Odd Taxi – 07

「トリック・オア・トリート」 (Torikku oa Torīto)
“Trick or Treat”

Another juicy episode! Last week I said Yano (METEOR), the underlying (but higher-achieving) of Dobu, was probably a non-speaking role. And boy was I wrong. Not only does he have a speaking role, but he speaks in rap riddles. Reminds me of the freestyle slap you see in D4DJ: First Mix, or that scene in Zombie Land Saga, or even maybe Hypnosis Mic: Division Rap Battle: Rhyme Anima. Something I found incredibly funny and amusing from the get-go. At first glance, Yanos CV METEOR doesn’t make sense. Who is he, what is he doing in this anime? 

Turns out he’s a professional Japanese rapper. With an extensive discography on Spotify. (I might get yelled at for doing this, but here’s the Open Spotify link.) Non the less I took a glance at his work, and he is a – rapper. Furthermore, it makes more sense why Yano speaks in rap riddles now. As with a lot of other CVs in this show, their real-life background is respected and mixed into the story. Diamond Ani and Otouto are real-life actual siblings. Shibagaki and Baba share a similar persona in the anime as they do in real life. Odd Taxi bestows a lot of relationships like that, it almost seems like the writer knows all of these people in real life and asked them to take up a role in the anime. A Pixar-like approach. Taking inspiration from their real lives and adding that to the character. It’s a cool feature that brings this show forward, because it’s doing something different, and I appreciate that. 

As for what happened in this episode. Odokawa gets a warning because seemingly Tanaka blew a bullet hole through his window. (We don’t know if it was Tanaka, I’m just assuming, as Odokawa did.) When Otouto comes to investigate, he asks if Odokawa has ‘that Narita girl in his closet.’ To which he responds ‘obviously not’. This made me doubtful, was it all a ruse? But then Otouto gets a radio call from the MPD, just at the right moment, and he’s unable to search through Odokawas closet. But then we later see Odokawa confirming that there is someone in there. So which is it? Is it just the cat from the opening, or is it an actual human being? I thought we were going to see who that person was in this episode, but no such luck. 

Odokawa is now a full-on spy for the police, as he is officially pretending to be working with Dobu while bringing promptly information to the policemen. He decides to work with Otouto because he knows he can’t work with Ani, as he is a corrupt cop. Otouto is forced to face the truth, will there be a confrontation between the two? He seemed incredibly sad as they patrolled over the costume goers.

A chase scene happens as Odokawa and Dobu meet up beforehand in a family restaurant to discuss how to move forward. As they search the crowd, they find a Tanaka look-alike and decide it’s time to beat him up. But it was the wrong guy! Meanwhile Kabasawa films all of this. He was already going to be in Shibuya anyway. Odokawa has already decided that he is willing to face jail time, as long as Dobu gets what coming to him, and seemingly his whole organization. Little does Odokawa know that Kaiki is going to be tortured until they get what they want from him. That being money, or will Yano offer another solution? We’ll have to wait and see. 

Tanaka seems smarter than this, as he may know people are going to be cosplaying with his mask because they see him as some unsung hero. Tanaka knows better than to attend his party.

This was an interesting episode – as the plot develops, but at the same time seems to be standing still, buffering towards the final episodes, for an all-out, mind-blowing finale that is sure to tie all of this mystery into one cohesive whole. Or at least that’s what I’m expecting from the final moments of Odd Taxi. Let’s hope it comes to a conclusion that feels worthwhile and comprehensive.                  

Preview