Well Odokawa, what will you do now? In spite of the man’s apparent desire to lead a quiet life, trouble just keeps managing to find him. This latest catastrophe isn’t even his fault, really; after all, could any of us be blamed for wanting to escape the grey doldrums of their daily life, and spend some time with a friend like Shirakawa? But purposefully or not, Odokawa has now attracted the undying hatred of Tanaka, a man who, having failed to acquire his dodo jpeg, truly has nothing to lose.
ODDTAXI’s last episode was a tapestry of alienation, a character study as pointed and convincing as anything in the medium. In a show that’s already captured the loneliness of modern society from a half-dozen angles, Tanaka’s story felt like a journey to the heart of darkness, the dislocation of a story like Taxi Driver transposed to the predatory mechanics of mobile games. Tanaka’s antisocial tendencies, addictive personality, and inferiority complex all latched onto Zooden with glee, dragging an already-unhappy man to the point where his self-worth lived and died alongside a digital dodo. When you’re as emotionally distanced from the world as Tanaka, simply becoming an instrument with purpose can seem like salvation – and with his dodo gone, the blue flame has awoken in Tanaka, telling him his purpose is Odokawa’s destruction. Let’s see how all these lonely souls survive another gripping episode of ODDTAXI!
Episode 5
“Don’t Call Me An Idol.” Good, looks like we’ll be getting some portion of the true story behind our resigned idol trio
Just starting that OP gets me so giddy at this point. ODDTAXI sorta reminds me of Kemono Friends – a work of relatively humble means that came basically out of nowhere, instantly establishing its creator as a must-watch directorial talent. Anime’s gems can be found in the unlikeliest places
Our first passenger is the idol’s manager, who plans to pick up Mitsuya in time for their evening lesson
As expected of our Odokawa, he immediately starts critiquing the manager’s driving requests
“Drive quickly, but safely.” The manager has additional notes on every trip, apparently accustomed to micromanaging every element of his life
The manager’s name is Yamamoto
“What’s soul food?” “I dunno, it’s a feeling.” As ever, ODDTAXI’s dialogue is capable of naturalism so complete it feels effortless; like this dialogue wasn’t actually “written” at all, and simply emerged uninhibited from the interplay of these human characters. Obviously, as the vast reams of stilted, repetitive, and unconvincing scripts out there indicate, it is far from easy to master this grace and believability of conversational patter. It takes careful observation, and also a knack for the unvarnished, sometimes oddly angular twists that conversations can take, unmoored from the driving focus of narrative necessity
It’s so worth it, though. Naturalistic dialogue like this can pierce the veil of performance separating art from audience, offering experiences so unmediated by dramatic ornamentation that they feel like they’re happening right next to us. By thus disarming our defenses against that which appears theatrical or contrived, such stories can whisper secrets in our ear as they slide the knife in our gut, offering emotions and truths that land as impactfully as if they were our own memories
And such a style is doubly impressive in ODDTAXI, considering how tightly scripted its overarching mystery beats appear to be. ODDTAXI’s overall narrative structure appears to be one of those perfect jewels, where every narrative beat and thematic thread reflects on the others, and adds up to a greater whole. Such delicately crafted narratives generally demand equally purpose-driven dialogue; that ODDTAXI is able to populate such a complex machine with seemingly off-the-cuff, unforced and unfocused conversations is just short of a miracle
Nikaido, the main singer, is showing up late. Mitsuya is annoyed by her special treatment
“Didn’t you promise your mom you’d follow your dreams when you got to Tokyo?” From the mouth of her manager, this line couldn’t feel any more predatory
Mitsuya leaves her phone on the backseat, and Yamamoto sends Odokawa to pick up Ichimura
Odokawa vaguely recognizes Ichimura from the dating service, but can’t quite place her
“I consider myself something like an authentic bartender.” Hell yeah Odokawa, embrace the romance of your profession
In contrast with the relatively carefree Mitsuya, Ichimura is consumed with doubts. Her lack of passion makes her feel she’s not cut out to be an idol, and she’s not necessarily wrong
“I don’t know what my purpose is anymore.” A crucial line, articulating one of the key anxieties plaguing ODDTAXI’s overall cast. They live in a society where the ostensible hallmarks of success and happiness are dangling all around them, but for some reason, personal happiness or a sense of real purpose and satisfaction remain far out of reach. We are constantly told that we are unhappy, but that some object or new hobby or new job will absolutely fix it – but the truth it, such advertisements play on the underlying truth that all of us are scared, and none of us can be so easily fixed
In prior eras, while it wasn’t necessarily easier to achieve happiness and general satisfaction with your life, we were at the very least not constantly presented with all of our peers in aggregate, all of them performing happiness or confidence for the sake of the internet’s approval. The stage light is now on all of us at all times, making it that much harder to admit when we don’t know what we’re doing
“You’ve got your own strengths.” “Like what?” “Well, you’re charming and innocent. And you’ve got a cute face.” “Don’t I have to wear a mask because I don’t have a cute face?”
“Exchanging messages with old dudes is exhausting, too.” At this point, he cuts her off. So the agency is demanding they outright flirt with their audience, at the very least
“Mitsuya is already inside.” “I don’t like her. I liked things better before.” There were already vague indications that the other dancer was actively replaced, but this seems to confirm it. What can Yamamoto say to her in the face of such clear evidence of how disposable they are?
Meanwhile, Tanaka’s following them in another taxi
Alone with Odokawa, Yamamoto freely admits that Rui Nikaido is the only actual talent in the group. But even Nikaido is described as a “carbon gemstone,” not a person. We are all commodities in the social media age, it’s just that much more stark for idols
Yamamoto likes Odokawa’s discretion, and asks for his business card
Odokawa mentions he drove another girl to Yamamoto’s office, at which point Yamamoto gets real squirrely, and starts asking about the cab’s monitoring devices. So how far does this go – is he hiring out his employees as prostitutes, or engaging in something even worse, like outright human trafficking?
“Any chance I could get the data? I thought it might be interesting to get some candid shots of the girls.” God, what a weak lie
Odokawa is nervous, but stands his ground. “I’ll consider it if I can settle the privacy issues.”
“I’m not that interested, so don’t worry.” Odokawa’s such a fun and specifically appropriate lead for this show. In a world utterly obsessed with maintaining the appearance of wealth and happiness, Odokawa’s superpower is he’s too depressed to give a shit
Welp, now Tanaka knows where he lives
Oh my god, this autopsy model with a shiba inu head at the clinic is terrifying
“Well Odokawa, are you sleeping better?” “Thanks to you, I haven’t been”
Goriki is planning on closing the clinic for a while, due to the epidemic of stolen medicine
Odokawa voices the unspoken suspicion towards Shirakawa, and mentions that he saw her with Dobu in an alley
After that, he meets up with Dobu himself at an industrial park. The murky waters of the bay clearly evoke ODDTAXI’s opening moments, emphasizing how much closer Odokawa is drawing to this show’s central mysteries, and the accompanying danger that represents
“You always try to dominate the situation.” In spite of Dobu actively threatening him, Odokawa actually seems far more casual with him, and comfortable being himself. They clearly know each other quite well
Odokawa plugs Dobu for information about Shirakawa, and learns that he is indeed selling her stolen medications. Odokawa is mad, now – his overt affectation obviously doesn’t change, but the course of his questioning has gotten more pointed and bitter. Odokawa genuinely liked Shirakawa, and presumably now feels like he’s been made a fool of – like she was just using him, and they never actually had any sort of connection. And so he snaps back, telling Dobu “that’s cheap work. No wonder Yano looks down on you”
As always, this show never has to spell out any of its emotional turns – these characters are human enough to be parsable purely through the minute shifts in their behavior patterns
Apparently Dobu took her debt, and she’s paying it back, rather than this being a long-term business operation
Odokawa admits that Yamamoto is the one seeking the dash cam footage. The easiest interpretation of the information so far is that Yamamoto really is involved in human trafficking, and the mob daughter got caught up in it – that is, if she’s not hiding in Odokawa’s closet
“Hey, are you really that upset about Shirakawa?” Yeah, it seems Dobu knows him quite well. He doesn’t even get annoyed at Odokawa’s terseness, knowing exactly what it means
Meanwhile, Kakihana is on his long-awaited date, wearing a suit that doesn’t fit him across from an Ichimura who won’t look up from her phone
“Do you have a private jet, Kakki?” “I’m not that rich.” “Oh, huh.” And right back to her phone
Ichimura wants to get married, which fits in with her desire for purpose from earlier. We learn that Nikaido’s fan has won an absurd lottery fortune
Taichi has banked off his fifteen minutes of fame with a new video, where he claims he’ll capture Dobu himself by the end of the year. Oh boy
“This is, without a doubt, my sense of justice.” You dumb kid Taichi. You’re gonna get yourself killed striving for clout
Taichi doesn’t even know what Dobu is wanted for! But this is what the algorithm wants, right? Spectacle and conviction, regardless of how untethered it may be from actual reality
“Even if they weren’t directly harmed by Dobu, it’s possible that he was responsible. I’m sure some people have had their bike seats stolen, right?” Taichi’s absurd condemnation isn’t even extreme by the youtube standard. We all have a vague sense of grievance about our unhappiness and misfortune, a restlessness that we can’t necessarily pin to individual, actionable problems. But through the miracle of youtube personalities, our shapeless grievances can be given physical form, and directed towards some constructed Other which is responsible for all our woes. It doesn’t matter how substantive this connection may be – if we can identify our enemy, we at least have the assurance of knowing it has a physical form, and is actively seeking to wrong us. That alone is far more comforting than the reality of the world being full of disappointments, many of which have no motive at all
“As a child, I dreamed of being a superhero. If the police won’t catch Dobu, I will. No, we will!” Like all of ODDTAXI’s sad denizens, Taichi seeks through social media the purpose and validation that life itself has denied him. If life will not provide us the signifiers of success that we were told to covet, we will invent them, and create new, happier, more fulfilled selves collectively
But as always, ODDTAXI is careful not to frame this as an entirely new trend. The episode stinger is a pan down to Kakihana’s receipt, revealing he took out a loan just for this dinner engagement
And Done
Oof, ODDTAXI, do you ever know how to wound me. Though significantly lighter than last episode’s agony, this episode was still brimming with the exquisite loneliness that permeates this entire production, along with those sharp splinters of insight into the psychology of social media and self-presentation more generally. ODDTAXI is an often brutal show, but its characters are just so emphatically human that I never feel like it’s an oppressive experience; rather, I’m just delighted to spend more time with these people, and see them do the best they can with what they have. I would watch ODDTAXI’s characters do anything, and the fact that this narrative is also such a carefully constructed narrative puzzlebox just feels too damn generous. This show is an incredible creation.
This article was made possible by reader support. Thank you all for all that you do.