Tasokare (twilight) is a fitting name for this hotel because it’s for guests who are unsure whether they’re dead or alive. Tsukahara suddenly arrives in this place without knowing anything about herself. The peculiar-looking but friendly enough hotel manager informs her that she can discover her identity and fate by investigating her hotel room. She gets to that immediately, but it seems like she won’t find all the answers right away. Knowing that she’ll stay there for a while, Tsukahara uses the opportunity to interact with her fellow guests, each with their own identity riddle to solve. She quickly takes up the role of detective, helping others find answers about themselves. How many people will she assist before uncovering her own story?

The character design and animation are alright for the mystery genre, though nothing about the visuals stands out very much. I found the soundtrack and voice acting to be a bit boring as well. To be fair, the main character is calm and collected amid a strange situation, but it doesn’t help to make the first episode engaging. The plot sets up an episodic mystery story, for which this is a decent first episode, but I would’ve liked to have seen something a bit more dramatic. The first “case” in which Tsukahara is involved is not original or noteworthy, and Tsukahara by herself is not an interesting enough character to carry the episode on her own. An episodic anime needs to have a strong start because otherwise, there is not much reason to tune in for the next installment. So despite not having many outright negative elements, I’ll drop this anime for now. I will say that the atmosphere works well, so if you’re a fan of mystery anime, you might want to give this one a shot.

Tasokare Hotel is streaming on Youtube.