(Before anyone gets on my case, yes I know I’m using a different title than the official English one, but I think “WTF” fits more than “What the hell”, since it’s more local slang-y. Call me dumb if you like ^_^). This week on Odd Taxi, things get heated in da club…and the story comes together nicely.
First – the big reveal. Odokawa is seeing animals, all but confirmed. When Dobu asks him how he can find someone in a crowd, Odokawa’s response of not understanding how everyone else is so bad at it – yeah, he’s the only one seeing this.
There are a bunch of other smaller reveals too – Shirakawa’s situation, the lottery winning superfan, and the cute couple (Baba being called “horse face” also helps indicate these are humans, not animals). We’re still missing the largest central mystery – who is in the closet?! Odd Taxi knows it too, and lingers on that shot just a second longer than necessary – no need to rub it in, guys.
So let’s take stock of where we stand. Odokawa is completely in character with Shirakawa – he obviously cares, but isn’t stupid. 100% believable there. I don’t believe Dobu is going to wipe 3 million yen (~$27k USD) just for Odokawa’s help, but that’s neither here nor there. I’ve also really started to enjoy the story of the comedy duo – seeing the different roads their careers are taking is quietly turning into a pretty powerful subplot.
Now for the episode’s main point: Dobu and Odokawa teaming up felt…inevitable. Still a couple head scratching moments – the biggest one is Dobu’s acknowledgement of Odokawa’s apathy towards his own death. Lack of fear towards dying – either from not caring or wanting a funny story out of it – seems to be the central theme of this episode. Dobu doesn’t realize how useful Odokawa’s weird animal identification is going to be – but he also doesn’t seem to be interested in robbing a bank, so I’m a little confused. Is Shirakawa just playing a way deeper game than it looks? Robbing a bank isn’t normal mafia stuff, so I’m not sure what’s going on there. Plus her explanation was weird – they dated, but then borrowed money? And are still dating? Something isn’t adding up for me…and apparently for Odokawa too, since he walked that off. HMMMMMM.
At the halfway mark, Odd Taxi is top shelf. Every week dangles just a little more of the mystery out in front of us (this week we met the high school writing fan from the radio show…he’s 100% important now for reasons we don’t know yet). It doesn’t feel like overt “cliff-hangers” though – everything in Odd Taxi’s story feels connected and organic. Even the more contrived points (like extinction of the Dodo by taxi) come and go without striking the wrong notes. If I had to complain about something, it’d be that stupid monkey, but he wasn’t in this episode, thankfully (I know, I know, he’s supposed to hurt the cringer). We just need the back half of the season not to fall apart and have some of the mysteries explained – I don’t even need all of them, just the closet.
Oh yeah and I was wrong about the gun being unloaded (lazy animators xD). 2 rounds have been fired, 4 remain.
Quite literally, since it makes the post title fit on one line.
I wonder if some accusations are real or if Dobu might have a backstory of being treated as the scapegoat for various (real and imaginary) crimes, considering that he was the first suspect regarding the missing person case as well.
Now we have the social media fan accusing him for every thinkable act of horror and even Shirakawa is blaming him, ranging from abuse to bank robbery. Very strange. Especially since he strikes me as the low level type of criminal that does his things for the money and is mindful of not overstepping his bounds. He seems to be in a bad position. The cop was only siding with him to hide the own misdeeds, and I wouldn’t wonder if the Yakuza would take him out if he kept attracting more attention. He isn’t in he same position as his rival.
Oh yeah and Kakihana’s scenes are painful to watch. I feel bad for him regardless considering what’s coming for him, judging by the PV. Looking forward to Boar guy’s story though.
Yeah that’s the feeling I’m getting on Dobu too – he seems almost like the victim here (what has he actually done wrong? Okay, threatened some people I guess).
Monkey borrow. Monkey bruise. Monkey bleed.