In her two-page “Note from the Translator,” Emily Balistrieri states that when she translates, she pays attention to everything. “Most translators will agree they’re trying to capture the voice. So [for The Tatami Galaxy], there’s a lot to pay attention to,” she writes.
Tomihiko Morimi does indeed have a distinctive style and engaging voice for his narrator: “Hanging my sleepy head after spending the night with reason and loneliness — truly a pair of formidable rivals — grappling in a death match, I headed to school.” There is a lot packed into his writing of parallel universes and self-discovery, all conveyed with a light touch. Humor can be especially difficult to achieve considering the balance of exaggeration, satire, tone, surprise, and physicality.
There are many unlikable characters. Ozu, who is constantly being described as looking like a “yokai” (a class of supernatural monsters from Japanese folklore who sometimes disguise themselves as humans); Hanuki, a dental hygienist who when she drinks too much will suddenly start licking people’s faces; and Master Higuchi, who lives directly above the narrator and to whom the narrator is a disciple.
In Part One and Part Two, the narrator often takes time to explain “I’m going to write about the final film we made” or “the next day…” or “The main character in this memoir is me. The second leading role is Master Higuchi.” These transitions take away from the immediacy of the story’s scenes. At times, I wondered if Morimi’s writing would be better translated to film or television rather than words on a page. Indeed, The Tatami Galaxy was adapted into an 11-episode anime television series, which won the 2010 Japan Media Arts Festival Grand Prize in the Animation Division and the 2011 Tokyo Anime Award in the Television category.
The Tatami Galaxy is an episodic novel where a number of eccentric happenings occur one after the next. In the first of four sections, the protagonist and his “creepy” and only friend, Ozu, are preparing an act of revenge against the film club they’ve been members of. The two associates plan to explode fireworks at a welcoming event for new members. This is followed by an accidental meeting with a god and later with a fortune teller who advises: “Be bold, and try seizing your chance by doing something completely different.” Unfortunately, this moment passes and the narrator concludes: “I think about what could have happened if I had chosen something else.”
The next two sections follow a structure very similar to the movie, Ground Hog’s Day. Part One is titled “Tatami and the Obstructor of Romance,” Part Two is “Tatami and the Masochistic Proxy-Proxy War,” Part Three is “Tatami and the Sweet Life,” and Part Four is “Around the Tatami Galaxy in Eighty Days.”
Repetition is this novel’s greatest challenge. The structural device of parallel universes only really works when minor differences become important, not just cut and pasted. High jinx, or boisterous clowning pratfalls and capers, can be overdone because the bar for surprise is more difficult to clear and often rests too heavily on the success of what came before. I’m sure another reader of a different background than mine would be happily entertained, and I agree repetition can be used most effectively to emphasize important points. Reliving the key points of The Tatami Galaxy does support the theme of being caught up in too many “what if” scenarios, but in this book, repetition is overused and loses its effect.
The Tatami Galaxy took me a long time to read. I started and stopped, started and stopped many times. When I finally let go of anticipating what to expect and let the images wash over me is where Morimi’s writing worked best. Looking back, I can also appreciate Morimi’s world building which contains multitudes when alluding to Kyoto culture. There are traditional festivals, references to folktales like the peach boy Momotaro and Japan’s Rip Van Wrinkle, Urashima Taro. There are mentions of the kitsune (fox), the tanuki (shape-shifters), and the Maneki-neko (beckoning cat figures) from old Japanese folklore. And the food: there are so many dumplings, mochi, castella cake, and noodles — details of food preparation and consumption.
The Tatami Galaxy has much going for it. Maybe too much for this reviewer who could appreciate the ride, but was left with a hunger for something a little more substantial.
