https://v.animethemes.moe/ApocalypseHotelOP1. Video includes audio. Be sure to unmute In a world destroyed and depopulated there would be but a few actually meaningful pillars left standing that somehow provide evidence that it was once teeming with life. In a series that wanted to treat such an apocalyptic scenario with the stonecold seriousness of what such a situation would demand it might opt for a museum or library places designed to preserve and protect the records of humankind. And perhaps then it could provide some kind of grand introspection about how the true meaning of such records was that though humanity or the planet has entered its twilight they were here at one point. Its rather telling therefore that two such after the end otaku properties primarily involve robots and places that dont involve any of that. When Ashinano Hitoshihttps://anilist.co/staff/96869/AshinanoHitoshi wrote Yokohama Shopping Loghttps://anilist.co/manga/30004/YokohamaKaidashiKikou/ back in 1994 he imagined a world that was dying but it was one I would gladly live in. The people and Alpha the cafrunning robot have accepted the end and choose to spend the remainder of their time enjoying the peace and tranquility. The sea rises Misago spends time with the childrenhttps://i.ur.com/tpPEZD0.png and Alpha wonders if her master will return. But until such time shell pour a cup of coffeehttps://i.ur.com/4cqUlAk.jpeg with a smile on her face gaze at the sunhttps://i.ur.com/uXM7WAE.jpeg and take photographs of a moment in timehttps://i.ur.com/wrvdP3s.jpeg. And I can think of no higher compliment that I could give Apocalypse Hotel than I would give anything to check in to a room there for a time or perhaps even work there as an employee. To be clear this anime is not directly a successor to Yokohama Shopping Log but it likewise is informed by its influence even in the midst of all its differences. Standing eternal watch over its microscopic corner of the planet the Acting Acting Manager robot Yachiyo spends every day at the checkin desk of Gingarou Hotel waiting for the moment that humanity will return through the doors generously opened by the Doorman Robot assuming he doesnt need water splashed on himhttps://www.sakugabooru.com/data/adc7ecdebb7bf5acee0ae4f7aaa9ac0b.mp4 again. Everything until then will be meticulously maintained and even as the number of robots on indefinite leave increases over timehttps://i.ur.com/mLjLR0F.png Yachiyo always stays steadyor seems to anyway. That kind of steadiness spreads itself into the setting: in a 24 June 2025 interview which involved series writer Murakoshi Shigeruhttps://anilist.co/staff/128852/MurakoshiShigeru he mentions the deliberate attempt to make Ginza the location for the series. According to him Ginza as a realworld setting walks the line between the past and the futurehttps://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interview/20250624/openingtheapocalypsehotelwithcygamespicturespresidentnobuhirotakenakadirectorkanashundo/.225414 with Edoperiod traditions intermixing with Western culture and influence. Fashioning a futuristic fictitious hotel out of a real department store all while occupying the same general space as an old kabuki theater or small shrine inuniverse certainly seems like the way to do so. With such a backdrop one might think that a NieR: Automata approach of exploring each landscape or location and feeling the ephemerality through the wind and quiet expanses would make the loneliness of Yachiyo her workers and the stillshining Gingarou Hotel even more poignant. 550https://i.ur.com/CAY8KF4.png 550https://i.ur.com/dgnYpwi.png Apocalypse Hotel does not do a lot of strolling around Ginza but the select times that it does always have a defined purpose within the story either for its characters or adding details to the citys portrait The series generally chooses not to do so and theres something so dismaying and delightful about such a framing. Despite all the literal decay of the surrounding buildings and the decay of the overgrow consuming the rubble Apocalypse Hotel hypercondenses the life of Ginza into this one single location an inherent juxtaposition between the traditional manner of Japanese hospitality and caring for guests against a bunch of robots that follow their orders to a silly degree. Like true robots their rigidity is nighabsolute. So imagine the likewiseabsolute worry that ensues when a shower cap goes missinghttps://i.ur.com/HXyblcv.png or Doorman Robot cannot fulfillhttps://i.ur.com/0TuHciJ.png his singular duty of opening a doorhttps://i.ur.com/PCt9riq.png. Life at Gingarou therefore happens in bursts of things that could be rectified rather simply but MUST occur with overthetop abandon because that is how it is supposed to be. Similarly it is because Gingarou is the last vestige of meaningful activity on the planet that its guardians must honor and protect it under the circumstances there is no greater dynamic than polishing that floor or taking care of that central tank. Perhaps it is the fate of robocentric fiction that such things cannot remain that way forever. Sometimes by deception and other times by sheer happenstance guests arrive and Gingarou begins to become a more colorful place and as such the comedy itself takes on increasingly colorful dimensions. As fun as the robots are in their eternal quest for perfect maintenance or aggressively checking the environment can be they discover rather quickly that serving or living with others especially those who are decidedly not humans is not something that can be so easily written into a rulebook or programming. Their lives get harder no doubt. But on the sweeter upside their lives get more enriching as a resultor at least as far as enriching can be felt by a supposedlyunfeeling? robot. With such a lack of interaction from nonrobots for so long is it any wonder that Yachiyo would temporarily forget herself and just act like a giddy child when it seems like all that waiting will at last pay off? https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/0db31fdd722ef3bf3b5f28433c25057e.mp4 https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/7edb08398b6c6b3f08c484630a041ef4.mp4 Credit to Solal Girardin. While Murakoshis writing has more than enough comedy written within it to elicit laughs the show occasionally has bursts of spunk that can easily provide their own visual comicand at times dramaticfun But a melancholic overhang still exists no matter how funny the show may be at any given moment. Any apocalyptic story even one as warmly conceived and realized as Apocalypse Hotel or Yokohama Shopping Log carries with it the knowledge that the time before the point of no return inuniverse will not return. The show doesnt run away from this the earliest minutes tease the idea of what if indeed nothing happens and Yachiyo and company are trapped within reallife purgatory perhaps themselves damned to be on indefinite leave like all those that came before them. Even as the show progresses and Gingarou becomes more bustling both guest and employeewise theres no complete escape from that question. Acknowledging the overhang however is part of the appeal. Its precisely because the mortality and mortality of the Gingarou employees their waiting and its hotel exist that the comedy can itself crackle. Theres an old saying that its only when its darkest that you can see the light but that doesnt mean much unless you look beyond the light and see why its even shining in the first place. Apocalypse Hotel in a way similarbutnottoosimilar to Girls Last Tourhttps://anilist.co/manga/85412/ShoujoShuumatsuRyokou/ argues with a smile that the darkness itself is the source of that light. As such the most crazed and bewildering ceremony atop the hotel can take place and not only have it feel completely athome within the shows context but also walk the line and evoke the kind of laughter that only stuff that goes just a bit too far in its oddness or perverse sense of humor can manage to do. 550https://i.ur.com/PtjzFkE.png I promise this makes sense in context In that same interview with Murakoshi series director Shundou Kanahttps://anilist.co/staff/142459/ShundouKana remarked on the difficulty of his first true directorial debut saying that he caused problems due to his own lack of experience. Perhaps his own work as assistant director for League of Nations Air Force Aviation Magic Band Luminous Witcheshttps://anilist.co/anime/103118/RenmeiKuugunKoukuuMahouOngakutaiLuminousWitches/ and its production problemshttps://www.animenewsnetwork.com/dailybriefs/20210827/luminouswitchestvanimedelayedfrom2021to2022/.176718 lingered in his mind as a potential sign of his own inability. It hardly shows. With great control over everything in sight every episode works wonderfully in throwing a new obstacle at its cast and its setting sometimes challenges of their own making or things from an outside influence. It treats itself seriously enough to give room to breathe and dwell on the inherent ridiculousness of a momenthttps://www.sakugabooru.com/data/1a74f23dc4152c0c236c0f35cb580e8e.mp4 then doesnt break any sweatnot that robots can sweat anywayas it gives Ponko and Yachiyo a moment to themselves later. With Apocalypse Hotels completion CygamesPictureshttps://anilist.co/studio/6182/CygamesPictures has now made two robotcentric original IPs in the past two years the first being the wildly bizarre and awesome Brave Bang Bravern https://anilist.co/anime/165598/YuukiBakuhatsuBangBravern/. If theres anything to glean from these efforts its that they have an intuitive sense of what it is about robots that people love find endearing and cannot help but laugh at. Like Mizushima Tsutomuhttps://anilist.co/staff/104552/MizushimaTsutomu and most of his outputhttps://anilist.co/anime/14131/GirlsundPanzer/ that involves derangedlyhttps://anilist.co/anime/155657/ShuumatsuTrainDokoeIku/ playing withhttps://anilist.co/anime/21567/Mayoiga/ his toyshttps://anilist.co/anime/11111/Another/ whoever is in charge of story development and scouting at CygamesPictures has a keen understanding of trope and convention seamlessly intermixing it with setting tone character and larger paratextual ambiance. Stories like Apocalypse Hotel make anime a better place not necessarily because they say something about who we are as people or grappling with larger themes inherent to life. Rather they recognize the inherent fun to be found in taking an idea and following it to the end of the rainbow. Gingarou happened to be where the rainbow led. Who knows where itll lead next? 550https://i.ur.com/JUYANQI.png As promised here is your shower cap. And it comes in three different colors