Closing circles - House of Five Leaves and Tatami Galaxy

1rst and last episode

ending of episodes 1-10 of tatami galaxy

opening of episode 11 of tatami galaxy

As you can see the title refers to the narrative technique of these series, but it also refers to the post in general, as I owed to 'close' this topic I left open for so long.

Both of them, House of Five Leaves as well as The Tatami World, for those who ignore it, were on Noitama slot, a time zone that has to exhibit almost only diamonds. And those 2, although they didn't have lots of viewers, deserved to be in that slot. By many bloggers they were praised and analysed, while airing. Something that, unfortunately, in the end I couldn't do as I wanted and intended to.

My sorrow is that I somehow I underestimated them and looking back now, reading wonderful reviews and thoughts on them, I came to understand of their true value. Of course, there were some characteristics they had that alienated me and kept me watching only because they had the redeeming feautures of being avant-gard and intriguing. Even like that, I could recognise that the endings were masterfully done, but the series have way more to give. Let's take firstly the case of House of Five Leaves.

House of Five Leaves was very slow-paced and I couldn't relate to the stories of the characters not only due to the era but also due to their experiences that I couldn't have and cannot in many cases. The design of the characters isn't of my taste either; I still get creepy feeings at those huge eyes without irises and the edges of their face and body. I preferred way more Ristorante Paradiso's design. Yet the backgrounds and the music were unique and beautiful. Yaichi had one heck of interesting personality (the mystery around him and all) and this added to his relationship with Masanosuke made me want to continue to see where the series was leading to.

Screenshots of the series- the focus may be nature, buildings, districts/areas, people inside or outside, objects:

fiery maples- the ones with five leaves are the reason behind the name of the gang

near the river, shop district (?)

red light district, where Yaichi hungs around

the restaurant and base of the gang

body language and facial expressions play an important role

loved that river/boat scene! unique angles!

Find more screenshots here

As for the insightful remarks on House of Five Leaves (on the character development, object focus etc), ExecutiveOtaku with some extra comments from gostlightning as well as star crossed blog and hanner.
And a gorgeous panoramic review here

Then comes Tatami Galaxy

The series tired me at some point with all those alternate universes. [...] Because one doesn’t really need exhausting examples to get to the quintessence of the story. I liked the ending of the series because it reflects that happiness can be attained not through the ifs but from trying to cherish the moments we live.

That was my remarka as ayame on Iwa ni Hana's blog as you can see below. Tatami Galaxy had situations one could relate easier to in compare to House of Five Leaves ; not me though. The last four years due to my circumstances I was more like the Watashi of the 10th episode rather than the Watashi of the rest. And at first sight the conclusion that one should grasp the day isn't something new. Plus the dialogues were always so fast... I had to pause every while to read properly. This perhaps was the misfortune of me, since I lost all those visual sympolisms. Below there is a whole list of analyses just on spot. Especially at anime|otaku there is a banch of 31(!) posts about the series. Very enlighting and clever- I was weeping last night because I realised that I'm so much behind these bloggers and the reason: I need to read more literature and watch more films... oh! and of course, time (where do they find so much time??? I spend 1-2 days to write a whole post!)
Itadakimasu!

iwanihana- anime/book: tatami galaxy
animegeijitsu-the 4.5 tatami room of forking paths
that animeblog -the end of watashis illusion
fungafufu- tthe end of the 4.5 tatami age
fungafufu- tatami galaxy collected comments
animeotaku the best anime of 2010

anime otaku -questions and answers from the tatami galaxy
anime otaku-chromatology in the tatami galaxy
anime otaku-comparative and comprehensive interpretations of the tatami galaxy timeline through the first nine episodes
moe sucks -multiple personalities in the tatami galaxy2dteleidoscope- an extreme retrospective
2dteleidoscope- red string theory and the new fascination thoughts on tatami galaxy

and some fanart :)

on pixiv

on pixiv

by alegria

A waltz to remember by kisaragi zeet on deviantart

by alegria on zerochan- note that the square tatami is not on the center anymore ;)

on pixiv