Episode 6 – Apocalypse Hotel

Love is in the air. Any sparks that fly between Yachiyo and this week’s extraterrestrial guest are punctuated by the show’s oddball sense of humor. Apocalypse Hotel is incapable of telling a normal romance, and that shouldn’t be a surprise. Still, the Gingarou Hotel is no stranger to sentimentality either, and this space kangaroo’s destructive tendencies become an unlikely yet fitting vehicle for the optimism at the heart of this apocalypse.

I like that the hotel changes week to week and century to century. This episode tells us that 400 years have lapsed since mankind left Earth, and Yachiyo and her staff haven’t been twiddling their thumbs. The fakeout with the tanukis leaving almost got me—in no way am I mentally prepared to say goodbye to Ponko—but I’m glad they just moved down the block. They’re an invaluable part of the cast. It’s also neat that the hotel continues to work to accommodate alien guests. Yachiyo shows off some new pictographic cards that can bypass any language barrier, and we catch a glimpse of her formidable mental Rolodex of intergalactic dialects. They adapt to the times rather than resent them.

Nonetheless, the Gingarou Hotel’s ultimate mission remains fundamentally futile. There’s no evidence humans are coming back, and even if they did, there are other forces besides viruses that could wipe them out again. Enter Harmy, a violent alien with a terracotta power suit who wants to end all civilizations everywhere. While on the surface, he seems to stand for everything the hotel doesn’t, in practice, he, too, comes to embody the same kind of futility. He arrives lasers blazing, but mellows out once he learns that humans haven’t been there in centuries. We get the impression that this isn’t his first rodeo, and his work is tireless and unending. A single civilization can be fragile, but a galaxy full of them is another story.

The opposing absurdity of their mission statements becomes the connective tissue between Yachiyo and Harmy. This is the core thesis of Apocalypse Hotel: that all people from all walks of life can find common ground, even in the most outwardly hopeless of situations. We always possess the ability to meet each other as equals; it’s just a matter of the willingness of all parties involved. Hospitality, naturally, is one way to foster such connections. Yachiyo is firm with Harmy when he acts out of line, but she never stops treating him like a valued guest. Harmy, meanwhile, responds in kind, helping them with Nudel extermination and (mostly) avoiding further damage to the hotel after his entrance. It can be difficult to accept this kind of optimism in fiction, especially in times like the present, but it’s also important for fiction to remind us that a better world is always possible.

Ponko takes this connection a step further, gleefully shipping Yachiyo with Harmy as she watches them spend time together. And to be sure, the episode embraces the outline of a skewed fairy tale romance—an intergalactic beast (somewhat) tamed by a robotic beauty. This mostly comes through the romantic framing of their sightseeing ventures, where the anime again flexes its background muscles with a bounty of gorgeous post-apocalyptic vistas from around the globe. In a way, we catch a glimpse of Harmy’s viewpoint. The decay of civilization contains beauty.

However, Yachiyo makes an important point in this line of dialogue: “There’s a difference between willful destruction and accidental breakage.” She says this after Harmy shatters a glass by gripping it too hard. Now, human consciousness is pattern-seeking. If someone who has already shown a predilection towards destruction were to break something, we would be inclined to conclude that they did so on purpose, because that’s what they do. Yachiyo, however, reminds us that intent is important. We can’t ever fully know what someone else is thinking, but we can control how we perceive their actions. We have the power to give others the benefit of the doubt. We can check our biases. The tools for fostering a kinder world are laughably simple, and while that makes them easy to ignore, it also means there’s always a case for hope.

In the middle of these poignant thoughts about futility and reconciliation, Apocalypse Hotel throws in one of the best animated action scenes I’ve seen all year. That’s the real magic of this anime. You can’t ever completely predict where it’s going. Thematically, an extended fight against some bargain bin Avengers doesn’t add much to Harmy’s arc in this episode. However, the restless creative spirit that put this scene together is an appropriate expression of the show’s quintessence. The motto in this week’s episode is “our only vice is service,” and that scene is a lovingly rendered service for the audience.

Halfway through the season, Apocalypse Hotel has yet to miss, and it has yet to make the same kind of episode twice. That makes it the most exciting anime I’m watching this spring.

Rating:

Apocalypse Hotel is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Tuesdays.

Steve is on Bluesky for all of your posting needs. Apparently, he is ANN’s subject matter expert when it comes to anime about hotels and/or girls in the post-apocalypse. You can also catch him chatting about trash and treasure alike on This Week in Anime.