Yojôhan Time Machine Blues

Maybe it's because I've been seeking a respite from today's awful war, political, and legal news, but TATAMI TIME MACHINE BLUES is a breath of fresh sci-fi/comedy air.

We follow a young college student living in a delipidated apartment building as he and a band of fellow students eke out an existence in the sweltering heat of a Japanese summer. His trials and tribulations, despite their seemingly outlandish nature-for example, a time machine plays a pivotal plot role-seem remarkably familiar due to the exceedingly clever and realistic nature of how different personalities and their foibles are portrayed.

Augmenting this is a fresh and vibrant animation style that combines color, movement, and abstract representations of the real world in refreshing and inventive ways. As an added attraction, the closing song is fresh, bubbly, and sweet (I've added it to my "jaunty" Apple Music playlist).

Cute and original (peculiar drawing style and presentation) anime with good SF roots. Despite the comedy and surrealism of the narrative, "Tatami Time Machine Blues" clearly shows the optimism of classic 1950s science fiction. It is seems to be by influenced by both Young's "The Dandelion Girl" and Heinlein's "The Door into Summer" which are some of the most popular SF stories in Japan. Tomihiko Morimi's attitude to the "paradox of time" is the same as that of Young and Heinlein. Or, if you like, the same as that of Boethius. However, the tone differs both from the lyrical "The Dandelion Girl" and from the melodramatic adventure "The Door Into Summer". The slightly absurd "Blues" is not as serious, but much more cheerful and "light" than its literary inspirations. Immersing the protagonist (and a viewer) into an openly meaningless, comically absurd world, the author carefully leads him past the ridiculous monsters inhabiting chaos, gradually streamlining the surrounding reality and leading to a romantic and optimistic ending that triumphs over chaos and absurdity. The seemingly disparate cacophony of sounds is woven into a blues improvisation. A wonderful work that clearly stands out from the gray background of the rest of the anime.

Created as a follow up to the 2010 anime The Tatami Galaxy and similarly based on a novel(s) of the same name written by Tomihiko Morimi, the series follows a familiar group of university students living in the titular 4 1/2 tatami apartments when suddenly things go fantastical as they discover a time machine hidden in the back of a closet. A short, self contained series, The Time Machine blues has fantastic characters that all feel geniune and grounded in ways other anime often cannot achieve, and the animation itself is quite crisp and beautiful. Containing surreal plot and stunning visuals, if you're a fan of these kinds of mystical adventures this one is very good. I have yet to see the original, but it is on my watchlist, so be on the lookout for that review to come. Only 6 short episodes, I would highly recommend checking out this series.