Today’s the day. The day I answer the question everyone’s been wondering. What is my favorite anime? And moreover, why haven’t I already written about it? Well, for one, you always have to save the best for last. But, more than that, nearly no one has ever heard of this anime. When typical anime fans ask me what my favorite anime is, I usually default to my 4th or 5th favorite (Code Geass and Steins;Gate respectively). This allows for a conversation to start, rather than a moment of thinking followed by a detached “Oh I haven’t seen that one before”. But given that this is my blog, I think it’s high time to talk about “Odd Taxi”.

Simply, Odd Taxi is about Odokawa, a shy walrus who drives a taxi. His calm and predictable life changes completely when he gets involved in a missing person case. This pulls him into a mix of connected lives and secrets. Through his passengers including a struggling comedy duo, a nurse with secrets, and even yakuza members their motives and stories start to come together. Each episode adds to the bigger picture and builds up to an amazing ending. So, what makes this anime so special? I know it sounds corny, but to me, it’s everything.

Odd Taxi has some of the tightest writing in all of storytelling. Every second, every frame, every line of dialogue drives the plot forward while simultaneously fleshing out characters and keeping the viewer engaged. At only 13 episodes long, Odd Taxi doesn’t drag its feet a single time. For me, this makes the pacing of the show nearly flawless and every episode interesting. However, in this short time Odd Taxi does not shy away from deep themes including social media addiction, the pressure to conform, and the isolation many people feel in today’s world. On top of this, Odd Taxi has a sizeable cast of characters (as you can clearly see above). However, even with such a tight timeline, nearly all the characters turn out to be multi-faceted and interesting. This is in large part due to the extremely unique dialogue present in Odd Taxi. Frequently compared to Tarantino, Odd Taxi’s dialogue stands out as extremely real. It captures subtle fluctuations in awkwardness and intimacy in conversation that every personality feels well-balanced and sensible, leading to terrific characterization.

* SPOILERS AHEAD *

 

 

It’s time to address the elephant in the room (or should I say, the walrus). Why are all the characters in the show animals? No, they are not actually animals. The main character Odokawa sees everyone else as animals as a result of mental and physical trauma he experienced in a car accident as a kid. This medical phenomenon comes up again and again as a major plot point that comes to fruition at the end of the show. Combined with the art style, this major facet of the story works beautifully, and I believe can only be pulled off in the medium that is anime. This hardens my belief and love in Odd Taxi, as it takes full advantage of the medium making it, to me, the best anime no one’s ever seen.