The Tatami Time Machine Blues

Hardcover, 192 pages

English language

Published by HarperCollins Publishers.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-315849-8

(1 review)

In the boiling heat of summer, a broken remote control for an air conditioner threatens life as we know it in this reality-bending, time-slipping sequel to The Tatami Galaxy.

During a scorching August in Kyoto, our protagonist and his worst friend, Ozu, are locked in a glaring contest in a four-and-a-half-tatami-mat room. Ozu has spilled Coke on the air conditioner’s remote control—the only AC in Shimogamo Yusuisuiso, their famously shabby sweatbox of an apartment building. Vengeful and despairing, our protagonist discusses countermeasures with his secret crush, the reliably blunt Akashi, when Tamura, a strange young man with a bad haircut, appears.

Tamura claims to be a time traveler from 25 years in the future, and shows off the time machine he uses to travel. Our protagonist has a brilliant idea: the sweetest revenge would be to go back one day in time and retrieve the functioning remote control. His simple …

In the boiling heat of summer, a broken remote control for an air conditioner threatens life as we know it in this reality-bending, time-slipping sequel to The Tatami Galaxy.

During a scorching August in Kyoto, our protagonist and his worst friend, Ozu, are locked in a glaring contest in a four-and-a-half-tatami-mat room. Ozu has spilled Coke on the air conditioner’s remote control—the only AC in Shimogamo Yusuisuiso, their famously shabby sweatbox of an apartment building. Vengeful and despairing, our protagonist discusses countermeasures with his secret crush, the reliably blunt Akashi, when Tamura, a strange young man with a bad haircut, appears.

Tamura claims to be a time traveler from 25 years in the future, and shows off the time machine he uses to travel. Our protagonist has a brilliant idea: the sweetest revenge would be to go back one day in time and retrieve the functioning remote control. His simple fix is complicated by Ozu and several others who are also eager to take a ride back in time. But in attempting to alter the past, our protagonist foresees the world's extinction. Even more troublingly, Akashi mentions she’s bringing someone to the upcoming bonfire . . . and it's not him. Only one thing remains certain: it's going to be a very long month.

Obliteration? Salvation? Coca-Cola? Castella cake? What does the time machine hold for our (not quite) heroes? It all depends on which one gets there first.

Translated from the Japanese by Emily Balistrieri

2 editions

zeerooth reviewed The Tatami Time Machine Blues by Tomihiko Morimi

Extremely fun and charming time travel story

5 stars

Shortly after the filming of their amateur movie wraps up and a group of rotten college students take shelter from a sweltering heat of an August day in the only room with an AC unit at a decrepit student dormitory, a disaster occurs! A bottle of coke spills on the AC remote, rendering it broken and unrepairable. With no technician able to fix the remote and no other way to operate the AC, are they going to be doomed and forced to sweat it out until the end of the summer?

When a dorky time traveller from the future shows up in the dorm the next day, with a time machine capable of travelling 99 years to the past or the future, a brilliant idea to go back and save the remote pops up and the plan is unanimously agreed on by everyone, before any of them have time to …

Shortly after the filming of their amateur movie wraps up and a group of rotten college students take shelter from a sweltering heat of an August day in the only room with an AC unit at a decrepit student dormitory, a disaster occurs! A bottle of coke spills on the AC remote, rendering it broken and unrepairable. With no technician able to fix the remote and no other way to operate the AC, are they going to be doomed and forced to sweat it out until the end of the summer?

When a dorky time traveller from the future shows up in the dorm the next day, with a time machine capable of travelling 99 years to the past or the future, a brilliant idea to go back and save the remote pops up and the plan is unanimously agreed on by everyone, before any of them have time to think about the time paradoxes and their consequences. What follows is a great and comedic scramble to save the time continuum, often only resulting in making things worse. Will the students succeed? And will the main protagonist finally get himself to ask his crush out on a festival when the universe depends on it?

I’m definitely biased based on the fact of my humble self being a great fanboy of Tomihiko Morimi and his works. Still, with the bias all accounted for, I have nothing but praise for Tatami Time Machine Blues. It’s always difficult to write sequels to highly-appraised works, which Tatami Galaxy for sure is, but Tomohiko Morimi managed this job masterfully, if not exceeded in his penmanship. Despite being a story with time machine as it’s central point, this aspect is not too overdone, with characters, their relations and comedic endeavours taking a central stage. Absurdity of the events that unfold, pitiful situation of the protagonist, the perceived devilry of Osu and the traits of others are still carried over from Tatami Galaxy and only developed further, which I think works wonderfully. In short, it’s a Tomohiko Morimi formula for a book bundled with his old characters and sold in a totally new package, what not to love about it?

A fun fact about the book is that it’s actually based on a theatre play by Makoto Ueda! Looking back at the book it should’ve been apparent to me, based on how the timeline only spans two days and the plot can easily be split into separate scenes. Characters of the present and the past also never interact with one another, which of course could not be done in a theatre. If I had friends, especially ones interested in such a project, I would love to meet up and to try acting out Tatami Time Machines Blues, I think that’d be a cool project.

Well, I think I wrote enough. There’s nothing so worthless to speak of as a love mature. Please go ahead and experience the story yourself, dear reader.