After winningCrunchyroll’s Anime Awardsfor Best Protagonist and Best Director (Baku Kinoshita) last year, Odd Taxi has stayed on viewers' radars since its initial release. This single-season mystery gradually fleshes out anthropomorphic characters who deal with feelings of desperation and dependency on the tech-savvy world we live in today.
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Kinoshita’s debut is a smart yet short piece that throws viewers for a loop and still keeps them on their toes. As a character-driven story, Odd Taxi casts a wide web of entangled relationships that somehow all thread their way back to our protagonist, Hiroshi Odokawa. With each episode, Kinoshita pulls everyone together even more, cleverly altering the way viewers see each character (literally).
Spoiler alert for character choices, backstories, and descriptions of arcs!
10Shun Imai
Even though he is a skunk, Imai doesn’t stink all that much. Actually, he is one of the most laid-back characters in the show who isn’t directly involved in the overall plot. Rather, he is a naïve yet fortunate superfan of the idol-singing group Mystery Kiss. He spends most of his time buying their merchandise and attending their concerts while working as a cabaret waiter on the side. It isn’t until he hits a major lucky strike that Imai is reeled into the thick of the plot.
Despite blindly trusting Odokawa, Imai is an enjoyable character to watch, as his love for Mystery Kiss is more wholesome than disturbing or toxic. He is a light-hearted relief character in a story that grows heavier as it progresses, and he remains that way for most of the show.
It’s time for one of the silliest Odd Taxi characters to shine in this spot, right here at number 9. Built up to be a violent and extra prickly porcupine, Yano turns out to be one of the most comedic soft antagonists of the show, with a one-step-ahead mindset to bring a steady income for the gang both he and Dobu are a part of.
Voiced by rapper METEOR in the Japanese version and up-and-coming voice actor Darius Marquis Johnson in the English dub, Yano raps his way through anything and everything (No, literally. This is how he talks). Despite doing things through his life of crime, he is yet another character whobrings a smileto viewers' faces as the plot thickens.
8Miho Shirakawa
Despite her meek appearance, Shirakawa can easily bring someone down to the ground if need be. After all, she is Odd Taxi’s capoeira champion, with capoeira being a type of Brazilian martial art that purposefully makes the person appear as though they’re dancing. It is usually performed in Brazilian music.
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This alpaca’s role in the show is not as big as it appears to be at times. Other than when they first meet, Shirakawa carries a deep sense of care and fondness for Odokawa, which serves as the majority of her motivation throughout the show. Rather than coming off as sentimental, this causes her character to fall back into a plot-convenient role.
7Ayumu Gouriki
Even though it definitely breaks doctor-patient confidentiality, it’s heartwarming to know that this gorilla looks out for his walrus friend not only as his doctor but also as his friend. Sharing drinks and meals outside of their work lives, Gouriki takes the time to look into Odokawa’s past to learn how he can fully support him.
He drives around, meeting people who knew or took care of Odokawa as he was growing up, and learns about his childhood. Most of Gouriki’s appearances depend solely on these points alone, which also makes him less of a dynamic character than others. However, his arc craftily leads us to one of several shocking revelations at the end of the show.
6Taichi Kabasawa
As the first passenger in Odokawa’s taxi, this arrogant college-aged hippopotamus is also one of the first of a variety of dislikable characters. Kabasawa is desperate to become internet famous. Because of this, he is willing to create false narratives about others, regardless of what it costs them.
Eventually, when he gets a taste of what he wants, he sinks further into an apathetic disregard for others. It isn’t until he’s face-to-face with someone he’s affected negatively that he is stunned intohumility. Kabasawa almost feels like a character intended for the sake of commenting on the toxicity of becoming internet famous. Therefore, it is significant to note that he chooses to strip those stories bare and try again, but in a much more responsible (and honest) way.
5Atsuya Baba
Baba is an equestrian agent of change in Odd Taxi. As one of two radio hosts for the comedy show Homosapiens, he comes to realize his own potential as a comedian outside of his childhood friend and coworker, Shibagaki.
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He increasingly makes decisions that lead him further away from his static partner. All the while, he realizes that Shibagaki doesn’t always treat him like a good friend (though this is addressed far less than the skill differences). As a side character, Baba’s arc is by far one of the most dynamic ones of the show because he is willing to enact change in his life where there is stagnation.
4Hajime Tanaka
In one of the tensest and unnerving episodes of Odd Taxi, viewers meet an innocent childhood version of the puma they’d briefly met in a prior episode. As things escalate, they watch as a child who simply wants to be seen and valued turns into an adult obsessed with achieving a symbol of happiness he’d once had. Like Kabasawa, Tanaka gets what he wants and loses it. However, the loss doesn’t humble him. Instead, it breaks him. His target shifts from symbolic joy to vengeance by murder, turning him into a “loose cannon” character that only adds another layer of suspense to the overall plot.
Though most people don’t decide to murder someone after losing something material, it’s rather sad to see and understand that everything leading to Tanaka’s intense behavior wasn’t as far from reality as some might expect. His character embodies feelings of worthlessness attached to things like wealth and popularity, which makes him one of the most human characters among the cast.
3Koshiro “Little” Daimon
At first, appearing to be a bit less on the ball than his brother, Big Daimon, Little Daimon follows his partner in crime without hesitation. He divides the world into black and white (evil and good), much like his meerkat fur. Due to an incident that left him and his brother without parents, he also seems to carry a strong distrust toward taxi drivers like Odokawa.
However, as the plot of the show thickens, and Odokawa reveals the information he’s gathered, Little Daimon begins to grasp a much grayer reality than he’s known before. By choosing to trust Odokawa, he goes against everything he’s ever known, as well as the only person he’s ever trusted to make decisions of his own. Little Daimon is yet another agent of change in Odd Taxi who grows from a place of naive humor into the territory of hard truths.
Viewers might find themselves becoming rather fond of the yakuza in Odd Taxi. This gelada baboon encapsulates several great traits that make him both a loveable and rich character. Having been the first one to pull Odokawa into the limelight, it’s soon noted that Dobu will share practically anything - top secret or not - for the sake of beating his rhythmic rival, Yano.
While he does threaten Odokawa into helping him, he also seems to genuinely care about the walrus at times. He even takes the time to lecture another character on their need for attention, which serves as both a humorous and humane moment between the two characters. So while he isn’t a purely innocent character, he has simple motivations, brings humor into the midst of seriousness, and shows a stronger sense of morality than what one would expect from a yakuza member.
1Hiroshi Odokawa
Odokawa is Crunchyroll’s 2022 Best Protagonist for a reason, which might just be because he is one of the most heartbreakingly sincere and morally driven characters. Similar to Tanaka, Odokawa did not grow up with a loving family, but he found comfort in the little things. Yet, unlike Tanaka, he doesn’t attach his worth to those comforts. Instead, Odokawa internalizes the life he was raised in. He suffers from severe social anxiety and fear, which have been somewhat soothed after a key incident in his life.
Despite all of this, he cares deeply for others. He risks his own life to ensure they are safe, even if they might not always deserve it. Such compassion is what makes his character so rich. Odokawa doesn’t give it away blindly, either. He, too, follows a set of morals he believes others should abide by but enacts them responsibly. Fortunately for him, all this giving comes back to him in some way or another.
