Notes

Hell yes. Tatami Galaxy is probably the most perfect show I've ever seen.

Whether it be the narration through an unreliable narrator or visual metaphors to tell the story, Tatami Galaxy does everything right. I still find new things about it every rewatch. Once you take everything from a non-literal perspective, it opens up so many theories.

So first off is the infinite tatami room, you guessed it, a visual metaphor. Watashi gets trapped in an endless labyrinth inside his own room, every time he changes room, it moves to his room in one of the parallel timelines throughout the series. This made Watashi realize that even in those imperfect timelines, he had much more fun than being stuck in his room all day like he was doing now, at this time he also sees Akashi's mochiguman, again realizing the opportunity that was dangling in front of him all along, he was just too stuck up to realize. We go back to the events of episode 1, this time Watashi realizing that no life is perfect and that he wants to ask Akashi out, gets involved in the proxy war and saves Ozu, he realizes what kind of life he now wants to live.

Can we talk about that insanely satisfying ending? Interpretation of Ozu? Is Ozu even real? Is Ozu just a person in Watashi's mind? A popular belief is that Ozu is a representation of all flaws and imperfections in life, Watashi's face turns into Ozu's in the end because he realizes that his life can never be perfect and he has to accept that. Again, metaphors run rampant, but what we do know is that Ozu isn't a bad person by nature. Watashi is a super unreliable narrator, he's too stuck up in wanting a perfect life that he doesn't realize who Ozu even is and that Ozu was basically his only friend. He'll blame Ozu for everything and make him look like the devil, but when he comes to terms with a perfect life and who Ozu is to him, his perspective changes and we see Ozu as a normal person. Watashi turning into Ozu also tells us that it was Watashi that could be getting in the way of Ozu's life all this time, hell Ozu even had a girlfriend, maybe he's the demon. FUCKING BEAUTIFUL. This is why it's my favourite ending ever, Watashi is born anew and spreads his wings to make one hell of a beautiful scene.

There's also the moth's metaphor, we see them in every timeline building up, and we get an awesome conclusion of a huge group of moths covering the skies as they release from their respective timelines. Akashi survives a moth attack and gets her Mochigum