A storm is brewing in ODDTAXI, one whose clouds loom over every soul we’ve met so far. As episodes have stacked up, odd points of connection have emerged all across the cast, from Atsuya and Nikaido’s relationship to Yamamoto’s murky ties to Dobu’s employers. In a show that’s so thematically preoccupied with the alienation of the modern world, it feels like a kind of cruel irony that its cast are so oddly connected – not in such a way that they might comfort each other, but more in the way dominoes are linked yet separate, bonded only by their mutually assured destruction. A tragedy anywhere in our cast would send ripples through the entire ensemble; and with the danger ratcheted up to its current fever pitch, such a tragedy is beginning to feel inevitable.
Such a sense of unease is common in the noir traditions ODDTAXI draws upon. Rather than hoping for genuine salvation, noir heroes seek only to avoid the flood, and perhaps save an innocent or two along the way. Traditionally, the darkness of these stories was fomented in the ravages of post-war trauma; for ODDTAXI, the stratified, performative nature of social media and modern capitalism provide more than enough horror, allowing characters like Tanaka to drown in the dissatisfaction of modern living. In a world like this, clinging to the connections you can truly count is likely the best we can hope for – and with Odokawa demanding that Dobu let Shirakawa go, it seems like this show’s most precious bond might still be intact. I’m holding on hope for ODDTAXI’s painfully human lost souls, as we enter the second half of this magnificent production.