Now that I’m pretty much done with the rush of reviews, my husband and I have been watching some of the shows he was interested in. I usually give him a run down of everything I’ve enjoyed from a season and show him some premiere episodes, then let him decide what we watch together. I re-watched episodes 2 and 3 with him the other day, and we were both sad that we had to stop there (if I’m writing about a show I prefer my first viewing to be when I’m actually trying to do a write-up, otherwise I feel like it taints the experience for me). Even though I’ve been taking a little bit of a break this past week, I made getting back to Odd Taxi my first priority.
I’ve got a couple of spoilery things to mention about the previous couple of episodes, so I’ll put that stuff below the cut. Before that, though, here are links to the previous entries on this series, in case you’d like to catch up prior to this one:
Watching the episodes again cued me into a few things I had missed upon my initial viewing. I consider myself a thoughtful writer, but I’m not always a detail-oriented one, so while these little errors of comprehension might seem obvious to many viewers, sometimes it just takes me longer to catch on.
The biggest mental flub on my part was that I didn’t realize that Shiho, the young girl who appears to be targeting Kakihana, is one of the members of Mystery Kiss, the idol group. It was extremely obvious to me on the second viewing, because even when behind a mask she has a distinct character design. On a related note, one of the big guys who appears at the end of the episode 3 is Mystery Kiss’ manager, who I can imagine might have some feelings about the star idol of the group being seen with a male love-interest (oh, toxic idol culture…). As we get further, I’m sure I’ll have even more “revelations,” but I suppose that just indicates how many details there are to absorb at any one moment and how the series manages to avoid force-feeding information to the viewer. I appreciate the level of respect it affords people who are watching, even if the consequence is that not everything makes sense right away!
A little over six years ago, I was really into a cell phone game called Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector, in which you maintain a room and yard that’s supposed to be enticing to the neighborhood cats. If you have enough toys and food laid out, lots of cats will show up and give you presents. You also just get to enjoy seeing a yard full of cats, which is honestly my idea of heaven (I don’t really believe in the afterlife… but if there is one I hope I get some design input for mine). While the game isn’t by nature very goal-oriented it, like many if not most free-to-play games, has an insidious underside. There’s basically a “Pokedex” of special cats you can invite to your home, and they’re only enticed to show up when you place their favorite item. And their favorite items cost a lot of in-game currency (silver and gold fish). And gold fish are difficult to obtain just as a matter of course. But you can purchase a lot of gold fish for a nominal fee!
You want your kitties to be happy, right?
Years later I played the Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp game for a couple of years straight, not missing a daily log-in and completing all the special events. It was during that time period I learned more about “gacha” games and the absolutely insidious ways in which they prey on some people’s inherent ability to get attached to non-tangible things. The game maintains two currency systems – “bells” which are easily-earned and in basically unlimited supply, and “leaf tickets” which are rarer and in limited supply. The game offers tons of items for the player to buy using bells, and in that respect it’s a lot more generous than many of these types of games. But all the really cool items – special outfits, unique furniture, fortune cookies (basically loot boxes that might offer you up some really rare items, but it’s all a matter of chance) – require leaf tickets. More leaf tickets than you can earn just from playing through events and doing daily maintenance tasks… But you can purchase a lot of leaf tickets for a nominal fee!
There are times in which I’ve felt very tempted to buy these item packs, spending real-life money on what amounts to basically nothing – these games are very good at making you feel as if you’re letting someone down if you aren’t able to complete all the tasks and the Animal Crossing franchise in particular has a fan base that tends to be very attached to the characters, thus creating another avenue for manipulation. Don’t you want to increase your friendship level with Muffy? Don’t you want Merry to have the nicest house and the cutest outfit? If you’re in an emotionally vulnerable state to begin with, or if you’re feeling lonely or isolated for some reason, these admonishments related to caring for what amount to appealingly-grouped pixels hit a lot harder than they do for someone who isn’t using the game to fill an emotional need. Double that feeling of inadequacy if the game also has some global competitive aspect to it.
To outsiders, none of this will likely make much sense prior to watching this episode, but that’s really the power of this particular episode of Odd Taxi: it provides possibly the most complete and understandable account I’ve seen of the reasons why someone may fall prey to the allure of gacha games and I think any viewer would be hard-pressed to continue willfully misunderstanding just how vulnerable some folks are to the type of escapism these games are after watching it.
This episode stars a character named Tanaka, and occurs almost entirely in isolation from the events we’ve watched previously, save for what seemed like a throwaway scene in episode 3 where Odokawa nearly ran Tanaka over when driving to meet up with Shirakawa. We saw the image of a dodo on Tanaka’s phone screen as it slowly arced through the air; a goofy image if there ever was one. It’s only after learning about Tanaka’s childhood – the way in which the “have-nots” in his class still managed to maintain a hierarchy through the collection of cheap erasers, as well as Tanaka’s youthful downfall in pursuit of a particularly rare one – that what the dodo actually represents to Tanaka comes into focus.
I think it would be easy for some to criticize Tanaka for putting so much time, effort, and money into pursuit of a fleeting, impermanent goal. But I think that line of thinking comes from a place of not having experienced the isolation that comes from existing within the capitalist framework without the resources to participate in it. We’re constantly bombarded with advertisements, birthed from the line of thinking that the stuff we buy will make us feel happy and whole. Having the newest smartphone and the most fashionable clothes is what’s supposed to bring you friendship and fulfillment, at least within the cultivated worlds that commercials attempt to portray as reality. Platitudes like “money can’t buy happiness” feel dismissive when it’s the lack of money that’s contributed toward many folks becoming isolated and bullied for no other reason than their inability to participate in the deeply flawed capitalist system. Even though adult Tanaka has what appears to be a decent job and a regular paycheck, the root cause of his emotional issues as they relate to money and “stuff” have never been adequately addressed, and so he becomes the perfect victim to fill those voids in an unhealthy way.
As Tanaka’s phone goes flying through the air and then, its screen cracked, bounces into the gutter, the gut-wrenching aspect of the situation isn’t really the loss of the phone itself (though depending on how big of an expense a smartphone is to anyone watching, that might vary). The truly terrible loss is the dodo, a mere image on a screen, that Tanaka’s held up as a beacon of his own self-worth and spent endless hours and thousands of dollars to obtain.
There are a few other important takeaways from this episode which do a great job of emphasizing how well Odd Taxi manages to tie together seemingly unrelated events and actions. When Tanaka is digging a grave for his departed parakeet, he finds the gun that Dobu had previously left in a box. As if he needed any other sign from above that revenge against the taxi driver who wronged him was the correct path to pursue. Also, the one-of-a-kind eraser that young Tanaka was after also happens to be the one that Shirakawa gave to Odokawa in the first episode, which is a fact that assuredly can’t bode well for the situation.
I think sometimes when bad things happen, it’s natural to look for someone to blame. We as humans put so much stock in fate and destiny that we often ascribe reasoning to things that are really just unrelated coincidences. This is magnified when we feel we’ve been dealt a horrible injustice; we believe that someone or something is out to make us suffer, and somehow by finding and confronting that entity we can take back control of the situation and turn it to our favor. Unfortunately, life doesn’t operate on convenient rules or fairness; sometimes bad things just happen for reasons that are beyond anyone’s control. I can only wonder now what consequences Odokawa might face having been in the wrong place at the wrong time, causing harm to the wrong person.
It’s been a real treat these last few weeks watching this oddball story unfold. I really do love anime for its typical traits, but I still get a lot of joy out of the atypical as well. Have you watched episode 4 of Odd Taxi? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!
One reply on “Odd Taxi Episode 4 – Emptiness”
The social commentaries and critiques that Odd Taxi make in its form is just simply incredible, as well as stinging. I think the use of animal design characters not only help us keep track of all the characters and their connections with each other, but also leave a more memorable impact. Simply put, this show is incredible. A mix or Coen Brothers, Scorcese, Woody Allen, and Tarantino.