#sorry for writing an essay rip i needed to let some brain worms out

[theophagie-remade]

I assume some of the major differences between The Tatami Galaxy's novel and anime can be easily justified with something like "the novel is very short so, to get more episodes out of it, it was necessary to give Watashi only one major experience (ie circle/association/whatever) per timeline, and to even invent a couple of them", to which I answer you know what, fair, less realistic but fair. But then the anime never even mentions the Colosseum part of the fortune teller's prediction(s) nor Watashi's wisdom tooth, which is... a bit of disappointing since it's thanks to them that he manages to escape the - it is appropriate to say - tatami galaxy where he ends up in the first place.

I do agree that making the swarm of moths make an appearance only at the very end makes more sense than it flying by every single time, though. Its impact is much more prominent and it also accompanies Watashi's growth in that way. The way the timelines influence one another is also an anime-only thing for the most part, which is kind of weird (Watashi and one of his past selves never see each other while he's stuck in the tatami galaxy in the novel, for example, and the money he gathers there is not used to buy the Kamenoko brush).

Something else that I find very weird, and which also defies the whole point of the novel in my opinion, is the way the anime frames getting together with Akashi as Watashi's key to breaking out of the time loop, because the two of them actually... ended up together in every timeline already. Watashi's dissatisfaction resided in him always looking back at his past mistakes, in his "what if"s, all things Akashi has little to do with. And after months of wandering and isolation, that's when this happens:

[...] I didn’t feel like doing anything just yet and rolled back into my futon. I picked up the worm-eaten wisdom tooth that lay near my pillow. As I held that ill-omened, rotten tooth up to the light, my thoughts returned back to the old fortune teller in Kiyamachi.

I was still convinced that this whole baffling situation traced back to that old woman. She cajoled me with words like, “You have much earnest talent in you”, and laid this curse upon me, who was already struggling with hopes of escaping to a better life.

“Colosseum.”

What nonsense.

I no longer required that meaningful rose-colored campus life, that ultimate asset I had so coveted.

This was a frightening tooth, and I was amazed at how long I had resisted urges to get it checked out. The top of the tooth was hollowed out, and I could see its internal cross-section, as if it was a scientific mannequin. The more I looked at it, the less it looked like a wisdom tooth; it more closely resembled an ancient Roman construction… “Colosseum,” I breathed.

Suddenly, the sound of rustling came from the window.

Before I knew what happened, a squirming black cloud came pouring through the half-open window and into the room.

The swarm of moths that migrated throughout this world apparently passed through Room 0 on its route. [...]

I started to panic and attempted to escape to Room 1.

As I opened the door, the cool air of the corridor flowed by my cheeks.

The dusty wooden planks of the floor stretched before me into the darkness. On the ceiling, scattered electric lights dimly shone, and in the distant entrance hall, the white fluorescent lights gleamed in the darkness.

[...]

What was this feeling?

The night was alive.

It was like the Gion festival had come.

I breathed the fragrant atmosphere deep into my lungs, and stared up at the sky, which was slowly fading from peach to indigo, finally crumpling up my face, before unleashing a raw, primitive yell.

... And so he managed to escape to the real world. Of course he accepts life as it is in the anime too, but I just feel that it was reductive to use love as the catalyst for his development, that's all.