Crunchyroll Expo 2022 - Baku Kinoshita Interview

Anthropomorphic animal anime Odd Taxi won the hearts and minds of anime fans around the world in 2021. This year, Crunchyroll Expo brought Baku Kinoshita—director, character designer, amongst many other roles on the show—to speak to fans and reflect on the beloved series. During his busy schedule, he talked to ANN in more detail about Odd Taxi and what he'd like to do next.

Although ODDTAXI was your first time directing an anime series, you storyboarded every episode. What were the challenges you faced balancing each episode's drama and comedy?

As you mentioned, the series includes both mystery and comedy aspects. But you need to have the base for the mystery and comedy. The challenge for us was to shave off the comedic parts. There were a lot more funny moments than what is shown on screen, but we tried to focus on only the essential scenes. It was really difficult to erase those comedic moments as there were so many of them. However, we had to cut it in order to create a better tempo flow. Because of the editing, the tempo ended up being much better for people watching.

ODDTAXI is an incredible story with a keen focus on a character driven story. In episode 4, Hajime Tanaka's monologue stretches through the entire episode. How did you direct Saito Soma through Tanaka's breakdown?

In terms of Tanaka, in the story he's just a regular guy and lives his life very seriously. One of the themes for him is that he's a very no-nonsense guy and it wasn't part of a gag. That was his character, and that's how I wanted his acting to be directed. Sōma Saitō is a quick learner, a very intelligent and introspective guy, and an incredible actor. With the direction I gave him, he really incorporated my view when reading his lines and spewed out a performance that turned out better than I was expecting.

How did you work with the sound director, Kōhei Yoshida, to develop the world and music of Odd Taxi?

This was my first time directing, I didn't have much experience under my belt, so I leaned on Mr. Yoshida for advice on directing, and creating the story together. Even for music, he gave me some advice on how to make realistic sound effects, such as feet shuffling, crowd movement, and other similar sound effects. For the soundtrack, I wanted something unique and pop sounding that would fit a weird, mysterious world. I gave him those kind of keywords to guide him into making the music you hear in Odd Taxi.

Despite the nihilistic and sarcastic tone of Odokawa and other characters, the story ends on a hopeful note for people who are struggling in their life. What message did you want to send to viewers who watched the entire series?

Each character had their own struggles and desires, which unfold in the episodes. But as you've seen, in moving towards their goal, they also had some failures along the way. What I wanted to show was that within life, there are plenty of failures in your life even when you give it your best shot. Good things may happen when you face a challenge or struggle in the path to your aspirations. After all, everyone fails, which is fine, and I wanted this story to get people to see that perspective.

Looking back on Odd Taxi, did you have a favorite scene or favorite line from the series?

One of my favorite scenes is when the taxi cab flies off the highway into the sky. My favorite line would have to be the line from Shibagaki when the taxi is about to land into the water, where he's asking Baba to be his partner again, only for the car to “butt into” their conversation. Also, in episode 6, when Odokawa finally lays down on the ground—in the dark—after a day of back to back troublesome incidents and says, “I'm tired.” I really, really like that scene because that's exactly how I feel after I come home after work and continue to draw.

Are you currently working on a new project? What kind of story would you like to work on next?

No new projects for now. But I do want to work on another suspense series or a hard thriller type of story.