Key players of the critically acclaimed "Odd Taxi in the Woods" movie talk!　Director Mugi Kinoshita, Producer Daisuke Hiraga and Producer Hiroshi Ito talk

The Movie Odd Taxi in the Woods" is creating quite a stir. In the fourth week after the movie's release, box-office revenues exceeded 130 million yen, making it a considerable hit for a small release theatrical animated film.

Odd Taxi," which was broadcast as a TV animation from April to June 2021, attracted the attention of many viewers with its mysterious development and suspenseful content that could not be imagined from the fancy and humorous animal characters. The show featured a cast full of unique personalities, including comedians and rappers, and the scenario in which Diane, a real comedian, was asked to play a comedian's sadness was also a hot topic.

The fact that the popularity of the series gradually grew by word-of-mouth is also unique among recent animated features.

The TV series was reconstructed in the form of a collection of testimonies from those involved in the story, and a new part was added to the film, "Odd Taxi in the Woods," which was released on April 1, 2022. As mentioned at the beginning of this report, the film was an exceptional hit, and its positive reception led to a second run of theatrical releases.

At this juncture, we asked three of the film's key figures - director Mugi Kinoshita, producer Daisuke Hiraga of P.I.C.S., and producer Hiroshi Ito of Pony Canyon - to talk about "Odd Taxi".

A Look Back at the Night Before "Odd Taxi

─ I went to see "Odd Taxi in the Woods" again yesterday, and the theater in Ikebukuro was packed. I heard that the box-office revenue exceeded 52 million yen in the three days of its release.

Daisuke Hiraga, producer (hereinafter referred to as "Hiraga"): It has already exceeded 100 million yen.

Producer Hirofumi Ito (hereinafter "Ito") I think it exceeded it in two weeks.

Hiraga: It is going very well. We still have a second run from here, so I think we are in a good situation.

─ ─ Thank you very much. So, first of all, could you tell us about the entrance to the film, and how the project "Odd Taxi" came about?

Director Kinoshita Mugi (Kinoshita): Five or six years ago, I submitted a proposal to producer Hiraga for a realistic human drama about college students with animal characters. Producer Hiraga's reaction at that point was that the character designs were interesting, but that the content and story might not have enough punch.

───Since your initial plan was a story about a college student, is the prototype of the project similar to Taichi Kabasawa's search for himself and desire for self-expression, or Tanaka's inclination toward messing around in search of approval?

Kinoshita: In the beginning, we did not go that far into the theme, but I think the image we had was a story about the daily life of a college student, with Kabasawa as the main character. As we reworked the project from there as a project that we could compete with, we put the root concept of creating a gap between the cute animal characters and the story, and depicting realistic suspense and sordid human drama. After that, screenwriter Watsuya Konomoto joined our team, and the three of us (Director Kinoshita, P. Hiraga, and Mr. Konomoto) started the project.

Hiraga: When we were finalizing the plan and forming the production committee, we brought the idea to Pony Canyon, where Mr. Ito was working, and they told us that it would be interesting. That is how "Odd Taxi" began, both as a project and as a business. I've told you the story of a very long period of time (laughs).

Ito: When I first saw the project, I had the impression, without choosing a word, that it was an animation and project that did not follow the rules of late-night animation at all. I thought that a company that mainly does late-night animation would not be able to accept it, and even if they did, they would not be able to gain an understanding within the company. On the other hand, Pony Canyon also produced live-action works, so I felt that they might be more open to subculture-oriented IP than other companies. But to be honest, I thought it would be quite difficult, even for us, so I was really struggling to find a way to get the project through.

Hiraga: Even before that, I had already submitted plans to various companies, and even though the people in charge thought it was interesting, it was difficult to get the company to go through with it. Mr. Ito did not change anything in the basics of the plan, but kept it alive because he thought it was interesting and passed it through. I really appreciated that, and I think it was good that he took the creators' side.

Ito: On top of that, when we joined the project, we made suggestions on how to maximize this work in terms of the theme song, package business, committee management, and so on. That is why, for "Odd Taxi," I was the producer who handled the business aspects, and Mr. Hiraga was in charge of the creative production. I think this division of responsibilities is a little different from other productions.

Casting, audio drama, and other gimmicks

─ ─ As a project, I am also impressed by the cast members from non-animation genres, such as comedians from Yoshimoto Kogyo like Miki and Diane, and rappers like METEOR. I would like to ask about the background and intentions behind the project.

Kinoshita: Since there was a large element of comedy in the overall story, I knew from the script stage that the pauses in conversations and the way they were said would be very important. Both Konomoto-san and I are big fans of comedy, and we had proposed a recording method called prescoring, so we thought it would be great if we could have a real comedian participate and show his or her true value.

Hiraga: The director and I had discussed that we wanted the comedians to work among comedians. I also wanted the work to be seen and responded to by people other than the original anime fans, people who are sensitive to the culture. I also thought that the appearance of rappers and comedians might trigger their interest. I have little knowledge of the animation industry, so I asked Mr. Ito and others for their opinions as I created my dream plan, and with luck and good timing, the casting I had hoped for came to fruition.

───What was the reason for casting Miki, Diane, and Takashi from Trendy Angel, and what were your expectations?

Hiraga Diane loves the director, doesn't she?

Kinoshita: It's partly because I was a big fan (laughs). I also had an idea to include a radio as a gimmick for the character of a Kansai person, so I asked her to do it. Kabasawa's voice has a muffled quality to it, and at the risk of sounding rude, I offered Takashi-san to play the role because I hoped he would give the character an "ikiri-yin-kakka" (meaning "a shy, brooding person") feel.

─ ─ Kabasawa's speech as played by Takashi-san has a unique atmosphere that is different from that of a voice actor or a comedian, doesn't it?

Hiraga It's good, isn't it?

Kinoshita It has a unique feel.

KINOSHITA──The resolution around comedy is very high, such as Homo sapiens' thoughts on the 14th year of the comedy contest, or the postcard craftsman Nagashima, who is painful but has a core.

Kinoshita: I think this is a result of Konomoto-san's deep knowledge of comedy.

Hiraga The director's sense of humor also comes into play in the portrayal of comedians. I think it was Konomoto-san who created details such as the postcard maker. We talked a lot about how it would be good to make good use of the radio heard in the cab.

─ I heard that the casting of the voice actors was also based on nominations. It was an interesting experiment to cast Natsuki Hanae as a mute middle-aged cab driver, who is the voice actor of the season, wasn't it?

Kinoshita: Yes, it is. If I thought about it in that order, Kotogawa's voice would be dead and austere, but he also has a big backstory, so I didn't want to use a normal voice. I had a traumatic event when I was young, and I had a feeling in my mind that the character of Odogawa was somehow frozen in time. That's why I offered Hanae-san, whose voice has vitality and youthfulness, the chance to try something new.

─ ─ During the broadcast of the TV anime, there was a gimmick of an audio drama on YouTube that depicted the backstory of the story and dropped new mysteries in real time. How did this gimmick come about?

Kinoshita: I think it was around the time we were making about nine episodes of the main story.　The production team asked us if we wanted to do such a gimmick or a new device.

Hiraga It was something that came up during the producer's publicity meeting. The program is sure to be exciting in terms of discussion, so we wanted to make it even more so.

Ito: I think I was the one who initiated the idea. Actually, the script for the TV anime "Odd Taxi" was cut down quite a bit. I felt that it was a waste of time to use the characters that had been set up and developed in the past, but due to the time constraints, I was not able to showcase them. So how about linking them together as a web-delivered audio drama to give them more depth? Something like that. At the time, I was watching the development of the live-action drama "It's Your Turn" and thought that there was a mechanism whereby the drama was broadcast on NTV while the story of each room was distributed on Hulu, thus building up the character setup. Taking a hint from that, I suggested that it would be nice if we could pick up a little of the setting and description in the audio drama, and that the fans would enjoy it.

Hiraga: The script was quite long, so I had a fairly long draft. We made the audio drama by cutting parts from it and adding newly written parts. But in the end, most of it was newly written (laughs).

Ito: Once we prepared the gimmick of the ballpoint pen, it was almost completely newly written (laughs).

Hiraga: So I consulted with the animation team and asked them if I could have the ballpoint pen appear in the work in this way. (laughs). Then I consulted with the animation team and asked them if they could include the ballpoint pen in the story in this way.

─ Isn't it quite difficult to add such an additional element in the middle of production?

Kinoshita: Yes, at that time we were working on the ninth episode, so we had to go back and put ballpoint pens in the storyboards, which was definitely a bit of a challenge. But I think it was a good thing, because the content ended up being very good.

Hiraga: We had to organize the timeline or we would have lost our heads. We created a timeline created by the director and shared it with Mr. Konomoto by creating a document that said the ballpoint pen was here at this point.

The movie version started by fans' voices

─ ─ And now, "Odd Taxi in the Woods" has been produced. Can you tell us about the background of the production?

Hiraga: It was around the summer after the TV series finished airing. I received an inquiry from Asmik Ace saying, "It was very interesting, are there any plans for a movie? At that point, there was no such talk, so I answered, "Nothing concrete has been decided.

───After the broadcast, the film was well received and fans were excited, so it was decided to make a movie.

Hiraga: That's the way it is.

───I think the TV series had a wonderful ending in the sense that it left a lingering impression, although some mysteries remained. How did the director think about what to show in the movie?

Kinoshita: I think the TV series had a good ending in its own way. Therefore, I thought it would be tactless to fully depict everything after the last episode in the movie, so I worked on the movie while trying to find the right balance between reaching the itchy parts and ending the story in a good place.

─ ─ Rather than just settling the story, I felt that it was structured in such a way as to place new mysteries in the story, and I felt that there was a lot of promise for the future.

Hiraga: The content ended nicely, but we all felt that it would be sad to end it like this, given the tremendous response we received. I don't think we were really thinking of a sequel, but we kept talking about how we could make the world of "Odd Taxi" more enjoyable. .... This is my own personal viewpoint, but my feelings for Odogawa became so strong that I wanted to give a proper answer and I wanted to see it, and I think that was the same with the viewers.

───While following the structure of the TV anime series, there were many new elements that were created here and there, and I think it was a very hard work. Could you tell us about the difficulties of the production and the points you focused on?

Kinoshita: The original film was about five hours long, so we had to edit it down to about one hour and 40 minutes, separating the necessary scenes from those that were not necessary. I think that I was able to depict the emotional aspects of the characters in more detail in the new cuts because I had developed a strong personality and backbone for the characters and I had grown attached to them.

Hiraga: I think it was a tough job, because the final scene would not resonate unless the first half of the film was well drawn. I reconstructed the first half in the form of testimonies, so that those who have seen the TV series can review it and those who are new to the story can get acquainted with it. Then, in the last part, we talked about how we hoped people would enjoy the flow of the case together on time.

─ I know that editing is a tough job, but what was your policy and what did you insist on showing in the film?

Kinoshita: We had decided to focus on the disappearance of the high school girls. I cut out a lot of the homo sapiens and Nagashima stories because they were out of the scope of the film. I also wanted to show what happens on December 25th in real time.

Hiraga: There are some parts that were cut, but I think the fact that we put it all together at once makes it easier to pick up and remember the various pieces of information before going into the final part of the film.

─ ─ I was very surprised to see the video prepared at the very end.

Hiraga: I thought it would be interesting to include a device like that. Rather than imagining a certain development, I wanted people to look forward to the world of "Odd Taxi," which may continue in the future. I think it is typical of Odd Taxi to never let the fans feel at ease, as if they will always be up to something when they have the chance.

──How do you feel about the fans' thoughts and reactions to the film in real time?

Kinoshita: I frankly thought that there were both good and bad opinions, but I think that the feedback was a good test for us as creators, and that the film production was a good experience.

Hiraga I've been looking at Twitter and other feedback, and I don't see many definitive spoilers, as if everyone is really highly literate. I collaborated with fusetter (fusetter. Looking at the fusetter (a service that allows users to tweet in the form of "fusetter") that we collaborated on as part of the work, I see that some people are getting to the heart of the matter quite deeply, just as they did with the TV series. Of course, there are also people who don't understand and want to know, and I feel that there is a wide range of people. I feel that the range of the audience is very broad. I don't think that this kind of temperature has changed from the time of the TV series.

─ ─ Finally, could you give a message to your fans?

Ito: I hope people will continue to enjoy the world of "Odd Taxi" and the "tricks" that this team has planned.

Hiraga: Regardless of how it turns out, I would like to continue to prepare tricks for people to enjoy the world of "Odd Taxi". I hope you will enjoy it.

Kinoshita: I am almost the same way. The comic book series is continuing, so I hope that people will look forward to reading the final volume of the manga.

─ ─ Thank you very much.

(Interview and text by Kiri Nakazato)

©P.I.C.S. / Odogawa Transportation Partners for the Motion Picture