The House Spirit Tatami-chan

ざしきわらしのタタミちゃん

5.23(3K votes)

Ranked #13854Popularity #8908

episodes

Type

ONA

Status

Finished Airing

Aired

Apr 10, 2020 to Jun 26, 2020

Studios:Zero-G

ComedyHorrorSupernatural

Synopsis

The "pleasant horror gag comedy" centers around the life of Tatami-chan, a sardonic ghost from Iwate Prefecture who is now living in Tokyo among other spirits, supernatural entities, and humans. In addition to dealing with otherworldly matters, the unemployed Tatami-chan also has to deal with job-hunting as well as paying for gas, water, and electricity. (Source: ANN)

5,987 Members

Worth Watching? — Global Verdict

3.3/10

Average Review Score

14%

Recommend It

Reviews Worldwide

International Reviews

Caterwauling

Not Recommended

Zashiki Warashi no Tatami-chan, which shall henceforth receive community-wide officiation to be shortened to Tatami-chan, is a series of short episodes that aim to satirize elements of Tokyo culture, from rowdy festivals to mixer hook-ups. The main character is a sharp-mouthed, country bumpkin ghost, the titular Tatami, who frequently reacts to the culture shocks she experiences in her day-to-day life as a city dweller. Despite its roots in Japanese culture, none of the jokes or scenarios are particularly hard for a western audience to understand. The comedy is more humorous than it is hilarious. That is to say, you probably won't laugh, but you'll havea hard time thinking any of the jokes are terrible, because they're all based in truth. Thankfully, every episode is three minutes long, so it doesn't overstay its welcome. Tatami-chan's defining characteristic is that it has on average 2-4 frames of animation per character per episode: mouth open, mouth closed, and then maybe some extra expressions to emphasize a punchline, if necessary. While this may work to add to its appeal, it does nothing to add to its quality. To be honest, I don't see what need anyone would ever have to watch this show post-airing, unless you're fulfilling a quota, or some sort of challenge, but if for whatever reason you're in the market for an obscure, marginally entertaining, poorly produced comedy short, look no further than Tatami-chan.

11 found helpfulJun 26, 2020

Episodes (12)

Filler Recap

Click an episode to read its synopsis.

Community Discussion

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.

Lasaryell

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.

2 found helpfulDec 9, 2020

Roevhaal

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

7 found helpfulJun 28, 2020

SgtSalamander

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.

0 found helpfulOct 17, 2022