Odd Taxi

At a first glance, this anime might be easily to look over due to its premise of character designs. However, its stylistic choice, is well, just that. Odd Taxi is different from other “furry fandom works,” since it has no plot about any sort of dichotomy between different species of animals. Its choice of characters being anthropomorphic animals has little relevance to the show. The relevance that it does have plays a major part in resolving any lose ends or questions the viewer may have. There is one element these anime typically share though, which is some type of close connection between two characters. Odd ... Taxi doesn’t stray too far from this concept, though it would be best to leave this description as a vague semblance to these other “works.” Much of its thrill doesn’t come from the story itself, which is why watching watching one episode wouldn't be enough to satisfy some people. Its enjoyment is rewarded through uncovering Odd Taxi’s mystery as the story progresses. So, once the art feels familiar, the design choice of the cast should become ingraining.

Odd Taxi tries to be a lot of things, but it could essentially be boiled down to a mystery thriller drama. The nature of these genres leads to most of the plot’s trend towards spoiler territory. So, the plot in this paragraph is mostly the bare bones of it. The setting takes place in Tokyo, though not the wealthiest area, since everyone seems to be in financial ruin. Everyone has some sort of secret or goal that they want to pursue to escape the mundaneness of modern life. The center of all of this is a seemingly atypical taxi driver named Odokawa. He seems to be rather content with his job as a taxi driver, either due to apathy or his close-minded nature. Part of the interest in this character is seeing what motivates a man who is unmotivated. He is a man who suffers from some form of an unfulfilled mid-life crisis. A man, who in stark contrast with the other characters, draws attention to himself for the sole fact of his reserved nature contrasts with the rest of the cast. The nature of his job leads him to meet with these eccentric people who just so happen to drag him along. Encounters with these recurring characters, which may seem unimportant, leave behind details that make the ending feel more complete. Additionally, Odd Taxi provide smaller details as a reward for those who pay close attention. It is not one of those shows where turning the brain off is the best to enjoy it.

Most of its story relies on this characters, and much so to the point of its story more so being a series of events to show how these characters are relevant to the plot. Odd Taxi’s story is not linear, and entire episodes can be dedicated to the development of these characters. And much to their dismay, Odd Taxi does this quite well. Some of these background characters can be even more entertaining than Odokawa, whose schizoid nature could be off-putting for some people. Much of this though depends on how much screen time the characters get. Excluding the comedy duo “homo sapiens,” (they were irrelevant) I found these characters to influence Odokawa in some way. Many of the characters that largely annoy him, have the best, supposed “backstories.” One of them does so in the most petty and obsessive way after Odokawa inconveniences him. Other characters that did not get as much time to develop take interest in him for seemingly no reason. What makes him likable to me as a viewer doesn’t seem like anybody else in the story would like him voluntarily for who he is, sorry Capoeira girl. Perhaps I’m just as worn out as he is, but most of his interactions with her went over my head. Otherwise, most of the character’s intentions seem to be grounded in reality. I rooted for most of them throughout, because, oh Yaldabaoth, seeing these animals that slowly go insane and in turn make terrible decisions is hilarious. Perhaps Odd Taxi could have expanded upon these characters more. Though, how it could go about this is beyond me, since the pacing was already quite slow as is for an anime that is thirteen episodes. It is a lot easier to juggle three beanbags than five beanbags.

I feel like its art doesn’t get as much praise as it should. Odd Taxi does this just as well as its characterization. Again, its choice of making its characters animals was mostly a stylistic choice. The designs are nicely done, and each one is distinguishable from the others. I like Fuyuki’s design the most, his design has an appealing color pallette. Most of the colors in Odd Taxi are more dark and muted which stands in stark contrast with Odd Taxi’s bright character designs, which helps these characters pop out. Much of its background has a texture similar to that of a comic book or smooth sandpaper. Odd Taxi was lacking when it came to its animation, which could have been better. This is especially noticeable with the cars, but everyone's movements itself were a bit janky as well. As a final point, the music was nice, it fit the scenery.

Truthfully, Odd Taxi could not be considered a hidden gem anymore, since this anime was really well received ever since its release three years ago. Sure, it is still out of the public eye, but it pretty much did nearly the exact opposite of “fading into obscurity,” it got a spotlight, in the corner. Odd Taxi gives enough to hook people in the first episode, but not enough to the point where it becomes super engaging. Odokawa is an excellent choice for a main character, and the people he encounters vary in likability, which is largely influenced by the amount of screen time they have. Its art ties it altogether which makes it a more chill, standalone mystery/crime thriller for a pretty ordinary setting. Its slow pacing pays off at the final few episodes for those that notice the small details.

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.