Odd Taxi Episode 13 – Truth

Well, friends, we made it. This journey is nearing its end. I’m both happy to be here with the final episode of Odd Taxi in hand, and incredibly sad that the experience of watching it is now coming to a close. I’ve been finishing series here and there over the last week or so; my partner and I just knocked off Super Cub last night, and that journey was its own style of satisfying. SSSS.Dynazenon was great, fully living up to and even surpassing its predecessor in many respects. Fairy Ranmaru was… well, it was something, all right. But Odd Taxi has been the one anime on my list that, week to week, I’ve looked forward to the most. Perhaps because I’ve got a bit of a furry streak, but definitely also because it’s been one of the sharpest-written, most satisfying anime series I’ve had the pleasure to watch in real time.

I don’t want to waste too much time with introductions, so I’ll leave things at that. Below are my posts about previous episodes. I may also write about the series as a whole if I have some time, but I think I’ve captured most of my thoughts fairly well from week-to-week so I might let things simmer for a while before that happens.

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Episode 8
Episode 9
Episode 10
Episode 11
Episode 12

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I’m writing this still in the afterglow of watching this final episode, which somehow manages to use its precious run time judiciously by visiting with all of our favorite characters, while leaving just enough of the story open-ended which is to confound and frustrate folks seeking complete closure. I’ll try to dance around the revelations of the final minutes of the episode, because I think that experience is best left to each individual and I would hate to take that away from anyone. But I will be talking about some other big moments, so I’d really suggest that anyone who hasn’t actually watched the series but who even thinks, from reading this or other reviews or comments, that they might be interested in actually diving in at some point, to close this browser window and go do the thing.

I think it speaks to its successful storytelling when certain details about an unfolding plot can be figured out by the audience prior to being confirmed within the narrative. Folks have been speculating as to whether Odokawa’s brain injury is responsible for the, well, furry nature of the characters since nearly the beginning of the series, and as it turns out that’s true. Looking back, I think there were plenty of clues sprinkled throughout the various episodes that made this a pretty obvious revelation. The clincher for me was the fact that, in several parent-child situations, the parents and children were depicted as entirely different animal species. Having my suspicions confirmed, though, was still satisfying in its own way.

My other big “want” from this final episode was to learn the truth behind Odokawa’s background, and this episode truly delivers in that regard. Without going into extreme detail (again, I want to save as many surprises as I can for the folks who decide to watch the series for themselves), it makes a lot of sense to me that Odokawa comes from a toxic home situation and was bullied by his peers at school. One of the things I’ve learned through my own experiences over the years is that abuse, neglect, and all that related toxicity tends to prompt a couple of different responses in people. Some folks maintain the cycle of abuse by choosing to become abusive themselves. But others, and I think Odokawa falls under this umbrella, become the type of people who want to do everything they can to keep from perpetuating abuse in the world.

Odokawa seems (and often is) standoffish, but to me his abrasiveness comes across as a sort of sarcastic shield – a way of defending his heart against the possibility of getting to close to anyone and subsequently being rejected. I think it’s obvious that he has some affection for people in his life like Kakihana, Goriki, and later Shirakawa, but he’s also trying to protect himself from getting hurt further and can’t allow himself to be open and “real” with them. Learning the ways in which he turned inward as a kid, finding interest and joy in his hobby even as the storms raged around him, made him even more relatable to me in the end.

There’s a fun bit of visual symmetry that occurs partway through the episode that I’ve been thinking about since I watched it. As Odokawa’s taxi flies off the edge of an incomplete highway and drops toward the water below, we pull back to see that several different characters are coincidentally witnessing this event. The absolutely wild image of the falling vehicle is then paralleled by a variety of character-specific moments that echo it (Kakihana tossing the engagement ring into the river, for example). Though the episode is very fresh in my mind and I think I’ll be pondering it for a while, the couple of initial impressions I have of this scene’s meaning are both different, and yet thematically somewhat similar to one-another. In one sense, each character’s life and experience is but a “drop in the bucket” so-to-speak. Their lives in the big city of Tokyo are but a few stray whispers that hold meaning mostly to them alone. On the other hand, I think the message that this series has been stressing all along is that life is simply full of odd coincidences and connections – moments and meanings that, by the law of averages, ought not to happen quite as often as they do, and yet somehow they do.

Odokawa is the heart of this series, and as a taxi driver he meets all sorts of people, as simple as that. But their lives become intertwined through fate and their relationship with him. It’s a type of magic that weaves and binds itself around charismatic people, even if that charisma isn’t necessarily wielded purposefully. Perhaps all of us have the potential to be (or are!) that beating heart. That said, I hope if my story comes to pass, the yakuza stay out of it.

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This episode provides us with a few more gifts as it settles into its conclusion. We find out exactly who Odokawa has been talking to in his apartment, and I think those of us who were paying attention during the OP animation will likely feel rewarded by that (and also probably chuckle a little bit, too).

The episode also leaves off on a bit of a stinger, and while I won’t be discussing the most specific of its details (again, PLEASE WATCH THE SHOW), I’d like to talk just a little bit about the situation in general. In the final moments of the episode we glean some insight into the mindset of the person whose “masterminding” lead to many of the plot events that eventually unfolded. I wouldn’t say that this in itself is a shocker (in fact, in thinking about it, it probably could be accused of being a little bit trope-y in a certain light), but the question the series seems to present as it fades to black is “is this person still dangerous?”

There good are reasons to think that Odokawa might still be in danger, and there are other good reasons to think that this final scene might be misleading. I haven’t quite decided how I personally feel quite yet, but while I think this will frustrate some viewers, I’m happy with it. I think presenting the situation in this way gives us all an opportunity to consider every factor and to speculate on outcomes based on our personal understanding of the characters and their experiences, and I love that. It’s a bold, confident move on the part of the writers and feels like such a rarity nowadays.

As a final(?) note, I’d like to point out that the heart-shaped pen shows up during this episode as well. I would love it if we could get a final audio drama out of the deal, especially considering who’s carrying the pen around. But I’ve decided I’d be happy either way.

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Well, that about does it for this post. Did you enjoy Odd Taxi? I hope my posts were entertaining to read even if you disagreed with them. And let me know if you like me doing this kind of episode-by-episode treatment of seasonal anime. I might be inclined to do more if it’s something that people enjoy reading.

With that, thank you all for following along with me on this journey. Here’s to great anime!