A young student suddenly disappears without a trace, and Hiroshi Odokawa - a walrus that works in Tokyo as a taxi driver - is suspected of kidnapping her. In the world ofOdd TaxiAre all the characters that can speak and live their normal everyday life as we humans do. But that is not the real reason why Odd Taxi belongs to one of my absolute favorite anime.
What immediately captivated me was a special, almost absurd peculiarity of the series:In this world full of anthropomorphic animals there are also very "normal" animals such as cats and birds - but as pets! What a contradictory setting!
Short spoiler warning!
Before I can go deeper into what the coexistence of creatures and pets really is all about, I have to warn you: Follow spoilers! The numerous turns and surprises in history are the reasons why I ODD taxi So love - and without revealing it, it can hardly be explained what makes this inconspicuous series so special.
The great contradiction - and the central stylistic device
The focus is on the reserved taxi driver Hiroshi Odokawa, a walrus that lives in an animal-human society. Although all characters have animal forms, they lead a normal, almost banal city life. But we notice as spectators early in the series:Something is wrong.
Because how can it be that in a world full of animal living things, "real" animals such as budgies or cats are kept as pets? How can these two types of living beings exist in the world of ODD taxi at the same time? This contradiction becomes increasingly noticeable - and later turns out to be the central element of the plot.
In the end, a surprising and shocking truth is revealed:The creatures have never really existed - at least not for the other figures in the world of ODD taxi. The entire history is told from the subjective perspective of Odokawa, which suffers from a mental disorder called "Soul Blind".
Goriki and Shirakwa are reminiscent of a gorilla and an alpaca with Odokawa's soul blindness. (Image: © Kazuya Konomoto, Shogakukan / Olm, Team Yoshioka, Pics)
Due to traumatic events in his past - which I don't want to reveal at this point - he sees other people not as humans, but as animals. This also applies to him. So that means that Odokawa is not a walrus, but an ordinary taxi driver.
However, this unusual perception enabled him to distinguish his fellow human beings extremely precisely based on their "animal" characteristics - even if they met only briefly. This was not possible for him before he could hardly look in the face of other people. And that is exactly what makes him the unconscious key figure in the murder case around the missing girl at the beginning of the series.
Soul blindness as a narrative stylistic device
What particularly enthusiastic about ODD taxi is not only the unusual plot wist around Odokawa's perception - but how the series uses this element in order to lead us to the wrong track as spectators.
For example, Odokawa speaks of a "black cat" in his apartment. And since the missing girl was also portrayed as a black cat, we automatically assume that it is the same person. This conscious misleading ensures that we ourselves begin to distrust our protagonist.
This is exactly awesome:Because the animals are similar, the real perpetrator is hidden from us to the end - right in front of our eyes. Only when Odokawa's soul blindness is healed that we understand that he had long since met the murderer. But since he now sees a human face in front of him, he does not recognize the person again.
This turn makesOdd TaxiFor me to one of the most sophisticated crime and mystery anime that I have ever seen- not only because of the story, but because of the way it is told and presented.
Do you have fromOdd Taxiheard? And which unusual anime fascinated you sustainably?
