As I watched Odd Taxi however, I felt a familiar tightness in my chest. My brow went furrowed, my hands 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.
