My usual notepad is barely enough for Odd Taxi, so much shit goes down every week.  It’s become clear that this is the sort of show where there are no coincidences, and no incidental speaking roles.  Everyone who crosses the transom of Odokawa’s existence in seemingly random fashion seems to have a part in this huge web of stories playing out.  It’s a fascinating dramatic exercise, and one which – as I noted last week – is far more realistic than it seems to want you to think.

First of all there’s the kid who loves Mystery Kiss, Imai (Sakai Koudai), who wins the lottery with the random numbers Odokawa gave him.  ¥1 billion is about $10 million, and I can’t help but feel something ugly is about to befall him – this guy is seriously naive, and his definition of “real life” is a dangerous one.  Odokawa spurns his offer of financial help although he could have used it to get Shirakawa-san out from under Dobu’s thumb, which shows how badly he’s been hurt.  Imai does manage to get Odokawa to come with him to his job – waiting at a hostess club, and if you’ve ever wanted to see a walrus out of water it’s here.

Meanwhile Tanaka – with Dobu’s gun – is hot on Odokawa’s trail.  He shoots (or punches) out his taxi window, then follows him into the club and shoots off his weapon while Odokawa is hiding (from the girls, not Tanaka) in the bathroom.  Would Tanaka have shot Odokawa then and there if given the opportunity?  Dobu may be right that he wants to torture him first, or Tanaka may in the end not be a killer – but for now, we don’t know.  This is an interesting collision of two young men who hold the complete opposite feelings towards Odokawa based on completely random acts he committed that changed their lives.

Shibagaki (again, no coincidences) also works at the club, and he has another direct run-in with Tanaka.  He’s a big player in this episode, as his relationship with Baba is deteriorating as quickly as Baba’s solo career is blossoming.  Homosapiens seems to be not long for this world, though Baba genuinely doesn’t want to walk away and leave Shibagaki high and dry.  As it turns out Baba is also Rui’s boyfriend (see: coincidences, no) and her own blooming success is making Baba feel some added pressure to ride the success train and not be left behind.  And naturally the letter-writing high schooler Satoshi has tracked down Shibagaki in real life (really real life).

As for Shirakawa, she won’t leave it alone with Odokawa, though he’s doing his best to push her away.  When she confronts him at his house (a nice house for a cab driver) she comes clean about what’s really going on with her – or at least she says she does.  Frankly I don’t think Odokawa owes her anything at this point, including his trust – even if he believed her story about coming to truly have feelings for him, getting together with her still seems to be fraught with peril for him.  Kakihara, meanwhile, is digging himself ever deeper chasing a fantasy.

If we have anyone in the story as dumb as Imai, it has to be Kabasawa, who continues to taunt Dobu on Youtube every chance he gets.  He’s certainly got Dobu’s attention, but I don’t think he wants this sort of attention.  The uneasy pact between Odokawa and Dobu (he nobly insists on Shirakawa’s debt being forgiven as part of the terms) is probably the best thing that could have happened to Kabasawa, because it means Odokawa will be getting to him before Dobu does.

There’s one other thing that definitely bears noting about this episode.  There are a couple of very interesting one-off pieces of dialogue near the end: first, Rui noting that she doesn’t want a pet with a “horse face” when Baba suggests that’s how she views him.  And secondly we have Odokawa telling Dobu that he has no trouble picking people out of a crowd, and that “If anything, I find is strange that you guys are so bad at it”.  Make of that what you will, but I know what it suggests to me – and in a show with no coincidences, there’s no way the wording was an accident…