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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Unevaluated |
 Stretch
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[series:4884#628] | ||||||
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(Three episodes watched): Humanity is either extinct, as a result of some virulent disease which got started in South America, or has given up on the Earth and will never return. Nevertheless these robots do the only thing they can do, which is maintain this hotel. In episode one we meet these devices/beings/whatever and learn of the situation a century from now. Where could things possibly go from here? At the end of the episode the hotel gets its first visitor in over a century, but it is not human. Maybe evolution has shifted into high gear once humanity became extinct, and this is some new creature? Could it be an evolved form of the disease which wiped out the human race? I got a little impatient for episode one to move along at a quicker pace but I must know WTF is going on here. The long awaited guest must be an alien; it speaks no known language. Yachiyo, the acting, acting manager of the hotel, does her best to please it. Another visitor is the Environment Checker Robot, who was left to monitor the situation on Earth and gives Yachiyo the bad news that he hasn't gotten any response from a human in space for decades. Yachiyo has no choice but to consider the possibility that humans are extinct. Will the main plot of this show be about these robots learning to live for themselves rather than be unthinking servants? It still isn't clear. The OP and ED sequences make clear that five or so human or human-like persons will appear at some point and will seemingly play a large part in the story. This show is novel and amusing, but just what the message is remains a mystery to me. In episode three those five newcomers arrive. They are a sort of outer space Tanuki, raccoon-like creatures that play a large part in Japanese mythology and can transform between their animal forms and (almost) human ones. After they run wild in the hotel Yachiyo loses her patience and they are so humiliated that they volunteer to become unpaid employees indefinitely (their spacecraft needs repair). I was not exactly thrilled by this turn of events. The jokes were not hilarious and I found the Tanuki to be annoying and was not looking forward to them becoming ongoing characters. I can't help getting the impression that this show will be primarily a comedy with not all that great jokes instead of getting particularly 'deep'. I would prefer that the robots start realizing that the humans are never coming back and there is no point to keeping this hotel running and instead they must create some sort of purpose of their own for their existence. But only Yachiyo and the Environment Checker robot can talk, so what are the chances of any interesting dialogue on that subject occurring? I thought I detected a hint of such a realization taking place during this episode, but just a hint. I was certain that this show, with its truly novel premise, would be a star of the Spring season, and immediately elevated it to 'Current Favorites' status, but when it is this show's turn to be watched I can't help feeling that I'd rather watch almost anything else. Perhaps I'll stop watching but save the episodes just in case. Last updated Thursday, May 15 2025. Created Wednesday, April 16 2025. | ||||||||
