Tasokare Hotel

Episode 12

Tasokare Hotel delivers an extremely silly conclusion, and that would be disappointing if it were attached to a stronger series. As is, it feels like a fitting end to a show that never found its footing. I'm still not sure what Tasokare Hotel was supposed to be. As a video game adaptation, I could see the contours of its source material, but those struck a lumpy and unflattering silhouette. As a mystery series, the stories were neither complex nor compelling enough to stick in my memory. As a philosophical exercise, the show shirked many of the basic questions presented by its premise. As a character ensemble, while I liked the cast well enough, they were all underutilized and underdeveloped. Tasokare Hotel ends up feeling like a liminal space, but probably not in the way its creators intended.

Nevertheless, I had a fun time watching it. It's just weird enough to stave off triteness. And this finale may be the weirdest entry of them all. The obvious reason for that feeling is that we spend half of the episode outside of the hotel, back in the real world. However, the vibes are off from the very beginning. We pick up from last week's cliffhanger, with the manager holding Neko responsible for the Atori and Masaki fiasco by firing her. This is a big deal—three main characters exit the hotel!—but everyone acts nonchalant about the whole affair. Even Neko takes her termination in stride, taking her time as well to say goodbye to the rest of the hotel staff. I suppose this reflects the transience inherent to the hotel's existence and purpose, but narratively and emotionally, it makes the climax feel limp.

There's also a frankly insane amount of lore-dumping and world-building crammed into this episode. Perhaps Tasokare Hotel wanted to dazzle the audience with its cornucopia of twists. In practice, however, this is nothing grander than sloppy writing. The show's only saving grace is that it goes so overboard, that it becomes endearing. Sure, let's add time travel to the mix. Hell in a box? Why not! There's an elevator that guarantees you keep your memories of the hotel when you return to the living world, thus erasing that tiny bit of tension and uncertainty from this purgatorial process. Tasokare Hotel also seems to understand that this isn't how you write a compelling thriller because it constantly hangs a lampshade on these last-minute plot devices. The result can't help but appear very silly.

Allow me a paragraph to highlight the silliest part. I'm usually not one to harp on plot holes, because either I don't care, or I'm too thick to notice them. However, this one is egregious, and it involves Kiriko. I like that Neko chooses to bid him farewell—that fits her character—and in their parting conversation, Kiriko confesses that he used to live in hell before being banished to the hotel. It's homesickness that caused his obsession with opening the infernal gates. That's morbidly funny in a way I can appreciate. His parting gift to Neko is a wooden box that can summon hell anytime, anywhere. So why didn't Kiriko use that box to gander upon ye olde hellish homestead? Perhaps the game explains this, but as an anime-only guest, I have to work with what I'm given. Even if there is an explanation, the more important fault highlighted here is the box's convenient appearance in the eleventh hour. This is the plot device where an ounce of foreshadowing could have gone a long way.

All of these contrivances come together to provide Neko one final confrontation with Masaki, at the point in time right before he originally killed Atori. It's a long walk to get here, but let's ignore that for now. How does their climactic battle of wits shake out? It's honestly pretty disappointing. Neko falls for an obvious lie, and Masaki falls for an obvious application of reverse psychology. Despite the visual gestures towards Sherlock and Moriarty's tussle at Reichenbach Falls, this does not feel like two intellectual titans clashing. It's more like two cats scratching at each other. The adaptation's visual deficiencies also hurt any spectacle this scene might have had. The animation is noticeably choppy, and hell itself looks like a rote pit of lava surrounded by the wailing of the damned. They could have been a skosh more creative.

Still, all is (mostly) well that ends (mostly) well. Masaki earns damnation for the crimes of serial murder and smarminess. Atori isn't killed, so he never goes to the hotel, which means he's no longer in hell. I'm not going to try to unpack the time travel rules here. Neko also gets to enjoy life again, although she's resigned to the possibility that, by condemning Masaki, she probably punched her own ticket to the hot place. I still wish we could have explored Neko's moral greyness deeper. She had potential. And Ruri returns a year later with Neko's directions in hand. The good guys are happy and the bad guys are burning. That's the definition of a satisfying ending.

And despite my critiques, I'm fairly satisfied with Tasokare Hotel. It's a reasonable, above-average, 6/10 anime series with a smattering of neat ideas and moments. I believe there will always be a place for middle-of-the-road shows like this. However, with some tiny tweaks, I also believe Tasokare Hotel could have been much more. I may check out the game someday to see how it compares. For now, though, my most profound disappointment is that we never got an episode dedicated to Menou. What a downright criminal waste of a perfect character design. If she ever gets fanart, then I'll see you there.

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Steve is on Bluesky now. He can check out of social media any time, but he can never leave. You can also catch him chatting about trash and treasure alike on This Week in Anime.