Odd Taxi

I didn't know how badly I needed "Dribble and Spitz" the anime, but I am SO happy that we have it and that I finally watched it! I really had no idea what to expect with this one. First off, the animation and character designs are all fantastic. Opening is really unique and artsy, too. As far as story goes, I can't say much without giving away too much of the mystery. Because, surprise surprise, it's a mystery show! There are a lot of moving pieces throughout this show and they do a really good job at having them all connected and tying it all ... together in the end, which I very much appreciate. With that said though, I'm not... entirely sure how I feel about how it all ended. Again, I can't specify. But there are parts of the ending that I REALLY REALLY like, and other parts, specifically near the last few seconds that just made me go "....huh!?" The movie "Odd Taxi: Into The Woods" is not a broadway musical, but rather a recap film that gives us a liiiiiiiittle bit more additional info. Like, literally an extra 5 minutes at the end and some still images in the credits that show us the aftermath without really showing us HOW it ended the way that it did. I honestly kinda wish they just didn't make that film at all and kept the bizarre, ambiguous ending that the series initially had. I definitely think the show as a whole is still worth watching and has so many unique qualities that make the journey as enjoyable as it was. Just... brace yourself for the destination not feeling as rewarding as the journey itself was. But maybe that's just me.

8/10

Not gonna lie, I was fairly disappointed throughout the entire show. I basically watched for the only song in the anime, and the alpaca dance. Everything else was pretty avg. The story follows an opp (for those who don't know... An opp is short for "opposition" usually given the label to people who are compliant with police in order to stop a specific person) who quite literally can't see straight, and is working as a taxi driver for the public. Its really comedic in the fact that anyone would let him do his job in such a condition, let alone relay information to cops ... after mistaking someone as a raccoon on the street. like lol...The entire meaning of evil was perceived only by this character. The other characters seemed fairly flat, and some of their places in the story could have been removed and still wouldn't make a difference. Even though there are some unique characters, they usually are fairly stereotypical which the main character doesn't help with at all. Since he also wraps them up in stereotypes (in the bits of screen time they have in the show). The trailer to this show was really goated though it had me interested.
I am not everyone so if you like the way the main character thinks then you'll enjoy it. Though many of the other characters don't get enough screen time or story depth to actually mean anything.

This is one of the most overrated anime I've ever seen.

It does start out good, with the set up to the overarching plot and drama and the establishment of characters that would contribute to this. However, as more characters are introduced and the story has increasingly less reason to focus on MC all the time, the anime runs into the all-too-common problem of, not being able to tie up any loose ends and half-assing it at the end by using said increasingly irrelevant MC to act as an anchor.

As always I will review this from a perspective of looking out for women's interests. The character ... designs were completely uninspired, especially at the end, because every female character must be beautiful, while male characters are largely unattractive, whether good or evil, making me immediately dislike the anime. The female characters' motivations are at least explored somewhat.

I can't say the same thing for the main character, Odokawa. His personality invites a strong feeling that there will be consistent exploration of his character and how it changes with the people he meets. However, despite the entire cast fawning over him in particular, he remains a static character who doesn't seem to have much presence in the world besides "cool taxi driver." He has no meaningful relationships, no contribution to any theme, no well-written reason to be so involved in the plot. I mean sure, he gets somewhat attached to one character in particular, but that nowhere near explains his zeal in getting involved in increasingly dangerous situations, including working with a criminal guy that he kinda-sorta hates (even though this guy namedrops the title in his fucking honor) that he attempts to murder but not really even though he has this sense of justice and fairness...? It is because of all of this, besides the obvious "ugly guy gets the hot younger girl" trope pushed on us over and over, that he comes across as a self-insert character for a certain male demographic. And his only memorable "gimmick", which gets fully explained by the end of the anime, makes absolutely no sense, because his view of the would should have been made fairly obvious in his behavior if he'd lived with that so long, and so many convenient steps were made to reach that discovery, like finding a hospital that managed to keep a fucking DIARY (not even medical documents) of his from elementary school that conveniently explained everything. I mean these side characters were DEVOTED to figuring him out, but in the end, none of this was acknowledged by Odokawa, because again, relationships with others don't affect him, and Odokawa rests well knowing that he doesn't have to put in any work to doing anything besides being cool and coming up with plans because the narrative caters to everything he does.

This all leads to an extremely lackluster ending. In a very cheesy, extremely contrived, and anticlimactic slow-motion scene, everyone's problems are resolved and they all receive some philosophical awakening due to the poorly animated actions of the MC. And of course he is saved by a female character girlbossing her way to save him... somehow, despite having absolutely no training in anything and doing something physically impossible. And to further rub salt in the wound, the "secret" he's hiding... turns out to be a completely trivial thing, and there's no explanation as to why this was being hidden in the first place and why so much narrative focus was placed on it. Oh yeah, and this "trivial thing" was red herring to hide some other plot point about a missing girl and the true situation behind that, which also ended up being nonsensical because the antagonists involved in said plot are strangely passionate about their craft, a detail the narrative never cares to address or convince you that this doesn't clash with the down-to-earth tone of this work.

Overall, the anime is only worth watching for the opening and ending AMV's. Don't leave it to a single cour (or five fucking volumes of manga) to deliver a multi-layered plot with fleshed out characters and motivations without completely collapsing on itself.