The Tatami Galaxy

is a 2004 Japanese varsity novel written by Tomihiko Morimi and published by Ohta Publishing. Its first-person narrator is an unnamed upperclassman at Kyoto University reminiscing on the misadventures of his previous years of campus life, with each of the four chapters taking place in parallel universes in which he is enrolled in a different student society. A sequel, , was published in 2020, which combines the characters of The Tatami Galaxy with the plot of Makoto Ueda's play and film Summer Time Machine Blues. English translations of both novels by Emily Balistrieri are planned for publication by HarperCollins in December 2022 and September 2023, respectively. The Tatami Galaxy was adapted into an 11-episode anime television series produced by Madhouse and directed by Masaaki Yuasa, which aired on Fuji TV's late-night Noitamina programming block in 2010. The adaptation was critically acclaimed, winning the 2010 Japan Media Arts Festival Grand Prize in the Animation Division and the 2011 Tokyo Anime Award in the Television Category. An original net animation adaptation of The Tatami Time Machine Blues produced by Science Saru premiered in September 2022 on Disney+. Plot The Tatami Galaxy follows an unnamed third-year student at Kyoto University, using parallel universes as a plot device to explore how his life would have differed had he joined a particular student society (called a "circle" in Japan). The majority of the series' episodes follow the same basic structure: the protagonist joins a circle as a freshman, but is disillusioned when the activity does not lead to the idealized "rose-colored campus life" he dreamed of. He meets Ozu, another student, whose encouragement sets him on a mission of dubious morality. He becomes close to Akashi, a second year engineering student, and makes a promise to her, usually of and within a romantic subtext. He encounters a fortune teller, who cryptically informs him of an opportunity "dangling" in front of his eyes; this prompts him to remember a mochiguman keychain lost by Akashi and recovered by the protagonist, which he leaves hanging from a pull switch in his apartment and perpetually forgets to return to her. The dubious mission ends poorly for the protagonist, causing him to bemoan the state of his life and wonder how things would have differed had he joined a different circle. Time rewinds, and the subsequent episode depicts the protagonist once again as a freshman, joining a different circle.