ODDTAXI

I like Odd Taxi very much. It's true. Ever since I set my eyes on it when viewing the Spring 2021 upcoming anime list on anichart, my intuition told me that it was something different somehow. Not just because of the antropomorphic animals as a character design choice, but because I thought it'd be a comedy show. When I first watched Odd Taxi though, I was totally surprised by the narrative. I didn't expect it to be a mystery show, first and foremost. And I know it's easy to see what genre an anime is... the tags are literally there for a reason. But, for some reason, I didn't see them nor did I remember anything about it, so I was gladly surprised by it being a mystery story.

The other thing that made me like it even more is its writing. Oh boy, this show has such a good writing. The dialogues flow really well, as in a true conversational rhythm. Many times when watching anime, I found myself bothered by the speed that conversations took place, with the characters taking a long time to finish simple sentences, or there being long pauses between each of the interlecutors' turn to talk. Dialogues in Odd Taxi generally follow this rapid-fire pattern, speaking in a natural way. That was a big detail which made itself more important as I thought about the show's writing in general.

Also, lots of conversations include those randomly spontaneous moments where the characters start to talk about some specific subject in detail, which is fascinating to me, personally. Aside from being a clear way of the screenwriter presenting their points of view in a more expository manner, it also adds new layer of depth in each of the characters. It's refreshing to see that many of them have differing opinions about various subjects, and naturally discuss them as someone would do in real life. The conversation about Capoeira between Odokawa and Shirakawa, the many exchanges that Odokawa has with the many passengers of his taxi, like with Imai or Kabasawa. They work brilliantly as side talks but they shine even brighter when you notice that many of them were actually relevant to the plot, in a bigger or smaller way.

It is also refreshing to see how this show is aware about the time and place that it takes place without being too obnoxious about it. There is certainly a lot of commentary on contemporary society and it is also always done in a non-condescending and patronizing way. These commentaries are often coated on a quasi-comical dress, where the situations are definitely belieavable but also kind of extreme. By using this technique, the writer strikes a perfect balance: all the characters' many actions are certainly feasible and credible, but they are also unlikely and uncommon.

I'm also a huge fan of ensemble casts, and although Odokawa definitily has a main role to play in almost all the episodes, it is impressing to see how each and every moment of the 13 episodes has some significance and meaning and is somehow intertwined with another past or future action. This is simply fascinating, and I just can't get enough of it. It is definitely not easy to execute, though, but this is not a problem at all in Odd Taxi. Every character has a meaningful role and the necessary screentime to act on it, not overstaying their welcome on relying too much on unneeded character development. This kind of story doesn't benefit that much off of developing all of its characters to the fullest, they're utilized in a more instrumentalized way, which is perfectly fine and also desirable.

Well, that's it. This is not a full review or anything like that, I just wanted to write some of the things that made me fall in love with Odd Taxi and publish it somewhere. So here it is.