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Posted by Benjy Kwong | Jul 1, 2025 | Anime, Latest News & Rumors, Reviews, Sci-Fi | 0 |
Apocalypse Hotel Ep. 9 “Bookmark Today’s Page in Our Guests’ Lives” is a very strange episode. On one hand, it’s a deeply tragic episode involving the death of a major member of the cast and its aftermath. On the other hand, it’s also a heartfelt episode about Ponko and her love life. Alas, it’s not about her and Yachiyo, which might be the true tragedy of this episode, but at least it’s very good at crossing the line…twice.
Apocalypse Hotel Ep. 9 “Bookmark Today’s Page in Our Guests’ Lives” is the ninth episode (you can read my reviews of Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, and Ep. 8 here) of this postapocalyptic sci-fi comedy-drama anime series. Uniquely, this anime is an original series, not adapted from any manga.
CyberAgent is producing the anime, with CygamesPictures (Manaria Friends, Brave Bang Bravern!, The Summer Hikaru Died) as the animation studio behind it. Crunchyroll is the company licensing it for its global debut, as well as the company streaming it. Kana Shundo is the director behind the anime, with Shigeru Murakoshi as the writer.
Alas, Apocalypse Hotel is still an ongoing anime series. In fact, Apocalypse Hotel Ep. 9 “Bookmark Today’s Page in Our Guests’ Lives” made its debut on June 3, 2025. Thus, you all will get the official synopsis of this episode from Crunchyroll to give you all a taste of the story without too many spoilers below:
“After reconciling with Yachiyo, Ponko has some news to share.”
Despite its flaws in my opinion, the story of Apocalypse Hotel Ep. 9 “Bookmark Today’s Page in Our Guests’ Lives” is still the best part about it. It’s just so oddly heartwarming in spite of all the contrasting elements in it. The death of a major character, that is then followed by a happy wedding…that also includes a funeral for the dead person. It almost feels like a comedy in the way that it’s crossing the line twice here.
And yet, you really don’t feel like laughing for much of the episode, unless you’re laughing in disbelief. Furthermore, you almost feel like crying in some places, especially when it becomes clear that the wedding festivities effectively become a wake for the deceased. A way for the living to mourn their passing, you can say. Overall, I will have to give a kudos for this episode for somehow managing to straddle the line between heartfelt emotions and outrage in this episode to give us something oddly meaningful, if a bit silly.
The story isn’t the only thing good about this episode though. CygamesPictures and their animation team is once more giving us some quality animation to go with the story. The fact that it’s often so deranged is actually the best thing about it. This is perhaps the only anime in which you get to see realistic tank treads rolling across a floor and shonen-style punches inducing rainbow-colored vomit in people in the same episode. It’s certainly hard to one-up that kind of demented insanity in animation, and that alone is worth the watch. Really, the fact that this episode features yet another shortened opening sequence and no ending sequence at all just to fit in more of the episode should tell you just how good it is.
Unfortunately, I do have a major complaint about Apocalypse Hotel Ep. 9 “Bookmark Today’s Page in Our Guests’ Lives”, and that has to do with the relationships in this episode. Specifically: Yachiyo’s and Ponko’s relationship. The entire anime up until that point had felt like them building them up to be a romantically yuri relationship, and then this episode comes along. It almost feels like the writer just yanking the yuri rug out from under us, and denying the yuri that should’ve been there. Or it could be that I misread the entire development of their relationship over the past eight episodes. Your mileage may vary here.
Aside from that, there is a shocking amount of shonen action in this episode even though it’s supposed to be a wedding/funeral. Alas, that shonen action is all contained within split-second moments of punching, all for comedy. If you want bloody and serious action scenes, then you might want to check out Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Kaiju No. 8, DDDD, DAN DA DAN, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II, Zenshu, Blue Box, Solo Leveling, and/or Black Butler. Those anime series should have more than enough blood and/or serious action to satisfy your inner action junkie.
What do you think of this episode of Apocalypse Hotel? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.
Summary Apocalypse Hotel Ep. 9 “Bookmark Today’s Page in Our Guests’ Lives” is a very strange episode. On one hand, it’s a deeply tragic episode involving the death of a major member of the cast and its aftermath. On the other hand, it’s also a heartfelt episode about Ponko and her love life. Alas, it’s not about her and Yachiyo, which might be the true tragedy of this episode, but at least it’s very good at crossing the line…twice.
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Benjy Kwong has been a writer for That Hashtag Show for nearly 5 years now, with nearly 2500 articles written thus far. He has built the anime section up from nearly nothing to a section spanning thousands of articles now. An aspiring author with years of creative writing experience under his belt.
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