Have you seen those post-apocalyptic environments art? Those that show what Earth will be like if nature takes over again when there are no humans. Now try to imagine that idea is animated into an anime. This is Apocalypse Hotel, a story of a hotel run by a robot that is still open even when all of the humans have left the planet.
A brand new original stories produced by Cygames Pictures, Apocalypse Hotel tells the stories of a situation where human has left the earth to seek for a better hope, but one establishment still ran even more than a century by a robots that follows their director direction to keep it running because he will be back “soon”. With such a heavy theme and it came from an original story, will this anime be the next to watch on your list?
Those Who Still Believe in the Direction
The weirdest thing for those of you who didn’t see the genre is that the series itself. While the series has a post-apocalyptic theme and weird scary title, the anime doesn’t even feel like a horror. It instead ended up being a great morale booster, uplifting, and even a comedy anime. Every single episode is crafted to explore what it means to be “human” and how it feels to still go on even though the world seems empty.
We see the story from Yachiyo’s perspective. She is a hotelier robot that is designed to serve the very best for all human guests. But with no humans around, how can she deliver the hotel’s excellence and trust that has been built for different species?
The answer is simple: continue the tradition and legacy of what we have. But along the way, they won’t be enough. More species become interested in the hotel and the old way of serving guests may not be ideal for those who have different habits. Robot way is not enough to just serve them, but instead she needed to learn how she can serve as a human, which means learning the weird feeling of love, sadness, or plain happiness. Those seem simple, but for a robot without that functionality, it’s hard for her to learn. Hence the story over each episode tries to convey her learning process by showing how Yachiyo interacting with the guest or even how she can solve the problem that she faces. By learning their culture, adapting to their need, and providing hospitality, slowly we can see that Yachiyo has embraced human value. Even if humans are not here, there’s still a guest that she needs to serve, to preserve the legacy of what has been left behind.
Surprisingly, every episode is crafted to be an independent episode. If you forgot to see one of the episodes, it’s fine. However, if you have watched it before, it would be a nice addition to see how the previous situation has taught Yachiyo to be more “human”. It’s a peaceful story that is fun to watch due to its nature of comedy but at the same time, it’s also deep if you think about it deeper. This correlates as well with how the anime managed to tell a good character development specifically for Yachiyo itself with the Tanuki alien family.
Intergalactic Feeling that Unite Us
At first, Yachiyo is a very rigid character (because she’s a robot). She was there to just follow orders and to continue what she had been programmed to do. However, along the way, you can see that she has learned from her experience and evolved to be something who can convey and know about the feelings surrounding her. She can better serve each guest according to their habit and still feels accomplished as a human hotelier robot. Seeing her grow, or even weirdly enough, becoming a bad girl to try matching human’s behaviour is a happy sight. Moreover, she is not the only one who grows. With almost a huge cast of characters, the anime managed to also still develop the side characters as well, from the normal robot hotelier to even the Tanuki alien family.
The story of side characters give more color to the sow and even make the story merrier. It was a blast to see their problem on each episode. No matter who you are and where you are, at the end of the day, we’re just being who we want to be loved, treasured, remembered, and express what we love to the world.
A Great Artistic Visualization of the Environment & Characterization
One of the major highlights of this anime is all about the visuals, yeah it might not be as good as what Violet Evergarden is, but it managed to capture the eerie feeling of post-apocalypse but still retain the lively nature of what makes us a living being. The visual is mesmerizing enough to make you awe to see the changes that happen surrounding it. It even has a special episode that is dedicated to showcasing all of the amazing visuals that the anime has to offer. That episode managed to convey a warmful feeling and a bit sad feeling about what has happened over the past centuries.
But that doesn’t stop in just a static visual form, because the animation of this anime is great. From a simple expression animation that makes the character more lively to an action sequence that looks over the top, Apocalypse Hotel hit all of the spots, making its animation awe-inspiring to see. You can see that the animator does care about the quality of the visuals and animation to make this anime great to watch.
