I’m strongly inclined to believe something really special is going on here. Apocalypse Hotel just keeps raising the bar week upon week, and it delivered a truly spectacular episode here. It’s restorative to have a show come from totally out of nowhere and be this great. It’s not going to be a good anime year by any stretch from my perspective – I say that with complete confidence. But it can still produce gems like this – gloriously imaginative and keenly smart. It’s taking on the air of one of those series where everyone involved seems to be exceptional – the sort where we look back on it years later and say “Yep, that’s where XXX really broke out”.
That’s not true with Uemura Yutaka, the man behind this masterpiece of an episode. He’s a known quantity, a Gainax veteran (the “Chuo Line Sisters” have many Gainax connections). Uemura has many series under his belt both as an animator and a director, and there are certainly whiffs among them. But he’s a huge talent, and that’s on display here. One is almost tempted to say these plot twists came out of left field (the whole series seems to have), but Apocalypse Hotel lives in left field. Anything goes, and it all makes sense – which is a sure sign of really good writing. Which makes you step back and say “Where in the world did this come from?” when you look at the staff.
The first development is that the tanuki are checking out. After, we’re told, a century-long (judging by Ponko and Fuguri’s appearance their race must be exceptionally long-lived) stay (we later learn that 400 years have passed since humanity’s departure). I was alarmed for a minute (I love all of them) but turns out they’ve only moving into a house they crafted out of building wreckage and the spare parts from their spaceship. Their housewarming is crashed, however, by an unexpected arrival – an alien spacecraft from which emerges an extraterrestrial who looks something like a doguu figure from the Joumon Period.
This fellow immediately starts unleashing wanton destruction, for which Ponko dubs him “Harmagedon” (from the 1983 film Harmagedon: Genma taisen – maybe one of the ones she watched on the tomb ship). Environment Checker Robot manages to evacuate Ponko and Fuguri to the Gingarou, but the alien soon arrives. Doorman dutifully announces him (looks like they’ve rigged some sort of sprinkler system into his shower hat). Harmy (Yamaji Kazuhiro) declares that he’s there to destroy Earth’s civilization – to which Yachiyo responds by decoding his language and asking him if he’d like to check in.
There’s something sort of beautiful in Yachiyo’s purity of character. Always be welcoming, always try to understand – she’s utterly consistent in her devotion to inclusiveness. She’s even devised a survey for ETs to fill out so the hotel will better adapt to their customs. Harmagedon is a tough nut – destroying civilizations is his vocation in life. But she has a good point – the universe has already taken care of that for him. Bemused, he agrees to check in (after collecting some money from that handy vault), and checks his havoc suit for safe keeping. The creature underneath is even stranger looking – but there’s something sad and reflective in his eyes, and Ponko even observes that he’s “sort of cute”.
What follows can only be described as- what, exactly? A courtship? Ponko would certainly like to believe so. An education, a friendship? Whatever it is, Harmagedon comes to learn about the extent of Earth’s desolation, and the depth of Yachiyo’s patience and idealism. Harmagedon destroys civilizations when he decides they’ve become forces for evil and threats to the universe, but there’s no civilization here. He casually saves the Earth by finding a horde of dormant nudels and asks to have them for all his meals. Yachiyo gets pissed at him for whisking her away from her to-do list without asking, but something does brew between them. All of the things he abhors are absent in her.
At this point we get another wild twist, as a ship containing an alien super-sentai team arrives to exact their revenge on Harmy for his prior crimes. Uemura flexes his chops here, delivering some action scenes that have no business being as spectacular as they are. Harmy saves the hotel from one of their attacks, takes their best shot, and eventually defeats them. He then – much to Ponko’s disappointment (the tanuki family has installed a loveseat for two on his ship) – declares that he’s checking out. The longer he stays, he says, the more powerful enemies will come to kill him. But before he goes he gives Yachiyo a parting gift – the mythical onsen she’s been dreaming of for four centuries.
All is all, a truly magnificent episode. It’s always great to be surprised by an anime the way Apocalypse Hotel has surprised me. But there’s something about when an original does it – in some sense the kind of creative freedom that provides has to be the most rewarding sort of work an anime staff can do. This series is really something special, a real restore your faith experience – a show with something interesting and quite admirable to say, and an incredible eloquence in the way it says it.
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