RoOT - Route of OddTaxi -

This miniseries was produced by Crunchyroll. Since it's their first live action, it caught my attention, and I wanted to give it a chance despite not being familiar with the original material.

We're dealing with a detective story, in this case, a pair consisting of a funny rookie and a young woman with more experience, who also faces deep family dramas.

The entire plot revolves around a single case that intertwines with and impacts the protagonists' personal lives.

There are some decent episodes, but overall, it feels long and heavy, progresses very slowly, and the case generates little to no interest in the viewer.

The main problem is that we're dealing with a very amateur production, possibly the worst of the year. There are audio issues, with segments in each episode where it's almost impossible to hear some relevant dialogue.

It is quite fun to watch.

A Detective show about a young female PI and her intern being dragged into one bigger and more dangerous case they have imagined.

Everything feels improvised - but in a fun and good way.

It's like the actors had been given just some rudimentary information about the next scene and then had to improvise everything.

Maybe I am just imagining things but it sure looks like it.

Anyway it is fun to watch the relationship between the stoic female PI and her quirky intern.

They encounter a lot of Japanese-style-crazy characters and situations trying to solve a case which is way over their heads.

The soundtrack is fun to listen to as well.

Every episode is only about 22 minutes or so, like an anime episode, which is a bit short if you have to wait for one week to catch the next one.

There is also no recap at the beginning of each episode, so I found myself often wondering, what the main detective case was all about after one week.

But it did not matter because I enjoyed watching that show anyway.

This ten part Japanese drama is centred on two detectives, nineteen year old Reina and her partner, new recruit Sato. An investigation involving a taxi leads to a bigger case; the disappearance of a young woman. The case will lead them into dangerous situations.

When I came across this series on Crunchyroll I was intrigued as the vast majority of what they show is anime but this is live action. It turned out to be rather fun. I liked how most of the episodes concentrated on the investigation before extended backs of what really happened to the missing girl before returning to the present for the denouement. Weekly twenty two minute long episodes did lead to a slight problem as I occasionally forgot key details between episodes; luckily for new viewers this won't be a problem as they can obviously watch several together. The cast, particularly the leads, do a solid job; giving the series a light but never silly feel. Overall I'd certainly recommend this.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.