Tasokare Hotel

Episode 11

To this episode's credit, its title is “Handguns and Hell,” and that's exactly what it delivers. Unfortunately, it takes us a while to get there. The majority of this episode is spent animating a dull conversation between Neko and Masaki that covers details we were already able to suss out with the information received last week. Absent anything truly revelatory, the scene turns into a long-winded conversation set against a featureless desert background, which doesn't make for particularly exciting television.

I'm disappointed that Masaki doesn't have anything deeper going on than low self-esteem caused by his neglectful parents. It humanizes him, sure, but it doesn't make his character any richer. I'd been hoping for a profound or profane personal connection between him and Neko—something that might make him a little better and Neko a little worse. However, their conversation doesn't dig further than the topsoil of their psyches. The only semi-revealing moment comes when Neko asks him why he never thought about killing his parents. For an instant, she finally sees the core of him: a small, warped, and petulant child who chooses to lash out at easy targets.

His parents' obsession with Atori is also absurd to the point of comedy. This relationship might have made sense if both dudes were still in elementary school and had playdates where Masaki could witness firsthand his parents' cruel biases. However, they're both grown-ass men in the scenes we're privy to. If I were a hotel receptionist, and an older pair of regular customers kept inviting me to dinner and showering me with expensive gifts, I'd be pretty skeeved out. That's a situation where the least weird option would be that they're swingers. Generally, I don't mind ridiculous melodrama, but Tasokare Hotel plays this neither seriously nor silly enough to make it work.

Thankfully, the narrative does turn ridiculous enough for my tastes when Masaki cops on his big plan: eating Atori. It's even better because Neko somehow correctly concludes that he's an aspiring cannibal based on a single innocuous line of dialogue. Aside from the fact that they both believe this would somehow skirt the hotel's ban on murder. I think eating someone counts as killing them, but I'll leave that debate to the experts. The important thing is that this is bold and weird, and Tasokare Hotel could use a lot more of that material.

Neko's measured response to this information is whipping out an ornately decorated old-timey revolver, leading to a classic standoff in the desert. Sometimes, you need a cliche. On its own, I enjoy the sight of Neko in full maid regalia brandishing a handgun, but the scene also manages to create tension. I had correctly surmised that Kiriko's supernatural claims about the gun were hogwash, so for me, it also invoked the added stakes of whether or not Neko would succumb to those lies and condemn herself. Masaki, unsurprisingly, outwits her and defuses that particular situation, but it was already apparent that she wouldn't have pulled the trigger. While Masaki's been the devil on her shoulder, the manager's words about judgment got through to her last week, causing her trigger finger to waver.

This all goes to hell (literally) when Atori shows up. Amid Neko and Masaki's confrontation, the cuts to Atori and Ruri searching the hotel are setting up this moment where he gets to play the hero. Unfortunately, he accidentally kills Masaki and condemns himself to damnation in the process. Plot-wise, this is a huge moment ripping two main characters from the hotel. For me, the key to this scene is Neko's reaction. For the first time, we see her completely stunned, angry, and sobbing. She cares about Atori. She feels responsible. She's not keeping her emotions in check anymore. This is a development I've been looking for all season.

This episode is by no means a cleanly plotted one. It's still not obvious why Kiriko is infatuated with the gate to hell. I assume we'll receive at least a basic explanation even if it's just him being a voyeuristic weirdo. The bigger question mark for me is why the manager keeps a genuine revolver in the hotel, given what he told Neko last week. Either he has a checkered past, or if the show acknowledges that hypocrisy, this could work for me. Still, I hope they don't just leave it unaddressed. And if there's only one episode to go, that's a lot of ground to cover alongside whatever Neko chooses to do whether she tries to rescue Atori or find her way back to the living world. Only time will tell before we check out for good.

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