What would happen if you'd be forced by a mysterious force -be it good or evil- to be extremely honest ALL the time? What would happen is, at first, that you could not have any kind of typical healthy relationship with friends, family or society. The full weave of social interactions would be destroyed by the total disrespect to societal norms, appearances, empathy or egotistic desire. You'd be a monster, or simply put, someone really awful to be near of. It would be awful because from such a stark tongue there would get out anything else but the truth. The hard truth, the things youdeny in front of the mirror everyday, those issues you expect to solve themselves, the problems with your neighbors that you don't want to have a fight for. But that's just by yourself, in other people's eyes you'd be that nasty m*therf*cker that goes around the world pointing out ugly noses, pleasant lies and reading people's t-shirts loudly and by doing so denouncing the stupidity of it all, the eternal doom of the suburban existence, the emptiness of our hearts.
I may have described a monster but that's precisely what this anime is about: monsters. In the very first episode we see a home spirit moving to Tokyo in hopes of have a good life. But what a surprise she had when in the city she finds that the man has degenerated into a slug that crawls between the train and their home while constantly lying to themselves to feel fine. Tatami-chan, the monster, clashes every time she tries to live the tokyoite way: in the train, dating, in the park and in this resulting clash one can find amusement that in the apparently nonsensical jokes, a cold, hard truth hides behind.
The way of life of the contemporary (Japanese) human is thoroughly analyzed and criticized by the author by the magnificent vehicle of a non-human observer, unmasking aspects of our conscience that we maybe couldn't have put into words before. A example of this genius reaches its top in episode 5 where the social networks are the topic. An anime like this is certainly a gem in the mud that dared to do what few dare. The seemingly poor art and almost non-existent animation take a secondary place after you begin to catch the undertones of the anime.
Apart from that, the character design is cute and the music is really enjoyable, specially the ED song -which I've been searching like a madman- by Oresama. One of the biggest flaws tho, is that it's too short and the episodes, too few.
I think I've said enough but I don't want to end without commending you, anime fan, to take a hard and extensive look of yourself in the mirror and try to find the reason behind your acts and your place in this life. It's hard but maybe not much after watching Zashiki Warashi no Tatami-chan.
Sorry if it's not well redacted, I'm not a native English speaker.
LaLasaryell
December 9, 2020
Not Recommended
My sense of guilt brought me here. I watched this anime. I still can't believe it. Story: 0 Art: -1 The animation is non-existent,I wanted to punch the screen everytime there was a zoom in and zoom out on the character's face; it's animated like a visual novel, with 2 sprites for characters.Art is horrible.The backgrounds are the only thing ''''''acceptable'''''Sound: 1
I put one just cause the sound is present
Character: 0
Enjoyement: -(2)^2
The humor could have saved this, but no.Not at all.
Even though some jokes might have been funny, the way they are timed,no, the way EVERYTHING is timed is awful.
In every episode you feel like everyone is just screaming/blurting random lines directly into yours ears and it gets annoying pretty quickly.
Overall: I hated and regretted every minute of it.I regret even losing time writing this review.
Not Recommended
This is quite possibly the worst comedy I've ever had the displeasure to watch and it's not just the comedy not being up my alley, I have a hard time believing anyone would find this funny. The charaters are flat, the conversations are stiff and it looks like it was animated by a bored highschool student in their spare time. The sound is also quite bad but I guess it's acceptable for a low effort gag series like this one. Every episode is a single dragged out skit and I think the punchline is that there is no punchline, well sometimes they have something resembling a punchlineat the end but the tone stays the same throughout so it doesn't add anything, it's just complete crap all the way through. Funny, right? If there is any actual praise I can give this series it's that it accidentally eased up my frown a bit a couple of times.
Story: 0
Art: 0
Sound: 2
Character: 0
Enjoyment: 0
Overall: complete and utter shit
SgSgtSalamander
October 17, 2022
Mixed Feelings
Zakashi Warashi no Tatami-chan is an inoffensive gag comedy that doesn't really stand out in any particular way. There's not much in the way of story besides the setup of a spirit moving to Tokyo and interacting with other monsters, which is followed by various bite-sized misadventures as she acclimates to the city. Most of the time it's passingly funny, even getting the occasional laugh, but some of the jokes are easily lost on a western audience. The art is colorful and lends itself well to a lighthearted, comedic atmosphere. Though, despite a couple ofdetailed loops, the overall animation is nothing more than what is strictly necessary to call itself animation.
The sound meets the basic standards of quality, featuring bright and cartoonish voice acting and sound effects, with the sounds of life being almost entirely absent.
Like the rest of the show, the characters are simple, and exist solely for the purpose of bouncing jokes off of. Overall, there's not much to this anime, and while it's not really that bad, it's not really that good either.
