Welcome back to Anime Rants. I’m still in the process of catching up with Tasokare Hotel. It’s not the best anime of the season or anything, but it’s surprisingly entertaining. Episode 4 took a much darker turn than I expected, and it seems that this more serious mood is going to be the norm from now on. Let’s talk about what happened.
Episode 4: Friendship and Responsibility
Episode Rating: 7/10
This episode was about two female friends who came to Tasokare Hotel without memories. One girl had a kendo mask for a head and the other had a smartphone. Neko decided to handle this case herself. She had no idea how grimly things would turn out in the end. But for the time being, it was easy to help the girls find their names. The kendo girl was Kiyoe Jitsuryuji and the other girl was her best friend, Nagumo Ariake. They were both in the kendo club at the same school.
Before long, Kiyoe and Nagumo got into a fight. It was mostly caused by Kiyoe losing her temper with Nagumo for not taking kendo as seriously as she did. Leaving Nagumo, Kiyoe went to investigate her room and uncover her memories with Neko’s help. Unbeknownst to the hotel staff, Masaki approached Nagumo. He pretended to be a detective and went into her room with her. Meanwhile, Neko gently tried to make Kiyoe understand that she was being too overbearing in the friendship.
Shit hit the fan when Kiyoe and Nagumo both recalled the truth about their situation. The two girls were caught under a falling shelf of dumbbells and other gym supplies. It was Kiyoe’s fault that the shelf broke, as she struck it in anger while arguing with Nagumo. The falling weights slammed against Nagumo’s head and killed her. However, Kiyoe survived somehow.
The two girls had very different responses to these upsetting outcomes. Kiyoe wanted to kill herself for causing the death of her best friend. As for Nagumo, she panicked and blamed Kiyoe, unwilling to accept her death. Masaki took advantage of her blindly emotional state and fed her a terrible lie. If, while in this hotel, someone who died in reality kills a person who is alive in reality, they will switch places. A dead person can rob another person’s life and return to reality in tact. That’s the lie that Nagumo believed.
Nagumo took a katana from Kiyoe’s dojo-style room and slashed her back open. However, when she saw Kiyoe crying and saying she would accept death for the sake of her friend, Nagumo dropped the sword. She couldn’t actually finish off her friend. But Kiyoe, who also believed the lie now, simply finished herself off by running the katana blade straight through her neck.
Shortly after, Kiyoe’s body faded away and her existence ended. This is what happens to people who die at Tasokare Hotel. As for Nagumo, even though she didn’t deliver the killing blow, she was swallowed up and taken into Hell. Masaki thus got away with causing one girl’s death and sending another to eternal torment. What an awful and impressive villain. It’s not difficult to hate him and his smug face.
This episode definitely showed that this anime is dark. It’s like our world in that violence and death are always close by. It might be even worse than our world, since the world in the anime has a confirmed Hell. If any kind of eternal punishment is at play, then it’s an evil universe by default. The rules are also arbitrary and too broad to even be helpful. Hell doesn’t seem to realize, for example, that it ate the wrong person in this episode. Luckily, I enjoy grim settings and cruel world systems in fiction. I look forward to learning more about this anime’s universe.
Episode 5: The Seaside Ash-Covered Princess
Episode Rating: 7/10
Instead of dwelling on the aftermath of the previous case, this episode proceeds straight to the next pair of guests at Tasokare Hotel. They remember their first names and the fact that they came to this hotel together. The man’s name is Tohru and the woman’s name is Kyoko. They are both cheerful, extraverted, and very much in love with each other. They are what weebs know as a “bacouple.”
Both guests had Cinderella-related heads instead of faces at first. Kyoko was a glass slipper and Tohru was a pumpkin. After searching the seaside-themed room, Neko found a Cinderella play pamphlet from a university theater club. Kyoko seemed to find her name there – Kyoko Matsumoto – but her face didn’t return. As for Tohru, the pumpkin that was his head broke and his face was revealed as soon as he saw his name on the pamphlet. His name was Tohru Nagai.
Neko tried to solve the mystery of the two guests after finding several clues that suggested something wasn’t right. She concluded that Tohru had a wife already and was cheating with Kyoko. Despite the circumstantial evidence supporting this, Neko’s conclusion was incorrect. She found out the truth when Masaki pried open an egg-shaped locket belonging to Kyoko. Inside was a certain photo that explained everything.
Before we get to the truth, there were two other notes to mention. First, I’m not sure if I liked the advice Neko gave to Kyoko. She suggested that if she truly loved somebody, it wouldn’t matter that they were already married or had history of being unfaithful. I don’t know if that’s healthy, but such is Neko’s way of thinking. Secondly, Kiriko the tarsier let Neko borrow his magical telescope, which would come in handy later. Kiriko is weird as hell and willing to be friendly with murderers, but he’s also cute.
The photo showed Kyoko holding a baby. Red letters were scribbled over it demanding that Tohru come to a certain hotel if he wanted to get his daughter back. That’s right. Kyoko is a kidnapper and a stalker. Her real name is Kyoko Takahashi, and although she was in the Cinderella play, she was a different Kyoko. Tohru’s wife was Kyoko Matsumoto, who was also in the play. The stalker Kyoko lured Tohru to a seaside hotel by kidnapping his infant daughter.
Once Tohru got there, they struggled over the child, and Kyoko got knocked into the sea. She drowned. Tohru also nearly drowned, but managed to survive with his infant daughter. (Neko verified that both were alive in the real world by looking through the magical lense of Kiriko’s telescope.) Knowing that she was dead and remembering her life as a predator, Kyoko became unstable and violent. It looked like she might try to kill someone. That’s when Masaki stepped in.
When Kyoko cried about what she was supposed to do, Masaki said that the only thing she could do was survive in the form of memories. Guests of Tasokare Hotel are supposed to forget the events that transpired in the hotel once they return to reality. But rumors say that one in fifty thousand does remember something. If she wanted to spiritually survive, then Kyoko would have to make sure Tohru remembered her.
Neko tried to tell Kyoko that Masaki was lying, but it was no use. She threw herself off the hotel balcony while declaring her love for Tohru. Her head splattered on the rocks below and she soon evaporated like a bad dream. Although Kyoko was a terrible person, Neko still didn’t want to give Masaki the satisfaction of orchestrating another death for his own entertainment.
It was a frustrating ending for Neko and for me as well. We can’t keep letting Masaki do these things! Sigh. That’s all for today.
~Thanks for reading~
Written by 7Mononoke at Anime Rants
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