ODDTAXI

This is a mystery drama featuring ODOKAWA, an eccentric and quiet cab driver. ODOKAWA’s passengers include college students wanting to make a buzz, a nurse hiding something, and an idol starting out, all of whom have their own peculiarities. However, their seemingly unrelated conversations lead to one girl who had disappeared. The elaborate foreshadowing and cynical mood created by manga artist and screenwriter KONOMOTO Kazuya and the character designs by KINOSHITA Baku, who also serves as director, build a strange city of anthropomorphic animals that are seemingly mismatching but have a rich sense of presence. The film features voice actors such as HANAE Natsuki, as well as comedy duos Miki and Daian, and rapper METEOR, who participate in a lively prerecorded dialogue. Unique theatrical music by PUNPEE, VaVa, and OMSB also adds taste to the story.

This work is a thrilling social-conscious animation, which the viewer will watch as an anthropomorphic animal animation until the mystery twist at the very end. The stylish drawings, backgrounds, and incidental music, the informative but very light-hearted and witty dialogue, and the criticisms that plumb the dark corners of modern society were all innovative. While we are close to the main character, ODOKAWA, during the long span of 13 episodes, each episode progresses like a puzzle from the viewpoint of a different character, and we can enjoy a bird’s-eye perspective of how all the events converge into a single event in this excellent work. (SUGAWA Akiko)