Odd Taxi

It's okay to skip openings in anime, but not this anime.

There were many unique anime this season, and this was for sure one of them. A seemingly simple anime where everyone were animals with many different stories. However, what made this anime one of the best show this season was how these stories all interconnected, despite how unrelated they seemed at first glance. There were an incredible amount of details in each episode that had significant meanings later.

Watching this anime weekly might be a mistake because you might forget the details, which I did. Because of this, I decided to rewatch the whole thing before the last episode, and I'm glad that I did. As I realized that these stories were related, I became increasingly invested and impatient to see how everything would resolve. It was a big mystery that slowly built up.

The characters were very interesting. There were three episodes that contained a monologue background story from each of the three characters. They were sad, shocking, and dangerously realistic. Our main character was the walrus taxi driver, but there were good stories to many other characters. Also, I had to mention my boy Yano, who was by far one of the dopest character. He rhymed when he talked, and every time he appeared, his lyrical conversation that sounded like rapping almost always followed a beat that was played. He stole every scene he was in.

As I was saying, the stories were linked together and detailed. However, it was so detailed that even the opening gave clues about the mysteries in the show. Also, it was great that many who watched this anime formed theories that mostly turned out to be true. One of them was regarding the animation of the story.

As for problems, I felt one particular story about two comedians didn't really relate to the other stories. Also, I had a problem with the last episode regarding what happened to our taxi driver after the major event.

The show was at heart a slice of life. It reflected some of the people living today. I believe that some watching will be able to relate to the characters.

One last thing I wanted to touch on was the last reveal in the ending episode. I honestly did not see that coming, and the final shot was quite haunting.

Overall, an excellent anime that managed to have such a tight script and amazing mysteries. It is very underrated, and should have more attention. 9.5/10.

It's definitely unique anime with captivating characters. You definitely would like it if you're into mystery like myself.

Brilliant. Nothing more or less to say. If tarentino made an anime.

This is an anime original co-created by a studio new to the industry. Creating a original this stunning with such a good story is fantastic.

I wouldn't even be surprised if Tarantino was a co-storywriter because every little detail is important and worth remembering. Everything ties perfectly in to the last episode that drop today.

Fantastic ending, fantastic build up, fantastic cliffhanger.

The animation in its raw form may be lacking compared to bigger productions, but that does not matter in the slightest and it is not distracting one bit. The story is much more important than some fancy animation, so my score will not reflect on that aspect. If I would take that into consideration, it would maybe get a 8.5/10.

It's hard to describe Odd Taxi but I'll give it a shot.

Imagine Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia:

1- A series of seemingly separate stories featuring different people which turn out to be connected later on in the subtlest of ways. A structure commonly known as a hyperlink story.

2- The "plot" is virtually non-existent and it's just a series of regular happenings. You can't point out a single coherent storyline. But somehow it works magnificently.

3- Themes of chance and fate have a play in the story as the connections between the different characters are alarmingly convenient.

4- All in all, it is absolutely breath-taking.

Now, increase Magnolia's runtime to 5 hours, make it an anime (with anthropomorphic animals?) , add an extremely complex plot to it without the hyperlink feel being diminished, throw in a few mind-boggling twist for compensation, along the way don't forget to re-define the entire industry of short film-making with the fourth episode and you have successfully made Odd Taxi. One of the weirdest and "this has no right to work as well as it does"-est pieces of fiction out there.

The plot is really smooth and tight from start to finish. The screenplay honestly deserves to be studied as an outstanding example in storytelling. It even has a twist at the end that comes out of nowhere and has almost nothing to do with the plot but still works flawlessly.

Although it should be noted that having a plot as complex as this requires one's full attention. You have to be alert at all times when watching this show or else you'll miss out on something.

Odd Taxi is an absolute must watch for everyone.

If you still aren't convinced to watch this anime, at least do yourself a favor and watch episode 4.

I kind of randomly picked up this show and it did pique my interest to a degree from the start, but when I reached episode 4, my oh my. It was an absolute knock out of the park.it immediately became one of my top 5 favorite TV episodes of all time. It requires no context whatsoever and can be seen independently. So even if you don't have time for Odd Taxi, do not miss out on "tanaka's revolution".