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RoOT/Route of Odd Taxi Manga Gets Live-Action TV Series

The official Twitter account for the Odd Taxi anime announced on Monday that Takeichi Abaraya and original series creator Kadzuya Konomoto's RoOT/Route of Odd Taxi (stylized with a backwards R in "RoOT") manga is getting a live-action television series in April.

The series will air on TV Tokyo. The broadcaster also launched an official Twitter account for the series. The series will star Yūmi Kawai and Ryōta Bandō as detectives. Takafumi Tsuchiya is directing and writing the script.

The RoOT/Route of Odd Taxi manga launched in February on Big Comic Superior's web manga site Darupana as part of the project of the same title.

The Odd Taxi anime premiered in Japan in April 2021 and aired for 13 episodes. Crunchyroll streamed the anime in the West.

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 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.

Sources: Eiga.com, Odd Taxi's Twitter account