Tasokare Hotel Episode 10 Discussion

Their exchange by the pool was brimming with ambiance. Anyway, Osoto relayed during that little poolside chat that he found it a fateful and surprising lucky coincidence that three of the people he had previously killed would end up in this otherworldly hotel with him. If Atori and Tsukahara are two then who is the third? Tsukahara confirmed in this episode that she believes she is actually still alive. If she is indeed alive then does Osoto also believe or know that to be the case, thus excluding her from the aforementioned three leaving two others apart from Atori? That last point might be an overly semantic consideration, but it's unclear and worth pondering. Anyway, that's a general question said out loud (or typed...in open sight, if we're being literal), but one to be shot up into the aether. Not coyly soliciting the sharing and spreading of spoilers from source material players or anything of that sort.

But while there is much else which could be said about this episode in particular and all the principal players involved, I'll just say for now that Tsukahara is truly a beautiful soul indeed. Before the latest developments or revelations which can serve as the creation of a new rupture between them, her recognition of the small helpful acts, regardless of whether they were charitable or mutually beneficial and self-serving, that Osoto had done for her in recent times and sense of budding friendship, and with it willingness to put aside his past and lifestyle, as long as she and her small circle was not harmed, was relatable, noteworthy, powerful, and really spoke to me as that simple attitude revealed an authenticity and depth of character I don't too often see outside of intensive dramas.

And that lemur/aye-aye/primate-of-some-sort guy is a perfect self-insert for the most extreme of us voyeurs out in the audience.

Yeah, they can still bungle the last few episodes but at this point it seems safe to say this has secured its lead as first ahead of all the other seasonals I'm watching and even though it's only winter, has strong prospects of remaining up there among the better series of the year. I'd say that it has already surpassed its spiritual predecessor, Death Parade, for me personally. It never ceases to amaze me how two shows which can sound like carbon copy clones in a general overview on paper can be so radically different in execution with where they go from and what they do with the common base premise, and so different in the resulting assortment of thoughts and feelings they inspire. It's another Girls Band Cry vs. Yoru no Kurage wa Oyogenai situation from last year all over again (even though Death Parade is obviously a now 10 year old 2015 series).