Odd Taxi is coming down the home stretch, and it’s…a bit of a bumpy ride. Not that it’s bad, it’s just messy. Let’s get into it.
“Hero’s Melancholy” seems to wrap up the Kabasawa saga (there’s a tongue twister). Give any college student an inordinate amount of fame and money and what else is he going to do with it? The depiction of the self-doubt and depression of fraud was spot on, though. I rather like the twist of Dobu being the adult supervision – he saves Kabasawa from himself…for a small fee. While I dislike his counterpart Yano, I think Dobu’s character development has been fantastic – sure, he’s a criminal, but he’s also a proper human (furry depictions aside). Also respect for fighting off a polar bear, getting shot, and still offering solid life advice. Even Odokawa was about to give him the benefit of the doubt, but then Shirakawa had to open her mouth shakes head.
Some random thoughts: I really couldn’t care less about Odokawa’s backstory or trauma. I have no idea why Odokawa and the mob boss are sauna buddies. I still am not sure what the comedy duo is on about and why the giraffe high schooler is here so late in the series – he does seem to be a better fit for Mr. Grumpy Warthog, though.
“We Have No Tomorrow” has three main things: heist planning, capoeira (a.k.a jujitsu-dancing), and the long awaited Title Drop. I always enjoy heist planning – the double crosses, the occasional attempted murder, the fun animated maps. Although, I do have a major bone to pick with the plan – the bulk of the money is going to be left in an unprotected car, just so Yano can swipe 100%? That’s hubris right there – if he was professional and cut his losses, no one would even know there was a switch. He also did time for this previously, so you’d think he’d know better. Obviously, the gun-toting, Dodo-loving idiot is going to show up and complicate everything, so I’m not putting too much stock in any plan at the moment. Odokawa’s reaction to the title drop was priceless too – say what you want, Odd Taxi is self-aware.
Any complaints I have about the plan pale in comparison to my absolute joy at the validation of capoeira. This pair of episodes gets the stamp of approval solely on that – Odokawa better apologize to all of Brazil! We’re going to just gloss over how Ms. Llama happened to know exactly where Odokawa was in his moment of peril – truthfully, the writing has gotten a little sloppier here in these later episodes. By the way, Dodo-Hitman should be out of bullets, but I bet that’ll be glossed over as well.
Probably the largest gripe I have is…why is Mystery Kiss so important? Pretty much everything here is revolving around them – the disappearing school girl, double agent in the Yakuza, Odokawa’s “power” being useful, etc. etc. I didn’t feel that they were that strong a premise to base this entire mystery series on. Don’t get me wrong, I think the show’s gone in a fine direction and not fallen into any of the traps I expected (e.g. every week, another taxi passenger) – I just am waiting to see it all come together. I personally don’t think it can, given how many storylines are floating out there, but if the finale has a big enough bang, I’m sure I’ll forget all these scrubs. At least that’s what I’m hoping for, anyways.
