ANIME REVIEW: THE TATAMI TIME MACHINE BLUES

4/5

Remote Work.

6 Episodes. Starring: Junichi Suwabe, Maaya Sakamoto, Kazuya Nakai, Hiroyuki Yoshino, Shintarō Asanuma, Yūko Kaida & Chikara Honda. Director: Shingo Natsume. 

Summer in Japan is so sweltering, the small of your back will forever feel like a bottle of Pocari Sweat left out in the sickly sweet and sticky heat. All before the season were we muppets shake out our umbrellas before we get home, like some kind of Animal drumming. There's nothing quite like it. Just like, there's nothing else out there that comes close to the amazing animation style of the quirky 'Tatami Galaxy', set in the slack residential halls and floors of traditional Kyoto. Now giving us one sequel for sorrow with an air conditioning unit's Coca-Cola destroyed rimokon (remote control) and none for joy. Unless they can H.G. Wells themselves out of this fix. It's enough to give you 'The Tatami Time Machine Blues' in film form on the big screen, or split into five parts and an exclusive sixth on Disney +, streaming over the last month. And you don't need a remote to work it. Perfect. 

Twelve years after 11 episodes of 'The Tatami Galaxy' amazingly adapted Tomihiko Morimi's 2004 varsity novel comes the blues, directed by Shingo Natsume. Featuring the undeniable vocal talents of Junichi Suwabe, Maaya Sakamoto, Kazuya Nakai, Hiroyuki Yoshino, Shintarō Asanuma, Yūko Kaida and Chikara Honda, this combines the characters from the parallel universe of 'Tatami' with a time heist plot from Makoto Ueda's play and film of the same name, 'Summer Time Machine Blues'. With nothing comparing, but instead collaborating, man, it's going to be a hot one. Scorching in succeeding the Japan Media Arts Festival winner of the grand prize. All this and yet this anime style and story is still so original. Even though, people have gone back to the future more times than pumped up kicks. You kids are going to love it!

This Japanese Breakfast club (no relation to the South Korean singer) consist of some compelling characters. Shintarō Asanuma is our unnamed, nuanced narrator. Bespectacled and bewildered by what he sees before him. The beauty of his rose-coloured and raven haired dreams are tinted and dimmed by the black heart of the slap silly, demonic Ozu, grinning through all those teeth. Resembling the Yōkai spirt of mischief as he binds together with his friend of fate from a black thread. It's the affections of Akashi who Shintarō really want to befriend in close counsel, though. And there's little wonder why with this iconic character who gives us so much of that stardust in this supernatural science-fiction. The girl who leapt through time with ticking hands. A lovable jock, a popular girl who is more than a doll and a yukata donning Master with a chin bigger than the boiling bowl that contains Kyoto itself rounds out the rest of the cast of characters in a class of their own. Although we never see them studying. No see-through red card in sight. 

In this adventure Coke is spilt on a remote and then the beloved air conditioner, cool for the summer like Demi Lovato, goes on a diet. And they asked what was the worst to happen with Dr. Pepper. So without a switch they dial up a time machine that just happens to be lying in the middle of the tatami floor and that's where everything spirals. Through swamps and sets of previous day's acting. The better not catch themselves naked in the bathhouses, so grab a towel. Because the butterfly effect would be even worse than stepping into a Japanese home with your shoes still on your feet. It could be the end of the world as they knew it. And that's not so fine, like this iconic animation. It's all fun and time games, though. You won't feel the blues with these cells of limited colour (for grand and good reason), but boundless imagination in surreal artistic and storytelling craft. It's about time you took a rest on a tatami and went on this journey through an even further galaxy. It's a whole other machine. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'The Tatami Galaxy', 'Summer Time Machine Blues', 'The Time Machine'.