Tasokare Hotel Episodes 2 and 3 Reviews

It’s been extremely difficult to find places where this anime can be watched. Your best bet is actually YouTube uploads right now. I’m not sure why the internet is cracking down so hard lately on unlicensed anime, but it’s dumb as hell. Anyway, I finally managed to watch episodes 2 and 3 of Tasokare Hotel. My notes are in the sections below.

Note on the title: Since it’s being translated even in English as Tasokare Hotel, I will start referring to the anime as such from now on, rather than Twilight Hotel.

Episode 2: The Bet of a Lifetime

Episode Rating: 6/10

So far, I’m enjoying this anime because I have the time for shows that aren’t always amazing. I must admit that Tasokare Hotel isn’t as interesting as I was hoping. It doesn’t compare well against a show like Death Parade with a similar premise. Nevertheless, I find the show entertaining enough to watch. The protagonist, Neko Tsukahara, is adorable. I can’t get enough of her quirkiness, curiosity, and cute reactions. Now let’s talk about the second episode in particular.

In this installment, one of the guests – a man with a pachinko ball for a head – tries to recover his memories. Neko helps him out and gathers from his room and words that he’s a gambling addict. Panchinko Man plays a few games of mahjong with the manager, Menou, and Atori as his memories slowly return. It soon becomes clear that he was in major debt and being forced to do shady things by loan sharks when he couldn’t pay. He even stole money from his own mother. (This was his greatest regret.)

After remembering his name (Atsuhiro Andou), Pachinko Man regained a normal human face. He also recalled that the “loan sharks” (probably yazuka members) buried him alive as punishment for trying to run away from his debt repayment. Surprisingly, Pachinko Man is still alive in the world of the living. He prepares to return to reality and fight for his life by digging out of the dirt. I wish him the best of luck at surviving and getting his addiction under control.

The ending scene of this episode explained the title of the anime. Tasogare is the Japanese word for “twilight.” But the root of that word is tasokare, which, in old Japanese, would translate to “Who are you?” Calling this show Twilight Hotel was never quite correct, though the title does involve a wordplay on twilight. A better translation would be the Who-Are-You Hotel, but that sounds clunky as hell, so Tasokare Hotel works best. As the manager stated, this is a place to remember your identity.

Episode 3: Blood-Soaked Pansy

Episode Rating: 7/10

This episode was an improvement over the previous one in terms of entertainment value, but it still wasn’t great. The plot was quite predictable. A new guest arrived with a purple pansy for a head. Since he’s a recurring character, I’ll call him by his name – Masaki Osoto – instead of Pansy Dude. While taking Masaki to his room for the first time, Neko suddenly sees an eerie “vision” of the flower head with a blood-red color instead of purple. That was a bit too obvious foreshadowing, in my opinion.

It doesn’t take Masaki long to regain his face, claiming to be a detective who studies and solves violent street crimes. Neko seems to believe him, but stays on guard since there were some suspicious findings. Before he could remember all the details, Masaki suddenly collapsed with a bloody stab wound. That was a memory resurfacing and not a literal event in the hotel, but it shocked Masaki enough to pass out temporarily.

When Masaki wakes up again, Neko correctly guesses that he is a violent criminal and not a detective. When she’s done explaining her reasoning, Masaki responds by grabbing Ruri and holding her at the point of a knife (which he found in his room, and was probably an object he kept in reality). Masaki intended to kill everyone there because they would probably report him once they returned to the living world. He didn’t understand what the Manager explained later, that nobody will remember Tasokare Hotel after returning to reality.

Neko and Atori disarmed Masaki and made him leave the hotel. Atori and the Manager also explained that if Masaki killed anyone at the hotel, he would go to a very real Hell. However, later on, Masaki returned. Understandably, Ruri wanted to turn him away, but the Manager explained that the rules say anyone can stay here until they know if they are alive or dead. Whether they’re saints or murderers, every guest has the right to stay until they remember what happened to them and where they are headed.

I’m keenly interested in the fact that there’s a Hell in this mythos – that is, assuming that the Manager wasn’t inventing a lie for the safety of his employees. It’s unknown if the hell is more like Jigoku from old Japanese mythology, or whether it’s more similar to western myths like Christian Hell. The design of the Manager and the other nonhuman hotel staff suggests that they may be “demons,” though they obviously aren’t the innately evil kind. I’m eager to learn more about this anime’s afterlife universe.

This episode ends without concluding the story of Masaki Osoto. He appears in the opening song, so he might be around for a good while. On a final note, this episode also revealed a few clues about Atori. He was a hotel concierge in reality, and his room is stuck at night time instead of the usual twilight or sunset. Outside his window, one can see a moving train and some sort of stationary checkpoint that I can’t make out. I don’t know what any of it means yet. Anyway, it was a decent episode.