Odd Taxi – 08

「お大事に」 (Odaijini)
“Bless you”

Okay, let’s start unpacking all of that.

A case of synesthesia.

Gouriki kinda already has an idea, as when he showed the picture of Kaki to Odokawa, he was surprised. Why was he able to recognize him in the blink of an eye, and through shadows, when others couldn’t. I’m guessing it’s the pointy hair sticking out that gave him away. Gouriki tested this even further by asking Odokawa to recognize someone based on pure text, and then they showed him a picture of a bird.

It’s not that simple. Odokawa complicates people’s personas further than just assigning them one-word derivatives, Calico-Cat being the prime example of this episode.

Of course, it all had to be played down, as Odokawa teases and says ‘I’m a psychic’ and, ‘can read people’s souls.’ It’s sort of Ironic, isn’t it? One more thing to dissuade us from the actual mystery at hand.

The player was being played. 

The episode starts with Kaki being tortured. (Was it just me or was Yano rapping in beat with the BGM?)  Their intentions now clear. They wanted to rob him of his money, it was all a badgers’ game. And everyone was in on it. The producer of Mystery Kiss, Yamamoto, and Shiho herself. ‘She can’t be seen in public’ now makes a lot more sense. Kaki was being extorted in some kind of blackmail scheme to get his money because they thought he was the type of rich ass-wipe who dates minors. But no – he’s just an ass who’s into minors, he’s 42 and slowly drifting into obscurity. No wife – no life. And friends who care about him, but Kaiki takes them for granted, and thinks they’re trying to screw him over when they’re trying to protect him. 

Odokawa tried to stop this some episodes back, warning Kaiki he might get into trouble, but Kaiki did whatever he wanted anyway. So why even bother? Now Kaiki is in a troubling situation. 

Odokawa smelled something fishy and decided to investigate, but he gets Gouriki’s invitation for drinks and decides to go. He wasn’t fully studying the scene. A peek would have been more than enough for Odokawa to take action. 

All this time I thought Kaiki was the one controlling the situation, but this episode made it clear that all of this time, he was just being pulled along the invisible strings of fate by someone else. And now he has no money and no friends. Makes you feel a little bit sad for the guy. 

The CV for Kaiki did a wonderful job this episode, truly portraying the existential dread Kaiki was feeling at this moment in time. 

My imaginary friend. 

Maybe we haven’t seen who is behind Odokawa’s closet, because possibly that person doesn’t exist. Maybe Odokawa just made it all up, as Dr. Gouriki suggests during the conversation with Shirakawa. Both of them are on the case and are trying to figure this all out. I wonder if, at some point, Dr. Gouriki is going to have to disclose to Odokawa what the real world looks like. Or maybe our 4th wall POV will break as Odokawa cracks into reality. This episode certainly made me think that things are not as they seem. 

Kabasawa is also on the case, as he’s trying to point out who is the one who recognizes him during the Halloween event. But at this point, I feel he’s playing it more for the viral fame, and not fully committing to solving the case. Kabasawa is more of a personal bystander, rather than a full-on detective. To him, all of this is a game, and when it gets too real, he runs away from it all. He just doesn’t have the metal for this. 

The player has to outplay the game. 

Odokawa was a little sneaky this episode, ‘Bless You’ being the name of the chapter, and Odokawa sneezing while he took a photo of Dobu. In case you didn’t know, phones in Japan have to make a noise when taking a picture, even if they’re on silent mode. This is by law, and all phone manufacturers have to comply with this, otherwise, they’re not able to sell phones outright. So yes, bless you Odokawa. He also records his conversation with Dobu and sent it to Outoto via Telegram. He didn’t use LINE, because it can be traced back to him, and Outoto now has ‘anonymous’ evidence from someone directly involved in this incident. 

Then Odokawa picks up Imai in some kind of witness protection program because he knows they’re after the lottery money. Odokawa starts taking precautions and is way ahead of everyone else. He also discovers that Shiho – The Calico Cat, was in on it all, thanks to Imai’s fever fandom for Mystery Kiss. 

Everything in this episode seemed so important to the plot and mystery, so I hope I didn’t miss anything too important, as for now, I’ll leave you till next week!       

Preview