Here we are, the presumably penultimate episode of Odd Taxi – All the mysteries are laid bare! Well, almost. Let’s try to figure out whodunit.
In my last post, I lamented the importance of Mystery Kiss. This episode somewhat justified it being the central plot vehicle – I feel marginally assuaged. I think Rui’s backstory played well, although I haven’t really been a fan of her character throughout. She’s believable, but not very interesting to me. I was surprised to find Yano so deeply involved in the body disposal; I also liked that Odd Taxi didn’t shortcut the effort required to strip identifying features from a corpse or how messy it is. Also interesting that Yamamoto isn’t naturally Yakuza – his priorities have always been the band. I had assumed he was a transplant, but it makes his willingness to help Odokawa a bit more believable.
Now for the speculation – who killed Yuki?! Let’s list what we know. We know that Odokawa transported her on the final night. We know that Dobu has seen the dashcam footage, but doesn’t seem to have done anything with it – or it isn’t that important. We have a frame flashback from Odokawa of a girl lying in the back seat, which is as of yet unexplained. And we have Odokawa’s weird containment of something in his closet – my guess is an animal that represents Yuki’s soul (which I would have said was a cat, but given the size of the bullet hole in the window, I’m guessing a bird). We know Yuki was bludgeoned and choked (per Yano’s rap). I’m curious why Yamamoto was there in the middle of the night – although he has the least motivation to kill her (he just wants the group to succeed). Yuki was there to meet Rui – she even complained about being cross-town. From the camera footage, she also stopped at a convenience store, so it didn’t seem like anyone else knew she was coming.
My guess? I think there’s a non-zero chance it was Odokawa having a psychotic break. The problem is that she left the taxi alive and ended up in her chair dead. The obvious trick answer is suicide – but she was bludgeoned, so that would be difficult to arrange. Yuki wasn’t there to meet anyone else – so maybe someone in the building took an opportunity? In the middle of the night? Seems a stretch. My suspects, in order: 1 – Odokawa having a psychotic break, 2 – new producer guy getting hands-on with the talent, 3 – agency president/Yakuza boss (also getting hands-on with the talent), 4 – Yamamoto – just because he was there.
I still really don’t care about Odokawa’s medical situation.
It is funny that the heist is falling apart – without Yamamoto on the inside, Odokawa is in a tough spot. (And poor Imai – he doesn’t even care about the money any more).
As far as setups for the finale, “If We Could Go Back to That Day” did a fine job. I guess everything will become clear tomorrow!
I think the series already revealed who the killer considering that one scene with Dobu and the dashcam footage in episode 9(?) or so.
I remembered that the there were some completely contradicting observations made regarding Odokawa, Mitsuya and the footage in the past that never made any sense until I realized that the third idol was a fake Mitsuya.
It’s pretty damn well hidden but unless the series had made a mistake the killer can only be one person now. Or that person is at least involved in the crime, otherwise the video would have shown something else and wouldn’t have been that much of a problem to begin with.
I think Odd Taxi is the first anime in ages that does mystery right. The solutions aren’t over the top and there are no super skills involved solving them, mainly just a dashcam. And the hints are all there since the first few episodes but they are so well hidden they pass under most people’s radar unless they are watching a lot of scenes more than once (and remember other scenes to even notice parts that feel off).
And YET there is still the mystery of how exactly that person did it (why they know that Mitsuya was there that night) and last but not least what’s up with the Daimon brothers. One Daimon tried to kill Dobu and everybody assumed it was Big Daimon. But considering the last episode and the web novel I am not sure anymore. Especially since the novel and a bunch episodes are heavily hinting on the twins being capable of switching roles. But maybe it’s a red herring and Big Daimon is just operating like Odokawa (working with Dobu to get hold of the bigger fishes).
Episode 9? I don’t remember that – Dobu’s in the taxi for a very brief amount of time and then they get shot at.
I wasn’t surprised that the 3rd idol was switched – they had hinted at that pretty heavily and the superfan said something about it early on.
And that’s an interesting take, especially since Big Daimon said something along the lines that he and Odokawa were always on the same side.
Seems like I meant 10!
In that taxi scene Dobu confirms that Mitsuya doesn’t appear in the video, so Odokawa has never driven her to begin with. It actually explains lots of earlier scenes, but back then I didn’t get that part.