Episode 4

**Tanaka's Revolution** (田中革命, *Tanaka Kakumei*) is the 4th episode of Odd Taxi anime series.

## Synopsis

* Tanaka is shown running towards something while looking disheveled, much to the concern of others. Then he starts to retell his story.
* Tanaka states that back when he was a third-grade kid, his teacher was fuzzy with wealth inequality between students. His class could not wear or bring anything expensive to class and must be as uniform as possible. This did not apply to stationery, so collecting erasers became popular among a small group of students. Being a very average student, Tanaka joined this fad to become popular. But instead of trying to befriend the group, he focused more on competition with one of the other students, Sato. Thanks to his wealthy parents, Sato was able to get many rare erasers, whereas Tanaka only had a rare dodo eraser which was a gift from his relatives.
* Tanaka got a pet cockatiel Maru from his father, which was bought due to being cheap. His elder brother, on the other hand, received an expensive gaming computer.
* In a desperate attempt to out-compete Sato, Tanaka found a rare eraser of Donraku Shofutei listed by Ditch-11. He made an account in secret, and used his father's credit card to start bidding.
* However, an anonymous buyer outbid him every time, until Tanaka bid ¥100,000 (roughly $1,000), which allowed him to win. Tanaka thought about his action as a revolution against his teacher's socialist rules.
* However, things did not turn out as he had imagined. His classmates stopped caring about collecting erasers. Sato managed to find a group of friends, while Tanaka remained an outcast. His rare eraser never got delivered and as a child he thought he could not undertake any actions due to the site's "No Refunds" rule. Eventually his father found out and beat him up, which caused Tanaka to accept he only had himself to blame.
* Years later, 20-year old Tanaka started working for a game company. He had learned to focus on real things and to avoid his competitive nature, until he became interested in Zooden, as collecting animals reminded him of collecting erasers. Initially, he played the game for free, but once he set his eyes on the super rare dodo, he started to spend real money on Zooden's gacha game. Upon discovering that the top rank was currently taken by someone named Ditch-11, Tanaka was triggered to settle a score for his younger self. He became obsessed to the point of isolating himself at work and spending an exorbitant amount of money on the game (at least ¥5,000,000, or roughly $50,000 over the course of 4 years) while living on cup noodles.
* When Tanaka finally won the dodo, Odokawa's taxi barely missed him, as Tanaka stood in the middle of the road, causing his phone to fall down the sewers. He was able to get his phone repaired, however the game had not saved his dodo win, causing Tanaka to fall into despair.
* Back home Tanaka found his pet cockatiel Maru had passed away, likely due to neglect (empty food bowl). In the park, while burying his pet, Tanaka stumbled upon Dobu's gun. Believing it to be a sign, he took it with him.
* The scene switches back to the present. After finding the gun and walking for three days straight, Tanaka meets Shibagaki, who tries to cheer him up. He tells Tanaka that, despite coming to Tokyo to find success, he has not found it yet, and that although some things are a matter of luck, he does not want to give up on things he can control.
* Tanaka misunderstands, and assumes that the dodo was bad luck. He realizes that the dodo represents a fleeting virtual pleasure that would never give him satisfaction as it is a never-ending collection. The tangible gun however, makes him feel alive and excited at the prospect of using it against people who are to blame for his current situation.
* Tanaka recognizes Odokawa's taxi as it passes by, and loses his grip on sanity. With Dobu's gun, he chases after the taxi looking for revenge.

## Characters

* Hajime Tanaka
* Kensuke Shibagaki
* Hiroshi Odokawa

## Trivia

* Dobu (溝) means ditch in English.
* The currency in Zooden, or Zoological Garden, is Hagenbecks, named after Carl Hagenbeck, who was a wild animal merchant. He also initiated the movement to modernize zoo architecture to enclosures without bars that resemble the animal's natural habitat.