Apocalypse Hotel

Episode 11

I am going to sound hyperbolic while writing about Apocalypse Hotel again. It must be a day that ends in "Y." Seriously, I know I've been saying it a lot in my reviews, but this might be my favorite episode of the year so far. It's a slow, quiet, patient, and heartstrings-tugging meditation on the resilience of life. This installment is also unlike any prior episode, and thus it is exactly the kind of heat that this series has been slinging week to week. I'm gobsmacked by the confidence on display and the implicit trust in the audience.

I feel cheap using words to describe it, too, because the episode smartly abandons them. While there is minimal dialogue at first, the experience blossoms once Yachiyo leaves the bustle of the hotel and begins her dialogue-free walk across Ginza and beyond. It's not like this is a thematically complicated entry, either. Yachiyo, while inorganic, is nevertheless alive. The same can be said of mankind's legacy, reduced to crumbling buildings, cracked consumer goods, and gaudy pachinko parlors. Still, these ruins provide the scaffolding on which nature continues to thrive. So much time has passed that animals no longer fear humans. They flock to Yachiyo and are not punished for doing so.

Meanwhile, Yachiyo staves off the Grim Reaper by harvesting a spare part from a broken android resembling her model. Her time on this planet won't be infinite, and the autumn landscape, littered with fallen leaves, serves as an omnipresent reminder. Death, however, is what gives life meaning. Therefore, Yachiyo is alive.

That's a great message (and a deliciously ironic one considering last week's brouhaha), but Apocalypse Hotel's true brilliance lies in the execution. To put it bluntly, this episode is gorgeous. The animators take extra care animating Yachiyo's subtle movements and expressions. The background artists paint a concatenation of lush post-apocalyptic landscapes dotted with rust and moss. The composite and color work are impeccable, drawing your eyes further and further into every scene. Chengzhi Liao's storyboards and direction create a mood of intoxicating melancholy, opening a window into who Yachiyo is—and who she could be—outside of her job at the hotel. Altogether, the staff crafts an animated tone poem that eschews words and minimizes the plot to touch a more primordial means of communication. It is an appeal to living.

Despite the more somber atmosphere, Apocalypse Hotel's quirky sense of humor isn't absent, either. It's darkly funny that Ponko seems to care more about labor laws than the humans who wrote them (when was the last time your boss ordered you to take a holiday?). Yachiyo, predictably, generates laughs by her inability to turn off her manager mode. While this is sadder, it's also amusing that she spends her days off searching for a tiny but vital piece of hardware she can't function without. That hardly seems like a relaxing vacation, but as a metaphor, it certainly resembles how I spend my own limited time off. Most importantly, we get some classic Yachiyo reaction faces out of the excursion as well. That's worth getting bit by a pegasus.

While this might be a silly subject for a paragraph about such an ambitious episode, I love seeing Yachiyo in all of those different outfits. As soon as she appeared in that baggy “HAPPY” hoodie, I knew I was in for a special episode. To be clear, the design of her usual uniform is fantastic, but I always appreciate it when an anime seizes the opportunity to hold an impromptu fashion show. The animator(s) who put together Yachiyo's new outfits did an impeccable job, too. They're chic without being too flashy. I need more autumn wear like that. Moreover, this dalliance shows us another facet of Yachiyo's human side. She doesn't make a beeline for a spare part. She tries on clothes, visits a shrine, befriends animals, drinks her own spit, says a silent prayer for a stranger, and rides a pegasus home. These “pointless” activities are the spice of life. To paraphrase Kurt Vonnegut, we're put on this earth to fart around.

While there are too many individuals to praise for this episode's artistic accomplishment, I'll name Yoshiaki Fujisawa as the secret MVP. He's been composing excellent soundtracks for years, and I regularly listen to the OSTs for Land of the Lustrous and Revue Starlight to this day. His work on Apocalypse Hotel has been consistently great, too, but he pulls out all the stops this week. While Yachiyo's adventure might have worked with natural ambience alone, I think Fujisawa's contributions elevate the emotions of the experience. A quiet and curious piano narrates Yachiyo's trip down memory lane, while Brian Eno-esque soundscapes follow her further into the city. And her final flight back to the Gingarou is appropriately suffused with Disney musical schmaltz. That's a variety of styles that Fujisawa nails.

What more can I say? Watch the episode! Or rewatch it. Rarely do we get an artistic flex this well-conceived and executed. And ultimately, this is another roar from Apocalypse Hotel's anarchic soul. No two episodes have been alike, so I expect that next week's finale will do its own thing, too. That's the way it should be. Neither Yachiyo nor the show backs down from the chaos of life. They meet it head-on. They tenderly embrace it. And they send it flying with one solid blow to the gut. We should all aspire to do the same.

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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.