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Odd Taxi Series Gets New RoOT/Route of Odd Taxi Project
posted on by Alex Mateo
The official Twitter account for the Odd Taxi series announced on Friday that the anime is inspiring a new project titled RoOT/Route of Odd Taxi (stylized with a backwards R in "RoOT"). The project launched with a manga by Odd Taxi manga creator Takeichi Abaraya and original series creator Kadzuya Konomoto on Big Comic Superior's web manga site Darupana on the same day. The manga's visual shows the main characters Satō and Reina.
The story follows Odokawa, an eccentric, reticent 41-year-old taxi driver who has no relatives and does not have much to do with others. He does have conversations with his customers, including a college student who wants to go viral, a nurse hiding a secret, an unsuccessful comedian, a street rough, and an up-and-coming idol. These conversations lead him to a girl who has disappeared.
Manga creator Konomoto (Seto Utsumi) wrote the anime. Baku Kinoshita directed the anime with Norio Nitta as the assistant director. Kinoshita and Hiromi Nakayama designed the characters. Kōhei Yoshida was the recording director at Pony Canyon Enterprise. PUNPEE VaVa OMSB were in charge of the music, and Pony Canyon was in charge of music production with collaboration by Summit, Inc. P.I.C.S. and OLM produced the anime. P.I.C.S. was also credited for the original work and planning.
The Odd Taxi: In the Woods film is a "reconstruction" of the television anime episodes, but it also depicts what happens after the television anime's finale. The film opened in 34 theaters in Japan in April 2022, ranking at #10 and earning 52 million yen (approximately US$4,23,685) in its first weekend. The television anime's main cast and staff returned, and ASMIK Ace is distributing. Crunchyroll is streaming the film.
Odd Taxi: Diamond wa Kizutsukanai (Diamonds Will Not Be Damaged), the stage play inspired by the Odd Taxi television anime, ran at Otemachi Mitsui Hall in Tokyo from January 25-31 and at Cool Japan Park Osaka TT Hall in Osaka from February 4-5. The play was originally scheduled to run from July 7-18 in Tokyo, but it was delayed due to COVID-19.
Sources: Odd Taxi series' Twitter account, Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web
