Tasokare Hotel

Episode 5

Unfortunately, my bullishness on last week's episode of Tasokare Hotel did not bear fruit this week. This is a mostly dull installment with a few bright spots. It's a Cinderella story that's bibbidi-bobbidi-boring.

The main issue is that neither the mystery nor the hotel guests are compelling. I know there's only so much one can do in twenty minutes, but we aren't given anything concrete to carry us to the conclusion. Toru and Kyoko are one-dimensional characters, and the narrative's jocular treatment of their mutual infatuation deadens the blow of both twists. And neither twist is shocking, to begin with. We're immediately shown a water-facing cliff, so it's not difficult to put together what landed them in the hotel, and when Kyoko doesn't get her face back, she automatically turns sus. Admittedly, I didn't anticipate the stalker angle, but this, too, feels undersold. Last week's melodrama had some bite to it. This comes across as silly and disposable.

The main cast is slightly better utilized this time. Masaki's antagonism is more fun when pitted directly against Neko's deadpan demeanor. Their argument about the merits of decaf is a cute diversion, and I like that he leans into his Sherlock persona to give Neko some unasked-for detective tips. His incorrect initial hunch also shows that Masaki isn't an unflappable genius. He's bullshitting his way through life like the rest of us, and that makes his antics more endearing. The hotel needs someone like him to stir the pot.

Furthermore, Masaki manipulates Kyoko into a less cartoonishly sinister end than he did with the kendo girls, which possibly indicates growth on his part. He could have let Kyoko kill Toru, condemning herself to hell, but he doesn't. While Tasokare Hotel still isn't very clear on what it means when someone dies and “disappears” from the hotel, it's presumably better than the apocalyptic vision from last week. This isn't to say Masaki has become an altruistic guy—Kyoko's still dead in the end, and Toru will potentially carry that traumatic memory back into the living world. However, he creates space for nuance that encompasses both good and evil. In the show's words, “It's not the best outcome, but it's the best we could hope for.”

Just as Masaki isn't wantonly evil, Neko isn't straightforwardly good either. She, too, has some inhumanity in her. Perhaps that's an unwritten prerequisite for joining the hotel staff. For example, her reaction to the gates of hell last week was one of curiosity, not fear. At the end of this week's semi-tragedy, she decides to brush it off and move on. She's earnest and helpful at the moment but she keeps her emotional distance. I might be reading too much into a character designed to be a neutral (or, less charitably, bland) video game protagonist, so take this analysis with a grain of salt. If it makes the series more interesting to watch, I will continue to interpret her that way.

One thing I would have done differently is lean harder into the visual language of a Cinderella stage adaptation. The most we get out of Tasokare Hotel is Toru's pumpkin dome and Kyoko's glass slipper head. The fairy tale is otherwise irrelevant to this particular plot. However, the inherent artifice of theater could have been used to accent Kyoko's “act” as Toru's lover, and the anime could have had more fun with its inversion of Cinderella's conclusion. I suppose Kyoko turning a shard of the glass slipper into a weapon counts as something, but it feels less inspired than it should. This is where the bland-looking adaptation continues to do the material a few favors, and from what I've seen, the material isn't that strong to begin with.

Rating:

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.