Having transitioned away from its surrealist beginnings, Odd Taxi now seems to be slipping back into that mode again as it enters the home stretch.  There’s still no resolution on the surrealist elephant in the room, but stuff like Dobu’s conversation with Kabasawa on the docks was as surrealist as anything I’ve seen from entire show.  What we have in the end is a sort of surrealist noir, with comedy undertones.  As crazy as it sounds, Odd Taxi is reminding me more and more of a Woody Allen movie – one of his semi-comic mystery “thrillers”.  The dialogue is, in fact, very reminiscent – especially in scenes like the aforementioned one at the wharf.

I’ll say this for Daimon Junior, he’s sincere.  There’s no artifice to the guy, and his loyalty to his brother fits that mold perfectly.  I’m still not sure what role he plays in Odokawa’s plans, if any, since the latter doesn’t want the cops involved for obvious reasons.  If anything I think Odokawa wants to take Daimon Senior down – Junior has nothing on him as far as commitment to stamping out evil, it seems.  I might even go so far as to say he’s developed delusions of grandeur, and my sense that he’s getting in way over his head is if anything stronger after this episode.

Odokawa’s rescue of Kakihara was artful artifice, that’s for sure.  He more or less blackmailed Dobu into helping him, double-crossed him by tipping off Kabasawa about what was going down, let Dobu do his fighting for him, and then bolted.  Tanaka’s involvement here was a wild card to be sure, and frankly I think the guy randomly trying to shoot him should probably be Odokawa’s top priority at the moment even if the competition is stiff.  His “Omatase” when he arrives to rescue his friend was actually quite touching.  Kakihara truly is a pathetic man, but Odokawa is loyal to those that were with him through the hard times.

Presumably Dobu-san has declared open warfare within the local yakuza by taking out Yano’s man and rescuing Kakihara, so if Odokawa’s aim is indeed to take down the whole organization, he’s made a strong start.  I almost couldn’t believe what I was hearing when Dobu started psychoanalyzing Kabasawa right there on the docks.  It seemed very out of character for him – he never came off as the brainy type – but it certainly worked as a dramatic (and comic) device.  I don’t feel much sympathy for Kabasawa, whose dire self-appraisal isn’t far off the mark.  He had this coming, and no tears need be shed for his losing the swag he acquired by conning a bunch of rubes on the interwebs.

The funny thing is, Dobu’s definition of narcissism and how it applied to Kabasawa’s obsessive self-loathing is kind of brilliant – and spot-on.  Narcissism is a theme we’re seeing a lot in Odd Taxi actually, and Odokawa isn’t immune to it.  Goriki can clearly see his friend and patient is wading into murky waters here, and he sets about investigating.  And it turns out that nice house wasn’t bought on a can driver’s income – it belongs to the woman who’s been acting as his guardian all these years.  Whatever this organization is, they’re a big part of the mystery of Odd Taxi now – their hyper-secretive nature is clearly an important plot point.

In sum, then – a lot of these characters are idiots and losers and scumbags.  How stupid was it for Kakihara-san to throw away the ring (at least he had the sense to try and find it)?  Kabasawa, Big Daimon, Tanaka, Imai, the gangsters, even Odokawa himself – good judgment and human decency are relatively rare commodities here, but even rarer when possessed by the same person.  Odokawa is obsessed with saving everyone, but I get the feeling that someone is going to have to save him before this is all said and done.