Director: Tetsuji Nakamura
Based on a manga by Yuka Santō
Voice Cast: Daisuke Kishio as
Misono-kun; Haruka Nagashima as Tamaki Shiokawa; Minori Chihara as Sayuri Satō;
Asuka Yūki as Yū Kojō; Shūta Morishima as Sakai
Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles
A Cinema of the Abstract/1000 Anime Crossover
[Over a year ago I first covered this anime, to which this is
deliberately an attempt to see if any of my opinions changed in the passing
time. I will provide the link to the original blog review HERE for comparison. This will also be a tie-in for my other blog,
Cinema of the Abstract, where a duplicate will be made available and is why
it'll have a certainly different tone than usual. A link to the blog in general
is to be found HERE]
First thoughts? 480p resolution,
as this particularly obscure anime oddity, three minutes per episode over twelve
of them, is notorious for those who know of it for its aesthetic appearance
and/or the highest quality you could screen it on an anime streaming site Crunchyroll. This gets weirder as that's only the first six
episodes where that aesthetic is there, one of the many peculiarities of the
kind of title you'd never have gotten a release of in the West were it not for
streaming, a feature of modern entertainment which has allowed, in the ability now to have anime stream soon after its premieres on Japanese television, a similar premiere online for the West. (That, hey, it probably costs less to just license than to produce DVDs for, that also meant titles of a greater variety like Sparrow's Hotel can be made available) Considering how esoteric the subject matter is, the day-to-day
management of a hotel, it certainly feels odd though that is tempered by
aspects of the production. The first is that it's actually an adaptation of a
"4-koma" manga, which are normally gag comic strips which have pages
divided up by four panels. It's not that different from a Western comic strip
in structure, just to give you an idea. The other is that it happens to be a
hotel that hired a beauty buxom female employee, one named Sayuri Satō who
happens to also have commando combat skills and assassination abilities. But
still, pretty strange especially to someone used to the better known anime
titles that crossed into the mainstream.
Some have speculated this is a
parody of nineties straight-to-video animation, which had a history of high
quality work, when it became an industry by the mid-eighties onwards to its down
spell in the 2000s, but could also scrape the bottom of the barrel. I question
this, having seen many bizarre anime premises especially in these "micro-series",
and with knowledge that a lot of them use a lot of low-fi and frankly crude
animation, sometimes for deliberate effect but some others clearly what was
available. I wouldn't be surprised that this was a sincere production that, as
I'll get into, was always meant to be a sex comedy/hotel hijinks show, where
one of the jokes is a smaller female character smashing her face into Satō's
giant bust as if that's a new concept, but had a major change of guard or how
the episodes were being made halfway through.
Start with the first episode and
the show's at least an experience, as whilst the second calms down and sets the
pace, the first is (at merely three minutes including beginning credits) quick,
hectic as it gallops along without pausing for breath as it introduces Satō,
the carefree and sweet lass who is also the ultimate killing machine in the
body of a voluptuous ditzy Venus, Tamaki Shiokawa the diminutive female
manager, Shiokawa her older brother who is her superior and has a creepy incestuous
fixation she is disturbed by, and bellboy Misono who is at first the meek,
glasses wearing male employee but has a dark despondent side. It's a chaotic mess
of a pilot, but the show in general is a series of vignettes which plays off
those character traits. Whether they are actually any good is to question as
the show never transitions further from just its surface. Yes, it is a curious
subplot about Tamaki being freaked out by her older brother's advances (cough),
and whilst even played out of humour that's a transgressive plot line to have,
it never thankfully crosses into poor taste. Really, the only character who
gets a lot of coverage is Satō, the figure on the manga covers who is
significantly voiced by Minori Chihara, a singer who just happens to also play
a side character, but still one of the main voice cast, of the huge franchise The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
before Sparrow's Hotel.
It doesn't try to hide Satō as a
figure of cheesecake fan service. She openly declares, creating the second
episode title, that her best assists are her breasts and assassination skills
to Tamaki, which leads to a dichotomy that is reoccurring in anime of voluptuous
female characters who are nonetheless insanely powerful and/or violent. Is it
demeaning or empowering to have these kinds of female characters who are very
sexual but strong? It frankly comes off as a kink at times and there are definitely
times where it is just a failure and proves sexist when the material's
dreadful. Yet there is also the double standard danger of the stereotypical
picture of femininity being negative being itself an insult, really the bigger
concern with these kinds of characters is whether they are just for sex appeal
or if they're going to have some emotion or characterisation to them. Even the
case of Satō being very simple and at times naive isn't necessarily something
that could be used as a negative characterisation if done properly. If anything,
in a better and more fleshed out work, we could've had a lot to work on as
already in this there is plenty of subversive material already there to mind -
of a sedate, kind hearted soul who can yet can power lift a whole bed by herself,
buys gym equipment the same way Tamaki does for handbags, and always carries
kunai (Japanese throwing knives) under the skirt, with the ability to use them
in an improvised game of William Tell at the company trip to a cherry blossom
festival in the park.
The subject of the series is also
to be asked about as, honestly, for what is a unique twist; sadly, the show
never had enough time to run with its premise of hotel management further. Manga
particularly has a heritage of the least expected subjects being covered in
stories, and in what little we get here, Sparrow's
Hotel had so much to mine here too. A tale in which rowdy people outside
are an issue, booking crowds for a nearby anime/manga convention is stressful,
or where one has to send off Satō to subdue a drunk and irate customer by
knocking him out with a single chop. If it'd been a full length series, it
could've easily become worse, but it could've also been actually more
interesting and funny to see an anime set in hotel management, as seen in a
later episode where a violent storm outside provides a huge swath of customers
to the benefit of the empty hotel. As it stands, the show's too short for this,
even if it is still to be found in slithers.
Beyond that the episodes' are so
short, it's both difficult to analyze them but that in itself is a critique - that
for humour, it's not the best but with some amusement, but as mentioned it
never fully invests in its premise. There is an additional character of Yū Kojō,
a hotel inspector whose attempts to keep that are secret are useless, but a lot
of the show never drastically changes for the first half. Really, the moment
where things get really interesting is with the art style. The first half
follows the source manga in style but is infamous, for those who know of it,
for its brash colours and crude character designs, a garishness matched by the
manic pace that is compelling in a way but arguably limits the show's potential
by being a one note mood. The transition, befittingly set against the episode
where renovations lead to a new bathing area being created in the hotel, and
the episodes having end credits instead of opening ones, is a shock.
Muted colours, softer character
designs, and frankly a leap in budget or craft as the animation becomes more
fluid and more ambitious even in the show's comedic double takes and gags; I forgot
how impactful it was, the change absolutely distinct and looking like an
entirely different adaptation of the same material. There is even a
deliberately attempt as well to push the fan service, such as the end credits
being a nude Satō sleeping surrounding by underwear and kunai on the bedspread.
(Make of that what you will). It however even includes the cast, including Misono,
being dressed in cute animal costumes in the mid-episode eye-catches that were
added for the later episodes. It doesn't necessarily add more - alongside Kojō returning,
there's a possibly American older male fighter named Billy who locks eyes on Satō
as his rival, the show teasing the pair fighting continually. A lot of the show
is still based on the initial premise mind - your main female staff member a
killing machine, the manager is still creeped out by her older brother's
thoughts of her, Misono is despondent. It doesn't particularly change a lot and
that's honestly the real issue for Sparrow's
Hotel even if the show was entertainment. It thankfully did change the aesthetic
complelely thought, which is arguably why I feel those episodes pass the
halfway mark are of a higher quality.
Personally, the fact I've
rewatched Sparrow's Hotel shows it
has had a lasting mark even an odd curiosity. The micro series as a concept is fascinating
- allowing for new talent, odd premises like this can allow for a lot of
creativity and opportunity just for strange content. The issue is really how
slight the micro-series is, at literally under thirty minutes or so here with Sparrow's Hotel never pushing to a
further level than it probably should've. I admit as much of the incentive to
re-watch the show was how short it is altogether, but I have as I realise a
fascination with these micro-series in general that isn't exactly a guilty
pleasure, but a love directly from the gut. That doesn't mean I won't be honest
mind.
Is it abstract or strange though?
Strange definitely, but not as strange as it potentially could've been, one of
the greater ironies beyond Japanese animation that if you play something off as
comedy, unless you fully distort the structure or push yourself, it makes an
odd premise more normal as a result. And as much as the three minute episode
length a surprise, just in terms of how much storytelling you can try to tell
with minimal time, Sparrow's Hotel
isn't exactly unconventional. In fact it could've done with a lot more
preciseness, more weirdness and probably less fan service, unless it was going
to be more positive for the main character's depiction, and I might've had a
little gem on my hands. Cause I don't know about you the reader, but a thirteen
or twenty four episode normal length comedy show about the banalities about
running a hotel, if pushed further even with these same characters, would be an
utterly peculiar and interesting experience to sit through.
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