the show follows a protagonist in college who is searching for love despite being "an idiot beyond redemption". he's tormented by his only friend - ozu - who "has no redeemable qualities".
the show follows him trying various activity clubs and every time failing hopelessly to build friendships and find love. it follows the time loop thematic as he gets a redo practically every episode.
his various retakes allow the viewer to more deeply understand the nuances of the characters he meets (who range from pretty normal to completely extraordinary), their relationships, and the extremely weird stuff that happens from one episode to the next, as the protagonist struggles to find his place amongst them all
the way the protagonist narrates everything is fast-paced but incredibly eloquent and adds to the tone very much. the whole thing is a joy
While the plots are very different, and there are many elements that make them entirely unique, they have a similar general feeling and style that will instantly make a certain core group of fans of either series a fan of the other.
Monogatari and Tatami Galaxy have fairly avant garde, striking visuals for anime—at least, for the era they are from—making heavy usage of color to tell the story and set the mood, intentionally playing with the camera and perspective of the "lens", and combining live-action imagery with animated scenes.
In both series, I think you can easily see the influence of arthouse films in traditional live-action cinema, and various influential film movements, like the French New Wave.
They are also incredibly dialogue heavy, with rich wordplay, fast-paced conversations, good sense of humor, and lots of references to various bits of Japanese culture. And both share a similar ironic writing style, with a fairly introspective, apathetic, angsty male leads.
Explanation by eblf2013 on Tuesday, 10.09.2024 23:35
The animation in both also is similar, with surreal scenes and use of live-action imagery that enhances the feeling of angst and misery both protagonists undergo with. They are both pretty fast paced anime as well.