Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m in the mood for some fluffy comfort food, and what could be more soothing than the thought that humanity is over, our troubles have ended, and a courteous robot entourage has been left to pick up our slack? That’s right, we’re journeying downtown to the Apocalypse Hotel, where the service is superb and the clientele extraterrestrial.
After initially presenting a world bereft of human life, where the purposes instilled in Yachiyo and her compatriots only served to illuminate the emptiness of their daily routines, our second episode offered the staff an unexpected guest to accommodate. And though their alien visitor fell a touch outside their expected parameters, his unusual needs ultimately served as a positive affirmation for Yachiyo, reminding her that even her own status as concierge was facilitated as an act of faith, a disregarding of the probable in pursuit of that golden possibility of coexistence. Humanity may be gone, but it seems they’ve left the best of themselves behind to open the doors and wash the sheets. Let’s see what our staff get up to today!
Episode 3
We open on a lovely establishing shot of the Gingarou Hotel. Beyond the undeniable inherent pleasure of a background with so much finely painted detail, the hotel offers a visual declaration of intent. While the surrounding buildings have largely been overrun by the return of nature’s foliage, the Gingarou alone remains polished and pristine, a marker of humanity’s continuing presence in this place. Additionally, the great clock adorning its top feels like a challenge to time’s passage – the rest of the world may have fallen into an ageless, thoughtless slumber, but here at Gingarou, every hour and day are carefully calculated, and filled with tasks that simply cannot wait
Ooh, I love that they’re still leaning into the weight of time’s passage here. It’s been fifty years since their last guest, but their spirits are still up
It seems the gift left by their last guest still hasn’t grown beyond its test tube
And Yachiyo is still working to develop the site of their proposed hot spring
“Learn to identify a lost cause,” says the survey bot. Once again, he seems to embody more of humanity’s worse instincts – our eagerness to embrace violence, our shortsighted focus on the present moment, our tendency to be easily discouraged
“We’re both stupid thingamajigs, you and I.”
Suddenly another craft crashes into the street!
The creatures that emerge appear human for the most part, though their kinda fluffy appearance and the leaves on their head make me think they’re some version of shape-changing space-tanuki. Though not all conceptions of tanuki include this detail, it’s often the case that placing a leaf on their head is framed as their method of transformation
Nice detail of their haircuts also possessing the rings of a tanuki’s fur coat
The father introduces himself as Bumbuku Procione
His wife is Mami, daughter Ponko, and son Fugure. Fugure just comes right out and introduces himself as a Tanukian
“Say it or you’ll die in the wild! You want to live, don’t you?” Ponko already seems like a fun chaos agent. A good inherent gag in this dramatic closeup for her threats, as well as how they keep these perky expressions even when they’re talking like this
The grandmother’s name is Mujina
Always a fan of limited animation gags, like their models being nervously shuffled past each other as they fret about their disguise, only to immediately snap into their still poses when addressed. Both extremely fluid and extremely stiff animation can facilitate humor, as both involve an inherent betrayal of expectations, which is basically the essence of comedy
“I wanna burrow in a hole.” Don’t we all, Fugure
Nice gag of Ponko repeating Mujina’s greeting in exactly her wobbling accent
“Is this some kind of test?” I quite like the idea that space tanukis are out there, nervously and haphazardly integrating themselves into whatever planet is either oblivious to their trickery or simply doesn’t care
Another great quick cut of the kids smacking the heck out of the environmental reader bot, just trying to get him to respond. This group is already proving a stronger source of humor and charm than our last guest
Excellent expressions for Yachiyo attempting to interpret Bumbuku’s scribbles
Perhaps this episode’s greatest improvement over the last is in terms of comedic timing. Too many of the gags regarding their first guest were held too long; here, the timing is snappy and direction active, often jumping into momentary closeups to facilitate the comedy beats. A clear demonstration of the link between timing, shot composition, and humor
They are at last “discovered” when the environmental bot’s transformation scares them all into popping back into tanuki forms. Another key insight of this episode is that tanukis are great, and most stories would be better with more tanukis
“Please don’t make hot pot out of us!” I wasn’t aware that was a general fear of tanukis! Just sorta thought that was an Eccentric Family-specific thing. Incidentally, if you haven’t watched The Eccentric Family, please do that immediately
I thought I recognized that voice! Bumbuku is played by Cho, who is also Brook in One Piece and basically every old man in everything
Their desperation to appear human definitely resonates with last episode’s themes. They’re doing everything they can to connect and communicate
Oh my god, their tiny tanuki spacesuits. This episode is cheating
It seems everyone on the human ship they discovered was dead, but they’re unwilling to admit that to the hopeful Yachiyo. Is it kinder to leave her with that false hope? As the show so far has emphasized, even a hope that will never be realized can keep you going, and give you the time to find new sources of joy in the world. We cannot live on hope alone, but it’s certainly a start
The tanuki children celebrate their acceptance into the hotel by doing cannonballs into the atrium fish tank
“Tanukis are timid creatures. Except for us two, cause we grew up in space.” A line that resonates with their father’s desire to have them grow up in a natural environment, and which could be extrapolated more broadly to “our environments shape us as much as we shape our environment.” Thus the cruciality of offering homes like this hotel in which to flourish
Quietly impressive cut as Ponko asks about Yachiyo’s tasks while sitting on her giant drill, a sequence that requires consistently redrawing Ponko relative to the camera’s perspective
Having a curious conversation partner conveniently gives Yachiyo a chance to both expand on the history of humanity and discuss the philosophy of her work
“Would it have been better if we were humans?” Ponko’s bluntness helps her strike at the core of these questions of personal meaning
Our next disaster: the tanukis marking their territory with poop pyramids. Great contrast of Mami carefully filing her nails while attesting to the necessity of having poop everywhere
We run through a variety of extremely hotel-inappropriate tanuki activities. Learning to accommodate guests with different needs and cultures is obviously a worthwhile project, but they clearly need some balance here
The environmental bot helpfully offers to kill them all
Well, I suppose Yachiyo’s eagerness to please would backfire eventually. At least the people taking advantage of her are just mild-mannered tanukis
She scares them into submission with a truly horrifying “brightest possible smile.” Always a fan of this gag where the camera zooms in on a character without actually redrawing them, thus resulting in an inherently low-resolution image that echoes the character’s fraying emotions
Ponko is so inspired by Yachiyo’s rage that she actually joins the staff
And Done
Here we go. The Gingarou’s last guest really didn’t give the staff too much to work with dramatically, but this tanuki family are already proving a tremendous asset to the show’s character dynamics and sense of humor. The comedy in particular felt much improved this episode, building up fun betrayals of expectations and successfully manipulating timing, transitions, and storyboarding to marvelous comedic effect. Having full characters to bounce off also let Yachiyo express more of her personality, and I’m quite enjoying following the breadcrumb trail of clues regarding the ultimate fate of humanity. After a kinda so-so second episode, Apocalypse Hotel has rallied back with an excellent third episode, with the promise of the tanukis’ continued habitation making me feel much more confident about the show’s future. Excellent work, Yachiyo and team!
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