The hotel gets a killer new guest.
We start off the episode with Neko wanting to learn more about hotel operation by doing, thus seeing her put on greeter duty. In comes a new guest with a flower for a head and a kind of bad vibe that Neko feels. We do the usual of showing him to his room and snooping around a little. The effects found include some classical mystery literature, a business card, and a portfolio of murdered women. Thus, he introduces himself as Masaki Oosoto, the consulting detective. Now isn’t that a useful skill set to see in the area?
All is not well, though, and Neko keeps getting some bad vibes from Masaki. After she hangs out with Atori a bit (learning his room has a night view, including a passing train. They speculate he may have been trying to catch a train, but I’m remembering the train at night element in Haibane Renmei), there’s the second investigation of Masaki’s changed room.
There, they find effects suggesting a rainy day, a photograph of a woman Masaki introduces as his girlfriend who he was going to go on a date with one rainy day… and importantly, Masaki’s report card and student ID.
I feel like the discovery of these effects is handled in a way that identifies what genre Tasokare Hotel really wants to be. It’s not just a mystery, it’s a fair-play mystery. I touched on this genre in my review of The Detective is Already Dead, though Hyouka would be an infinitely better touchstone, so I won’t go too long right here.
For now, it’s enough to know that there is a set of ten classical rules that help to define and shape this particular mystery subgenre. Most can be bent or broken – they’re more descriptive rules than foundational – but most also carry a spirit that any material aiming for the topic would be wise to observe. In this case, Tasokare Hotel is concerned with careful adherence to Rule #8: “The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader.”
Neko, you see, largely keeps the report card to herself for a bit, but the viewer is allowed to see it. Similarly, every statement or fact that she uses in the ultimate summation of this case was stated on-camera before.
This is important to the idea of a fair-play mystery because, as the name of the subgenre would suggest, the viewer is supposed to be able to play along at home and noodle things out before the brilliant detective – in this case, Neko – gives a summation of the findings.
Thus, Neko presents her answer before Masaki and the other human staffers: that Masaki is, in fact, a serial killer. As evidence, she has his report card and student ID, revealing that as a fifth-year med student with top-tier grades he would be far too busy to hold down a job (the business of med students having come up in conversation before). Further, she uses the rainy effects, the “girlfriend” photo, and the folio of murder victims to piece together that he met some sort of accident on his way to kill again, given how similar the “girlfriend” is to the women in the folio in appearance.
Masaki doesn’t take this well. He takes the tsundere maid hostage with a knife, and has to be talked down from trying to slaughter the hotel staff on two fronts. First, if he kills anyone in this limbo, he’ll get a one-way ticket to Hell. And second, they won’t even remember anything from the hotel if and when they return to the world of the living, so they won’t be able to turn him in. Still, Neko ultimately has to distract him for a moment by using a hand mirror she got earlier, getting the maid away and Masaki subdued.
Masaki is checked out in the wake of that but, it turns out, he comes right back. He might know who and what he is, but he still can’t remember whether or not he’s actually dead. The manager welcomes him back in, reminding everyone that the hotel serves all no matter if they’re good people or bad… and also that a soul’s stay is ultimately limited, so it would be best to leave as soon as you do work that out.
In my mind, this episode was a significant upgrade for Tasokare Hotel. I expect we’ll be sending more guests along in the future rather than growing the peanut gallery, but doing this now shows that Tasokare Hotel has a decent handle on progression and drama in a series format. Episode one quickly established the world and how a plot goes. Episode two showed “normal” in full, getting us a clear idea of what routine is. Episode three here makes things more interesting by fully moving Neko into the Brilliant Detective role, and introducing a much spicier guest than the previous two. From here, the show can basically do what it wants, introducing new twists or tangled scenarios that play with the rules it’s established.
Having some affection for classical mysteries myself, I’m really enjoying this one and its oddly cozy supernatural setting. We’ll check in again next week.