Anime Anime Global

From the novel, “4.5 Tatami Mythological Chronicles”, adapted into an animation by Director Yuasa Masaaki, comes its sequel after 16 years, “Tatami Time Machine Blues”. The work is scheduled to be sold from 29 Jul. 2020 onward. The work was born from a devilish combination (?) of “4.5 Tatami Mythological Chronicles” and the setting of the live-action adaptation of “Summer Time Machine Blues”.

“4.5 Tatami Mythological Chronicles” follows a strange youth story of its main character, a sullen third-year university student, “Me” and his goal at achieving a rose-colored campus life in four parallel universes. This novel is one of Morimi Tomihiko's breakthrough works and its TV anime adaptation aired on Fuji Television's “Noitama” in 2010.

The sequel “Tatami Time Machine Blues” was born out of an unusual collaboration between Morimi's sworn friend, playwright Makoto Ueda's revealed stage setting, “Summer Time Machine Blues” {European troupe). The story begins on one hot summer's day, when”Me”'s bad friend, Ozu, destroys a certain aircon remote controller from the student dormitories by soaking it in water.

The cool beauty, Akashi-san, who briefly wonders how she is going to spend her summer agrees to come up with a plan when a dim-witted looking male student who claims to have traveled from 25 years in the future by a time machine appears. “Me”, who thinks about returning to the past in the order to retrieve the remote before it was destroyed is, however…..

The cover illustration is done by the illustrator Nakamura Yusuke, who done illustrations for the previous work. The familiar characters are drawn in a lively fashion, with Akashi-san and a camera in her hand and a clock as the centerpiece.

“Tatami Time Machine Blues” will go on sale from 29 Jul. onward. It is priced at 1,500JPY (tax excluded). Additionally, the first chapter consisting of 44 pages is currently available to read on literary web magazine “Kadobun”.

<Below are the full comments>
Message from the author

To the readers, I am glad to announce my new novel “Tatami Time Machine Blues”. It started from a simple thought, “what if I were to combine the two? (Morimi Tomihiko's novel “4.5 Tatami Mythological Chronicles” and the European troupe's stage setting “Summer Time Machine Blues”)

The story is set in the 4.5 tatami apartment “Shimogamo Yuusuisou” on a midsummer's day, with characters from the “4.5 Tatami Mythological Chronicles”. They try to make use of a time machine that suddenly appeared but however……
“4.5 Tatami Mythological Chronicles” is actually getting its sequel(?) after sixteen years. In these trying times where Corona's evil air is lingering around, I hope that this light-hearted, cheerful novel will be a breath of fresh air to stifling quarantine life.

Morimi Tomihiko