Oddo takushii ( = odd taxi), the simultaneously weirdest and best Japanese anime series I’ve seen in a long time. Somewhere between jazz and rap, alternately strange, brutal and miraculous, forever lost in the nocturnal cityscapes of Shibuya, Harajuku, highbrow hotels and junk food places, the docklands and other more or less well known Tokyo haunts, the taxi (as arch-Japanese a place as trains or hot baths) and its driver, a seemingly phlegmatic walrus (all characters are anthropomorphic animals) are at the centre of this rollercoaster ride through organised crime, middle class banality, prostitution, apps & memes, millennial messages and the occasional drawn and fired handgun.
But like so many Japanese movies, deep down this is all about values, justice and dignity. And indeed it’s amazing how in such a conformity-obsessed society, the visual arts universe is so populated by individualists, misfits, odd characters and unlikely heroes. Maybe there is actually a correlation there…. Well done, TV Tokyo (and DJ Punpee for the brilliant opening tune)!