into this ahead of its release!

The Tatami Galaxy is a witty, cleverly structured portrait of a loser university student across four parallel universes. These diverge depending upon which club he decides to join as a fresher, or so he believes. The reader appreciates the irony of what does and doesn't differ between universes, as the book sets them out as four discrete narratives. Among the constants is the protagonist's shady friend Ozu, who I found very amusing. Also unvarying is the four tatami mat room he lives in and the farcical nature of his experiences. However it's also great fun to spot divergences and ways in which the universes intersect. The protagonist's inner monologue reminded me of Shen Yuan's in The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System 人渣反派自救系统 due to a combination of pomposity, self-deprecation, and lack of self-awareness. Both are hilarious also. I really enjoyed the tone of the writing and translation:

Standing next to Mister Higuchi was a creepy fellow with a terribly inauspicious-looking face. At first I thought he was a messenger from hell only I, with my heightened sensitivities, could see.
"My name's Ozu. Nice to meet you," he said. [...]
Ozu, who at first was about as talkative as a god of death standing at your bedside, began giving an impassioned lecture about breasts. A deep debate about whether the breasts we see actually exist or not ensued, and after quantum mechanics entered the discussion, Master Higuchi made the profound observation that "it doesn't matter whether they exist or not - it's whether you believe in them or not," which was about the time I lost consciousness.
This is how I became Master Higuchi's disciple and how I met Ozu.
What sort of disciple was I, you ask? It goes without saying that even after two years that never became clear.

The Tatami Galaxy made me laugh out loud multiple times with its excellent punchlines. Notably, when the protagonist goes to see where his pen pal, Keiko Higuchi, lives:

As I was wavering incessantly between loneliness and self-hatred, the door to 102 suddenly opened. I tried to hide; I couldn't forsake the chance that had suddenly presented itself to me.
I saw Keiko Higuchi.
She had a very creepy face. She appeared unhealthy, with a complexion like someone who had been living on the far side of the moon. She wore an ominous grin as if she were hoping for misfortune to befall others, essentially like the yokai Nurarihyon. She was practically like Ozu. She looked identical to him. Actually, it was him. It was Ozu himself.
"Is there no God or Buddha?" is a phrase made for this moment.

I also very much enjoyed the surreal exploration of endless tatami mat rooms in the fourth section.

How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss

What a strange little book - a very interesting format. I haven't seen the anime before (or even heard about it), but the book definitely feels a little anime-ish. At first, I didn't enjoy the story very much, but I warmed to it in the end. The way it's told is meaningful, but it also has a lot of word to word repetitions, and that wasn't something I enjoyed too much. I ended up skipping passages cause I remembered them almost verbatim, but also, that was part of the point. I won't deny that I reread some of my favorite passages again and again without skipping as well.

I loved the main idea of the story though. It seems we regret too many things in life, we think that if we only did this one or other thing slightly differently, then everything would have been fine. But this book challenges the idea, because however many ways things seem to go, the main character still ends up making the same awful choices, only in a slightly different way. It's hard to say whether I completely got the message in the end, at least the way it was intended, or if there even WAS a way to understand it 'correctly' - maybe everyone just takes away something of their own from this story. But what I took away from it was that sometimes we just don't value some things we should see differently, and are stuck in our regret mindsets. Sometimes you need to look outside of your own 'four and a half tatami room'.

There is a sort of odd meaning in this, as you read it. You realize, that maybe that awfulness isn't all that bad. Maybe it's just unique and the way this person is being themselves in the world, although they don't seem to quite understand it. It's like, we keep turning in the same circles with the same people, and we do the same things over and over again. It seems we attract the same situations. It's a very interesting way to look at life. As if things could be different, but they're just dressed up a new way, while it's all the same thing, because that's apparently who you are. And maybe there's a meaning of its own there. Maybe the grass only seems to be greener on the other side, and you never bother to look at the grass where you are standing.

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.

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Of course the best anime of all time has a great book. Thats like saying the sky is blue

god, i just love tomihiko morimi. i don't even care what he writes about, his writing is so fun to read. i read a lot of reviews of this book that found it boring, and i will say that there really isn't much of a plot and not many significant things happened, but i loved it! i loved how slow the pace was, i love how long it took for everything to build, i loved the subtle references between the universes. i know a lot of people label this book and morimi's other work as science fiction, but to me it reads more as literary fiction that uses sci-fi as a vehicle.

i genuinely have zero complaints about this book. i loved everything about it. i loved morimi's weird, awkward, slightly perverted characters. i loved his whimsical descriptions. i loved his take on the multiverse theory. i don't know what it is about his writing, but he writes such cozy books. i love it. i need to read more of his work.

i will say that the "story" takes a while to build up and once it does reach the turning point that climax is a bit insignificant, but, like i said, i love the journey, the writing, itself that i don't really care if the plot is satisfying or if there's any plot at all.

The story of Tatami Galaxy takes you on a journey into the mind of an unnamed college student called "I" or "私" (Watashi) in the book. I like to think that the author purposefully made this so, because in some sense 私 is us or has been ourselves in one way or another. Tatami Galaxy is an expedition through different realities of what could have been based on 私's decision on choosing an organization. Overall, there are four scenarios which 私 has lived through that is written in the book. He goes through the different realities with the people he is fated to meet: Ozu (his frenemy), Akashi (his love interest), and Higuchi (the mortal name of the patron god of love).

Each year 私 lives out one of his realities based on his decision on choosing an organization. He narrows it down to four pamphlets that catch his attention: Misogi Movie Circle, A mysterious call for disciples, Honkawa Softball Circle, and the Lucky Cat Restaurant Society. The book goes through these realities in order of how it is stated above. In each reality, he is fated to come into contact with Ozu, which is his guide/enemy in each reality. Each reality explores a different perspective in life through the eyes of 私. In the first reality, 私 has a bitter approach towards love; going so far as crowning himself the nemesis of love. The next reality explores 私's morals as he refuses to steal Kaori-san the love doll for his master. The third reality explores 私's sexual frustrations. The last reality explores again 私's morals and desolate lifestyle: traversing multiple realities through a period of time.

All in all, I believe the main lesson we could learn from this story is that life is complicated and that no matter what expectations we may have of life, be it through our rose-colored lenses of what life should be (as described in the book) it will never meet our standards. We see this evidently in the story as 私 longs, contrary to what he actually says, for a rose-colored life in college. He also regrets at the near end of each reality which organization he has chosen as he believes that if he had chosen otherwise, he could have been as unmarred as he was before choosing an organization.

I believe this part of the story reflects how many people think before making a decision; thinking out every possibility of what could have been or what might have been. We are stacked against what is proven by this book, that sometimes in life as the fortune teller puts it bluntly, "Sometimes they (opportunities) hide in places you don't expect....in order to seize an opportunity, you must act."

Life is unpredictable. We will never know what would happen if we stay idly by and let countless opportunities flow by.

This is best exemplified in the book, wherein, 私 lives different realities. Although the choices he made in these realities did not come out as he had hoped for, each of these choices bore fruit to solid friendships and eventful happenings. The only reality I believe was uneventful was the reality where 私 chose to stay in his 4.5 Tatami room, traversing through different realities in his Tatami Galaxy. This is I believe is a hyperbole of what the book tries to communicate, which is that not much can bear fruit in too much thinking.

Overall, the book shows great promise and it offers a beautiful way of communicating its message to its readers. It is a mix of seriousness and humor, from reading about 私's suffering in running through hundreds to thousands of realities to 私 telling his Johnny that he'd rather be a gentleman than fall victim to lust. I've read just the translation of the book, so I think there are some things I would not have gotten. The book does start every chapter with the same lines so that its readers are made aware that 私 has started another reality. I don't mind it much, I could just skip through these pages, but some might find it annoying. If you're one for a creative way of telling and stretched-out descriptions, I would recommend this book. The book also has an anime, although from what I have remembered, there are some things different between the anime and the book. The anime is as wordy as the book, almost as if you read the book itself. To give it a score, I'd rate Tatami Galaxy a 9.5/10.

This book was trippy.

Having a narrative that was plotted through a perspective from a nameless character can be quite inviting. Mainly set in our protagonist’s four-and-a-half-mat tatami dorm room, The Tatami Galaxy brought me to an enthralling campus life adventure with a series of four parallel settings running in a loop; a chance that was given when the realm of possibilities open for a time rewind to our protagonist when he was about to make another mistake after his two years of misfortunes.

Each universe was crafted in similar main scenes giving gripping twists of perspective to both of its plot and characterization; 4 shady clubs that were available at the narrator’s university and to experience each in separate universes really gave the plot arc a unique and absorbing execution. Few repetitive scenes and same appearances of characters can be wearisome at times (love the fortune-teller anyway even though she appeared almost with the same set of dialogues) yet I still admired the author’s ability in giving a witty and fun nuanced to his storytelling.

Love Akashi and narrator’s interactions and Master Higuchi was so cunning in the 2nd parallel (love him the most in here) also Ozu’s labyrinthine character can be both amusing and annoyingly mischievous— a love-hate for him but watching the anime and see how he was really a yokai lookalike, I just digress. My fav last universe gets me into a thorough train of thoughts of the wacky narrator; it resonates a more deeper and touching exploration to his existential crises— of solitute and friendship, those tangle of fates and his reflection on what he encountered throughout each adventure; of regrets, hope and dreams. The moth incidents definitely giving a glitch bonus for the wrap-up.

A raw and fascinating approach by Morimi to highlight and combine that early phase of adulthood with a multiverse transcendental campus life although I think not many would enjoy this for its chaotic surreal plotline. I enjoyed the anime as much (maybe more than the book?) and can’t wait for the sequel novel to be released soon! 4 stars to this!

Thank you Times Reads for sending me a copy to review!

3.75

WHATTA RIDE! this book was one of the most trippiest, yet relatable books I've ever read. The book follows the antisocial narrator through the exploration of parallel timelines examining how joining 4 different organizations in college would help achieve his "rose-colored" perfect college life; however, in each of these realities, His fate is intertwined with Ozu, his troublemaker "friend". My description doesn't do this story justice.

Personally, the reason why I rated the book so highly was how immersed I felt reading. There were situations that the narrator and I had that pertained to the eventual regrets and struggles navigating college life, and looking back if you had joined a different club or had a different set of friends, you would have the "dream" college experience. The narrator was also unlikable and I actually enjoyed that because it added to the complexity of the story. The only gripe I had was that the story although was meant to repeat 4 different universes got old reading the same things, so I skimmed through the similar parts.

Mmm.. :/

I really wanted to like this book but the narrator is lowkey insufferable. The concept of living parallel lives depending on the decisions you make is cool, but the way the book executes it is ass. I think there could’ve been a better way to show this without literally repeating 4-5 pages from the previous parts i was literally glazing my eyes over when I realized it was the same wording and phrases as before.

i feel like instead of spending a lot of time repeating things that have already been established (like it didnt need to be repeated for 4 parts? Maybe 2 at most to prove the point) it could have spent a bit more time on the narrators reflection and maybe some deeper thinking besides “well now that im in complete isolation i miss the guy that I blame all my misfortunes for” albeit unfairly.

**spoilers maybe*
If he regretted his 2 years so much why did he do nothing about it except whine and complain? I hated how the narrator blamed Ozu, Higuchi, and literally everyone else for everything “wrong” that happened to him but was too prideful to even consider that his own decisions caused him to live a life full of regret. There was no point in the book where he thought “hmm maybe im the problem” even during his so called epiphany in part 4’s tatami galaxy.

I hate the phrase “black hair maiden” and i hated the “Johnny” dialogue so much that was so unnecessary lol.

The end message is nice, nihilistic even, but i think the story behind it falls short. Maybe i’ll watch the show instead eventually since i heard its peak fiction and cuz I see Asian Kung Fu Generation made the opening but…im really disappointed!

haHA i am so WEIRD isn’t that just totally hilarious!!!! let me tell you about my NIHILISM and HOPELESSNESS but it’s ok, i’m really WEIRD and that means it’s not depression it’s SATIRE!!!!

there are moments when you’re hit with some surprisingly beautiful imagery (in the vein of chainsaw man montages), but overall i think the translation might just be a little clunky. time to try watching the anime again!!!

I really hated the first half of this, I genuinely thought it could be my first ever DNF!

It all came together nicely at the end but I thought it was a bit boring and I couldn’t connect with any of the characters — but I also assume they were written to be annoying and unlikeable.

--The Tatami Galaxy

A Note from the Translator
Glossary

Insufferable man, with his insufferable friends, navigates though 4 different insufferable dimentions, blaming his insufferableness of everyone but himself. Surprisingly wholesome ending, loved it!

how many times do I need to experience this story to internalize the message

♡ 156/ 100

The Tatami Galaxy was the most pleasant of surprises.

As a preface, a beginning to my love story with this book, I found it two days ago when I fixing up the shelves at my bookstore. The Ottessa Moshfegh section is my baby, and I specifically curate it each time, but noticed the Lapvona paperbacks were all sold out so I decided to face out another book instead. I look up, and there I see this beautiful purple spine and I'm hooked. Next thing I know I'm pulling the book off the shelf and it was love at first sight with that cover! The synopsis is very Groundhog Day-like and the prose being compared to Moshfegh herself had hooked me and I waddled home after work that day not knowing my newest hyper fixation was hiding right there in my tote bag.

Anyways, The Tatami Galaxy follows our unnamed narrator and his best friend, Ozu in their third year of college. Our narrator feels like he has done absolutely nothing in college up to this point so to remedy that he decides to look for a club. The story is told in four chapters, all of which start and end the exact same way, but the entirety of the middle is unique to each chapter. Depending on which club they join, the story changes. You see different developments, metaphors, and characters that can, and sometimes do repeat into other chapters/ stories, but will have a slightly special twist each time. The story makes you question and reflect on your own life as well and is told in such a smart way. You wonder what your life would be like if you took Route A to work instead of Route B. If you went through one door instead of the other.

This surrealist contemporary story is one of my new all-time favorites.

I will 100% be picking up the sequel to this and I am going to look into the other English-translated releases of Morimi's because I need more of this, NOW!

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

It took me a while to get into this book, but when I did I ended up liking it quite a bit. The story is told in four sections…one for each of four college clubs from which the narrator chooses as a freshman. It’s a multi-verse telling, of sorts. The unnamed narrator is a boy in his third year of college. He is convinced that, if only he had made a different decision when choosing clubs in his freshman year, his life would have turned out better…that he would have better friends, be more successful, even that he would have a raven-haired beauty for a girlfriend.

(Spoiler alert) The interesting thing is that no matter which club the narrator chooses, he still meets the same people and has the same negative outcome. Individual days differ, but the overall outcome is the same. It makes for some repetitive reading, with whole paragraphs remaining unchanged from section to section. Except for this repetition, though, I liked the concept and appreciated the way in which the stories were weaved together. The message, that we’re fated to go one particular way in life despite the small decisions that are made each day, is an interesting one. Also that we can fail to appreciate the good things we have when we constantly wish for more…the grass-is-always-greener kind of thing. I liked how this book made me think about the possibilities.

The narrator is a rather aimless university sophomore who is consumed by thoughts of regret over his less-than-stellar social life and his bipolar, love/hate companionship and rivalry with a rather malfeasant schoolmate, named Ozo, and their unique and mystically minded club master, who could never seem to graduate from college. One night, while the narrator is stewing over his regrets and munching over a bowl of ramen, he encounters an ancient matchmaking god who offers him a path to getting together with a female coed, the independent-minded Akashi, or essentially redoing the direction of his life. This novel is a comforting peek at Japanese campus life, and its descriptive imagery of delicious ramen, castelle cake, characters with vibrant personalities, wizened oracles, make it effortlessly adaptable to visual media, such as anime, which is exactly what it's been.

4.5 Fair warning, this has been my favorite anime for close to a decade now, possibly the story that is the most influential to me as a writer and reader, so the book was always going to be great for my taste. Though I think the anime manages the climax and epiphany better, giving equal focus to four clubs and the repeating sections - plus a fantastic translation that is humorous and juvenile in all the right places - make this a worthwhile read with its own enjoyment. Watashi and Ozu you will always be famous. Akashi is even BETTER here than in the anime and that's saying something.

A really fun premise but a very confusing execution — I was very excited to listen to the audiobook and, although there were a few things I enjoyed about the book, most of the stories were really repetitive and the way everything was explained almost gave me an headache. The last chapters saved the book for me; I finally realized where the story was going, there was a nice character’s development and I really appreciated the ending.

What to say about this book...

It's like if Catcher in the Rye was actually funny and a little bit speculative and had a bit of "A Christmas Carol" undercurrent to the plotline. I don't know if that makes sense, but it's the best I got.

I was swept away in the absurdity of this book. The unnamed narrator was hateable and relatable (unlike Holden, imo). I enjoyed the ride.

Né carne né pesce.
Capisco perché ne abbiano tratto un anime; la storia è adatta. Magari proverò a guardarlo per vedere se rende meglio, perché in quanto a romanzo non mi ha lasciato molto.

After I finished reading, I immediately walked out for a quick stroll around my neighbourhood and allowed the fresh, lingering highs from the story soak in. What a lovely little book! I initially picked it up for a book club, but due to life and things, I procrastinated reading it until the very last minute. And oh boy, am I glad I did! The whirlwind of craziness that lead to the simple conclusion of << gratitude >> was immensely needed for me personally in my life.

would have been cool but got all the repeat sections were annoying. i’ve heard the phrase “black-haired maiden” enough for a life time. literally only picked up cause the cover looked cool.

january 7, 2023

the reality collapsed. please practise harder!

I was so conflicted when I tried to rate this book.

In the beginning, I was so extremely bored with this book that I could not even read two pages without putting the book down and doing something else. And as the book went on, I started to understand the idea of the book; however, the boredom was still lingering. Don't get me wrong, the premise is an interesting one. The way the author intentionally rewrote some passages but slightly changed them in different timelines was innovative....I just could not connect with this book. I was gonna give this book a pretty negative review but the final part saved it and tied things together pretty nicely.

I also heard that there was an anime based on this book and when I went to watch a part of it I was shocked at how much better this story works in that medium. The characters, the setting, the humor, they were all so ALIVE. So if you read the description of this book and you're interested in the premise, just do yourself a favor and go watch the anime.

P.S. The humor in this book was so broken...I loved it