Odd Taxi

THIS IS A HIGH AND TALL ORDER PSA: Aside that this will be a VERY HEAVILY NON-SPOILERY review, go figure out things yourself if you truly want to enjoy Odd Taxi to the fullest. And I highly swear by my guarantee: the rewarding payoff is much better that way. This is a criminally underrated, underwatched/overlooked hidden diamond gem of an intrically made complex and gobsmacking show YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS OUT ON! In my very honest-to-marvellous-greatness, this show a.k.a Odd Taxi has been far in the way, the most frustratingly challenging review of all time for me to pen down a non-spoilery review ina very long time (that gives me headaches of the absurdly mind-boggling kind), simply because: - It not just joins in the fray of 2021's setting of "ridiculously, notoriously high standard" bars of original anime of the likes of Wonder Egg Priority or even Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song; - Not just because it's gonna be a modern-day cult classic of a masterpiece through and through; - Heck, not even its subverting setting and themes which encapsulates everything about an ARG-like film noir; BUT BECAUSE IT'S HEAVILY SLEPT UPON by the anime community which gives no two flying Fs about anthropomorphic "furry" shows that Odd Taxi is one, but not at the same time. It's a devastating shame that only those of us (like me) whom have watched this show can appreciate that Odd Taxi is NO DOUBT THE BEST ANIME of the Spring 2021 season that no one is watching, BAR NONE! And it's massively thanks to the production staff at P.I.C.S (for the most part with director Baki Kinoshita and scriptwriter-cum-series composer Kazuya Konomoto) and OLM's Team Yoshioka for giving us such a tightly compact, outstanding, pièce de résistance masterpiece of a brillantly thought-out mystery thriller of a show that's unlike anything ever seen in anime before (lest if you count Durarara!, Baccano, or even "Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei" in that sense). You know me: If you're reading this review, you know that like many others outside of MAL in Reddit or even in a specialized Discord group have been discussing and sharing potential theories for the last 3 months when this show was airing, I might not be the first to jump into that gun. But not just in the very elaborate episodic discussions (that I felt like I was the Sensei dishing out those answers to everyone who are lazy in being detective sleuths, which I say: "Why the hell are you lazy-bums?"), the real joy of enjoying Odd Taxi to the fullest is to be like Sherlock Holmes, going in-depth with people who are like-minded and try to figure out the 5W1Hs of how everything came to be from the very beginning. It's very low-key in wanting to accomplish its "Inception" like thematics, and both Baki Kinoshita and Kazuya Konomoto really did use all of the mixed media mediums to corporate all of the "occult"-style hidden juxtapositions that is meant for the audience to truly be Odd Taxi's version of Holmes, both in and out of the anime. The film noir we didn't know we needed, and it was a total blast from start to finish. Just for context, let me give you the preface of what Odd Taxi is about: "41-year-old Hiroshi Odokawa is is an eccentric, reticent talking walrus of a taxi driver, who has no relatives and does not have much to do with others. He does have conversations with his customers, including a college student who wants to go viral, a nurse hiding a secret, an unsuccessful comedian, a street rough, and an up-and-coming idol. These conversations lead him to a girl who has disappeared." If you're thinking that this premise does sound "Odd", given its very aptly named title, that's because it purposefully meant to be a subtle and covert message that everything that happens within this show, NOTHING happens out of coincidence: everything is intertwined together, one way or another, even in the smallest of ways that brings the setting and characters together for such "idiosyncratic" events like this. Don't blink, or you might miss a beat and rewind 10 seconds to see the untold messages. So strap in your seat belts, folks! We're going where the night is right, the city lights are bright, and the conversations are tight in this very strange and peculiar world named Odd Taxi. Before that, I would also like to preface what is the company P.I.C.S all about from the debut director Baki Kinoshita himself (most of which was taken from the ANN interview and changed for nuance, so plagiarism issue solved); P.I.C.S is a production company that handles all kinds of visual works, including advertisements, music videos, live footage, dramas, and films. Serving the role of a character designer and animation director, Kinoshita's impetus for working on TV shows is his desire to create an entertainment work with dramatic elements that depict character growth, which sadly can't be gotten out of a commercial or a oneshot comedy (his inspiration being influenced by Studio Ghibli and Satoshi Kon's works, which it all finally clicks). Working together in the amazingly tightly-packed script for Odd Taxi with writer Kazuya Konomoto (his other work being a hidden gem of a manga: Setoutsumi), I'll just slot a PR for this: Go and read Setoutsumi (which I did before penning this review down), the story itself is conventional to the tropes and clichés of the modern age, but what the hell that Konomoto did was to flip it entirely on its head, giving a whole new rhyme and feeling to his creative inventiveness that "nothing and everything made sense". After watching Odd Taxi and reflecting back on Setoutsumi, it is very clear on its succinct approach to creative storytelling that will blow the minds of people. Back to Odd Taxi, Kinoshita is the character designer, and Konomoto is the scriptwriter and series composer. He had the loose idea for things like an individual taxi driver, but Konomoto was the one who fleshed out the characters and plot beats, as is the story with juxtapositioning ironic and enjoyable comedy elements with the darkness of society with the tight refines with the sense of balance is very tonely refined (which I can firmly say that I've really been taken aback each and every episode). The narrative structure, the meticulous foreshadowing, the characterization…every element is superb in his view, as is the script for the show (AND YOU'RE GODDAMN RIGHT IT WAS!). The key to Odd Taxi's eccentricness was the decision to go anthropomorphic with animals instead of humans, a realistic story about the human condition with cute animal visuals. If a heavy story has a cute-looking surface, it mitigates the feeling of gloominess and expands the scope of the story. Both him and Konomoto had confidence that the dissonance brought out by the contrast would be compelling, and that's not just to say about the foreshadowing weaved throughout the entire story. There will be mysteries right to the very end, so the elements are quite strongly pronounced. At the point when the mysteries are being solved, you can see the backbone of the characters, then feel the drama...it's an anime that juggles both its mystery and its human drama elements to an equal (but insane perfection of a) degree. Another key element of Odd Taxi, was getting the voice actors that are a complete un-hoax of an unorthodox (aside from the famous ones), that along with the entire mystery of Odd Taxi, brings another compelling reason why this show is SO doggone perfect. Casting Natsuki Hanae as the cynical 41-year-old Walrus, you've heard his voice go around a lot recently thanks to his massively successful role as Kimetsu no Yaiba's lead MC Tanjirou Kamado. So for Kinoshita to cast him (which does not sound like Natsuki-san's voice at all), it was an interesting choice nonetheless to potray the kind of character who became an adult while dragging along his childlike heart. To be frank, Kinoshita didn't want to make him the typical middle-aged guy with a gruff and austere attitude, but wanted to express his internal youth and purity of his heart. Odokawa may have a cold side, but he makes witty retorts and his conversations bring out his youth as not just an older guy who has given up on various aspects of his life. And as such, Natsuki Hanae's portrait of Odokawa as the middle-aged guy, while also bringing out his cool and collected side, has energy and vigor in the depths of his voice, and is a perfect suit for Odokawa. Also, the comedic conversations and verbal exchanges are a very important part, so Kinoshita wanted to get professional comedians involved for those (the comedic duo of the Homosapiens: rhino Shibakagi and horse Baba, voiced by entertainers from the Yoshimoto Kogyo talent agency: Yuusuke and Atsuhiro Tsuda respectively). In order to bring out the feeling of reality when it comes to the gaps in conversations and the warmth, the pre-score voices are recorded ahead of time and afterwards made the images match them. This unorthodox approach follows up to the cast for some examples (who are complete unknowns): the Daimon brothers with Kousei and Asei, Taichi Kabasawa with Takashi, heck even rapper METEOR got in the fun being the "Handshake" porcupine-rapping Yano. These so-called pseudonym-but-real VAs are not what you typically expect of the anime industry, so to see Kinoshita going far as to recruit actual real-life prominent figures makes the icing on the cake much sweeter. If you wanna understand how much Odd Taxi is playing hooky with the audience, let me direct you to these references (again, NON-SPOILERY): - First and foremost, is the YouTube MV for the OP of Odd Taxi. Sure, as is every full-length song that you could find on Spotify that you can hear if it's your favourite songs of the season, even with the cool anime OP visuals, Baki Kinoshita goes one step further into integrating the anime scenes with the MV, making it look like a sneaky, non-canon of a foreshadowing sequence of events. There are a lot of scenes to take in, because as you constantly watch the anime and go back to the MV, that is where the sublime mystery all clicks up. Even to the point of getting famous rappers such as OMSB, METEOR and VaVa, as is comedians Yuusuke and Atsuhiro Tsuda, along with typical anime VAs Riho Iida and Saori Terai, all of them are a teaser to what the anime has going for its progression. Other than that, Odd Taxi's OP by Wataru Sawabe (Skirt) and PUNPEE is a total blast of a catchy, laid-back, low-fi, city pop of a juggernaut song that gives the whole anime a peace vibe of a mood. Honestly though, the Spring season has a lot of good (and few amazing like Vivy, 86, Megalo Box 2: Nomad) OSTs, but Odd Taxi knows how to hit with full cylinders pumping, and as such, it's the No. 1 spot of OPs for me this season, NO QUESTION. I just love this song to bits, and only Odd Taxi watchers can follow up with that vibe. The ED with Suzuko Mimori and the insert songs with its pseudonymly named "Mystery Kiss" group, it can take a while to get used to the various idol songs, but it's all good as well. - Secondly, it's the official YouTube channel, which also has a non-canon hidden story about normal objects, which is intricately placed in the anime in full hidden view, and used as devices to snively record normal day-to-day conversations that would have been otherwise classified as an "Extras" of sorts. Hey y'all, these are MORE than just your typical "Extras", they are also integral to piecing the smaller puzzle pieces with the main plot. By the time this review is up, most (if not all) of the audio drama would've been fully translated and posted on YouTube or even the compact Fandom page (which I DO NOT recommend to go in the early stages because of heavy spoilers lest you searched for something else, only go there once you're 3 episodes deep into it). - Thirdly, is the official character cast graph. I'd highly doubt that most of you would've made the effort to scour the official Japanese website when the anime started airing for the character cast (and some that actually caught on), but a few wittingly apt people have already made the translations to the big picture of the character connections, so the information is readily available at the places you will expect. Again, please DO NOT spoil yourself by referring to it early on, you're doing a major disservice to yourself (unless you're watching it and need some help). - Last but not least, it's a rando Twitter account that is also non-canon to the story, AND YES, you're hearing it correctly. I've already hidden that link in the discussion forum (you should be able to identify as much from my shared topic), so please check that out also. You should already get the gist that it's also a small integral part to the Odd Taxi story. I understand why you'll want to get a studio such as OLM, popular for the Pokémon series, to create such a kiddy feel of a show that doesn't detract the visuals amidst a film noir-like mystery thriller masterpiece show in the making. OLM's Team Yoshioka having only done a few shows and films made for kids, and Odd Taxi lends that abstractness to the team's unique calibre. It's definitely an unique piece of media, made by a unique production team, crafted by well thought-out people, that only the people who watch Odd Taxi (like yours truly), will find this to be a modern day triumph of a sensational showpiece figure of a cult classic for the 2020s. If Quentin Tarantino had a side job that he would've like to produce an anime for, Odd Taxi would be one to fit within his brilliantly crafted mindset that will always aim to play mindgames with the audience, and you'll be seeing twice or more with the "Inception" like feel that will never get old. Nevertheless, I BEG ON MY KNEES (even with a Dogeza) to ask you to watch Odd Taxi, this is THE one show where nobody gives a crap about "furry" shows. But laying deep within the rabbit hole, is a thriller story beyond anything you could ever imagine to come out of the anime spectrum. An abnormally peculiar rare show that you won't find anywhere else (that I'll ever swear until my time has come), and a tremendously ironic, yet surrealistic monumental classic for the ages. That said, GO WATCH ODD TAXI! STOP SLEEPING ON IT! This is unanimously easily my absolute favourite AOTS, even down to being an undisputed AOTY with a double-confirm plus chop with so many big hits registered in 2021 alone.

Odd Taxi is one anime that certainly lives up to its title. It is very odd indeed. The director is a complete unknown and this is his first project. The writer is another rookie and this is literally his first work as a professional writer! Odd Taxi was not based on a manga or LN or game. It's a completely original IP. To make things even stranger, it's being animated by Oriental Lights and Magic, the studio responsible for the 1997 Berserk, the first seasons of Pokemon, and a bunch of 80s and 90s anime. I had no idea they still existed! I thought theyhad gone bankrupt eons ago! So what is Odd Taxi about? It's about a cynical, smartass Walrus who works as a taxi driver in a city filled with anthropomorphic animals. So this is like Crunchyroll's attempt to compete with Netflix's Beastars right? WRONG. Despite the fact all the characters are animals, they never act like animals. They live in Tokyo and not some Zootopia city like in Beastars. Culture and technology is just like in the real world. Beastars completely revolves around the predator vs. prey dichotomy. Odd Taxi is not focused on that kind of stuff at all. Instead, it's actually a mystery/crime drama. One thing people will immediately notice about Odd Taxi is the sheer number of characters and simultaneous sub-plots. These 13 episodes are as densely packed as a neutron star! Yet this isn't because the studio was rushing to cram a bunch of manga into a limited episode run. It was written like this completely on purpose! Some people have compared this to Baccano, but that isn't an accurate comparison. Baccano only confuses people because it skips around in time. The LN is more complex, but Bacanno's anime only has 2 main plotlines, 1 sub-plot, and a frame narrative. It can be simplified down to: The fight with Szilard, Flying Pussyfoot, The search for Dallas, and Gustav with Carol. If it was told sequentially, people wouldn't think it was complicated. Odd Taxi is an entirely different animal! Pun intended. It has about 13-15 different sub-plots depending on how you're counting. This makes it very difficult to keep up with if you're watching on a weekly basis and not discussing it with other people. I would definitely recommend watching this show in a few sittings. There are some anime that are great because of the feels or how they tackle a certain topic or how they capture some theme. That's not really what Odd Taxi is about. This is a mystery/puzzle anime. That sadly means the more I talk about it, the more I risk spoiling something. There are some series where spoilers don't matter. I went into Ashita no Joe already knowing almost everything that was going to happen and it didn't make a difference. Odd Taxi is a bit closer to the film Memento. Spoilers would definitely have made a negative impact. That's also one reason I'm not sure how well this will hold up upon rewatching it. It has some really strong aspects like the dialogue, but I'm not sure the mystery will have quite the same punch the second time. I'm not going to sugarcoat it, the art is not great. The animal character designs are fun, but the actual animation is fairly cheap at times. The CG cars also look straight out of 2007. I think Killer Bean might have better looking cars. At least the soundtrack makes up for this. The OST is genuinely pretty darn good. Odd Taxi very well might be the best new anime of spring 2021. I haven't seen "To Your Eternity" because I don't like to watch shows that are THAT hyped while they are airing. Despite that, my feelings on Odd Taxi are honestly a little mixed. I think it's one of the most unique modern anime I've seen in quite a while. I think it was an incredibly laudable first effort for both its writer and director. However, it's not a series that I'm instantly adding to my extended favorites. It's so densely packed and confusing that there was never one single moment or episode where I thought "BOOM! this is getting added to my faves!" It still might be added at some point because it is very good, but I'll have to re-watch it again. It's unfortunate MAL only allows you to review an anime once. I'd actually love to review this title again after sitting through it a second time!

When I saw all of the overwhelming praise that Odd Taxi got, as well as its premise and character designs, I got a great sense of excitement and anticipation. I'm very critical of the sameyness and uninteresting generic nature that most modern shows seem to have, and Odd Taxi's vibe seemed so offbeat and interesting that I was excited to give it a watch, ready to be blown away by great stories, awesome charming characters, and all sorts of unique exceptional aspects for this well-regarded sleeper hit. As I watched Odd Taxi however, I felt a familiar tightness in my chest. My brow went furrowed, myhands got clammy, and my face turned to one of concern rather than interest. This feeling of disappointment, and this feeling of missing something was overwhelming, but rather than mull over these feelings and just let them fester, I'm letting them out here because I feel my perspective on this show could be a unique one, so please keep reading if this interests you. I don't know if I'm just an asshole, or some fool who missed how good this show truly is, but Odd Taxi just didn't deliver. Odd Taxi consists of our Walrus main character Odokawa interacting and getting caught up with multiple strangers and acquaintances that put him in different circumstances, only for all of these separate stories to come together in interesting ways and forcing Odokawa to try and fix everything so everyone comes out of it okay. In trying to understand what was the standout and exceptional aspect of this show, I read multiple reviews, and most seem to cite the sheer number of interesting plots and how they're woven in with each other as an aspect of this show that is truly masterful, but I'm not sure if I agree. There certainly are a lot of stories going on here, but not all are equally interesting or developed as would be ideal in my eyes. Kakihana's story is one of a hopeless romantic getting involved with a girl who turns out to be into him for the wrong reasons, but there isn't a lot of interesting interplay between him and the girl for the twist to feel like a neat subversion. There's a big blue hippo fella who is obsessed with online popularity and makes it his goal to go viral, eventually getting people to rally behind him in his efforts to find and apprehend a dangerous criminal, but the way his story is developed doesn't feel super natural - we don't see why he's taken such an interest in Dobu, we don't see the depths of just how much he needs or wants online popularity enough to be effective, and we don't follow his story consistently enough for it to always be in the back of the viewer's head. There's a story of two comedians who start out as radio show comedians and slowly drift apart as one gets more high-profile opportunities, but again these two and their chemistry isn't great. They only ever act abrasive towards one another, and it isn't clear why either of them need the other one to do comedy, or even why either of them like each other enough to want to do comedy together in the first place. One of the more interesting ones is definitely with Odokawa, seeing this hapless misanthrope who can't help but get involved and do the right thing try and balance everything going on is pretty interesting, but you'd think he'd show some kind of exhaustion or something to illustrate the toll that all this responsibility is taking on him, but there is very little of that, and it's pretty nuts that such a socially distant individual is able to get on everybody's good side with such ease. The fact that all these storylines are being told parallel to one another in any capacity is impressive, and the way they come together is neat, but at some point Odd Taxi cared more about making the stories line up and end rather than the emotional content of each of the stories. There are very few poignant, emotionally resonant moments throughout this story, instead choosing to put most of its dialogue into exposition and elaboration between characters reiterating what is already happening, and as a result this show was a very dull watch. No jaws dropped, no smiles, no frowns, but a generally apathetic viewing experience that left me empty and unsatisfied. The writing of Odd Taxi has also been praised as Tarantino-esque, with personality and flair indicative of each character's personalities, but the voice actors here aren't exactly churning out top-tier performances and never blindsided me with a particularly exceptional line delivery. Comparing Odd Taxi to anything Scorsese or Tarantino though is ultimately a fruitless and shallow venture, since stacking Odd Taxi up against some of the greatest cinema ever made simply isn't a fair comparison, as Odd Taxi doesn't have the directorial expertise as either of the guys I've stated above, nor the fantastically varied writing that their best works have either. Plus, an anime such as this should be showing more than it's telling, and as is typical with plot-heavy anime, there is a whole heaping helping of exposition and elaboration here, which is never delivered with any unique characterful style. A vast majority of these lines, along with the way they're delivered, feel interchangeable between characters, and since there isn't much in the way of outstanding visual storytelling here, Odd Taxi's story and sequence of events is not nearly as engaging to follow as I was expecting. Technical aspects here are also very dull and not very noteworthy. The setting and character design is above average here, with very realized and detailed areas and very evocative character designs, but not much in the way of great facial animation or emoting. Shots are framed very rudimentarily, and there is little in the way of compelling direction to get some interesting ebbs and flows in how scenes play out. The soundtrack here has its moments too, and some nice sound design bits as well, but they are very few and very far between and just aren't much to write home about. All of this and a bit more piled on top of each other, episode after episode failed to amaze, and I've come to my conclusion that Odd Taxi didn't click, and it's kind of fucking with me since one look at the reception to this show across the internet shows overwhelming, well-worded and well thought -out positively ASCENDANT praise for this show, but all of the aspects of the show that should have mixed together to make a bona fide stunner of a 2021 anime made, for me, an above-average show with some good twists and fun moments that, while certainly a good attempt at a story of this kind, ultimately fell short of the mark, and I couldn't help but feel that familiar sense of disappointment and discontent writing every word of this review. I think on paper, there's a recipe for your quintessential sleeper hit masterpiece here: Unique character designs, a cool title, flew under the radar, has an interesting plot and story in comparison to what's usually offered, a great twist ending that recontextualizes the series, but in my eyes, after fully taking in all of what Odd Taxi had to offer, tackling the show on its own terms and assessing its quality based on my own taste and standards, I'm still at the same conclusion - disappointment. If I'm a complete fool and have got it all wrong, feel free to leave a comment letting me know your thoughts, I'd love to have some dialogues surrounding this show, especially given how disillusioned I feel with the general consensus. Thanks a bunch for reading this far.

As someone who loves psychological anime, this show was an utter disappointment. Everyone talks about it as though it is a groundbreaking piece of work, but Oddtaxi is nothing close to that; it barely deserves to be referred to as a Durarara!! knockoff. The main source of praise for this show is due to the plot and characters (specifically the way they interact to move the story along). Despite the amount of reviews stating that Oddtaxi was a slow burn masterpiece, it is nothing of the sort. I am all for a large cast with overlaying stories under one plot umbrella, but that is onlyif it is done well. The amount of characters and their individual plots is too big for any of them to be well developed over the course of thirteen episodes. In an attempt to fit in the numerous characters, motivations, and plots, they all become shallow and bland. We’ve got good-cop bad-cop brothers, a few gangsters, an idol group, a lovesick middle aged man, and a number of other characters. That’s it. There is nothing more to the characters and they experience little growth over the course of the series. Even the characters who show growth amount to nothing. We see a teen fall into the role of an internet personality, and eventually realize his behavior is harmful. What does this have to do with the case of a missing girl? Again, I am completely for aligning multiple plots, but that’s only if they actually align. The only purpose of internet obsessed Kabasawa is to throw another character into the mix. Anyone can write one level, quirky characters and have them interact once to say that their paths have crossed. Had the cast been halved, we could have seen a deeper look into the psyches of the necessary characters, the plot would have been streamlined, and the overall watching experience would have increased exponentially. Other praises I have seen for Oddtaxi include its “slow burn, but high tension” format. Oddtaxi was not slow burn, but subject to bad pacing. Slow burn insinuates there is a buildup of intensity over the course of the show. Oddtaxi, however, remained stagnant for pretty much the entire series. Every turn was predictable, and it felt as though the writers were not even trying to create twists. At the end of the first episode, I got my hopes up thinking there was going to be an aspect of unreliable narrator, or even anti-hero characterization. This assumption was unfortunately incorrect. Odokawa’s suspicious behavior (referring to his constant watch over someone behind his wall) which genuinely intrigued me was summed up in something which felt closer to a comedic relief scene than a long awaited reveal. Speaking of reveals, the focus on the case of the missing girl, which was essentially only prevalent in the very beginning and ending of the show, was thrust onto the audience so abruptly and horribly I couldn’t believe it. After focusing on unrelated side characters for a majority of the show, the plot finally circles back to the idol girl group, and delves into the lives of one of the members for an unnecessarily long amount of time. And, just as suddenly as it began, the missing girl plot again vanishes. Also mixed into the final episodes is the big reveal of why everyone is an animal. This big reveal can be figured out in the first episode with close to little thinking. Overall, Oddtaxi simply does not deserve the unfounded praise it is receiving. If someone who adores this show would like to argue with me, please do so, as I legitimately do not understand what has everyone up for a standing ovation.