Go to hell, Osoto.
Se begin with Neko preparing to leave the Hotel, as she says farewell to everyone after her firing. As she has something of a heart to heart with Ruri, the Manager appears to, sure enough, give Neko her severance pay, in the form of time that she can rewind to before her incident. Realizing what this entails, Neko is not too proud to beg for a raise, stating that she hopes to gain enough to reach before Atori was murdered and save him, feeling that it’s the only way to correct her mistake landing him in Hell.
Ruri begs too, and offers up her banked wages to contribute to the cause. The Manager accepts at least the transfer, but Neko isn’t quite done with her farewells. She checks in with Kiriko (the monkey dude), learning that he had wanted a glimpse of his home, Hell, from which he has been exiled and which he misses greatly. He’s caught on to Neko’s intent to save Atori, and asks if this time she has the conviction to end Osoto’s life. When she says she does, he offers her the real “Send somebody to hell” trinket, a box of his that will indiscriminately open the gates, at which point anyone who meets the gaze of the eyes of hell will be dragged in. Neko accepts.
We then get her sendoff – with just enough time collected between Neko’s, Ruri’s, and Atori’s wages that weren’t going to get paid out otherwise, and that Manager seems okay with handing over seeing as it’s for his sake.
Thus, Neko takes the special staff exit from the hotel, retaining her memories and being deposited at the appropriate time and place, the train station just before Atori was killed.
There, she confronts Osoto with all she knows about him and convinces him to shove off… except she realizes it couldn’t be that easy and gives chase. This allows Osoto to bushwhack her, unwilling to let someone who knows so much about him live. They struggle, Neko gets beat up, and ultimately Osoto ends up searching her and finding the hell box. Whether honest or reverse psychology (a momentary smirk suggesting the latter) she begs Osoto to not open it… so of course he does, opening the gates of Hell as well. Neko remembers the rules in time, while Osoto meets the gaze and the hands seize him. However, he manages to catch Neko’s ankle and drag her into the pit as well.
On the edge of Hell, Neko and Osoto struggle. He rages at her with his memories, now restored beyond earth, that she was his downfall on the prior timeline. As Osoto tries to take Neko with him, she struggles back, ultimately managing to get him off of her with an umbrella through the eye socket. Screaming, still living, he’s dragged down into the fire to suffer in torment for presumably the rest of time. Neko tries to scramble up herself before the pit closes, but only manages thanks to a timely hand, as Atori has noticed something going on despite his headphones and helps drag Neko out of the sealing pit.
I have no idea what Atori thinks was going on, whether he gained his memories of the Hotel from glimpsing Hell or whether he just suspects a really weird earthquake, but the show’s close enough to over that we don’t really have time to explore that. A year later, Neko is fine, though she believes her handling of Osoto means that she will herself be damned when she dies. Atori is doing well at work and Ruri, who Neko left some contact info with, has returned to the world of the living to meet up.
Thus ends Tasokare Hotel.
Honestly, I went into Tasokare hotel with little in the way of expectations. It’s a lower-deck anime with little hype and based on a gacha game at that. But, on the whole, it turned out to be a real treat. Is it one of the great mysteries or great purgatory stories? No, not on either scale, but to be fair both of those have turned out some real masterpieces. What Tasokare Hotel is, is continually engaging for twelve episodes. It has enough emotions to flesh out its characters, enough ideas to remain interesting for its time, and enough visual wonder than when it wants to show something that’s a big deal, like Hell, it can actually pay that off. The Cases of the Week all go a little fast; they’re pretty simple mysteries in which the clues actively want to present themselves. But the larger scale Osoto plot, particularly reaching the confrontation and summation with him in the previous episode, shows that the creators had the skill to sustain a more full mystery. They just really only had the one big one to tell, in which the smaller bits are stepping stones.
In the end, this is one I’d really recommend. It’s not going to change anything in a big way, but it’s enjoyable and entertaining. If you haven’t given Tasokare Hotel a watch yet, seriously consider it.