Sutekina Sen Taxi (2014)

This dorama is about the different customers a time-taxi driver meets at a certain turning point of their lives, and takes them back in time to change it. The format is episodic, even when they sometimes tease us with a connection to past episodes, it does not affect the overall turn of events. I like stories like that and generally enjoy watching them, but this one has some aspects that add more to my overall enjoyment and makes want to watch more of it.

One of the biggest attractions of the drama is Takenouchi Yutaka and the way he plays his character the taxi driver Edawakare. Without knowing much of his past, each episode makes us discover a little more of his antics. He's completely awkward and indecisive, and is afraid of what others think of any of his actions. For him, every moment is a turning point, and he has to think over and over, weighing the pros and cons, being honest about himself vs conforming, and so on. Even so he's pretty blunt with his opinion about his clients' decisions, and shows much more confidence in the taxi driver's seat. Then when he smiles I stop really seeing whats going on and get absorbed with that beautiful smile of his. Seriously his smile feels so genuine, and is both cute and sexy.

Another aspect I fully enjoyed is the café he hangs out most of his free time. At first we see him just as a normal customer there, but later he see him getting closer and more involved with them, like a family. That was cute and homey.

Last but not least, our main subject matter, the clients, are very entertaining and distinct. Not all are likeable but you may relate to them. The ending of each episode sometimes go to familiar places and sometimes do something unexpected and surprised us.

Finally I'd like to say this dorama may not be for everyone, being formulaic and episodic, but if you do give it a chance, I'd see to give it at least 3 episodes before deciding to continue or quit. It is a must watch for any Takenouchi Yutaka fan ;)

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If you're looking for a good dorama with the non-complex kind of time travel and good stand-alone episodes to pass the time, I highly recommend you make the wonderful decision to watch Suteki na Sen-TAXI. (Sorry for the pun, I simply HAD to.)

This series is about Eda-san, a Taxi driver with a special Taxi that can bring his customer back to a time of their choosing to ''set right what went wrong'', to quote another great - and underestimated - series about time travel called Quantum Leap. So each episode is a stand-alone story about this or that customer going ''back to the futur--'' I mean... the past, till they get it right. There's a sort of continuity as well between the episodes with recurring characters (the staff at the Choice Café for example), the hilarious scenes from the impossibly confusing ''dorama'' Hanzai Deka, or the recurring no-time-slip-feeling joke, which gets more and more hilarious as time passes - even going so far as subtly referencing Doctor Who, at some point.

With the exception of the first episode, which was kind of weird, compared to the rest of the series, the stories are mostly light-hearted and funny, or bittersweet at most. Please don't let the first episode influence your viewing. It kinda sets the series to be dark and heavy, but that episode was really the odd one out.

I mentioned early in the review that this series is about the ''non-complex'' kind of time travel - that means, this is not Primer, you can watch this series without getting confused about timelines and paradoxes and stuff. That said, there are some paradoxes in the series that bothered me a lot, so, if you're like me, they're gonna bother you too. But the series doesn't address them - maybe the writers didn't even notice them - so just try and find some explanation for yourself or try to accept the matter as it is. Shouganai.

I liked the acting a lot, especially from the main cast. The guests were all good with some exceptions, but the fact that they were there for just the one episode makes it so it doesn't ruin your viewing. The Henzai Deka cast was delusional and over the top, so they were brilliant as well.
Fun fact: the creator of the series is actually one of the main cast's actors. I was a little surprised when I found out.

The music, especially the instrumental OP was great! I didn't like the ''time-slip sound effect'' very much, though - it became annoying after a while.

You can easily rewatch this series whenever you want, and you don't even have to watch it altogether because of its stand-alone episodes.

So then, I guess you have a general idea of the fact that life has many turning points, right? What kind of job will you land? What kind of house will you live in? What will you have for dinner? Will you watch this dorama or not?

Well?
What kind of choice will you make?

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