Line #87 Literature/TheTatamiGalaxy


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tatamigalaxy8.jpg]]
2
3	->''Then I was a brand-spanking new freshman university student and countless doors to the mystical treasure that is known as that 'rose-colored campus life' lay open before me. I was half-swooned with glee. And the one I chose was...!''
4
5	''The Tatami Galaxy'' (''Yojo-han Shinwa Taikei'', literally "A Compendium of 4.5 Tatami Mythology") is a 2004 novel by Creator/TomihikoMorimi, narrated by an [[NoNameGiven unnamed]] third-year agriculture student at Kyoto University. After getting dumped by a crush in his first year, he's become convinced the idealised, lovey-dovey campus life he expected will never become reality, and as a result, has wasted the last two years ruining the love lives of others at every opportunity with his partner in crime, Ozu. Despite this, the narrator has taken a liking to Akashi, a girl one year his junior.
6
7	One late night while eating ramen at a cart near his boarding house, our narrator meets a man claiming to be a god of matrimony. The god tells the protagonist that come the tenth lunar month, the gods will gather in Izumo and determine who will marry whom--and Akashi's hand is either going to him or Ozu. When a fortune teller further tells him he's at a crossroads--one path leading to a life of happiness, [[GroundhogDayLoop the other leading to more frustrating monotony]]--the narrator realizes that he needs to get a move on and truly experience all that his college years have to offer.
8
9	The novel was adapted to anime for Creator/NoitaminA's spring 2010 season, directed by Creator/MasaakiYuasa of ''Anime/{{Kaiba}}'' fame, written by Yuasa and Makoto Ueda and produced by Creator/{{Madhouse}}. Creator/FUNimation licensed it for a streaming-only, English-subtitled stateside release on the Funimation website, Website/YouTube, and {{Creator/Hulu}} under the MarketBasedTitle ''The Tatami Galaxy''.
10
11	The series has a SpiritualSuccessor in the 2017 anime film, ''Anime/TheNightIsShortWalkOnGirl'', an adaptation of another Morimi novel produced by the same creative team featuring the same setting and sharing a few minor characters.
12
13	In 2020, the original book received a sequel based on the Makoto Ueda stage play and film ''Summer Time Machine Blues''. Titled ''The Tatami Time Machine Blues'' (''Yojohan Time Machine Blues''), this book follows Ozu and the Protagonist going back in time to prevent their dorm's air conditioner remote from being broken. In 2021, this book was announced to have a six episode anime adaptation--alongside an official English translation of both novels. This anime was released in Japan on Disney Plus and as a theatrical compilation film in fall 2022. The English translation for ''The Tatami Galaxy'' was released in December 2022 and for ''The Tatami Time Machine Blues'' in November 2023.
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15	----
16	!!Exhibits the following tropes:
17
18	* AdaptationExpansion: The original novel has four major paths the protagonist took (Misogi Film, Honwaka Baseball, being Higuchi's apprentice, and the Lucky Cat Restaurant secret society), plus a handful of other clubs that were mentioned offhandedly. The anime adaptation expands on this and gives the protagonist ten different outcomes, some of which include the throwaway clubs, [[spoiler:and splits the final timeline where he locks himself in his room up]].
19	* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: The anime shifts various plot points around, but the most notable is [[spoiler:the protagonist moving into a new apartment at the very end. In the novel, he's able to do this because he used up all the money he gathered from wandering around his tatami rooms. In the anime, he left his bag of money in a different timeline where that version of the narrator used it to buy the scrub brush instead of Akashi coming in with a save, leaving no explanation for the new apartment in the end.]]
20	* AnachronicOrder: Within the first episode.
21	* ApatheticStudent:
22	** The protagonist is shown to care very little for his academic work, mainly just coasting in life as he chases fruitlessly after failed romances and the ever elusive "rose-colored campus life".
23	** Jougasaki and Higuchi are both said at points to be on paper university students who have been studying there for far longer than Akashi, Higuchi, or Ozu, and they are both shown to be doing very little, if at all, studying.
24	* ArcNumber: 4. There are only four chapters in the original book, four clubs/activities that catch the narrator's eye in the novel, the room the protagonist is renting out is a 4.5 tatami and Akashi has only four Mochiguman because she lost the fifth one. [[spoiler:When the protagonist ''finally'' returns the fifth Mochiguman and decides to move out of his room to a bigger apartment, it symbolizes that he's moving past everything associated with four to better himself.]]
25	* ArcWelding: In episode 9. Episodes 10 and 11 also spell out most of the consistent factors of the setting across each timeline.
26	* ArcWords:
27	** The most thematically relevant words for the story are "rose-colored campus life", representing the perfect, idealistic college experience that the narrator wishes will happen to him. [[spoiler:The words appear for the last time when he realizes that there ''is'' no such thing as a perfect college life, and that he should appreciate life as he can take it.]]
28	** "Colosseum". The Fortune Teller asks the narrator to heed this word when she advises him to seize opportunity, but each timeline has it refer to something different. [[spoiler:Akashi was interested in Roman architecture in one timeline, Hanuki had a photo of a colosseum in another, and in the last, the narrator thinks that his heavily rotted wisdom tooth looks like a colosseum when he looks inside of it.]]
29	** "You and I are bound by a black string of fate" is the key phrase describing the relationship between the narrator and Ozu, capturing the fact that no matter how chaotic it gets, the two young men will ''always'' be drawn to each other.
30	* ArtShift: Frequently shifts to filtered photos of real life backgrounds when discussing life or other topics.
31	* BeehiveBarrier: [[http://celestialkitsune.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/tatami-galaxy_00090.jpg Akashi can erect one.]] Figuratively, of course.
32	* BigGood: Higuchi, who [[spoiler: tries to get [[NoNameGiven Watashi]] to drop his dreams of a rose colored campus life and ''live'']].
33	* BoyMeetsGirl: The protagonist meets Akashi, Hanuki, and various other love interests while at university and then again... and again... and again... and again... as he constantly loops through his three years at university. [[spoiler:It's pointed out that Akashi is the one constant in this pattern, leading to her and the protagonist becoming an OfficialCouple.]]
34	* BreakingTheFourthWall: Since the narrator doesn't seem to be aware of the time loop, his references to the fortune teller's prices increasing and their conversation getting shorter each time probably qualify as this.
35	* BrickJoke: There are several--for example, the situations the narrator imagines before picking a club every episode eventually all come to pass; in another example, the proxy war first explained in episode 4 [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/02_Movie_Circle_Misogi_mkv_snapshot_05_35_2010_05_18_18_35_56_3338.jpg appears in episode 2 as a student film of the narrator's.]]
36	** Episode 7 has the narrator use a metaphor about wandering a maze of 4.5 tatami rooms, which is the literal subject of one of his other student films in episode 2. [[spoiler:In episodes 10 and 11, the narrator actually does this.]]
37	** Episode 5 has a random man suddenly stumble into the room. The protagonist understandably freaks out. [[spoiler:It's the protagonist from episode 10 and 11, where he's wandering the maze of 4.5 tatami rooms.]]
38	** And in episode 4, he finds a bag of money in his room, which he assumes was planted there so he could pay for the [[MacGuffin turtle scrub-brush]]. [[spoiler:In episode 10, we learn that it was ''his own'' money, which he amassed by stealing some cash from each alternate universe tatami room.]]
39	** One chapter has the narrator balk at learning English, as he believes it's a primitive language that he shouldn't waste time learning. In another timeline, he falls in love with a girl so hard that he was willing to go through English lessons just to impress her.
40	%%* BromanticFoil: Ozu.
41	* CannotSpitItOut: The narrator can't return Akashi's Mochiguma and he can't ask her out to Neko Ramen, [[spoiler:at least until the finale]].
42	* CargoShip: [[spoiler:Jogasaki is in love with a mannequin he named Kaori. In one timeline, the narrator falls in love with it as well.]] [[invoked]]
43	* CharacterDevelopment: [[spoiler:By the finale, Ozu and the narrator have basically switched places, but definitely not in a bad way.]]
44	* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler:The moth in the narrator's room. Because the tatami maze is made up of identical but slightly different rooms, a moth also shows up in that one. Eventually, after breaking down so many rooms over the course of eighty days, a cloud-sized cluster of moths develops and is the source of that timeline's version of the moth swarm.]]
45	* CherryBlossoms: They show up whenever the protagonist has his once-an-episode rant about the rose-colored life and his choice of club.
46	* ChurchOfHappyology: [[spoiler:Honwaka]]. They only briefly touch upon it in the novel, but it's implied to be the same case there.
47	%%* CicadianRhythm
48	* ClockTower: There is a huge clock tower in the middle of campus. In the anime adaptation, the hands reverse following the completion of a route, showing that time is rewinding and causing the protagonist to live his college life again each episode. [[spoiler:When the protagonist is stuck in his room, its lack of rewinding shows that there's no more chances at resetting for him.]]
49	* CloudCuckooLander: Pretty much everyone has elements of this, but particularly Higuchi.
50	* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The major characters have their own color motifs, presented in the opening and occasionally in the show (the Protagonist has white/light grey, Akashi has light blue, Ozu has red, Jougasaki has orange, Hanuki has pink/red, and so on). Each episode tends to have its own set color as well. [[spoiler: The episode color schemes become a piece of very subtle {{foreshadowing}} in later episodes.]]
51	* ContinuityCavalcade: Everything from the past episodes come back one way or another in episodes 10 and 11.
52	* {{Cult}}: The softball circle that the protagnist joins in one episode turns out to be sponsored by a shady company of health supplements that runs like a mix of a Cult and an MLM. Members are encouraged to eat Royal Jelly and act as if it is a magical cure-all for ailments and nutrition. This culminates in their belief that the world will end in 2012 and their leader building a blimp as a Noah's Ark recreation to save one man and one woman as well as a pair of each animal.
53	* DerangedAnimation: It's a Yuasa anime, isn't it? It's positively tame compared to his other works, however.
54	* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler: The protagonist reaches it in episode 9 after he attempts to bribe Akashi, only for her to give him a slap and disappear completely. This is the catalyst for the protagonist's decision to rewind time once more and never join any clubs, instead completely isolating himself in his room for two years, to the point that he becomes trapped in the titular 4.5 tatami galaxy.]]
55	* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: The protagonist's being so swept up in finding a rose-colored college life is what, ironically, blinds him to how meaningful his experiences really are.
56	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The tower in episode 6. Especially when it's aligned suspiciously with [[LoveableSexManiac Jogasaki]].
57	* DrinkingContest: One between Jogasaki and the protagonist in episode 6. [[HardDrinkingPartyGirl Hanuki]] joins in later. [[spoiler:The protagonist wins, although it really seems that Hanuki did.]]
58	* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:After all the rewinds, troubles, and lessons learned, the protagonist has lost all the closeness he had with the other characters--but at least he knows to appreciate all of them more, and on top of that, it's implied that they have become fast friends after their first meeting, and will become even closer. Even better, he finally summons up the confidence to ask Akashi out to that bowl of Neko Ramen.]]
59	* EpiphanicPrison: [[spoiler: The titular galaxy is revealed to be one; the protagonist became locked in it after isolating himself completely for two years instead of joining any clubs or meeting any of the others.]]
60	* EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether: It's revealed sometime later that Jogasaki, Higuchi, Hanuki, and the Neko Ramen vendor all went to Kyoto University at the same time, which is how they all already know each other.
61	* {{Expy}}: The narrator has a certain resemblance to one [[Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei Mr. Despair]].
62	* FirstEpisodeTwist: The anime seems like it might be an ordinary, albeit fast-paced SliceOfLife at first... then the episode ends on the note of the protagonist blaming the club for his failures in achieving his [[ArcWords rose-tinted college life]] and [[ResetButton time being thrown back]], setting up for [[GroundhogDayLoop the rest of the series]].
63	* FirstGirlWins: Akashi is the first girl the protagonist expresses interest in, but he has several other love interests throughout the series. For one reason or another, none of them work out, and towards the end of the series he realizes he's in love with her and finally does what it takes to get together with her.
64	* FoodPorn: Neko Ramen is animated and described in loving detail as it's the one food the protagonist loves above all else, [[spoiler:especially after he escape the infinite variations of his room and actually gets a chance to eat food that isn't the castella or fish fingers.]]
65	* ForeverWar: No one remembers how the [[spoiler:Masochistic Proxy Proxy War]] started. [[spoiler:The only thing that's concrete, at least in the novel, is that it was started by two high schoolers over some fight, and has since carried over with proxies when they got tired of antagonizing each other but not enough to actually bury the hatchet. Higuchi and Jougasaki are the 29th iteration (although there is no real bad blood between them), while the protagonist and Ozu would have been the thirtieth.]]
66	* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler:All three stories of the protagonist and Ozu's directed films in Misogi end up happening to the protagonist within the narrative in later loops, as presented in the exact order that the protagonist made them.]]
67	** His first story, about two young men playing pranks on each other with the stakes increasing every time, is a condensed version of the origin of the Masochistic Proxy-Proxy War. Ozu dyes himself pink just as Jogasaki dyes Higuchi's kimono pink, and the final showdown takes place on the Kamo-Ohashi, just as all final battles for the proxies do.
68	** His second is a ''Theatre/KingLear''-inspired love dilemma surrounding three women, none of whom are played by women. [[spoiler:The baseball timeline has the protagonist fall in love with a [[{{GIRL}} fake female pen pal]], be shacked up with Jogasaki's beautiful sex doll Kaori, and the third is Hanuki, who he doesn't really consider a "proper woman" for her partying and drinking.]]
69	** His third film is a drama about a person wandering a maze of identical tatami rooms. [[spoiler:This is the finale in both the novel and the anime.]]
70	* FortuneTeller: Appears in each story, always giving the protagonist the same advice. [[RunningGag And at least in the anime, increasing her fee by 1000 yen each time.]]
71	* FracturedFairyTale: The novel's version of the film that got the narrator kicked out of Misogi was a scathing satire of Jogasaki's reign in the club, told through a thinly veiled ''Literature/{{Momotaro}}'' lens. Here, the boy in the peach is named "Masaki" (named after Jogasaki), and he quickly tricks and manipulates his companions in Onigashima with food and ruling over them with an iron fist. In the end, two brave people humiliate him by dyeing him pink, rolling him up in a tatami mat, and throwing him away.
72	* GilliganCut: In episode 8 features one.
73	--> '''Watashi''': Out of the question! Visiting the home of your pen-pal is completely unacceptable! That's breaking the most fundamental rule! I absolutely will not!
74	-->''next shot cuts to him standing in front of his pen-pal's home''
75	* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler: Ozu is still kind of a jerk, but the main character eventually realizes why he does the things he does and that Ozu was always trying to help him, even if he did so in a roundabout way. He even admits to himself that, in every timeline, Ozu had been his best and only real friend.]]
76	* GoodIsBoring: The narrator hated being part of Honwaka because there was zero strife to be had. There was no need for seniority, ranks, or gender differences; everyone had a good time playing with each other and socializing with one another. The monotonous pleasantries and fluffy atmosphere suffocated the protagonist.
77	* {{Gonk}}: Ozu. The narrator even compares him to a ''{{youkai}}'' several times. However, the opening and episode 7 hint toward this being more than it seems, and the finale makes it clear that [[spoiler:his bizarre appearance was simply a reflection of the narrator's opinion of him. The protagonist later adopts Ozu's usual look to illustrate their switched roles.]]
78	* GreyAndGreyMorality: Absolutely every main character has done some good things and some questionable ones. It is all about perspective, and we discover that both the good and the bad stuff are who they are. In fact, [[spoiler:that is [[AnAesop kind of the point.]]]]
79	* GroundhogDayLoop: It seems the narrator isn't ''totally'' aware of it, but he nevertheless joins a different club every time. Later events imply that we have seen only some of the loops. One of the screwiest instances is when Higuchi is revealed to have somehow ''kept'' the cash he won between time loops and uses it to fund his vacation, despite everything else seemingly being reset in-between each iteration of a loop.
80	** The narrator eventually becomes aware of the repeats in Episode 10 after [[spoiler:busting through the various tatami rooms of each of the alternate universes.]]
81	** It becomes apparent that [[spoiler: Akashi is the only girl for the narrator (episodes examining him in pursuit of other girls have all ended in miserable failure) and the fortune teller has said again and again (in so many words) that returning her Mochiguman charm and hooking up with her is the only way he'll be happy. The narrator himself has also come to take Ozu as more and more of a threat to all of this in spite of Ozu frequently coming to his aid. The protagonist's refusal to accept both of these things - that he loves Akashi, and that Ozu is his best friend - are the primary drive behind the frequent loops, and coming to terms with these facts also becomes his only way to escape the 4.5 tatami galaxy.]]
82	* HeroStageShow: In the episode "Hero Show Association Circle", the main character works in The Moguchiman Show as a particularly pacifistic hero, White Moguchiman, in one timeline. The plot of the show is that the villain would hit White Mochiguman once, get deflected, and immediately surrenders and vows to change his ways. The character he plays is present in all timelines as a toy.
83	* {{Hikikomori}}: The final stories of both the novel and the anime have it so that [[spoiler:the Narrator holes himself up in his room for the rest of his time in school]]. The circumstances differ, however; in the novel, this was caused by the narrator striking out with the Library Police Force and becoming fearful of what they might do to him, while the anime version has the Narrator become so fed up with the GroundhogDayLoop (even if he's only subconsciously aware of it) that he decides to nix looking for a club and spend time inside. [[spoiler: Of course, as he starts traveling across the various iterations of his college life, he starts to realize how much he missed out on by abandoning any chance of meeting the cast of characters that had defined his college life in the other iterations.]]
84	* HomoeroticSubtext:
85	** Ozu rubs up against the narrator when they're about to sabotage a romantic night for several couples with fireworks from across a riverbank.
86	---> "But it's so cold..."
87	** Happens again in episode 5... only this time it happens at night, under the covers, on a boat on which the two of them are escaping down the river. Oh, and Ozu is dressed as a woman.
88	** In episode 2, they kiss in a movie. [[spoiler: And knowing all the films filmed are in fact other realities, this could be another one we don't finally see!.]]
89	** Ozu claims that he and the narrator are connected by a "black string of fate" -- a nod to the traditional {{red string of fate}}.
90	** "It's my way of expressing my love!"
91	* HorribleHousing: Shimogamo Yuusinsou is a nightmare of an apartment building. The walls are thin, the floors even thinner, the kitchen an unused, filthy mess, and the halls thin and seedy. Barely anything gets fixed there, and it's a plotpoint in all the novel's timelines that the narrator gets soaked from Higuchi's antics a floor above him.
92	* HumiliationConga: In episode 2 the narrator and Ozu replace Jogasaki's Alexander the Great movie with a series of clips demonstrating that Jogasaki is [[MoralityKitchenSink not exactly perfect.]]
93	* IAteWhat: Neko Ramen's noodle broth is often rumored to use actual cats for flavor. While everyone is disgusted by the idea, they think the food is too delicious to ignore.
94	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming:
95	** The novel has each chapter named "The 4.5 Tatami [X]", with the X replacing some important aspect of that timeline.
96	** Every episode is named after the text on the flyer of the club the narrator is a member of in that episode.
97	* InSpiteOfANail:
98	** The novel has a few consistent points in every timeline: the protagonist runs into a Mochiguma, Ozu gets hospitalized after [[spoiler:jumping off a bridge]], and [[spoiler:he and Akashi end up in a relationship at the very end]]. [[spoiler:He also, no matter what club he picks, meets Ozu and becomes his friend, something that Ozu points out himself.]]
99	** In the anime, one thing is always shown to happen regardless of the protagonist rewinding time back to the first year of university; Akashi loses her Mochiguman with it ending up as the protagonist's light switch decoration. Only when the protagonist realizes that [[spoiler:Akashi's been losing it in ''every single timeline'' and it ''always'' finds its way to him, does he finally take it upon himself to return it to her.]]
100	* JigsawPuzzlePlot: The narrator does different things each loop but because of this we learn more on the other characters who more or less do the same things each time. Things like [[spoiler:Ozu having a girlfriend, the Proxy war, the narrator's three love interests, the clubs Ozu joins]] and other things that happened in previous loops still happened if not mentioned.
101	* KickTheDog: Ozu is actually sort of likeable in episode 1 and even seems to be trying to set up the narrator with Akashi. As the series goes on Ozu gets progressively more morally ambiguous until he starts to seem like little more than a sinister criminal, until [[spoiler:in the last episodes the narrator discovers the reasons behind Ozu's actions and re-examines his relationship with him and realizes that he is his only friend]].
102	%%* LargeHam:
103	%%** The protagonist.
104	%%** Ozu and Jougasaki.
105	%%** Johnny.
106	* LiteraryAllusionTitle: The novel's final chapter, "Around the 4.5 Tatami Room in 80 Days", is one to ''Literature/AroundTheWorldIn80Days''.
107	* LocalHangout: Neko Ramen seems to serve as this. Most of the characters stop by for a bowl, it's the unofficial meeting establishment for the Proxy-Proxy War, and [[spoiler:in all timelines, the protagonist is determined to ask Akashi out to eat there]].
108	* LoveableSexManiac: Jogasaki and, arguably, [[spoiler: the protagonist, although this is somewhat ZigZagged as, in spite of his obsession with finding himself a "raven-haired maiden" and his frequent "interactions" with Johnny, he has never actually had sex and bolts away from Hanuki when she makes a move on him.]]
109	* MacabreMothMotif: [[spoiler:Moths shows up in a massive storm in the final episode when the protagonist escapes the endless tatami rooms and serve as a means of symbolic rebirth for him when they strip away all his clothes and facial hair.]]
110	* ManipulativeEditing: The [[HumiliationConga Jogasaki "biopic"]] Ozu puts together.
111	* MarketBasedTitle: As the original Japanese name translates to ''A Compendium of 4.5 Tatami Mythology'' or ''The Four-and-a-Half Tatami Mythological Chronicles'', it's no wonder they marketed it in America as ''The Tatami Galaxy''. The original title is a mouthful, the 4.5 part (which refers to the size of the narrator's room) would be lost on American viewers.
112	* MeaningfulName: Ozu's name is pronounced the same way as a Japanese word for "fearful". Same with Akashi ("evidence" or "testimony") and Hanuki ("tooth extraction", appropriate for someone who works at a dental practice).
113	* MediumBlending: Most obviously in the last two episodes, where 2D animation mixes with real life.
114	* MindScrew: Copiously, but especially when the matchmaking god finally finishes reading ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'' and reaches Nirvana.
115	* MobileKiosk: The elusive but very good "Neko Ramen" stand where the narrator meets the matchmaking god. Akashi wants to eat there but has never found it.
116	* MotorMouth: Everyone indulges in it a bit, but the narration in particular can get a bit ridiculous.
117	* NakedFirstImpression: [[spoiler:Pretty much everyone towards the protagonist, in the finale. Ozu's the only one to find it odd.]]
118	* NoFullNameGiven: Ozu, Akashi, Kohinata, Hanuki, and Aijima's given names are never mentioned. Higuchi's first name goes unmentioned until the second timeline, at which point the narration states that [[GivenNameReveal Higuchi's first name is Seitaro]]. This helps set up the later reveal [[spoiler:that Ozu has been pranking the narrator with the alias "Keiko Higuchi" in a different timeline, since [[AudienceAwarenessAdvantage they can catch on faster]] than the narrator that Keiko isn't real.]]
119	* NoNameGiven: The narrator is never named but is referred to as "I" or "Myself" in the credits and other materials.
120	* NotWhatItLooksLike:
121	** The narrator gets manipulated into looking like he's [[strike:confiscating]] stealing the Birdman team's plane. Of course, Akashi just happens to arrive and comes to the wrong conclusion. [[spoiler:In a later episode, he actually ''is'' the one who stole the glider in that incident.]]
122	** In the novel, Ozu puts Kaori-san in the narrator's room to use him as a fall guy in the Proxy-Proxy War. This way, when Jogasaki comes thundering for his precious girl, he'd come after him rather than Higuchi and Ozu.
123	* OnceAnEpisode: The narrator will deliver the page quote verbatim right after the opening plays, and later on he'll run into the fortune teller, who will have hiked her fee up another thousand yen. At the end of the episode, the university clock tower will appear and run backwards and blur into the series logo as the credits start.
124	** The fortune teller bit is double-subverted in episode 8, where she initially only charges 6000 yen, but later on addends to the narrator's fortune and charges him another 2000.
125	** [[spoiler:Although later the standard clock tower ending is missing from episodes 9 to 11]].
126	** Every time the narrator meets Ozu for the first time (sic; no, really!), Ozu delivers a speech explaining that they really are comrades. [[spoiler:This is reversed in the last episode.]]
127	* OnceMoreWithClarity: The first episode ends with the botched Daimonji festival after Ozu inexplicably crossdressing runs in, chased by a bunch of unknown characters, and is cornered on a bridge railing. All the episodes slowly reveal each element so that by the final episode when the same scenario happens again, all the pieces click together. [[spoiler:Ozu has been dating Kohinata (the girl who dumped the narrator in the first episode and Honwaka's daughter) for two years, insinuated himself into the Lucky Cat organization by sucking up to Aijima only to backstab him and take over which is why Aijima chases Ozu, Jogasaki hates him for exposing Kaori, and the Honwaka are after him for stealing their planned ark and attempting to take Kohinata on their planned date for Daimonji. But after that plan went kaput, Ozu takes the same escape route along the river used in episode 3 in order to come back to the city and meet up with Higuchi, only for everyone who hates him to chase him down.]]
128	* OutOfClothesExperience: [[spoiler:Subverted in the finale; the narrator symbolically goes through several outfits matching other lives as he dashes to save Ozu, which makes the fact that he ends up nude at the end of it seem like a mental thing, but nope, he actually ''is'' nude in public.]]
129	* PragmaticAdaptation: The novel has more or less complete timelines where regardless of what happens, the protagonist [[spoiler:successfully takes the opportunity to date Akashi]] although he does wonder what would happen if things went differently. The anime, however, runs a thread through all of the timelines, and instead of letting the protagonist have a fulfilling life at the end of each timeline, deliberately leaves him unsatisfied until the final episode. [[spoiler:In addition, instead of leaning on a different aspect of Akashi to start up a relationship with her, as in the novel, the one singular connection point that allows him to get that RelationshipUpgrade is the Mochiguma (when it was only that important in Chapter 1, but even then, not so much). The anime also places greater emphasis on Akashi, and makes the narrator's romance with her the second biggest focal piece of the narrative.]]
130	* PrecisionFStrike: The official English translation of the novel specifically responds to the hypothetical person saying people can still change, no matter how old, that they're fucking kidding the narrator. This helps punctuate his opening rant for every chapter and the book itself with one of the fundamental beliefs of the narrator that he refuses to believe he's capable of changing his life path from how it is, while also establishing that he isn't ''quite'' as sophisticated as he'd like the reader to believe.
131	* PuttingOnTheReich: Jogasaki is compared to a [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything charismatic dictator]], and there are scenes that depict him in appropriate dress along with his club members in uniform and goose-stepping.
132	* RedStringOfFate:
133	** Ozu claims he and the narrator are linked by a ''black'' string of fate. This is usually accompanied by a visual of the two tied up together in black cord and sinking into the Mariana trench.
134	** In a more straight example of this trope, Akashi and the Narrator seem to be tied by the RedStringOfFate. He simply cannot be happy without her, and Akashi's behavior seems to demonstrate that she likes him too.
135	* TheReveal: In episode 9. [[spoiler:Ozu's got a girlfriend -- who is incidentally ''Honwaka's daughter'' -- and has been doing all these questionably moral things for two years for the sake of the perfect date with her.]]
136	* RockPaperScissors: How do you think Higuchi and Jogasaki end their part in a years long tradition? With a dramatic duel over the riverbank...or so you'd like to think. It's really just a rock-paper-scissors game, and the winner gets to call dibs on which of the successors get to prank first.
137	* SaveScumming: You could call the whole concept this, but the trope fits episodes 6-8 especially well, where the narrator rewinds his life only by a few hours so he can try every path in a situation where three girls want him at once.
138	* ScaryShinyGlasses: The narrator at times.
139	* ShaggyDogStory:
140	** The Honwaka timeline in the original novel, where the protagonist spends so much time trying to remain faithful to "Keiko Higuchi" and learning English (despite looking down on the language) only to find out [[spoiler:Keiko is actually Ozu]].
141	** The anime bumps this up to ''every episode'', as the narrator ends up lamenting whatever terrible fate's happened to him and wishes for a do-over, with the magical force at work obliging, [[spoiler:or in the tenth episode, is horrified to realize that he's accidentally locked himself into a never-ending purgatory comprised of his own room. The exception is the very last one as he finally gets a happy ending after learning that he should work with what he has, not wishing for infinite do-overs]].
142	* SharePhrase: Usually, after the narrator's encounter with the fortune teller, someone will run into him jovially asking "a lost little lamb, are we?". Respectively, the people saying this are Ozu (Misogi), Akashi (Proxy War), and Hanuki (Honwaka). Because [[spoiler:the narrator doesn't bond with anyone]] in the final timeline, no one comes for him and says the phrase then.
143	* ShippingBedDeath: In-universe. [[spoiler:The narrator [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this as justification in the finale to wrap up other loose ends as opposed to expounding on the details of his budding relationship with Akashi. In the book, this happens in every ending.]]
144	%%* ShootTheShaggyDog: The third episode.
145	* ShoutOut:
146	** The beard the narrator sports in the final story is remarked by himself and others as something akin to Literature/RobinsonCrusoe.
147	** ''Anime/TheNightIsShortWalkOnGirl'' is one of the novels the narrator is seen reading in episode 8.
148	** One of the items that Higuchi requests from the narrator in the Masochistic Proxy-Proxy War is a life-size statue of ''Series/KamenRiderV3''.
149	* ShowWithinAShow: Mochiguman, which is about five cartoon superheroes and their fight against villainy. It's very popular with its target demographic of kids, though Akashi is a very open fan of the characters. Details beyond that are very vague since the protagonist doesn't really care much about it and only becomes invested in them during a loop where he works as a performer as one of the Mochiguman.
150	* SliceOfLife: Outside of the GroundhogDayLoop, this can very much be considered a ShaggyDogStory version of this.
151	* SplitTimelinesPlot: While the base premise is simply the narrator picks a different club to go to in every timeline, the novel demonstrates that his presence has visible ripple effects on how Ozu messes with Jogasaki.
152	** In the first timeline, the two actively conspire against Jogasaki in the film club and Ozu never escalates (as far as the narrator and reader is aware) beyond their pranks together.
153	** In the second timeline, the narrator, Akashi, and Higuchi after some thought all veto Ozu's plan to steal Kaori in response to dyeing the yukata pink for the Masochistic Proxy-Proxy War and Ozu drops the issue in favor of other pranks.
154	** In the third timeline, since the narrator is not there to protest stealing Kaori, Ozu goes ahead with it and stashes the doll in the narrator's room.
155	** In the final timeline, Kaori is [[spoiler:first stolen by Aijima to blackmail Jogasaki as a means of asserting himself after Ozu starts taking over the Library Police. Ozu is then inspired to do the same act during the Masochistic Proxy-Proxy War and steals Kaori again, but the narrator was out so Ozu has to go to someone else to ask to stash the doll at their place]].
156	* SpoilerOpening: Although you may not realize it at first. [[spoiler: The opening contains scenes of someone moving through several rooms that are all the same, save for their different colors. This spoils the protagonist being trapped in the 4.5 tatami world and discovering all his alternate lives with the differently colored rooms.]]
157	** Someone with a quick eye will also notice [[spoiler: human-looking Ozu toward the end of the opening. This spoils the Protagonist's unreliable storytelling.]]
158	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: In the Softball Circle episode, the protagonist puts his all into being able to purchase enough Royal Jelly as health supplements to raise in the rankings of the Honwaka circle. He ironically muses that he would be just as healthy if he had done nothing but sleep for the past two years, as he is overworked to have enough money to buy the Royal Jelly to begin with and has to consume massive quantities of it to justify the purchase, even as he recognizes that his body probably can't absorb nutrients past a certain point.
159	* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: From episode 6:
160	--> '''Narrator''': That's just a hobby! It's not like I'm trying to add some extra flavor to my campus life or something!
161	* TitleDrop: While not formal, the last two episodes reveal why the American title has "Galaxy." In that [[spoiler: the narrator travels (literally) through each alternate version of his room (which is sized at 4.5 tatami).]]
162	* ToxicFriendInfluence: Ozu, in the eyes of the narrator. [[spoiler: And vice versa by the end when he and Ozu properly meet in the final timeline.]]
163	* TricksterArchetype: Ozu. Depending on your point of view, he's also a TricksterMentor... though what he has to teach isn't always good.
164	* [[UnreadablyFastText Unreadably Fast Subtitles]]: The natural consequence of the narrator's MotorMouth.
165	* UnreliableNarrator: The protagonist is this to such an extent that even ''he'' doesn't realize how unreliable his view of the world is - [[spoiler: the final two episodes force him to confront this aspect of himself by taking him through the different timelines from the outside looking in, causing him to realize just how wrong he'd been about the people in his life.]] Particular examples include:
166	** Although Ozu has certainly [[ManipulativeBastard taken advantage of the Narrator many times,]] it never occurred to the Narrator that Ozu had been looking out for him in every timeline, helped him on several occasions, and sincerely cares for and loves him. Hanuki even point blank tells him this at one point, as [[spoiler: a symbolic version of Ozu stands behind the protagonist, adjusting his chair for him, blushing in embarrassment when Hanuki mentions Ozu's concern for the protagonist, and even fixing the protag's glasses when they go crooked.]]
167	** When he's cycling between his three love interests, he deliberately leaves out [[spoiler: his REAL love interest, Akashi]], because he is too scared to admit his feelings to himself.
168	** Also, [[spoiler:Ozu's {{Gonk}} is only due to this trope - the real Ozu is just a normal looking guy. The fortune teller's {{Gonk}} is similarly related to the protagonist's interpretation of her as being a "witch" of sorts - she is later seen with a normal nose and no longer radiating that "powerful aura."]]
169	* UnusualEuphemism: The narrator's "Johnny," which is visually represented by a silly-looking cartoon cowboy.
170	* VillainProtagonist: [[spoiler:The narrator goes through a rather bad phase in episode 9]].
171	* VitriolicBestBuds: The narrator and Ozu, the former supplying the vitriol. The narrator is also very quick to point out the reasons Ozu is a terrible guy in the narration. [[spoiler: He changes his tune in episodes 10 and 11 after revisiting the other timelines and realizing that Ozu was always there for him.]]
172	* VomitDiscretionShot: Hanuki in episode 10.
173	* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Akashi is terrified of moths; a moth landing on her face and the aftermath demonstrate the only {{moe}} chink in her [[TheStoic poker face]].
174	* WineIsClassy: In the romance-geared episodes, as the protagonist tries to present himself as suave and worldly, several scenes show him as better looking than in reality and lounging in a fashionable apartment (also not the reality) with a glass of wine in hand.
175	* {{Youkai}}: Ozu is compared to one in episode 1 and even grows a kitsune tail several times in episode 2.
176

Context Literature / TheTatamiGalaxy