Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Tea-O
Now, *ODDTAXI* really was a surprise. I'd heard about it briefly, then decided to give it a try one evening when I had nothing to do. And honestly, behind its rather ordinary appearance, with relatively simple animation and character designs that don't necessarily stand out, we end up discovering a serious, interesting and much smarter series than it initially seems.
The anime explores genuine social issues, current topics and offers interesting development for several characters. These are characters we can sometimes see ourselves in, whose reactions and choices we can understand, and whom we can easily relate to. There is real intelligence in the writing and in the way the story gradually encourages us to think.
And I think that's precisely one of *ODDTAXI*'s greatest strengths: its ap…
Read at the sourceIrfanRamdhani
this anime reminds me of The Miracles of the Namiya General Store by Keigo Higashino. they got the same framework of having a lot of characters with deep story and then slowly connected by the end of the series. the i thing i love the most is how they gave each character such a deep story to make us relate or understand them. both are exploring a lot about human emotions and morality, and thats what makes it heartwarming, in a way, at least for me.
i also like the artstyle man i love simplicity so much like no fancy and flashy animation, just basic flat animation with full stat on the characters and the plot.
some people said its a slow burn like... wdym? most anime has 12 episode right?? so i dont get it. for me its literally so compact, not dragged nor rushed. a perfect 12 episode anim…
Read at the sourceeldogez
Story (8/10)
The narrative avoids obvious clichés, expertly dropping loose threads that gradually weave together into a cohesive picture. While the overarching mystery doesn't always hit the dark, brooding beats of traditional suspense, the writing remains remarkably clever. The final plot twist is a genuine masterpiece that completely reframes the entire series.
Characters (10/10)
The true heart of the show. The entire cast is distinct, witty, and surprisingly grounded. What makes the writing shine is how every character—regardless of screen time—is interconnected. Their casual interactions carry the plot forward naturally while delivering sharp, organic humor.
Suspense & Pacing (4/10)
If you are coming strictly for a high-stakes psychological thriller, you might be disappointed. The myst…
Read at the sourceMetalxx
INGLES
Honestly, I absolutely loved it. I didn't know what to expect or where the story was headed, but the gradual buildup of all the subplots and the way the characters came together was fantastic.
The protagonist, Otokawa, is an absolute legend; there are hilarious scenes and really great plot twists
(some you can see coming if you think about it, but they’re still super enjoyable). I also love how the protagonist’s character develops alongside the unfolding situation, leading to a 10/10 ending that I never saw coming.
I highly recommend it; it’s a breath of fresh air compared to mainstream anime and stands out from so many others. It’s unpretentious, stays true to its vision from start to finish, and executes everything perfectly.
Rating: 10
LONG LIVE CAPOEIRA—thanks for everything,…
Read at the sourcetripleaamin
Odd Taxi is an interesting show. Although you could say it is quite odd per say. You have this anthropomorphic world where the protagonist is a walrus who runs a taxi. Odd Taxi is an example of what you do with a premise that matters, not what the actual premise. The story of Odd Taxi plays as a slow-burn mystery where it isn't until the final episode where everything is done and concluded. Which I would say it is masterly done.
One issue with many slow-burn mysteries is keeping your audience engaged. In between in this anime you have a lot of social commentary. With Odokawa you have the central piece of his cab being the place for so many notable events. So much of the storytelling in these episodes is social commentary. But what makes it stand out is how it does not feel preachy and ver…
Read at the sourceActimelizateya
Odd Taxi is a story about regular people who get tangled in a mess that can only be resolved by extraordinary means. It is a quite well constructed set of small stories that use a taxi and its driver as the beating heart that propulses them forward, while some of them intertwine and end up creating a satisfactory set of questions thar get resolved one by one until the final act clears every mystery.
The story centers around the life of Odokawa, a taxi driver who, by the nature of his work, starts meeting people who have unresolved problems and are going through some very mundane issues. These separated problems start interconnecting through Odokawa’s action [or lack thereof] to form a greater narrative that makes everything turn into a dangerous affair in which the characters start pickin…
Read at the sourceSilent_Seinen_
ODDTAXI: A Taxi Ride That Quietly Steals Your Brain
Most anime try very hard to impress you, they throw explosions at your face, scream their emotions, destroy planets, and then somehow still find time for a beach episode, ODDTAXI does the exact opposite, it looks like a small anime about a walrus taxi driver talking to animal people, That's it. At least that's what it wants you to believe, Then, before you realize it, you're sitting at 3 AM connecting clues like a detective who drank too much coffee and accidentally solved a national conspiracy.
(The Story)
The story follows Odokawa, a quiet and socially awkward taxi driver who spends his days driving passengers around town, Sounds boring, It isn't.
Every passenger who enters his taxi brings a small story, a secret, a dream, a lie, or…
Read at the sourceNykima
Winner of the New Face Award at the 25th Japan Media Arts Festival, Odd Taxi follows the daily life of Odokawa, a blunt and eccentric taxi driver. His routine gets turned upside down when the police start investigating the disappearance of a high school girl, and the evidence starts pointing toward him. I did not have particularly high expectations for this anime, but I have to admit it did not really win me over, and overall it left me feeling pretty lukewarm.
The story itself is not bad. It starts with the girl's disappearance before shifting to the daily routine of a taxi driver dropping off his customers. We quickly learn that our driver might be connected to her disappearance. It is a fairly compelling setup, but a first problem becomes clear right away: the pacing is incredibly slow…
Read at the sourceMache9
Odd Taxi is a simple, mundane story formed around a gigantic pillar that shapes your perception of the show, and this pillar is Odokawa's incredible ability to pay attention to people. It is the centerpiece of the plot, what creates the connection between all the characters, the world, and the full-of-chatter rides in the Taxi.
When I picked this up, at the beginning I felt like this was grazing the snob/alternative art territory, but it is not. It is not pretentious, contrary to that, it is executed in a way that feels so genuine, I dare to call this a flawless execution. There is one single crucial spoiler that will ruin your experience, that's why I'm being careful of "vague-reviewing" this as much as possible, and why I recommend to be careful of looking up reviews if you haven't watc…
Read at the sourceSweetPeaches68
Perfect story-telling and compelling characters. Literally all you need in a show.
One can argue that the story contains a lot of plot convenience but that's how stories should be and any further aspect of 'realism' you seek is misguided and irrelevant. The story is as tight-knit and interwoven because that's how great stories come to be, they're episodic in nature to serve as a reminber that it's not only about what happens to you, but about your role in what happens to everyone else. Only a few shows has had success depicting this theme and Odd Taxi is definitely one of the them.
It is technically a thriller/suspense show but no situation really grabbed that 'high-stakes' feeling completely. Given the cozy and comfy vibes of the show, it wasn't really necessary, it's not as serious as…
Read at the sourceRonin233
What I liked most wasn’t the plot, the characters, the specific design, or the slow-paced animation that sets it apart from others in its broadcast slot, but the dialogues. Or even the overall conversational atmosphere. How the characters talk to each other, what they say, and why they say it that way. It’s just satisfying when characters react in ways that aren’t entirely predictable. You don’t sink into boredom or feel like skipping ahead.
Also, I liked how the creators, with one hand, cast shadows of some vague, unsettling weirdness going on, and with the other immediately dispelled any fake seriousness. Even that awful and seemingly important question of who’s hiding in the main character’s closet is nullified right in the opening. And what turns out to matter much more is not “who,”…
Read at the sourceBloodFlowHarsh
An odd mundane mystery.
Each scene though unconventional, did seem intentional and well thought out, unfortunately the whole plot and most episodes overall were not captivating. The mystery of the anime seemed quite straight forward and predictable, which lead to the ''mystery'' of the show becoming lackluster.
Admittedly a lot of the characters had interesting lore and played important roles within context of the story, yet I couldn't find reasoning to care or become deeply attached to these characters like others have. The artistic decisions feel representative of the characters, which is a positive.
Overall just an ok watch, the anime definitely gets more interesting the further you get into it, with the last episode being very solid. Not something I personally would re-visit but I…
Read at the sourcenoragame
I watched the whole thing and still didn’t fully get it. Sometimes I understood a bit, but mostly I was just lost. The dialogue was way too heavy, and I’m not really into that kind of storytelling. I liked the connection between the MC and the other characters, but it still didn’t explain why it ended like that. I get that they were aiming for a “smart” ending, but I’m honestly not buying it. Maybe it's just too much for my brain.
The plot twist was something, sure — but I’m still stuck wondering about the motives and how everything even got there
Read at the sourceCoffea
This is one of the greatest anime ever made.
My personal favorites are in their own list where I acknowledge my subjectivity behind the rankings. However, in my list that’s mainly based on objective writing execution and less on music, artstyle, and cultural/historical relevance, Odd Taxi stands at the top even above Code Geass.
I wasn’t expecting much going into it, thinking it would be a chill anime about a taxi driver. But somehow in only 13 episodes, this anime managed to accomplish what others failed to do in 2 seasons. Not only does it fully flesh out each and every character in a diverse cast, it somehow perfectly intertwines all of their stories and coalesces into a spectacular finale that you will never forget.
This is one of those anime where you REALLY need to watch it throug…
Read at the sourceSupersonic_Pain
When I got this for my Secret Santa, I was a little apprehensive.
In part because all I got was one sentence saying it had "great dialogue that avoided all the usual cliches", in part because I am historically not a huge fan of shows with an anthropomorphic cast.
I was willing to trust the vision but it had a bit of a climb to make.
...okay, yeah, you know what, fair enough, this was a damn good show.
I had a few minor gripes (one of the characters speaks in rhymes/rap and that was really annoying, I'm not the biggest fan of the last scene, the mystery of what was behind Odokawa's door... I get what they were going for but I didn't care for how that was resolved) but generally speaking, great show.
Is the dialogue great and does it avoid all the usual cliches? I'd say, generally speak…
Read at the sourcejlzap
A banger piece of media. The story follows one over-arching plot that has many sub-plots built within it that we get to follow. At some points you think oh it's actually a separate sub-plot, then nope gotcha it somehow finds a way to be related to the story, which I enjoyed.
It's a great mystery with good suspense leading to a final plot twist. If you pay attention, there is indeed some foreshadowing. Some of the foreshadowing, though, is basically impossible to recognize without having watched it. I think there's pretty high potential for a rewatch of the series due to this.
The comedic aspect of this show is incredibly well-done as well. All of the humor flows naturally within conversations, and it is not overdone. They hit you at the right moments and leave right on cue.
The only rea…
Read at the sourceanen0me
I don't typically enjoy media featuring anthropomorphic animals.
Now that i've gotten that non sequitur out of the way, let me tell you why I love Odd Taxi.
A lot of works in this genre are not nearly as deep as they pretend to be. Odd Taxi is a lot deeper - and a lot grittier - than it initially pretends to be. And all the time, it delivers, episode after episode, on its promise for a slow-burning mystery set around a brilliant cast of bizarre, believably delusional and deceptively human characters. I would change nothing about it. I loved every second of it. The characters are vibrant and memorable, the dialogue is fantastic, the plot is watertight from beginning to end without being too straightforward, it's observant, grimy, introspective... i don't think i could run out of good thin…
Read at the sourceRemanTheArchean
Don't let the silly cartoon animals fool you -- this is a mature and well executed show that's worthy of your time. It's exactly this type of maturity that I wish anime had more of, where it's clearly meant for adults but it doesn't go overboard into grimdark depression nor obscurantist nonsense (like Ergo Proxy). It has moments of genuine levity to contrast with the bleaker scenes.
The show starts out as just a guy driving a taxi, but pretty quickly becomes a mystery-thriller based around the characters the protagonist has happened to drive. There's many different plotlines that wave around in the wind for several episodes, but by the end they've all been tied up with the main story. Some amount of suspension of disbelief is required to ignore the fact that some random taxi driver just…
Read at the sourceblackrage27
Some anime like ODDTAXI or Tatami Galaxy really make you see something in anime that is way different than the stereotypical anime tropes. You realise that the shows were not there for creating seasons or for launching multiple movies but for delivering the message they wanted and once that was done they left us alone in our own conclusions and thoughts. Oddtaxi is one such anime, it can by no means be called a masterpiece nor it can its thrill be called "edge of the seat" nor can its ost selection be called the best. But this is easily sidelined by the morally grey humourous characters who are not just making mistakes but by the end fixing them too and how natural the conversations flow between them. The anime has a simple story with just enough twists and thrill and follows very less con…
Read at the sourceReddington_BL
Initially I was confused and extremely curious as to why the entire world were animals. As the story progressed and more was revealed, I started having my own theory, which was proven - somewhat. I wasn't 100% right, but close enough. The story was great, as were the characters It's kind of a sad show in the grand scheme, but has a lot of humor elements that balances it out.
The one very off putting thing about the show that could've been done a lot better was the animation/aesthetics. The show looked awful and wasn't visually appealing at all. However, that might also tie in with part of the story. I'm not sure, but I stand firm that the show's visuals sucked.
I loved all the characters, especially Odokawa. [b]However[/b], one character I hated so much was Yano. I won't say why here, bu…
Read at the source
