WMG / Odd Taxi

The mysterious person Odokawa starts talking to when he's seemingly alone in his house in Episode 1...

...is the girl from Nerima City. This theory is supported by the fact that one of the Daimon brothers claims that the taxi the girl went in was Odokawa's, and reminders of the mystery litter the first episode.

• Seems a little more unlikely after episode 5 if you believe the most common theory that the missing girl is a Mystery Kiss member. Supposedly, Odakawa dropped off the missing girl at her managers office. This girl is supposed to be in his closet now. Yet somehow, Odokawa seems to have a poor, fuzzy memory of what the girl he dropped off looked like. Odokawa seems to have no idea that the person in his closet, and the missing Mystery Kiss girl, are supposed to be the same person by everyone connected to looking for her. If he was keeping her in his closet, he wouldn't have such a poor, uncertain memory of who the missing girl was when she got in his car. There is a possibility that the missing girl from Nerima City and the missing girl from Mystery Kiss aren't the same person, which would explain all this, but the story doesn't seem to be building up to that. There's also the possibility that Odokawa was lying in his talk with the manager.
  • This theory is jossed.

The mysterious person Odokawa starts talking to when he's seemingly alone in his house in Episode 1...

...is a cat. This theory is supported by the fact that the show's OP shows him trying to beckon a cat to his taxi, and an image later in the OP shows that same cat in what appears to be the closet from Odokawa's house.

• There's some evidence against this in how Odokawa says "I'm not keeping you tied up", something you're unlikely to say to a non-anthro cat that would not be easily restrained this way.
• Becomes a little more likely as what appears to be cans of fish can be seen in Odokawa's room.
  • This theory is confirmed.

The cat Odokawa is beckoning to in the opening...

...IS the girl from Nerima City. Considering the missing girl is anthropomorphized as a grey cat, and the theory that the anthro animals are just humans and Odokawa is delusional, the cat we see could be a symbolic representation of Odokawa's view of what happened in his interactions with the girl.

All characters are actually human and it is just Odokawa being delusional

His short flashback in Episode 1 has clearly humanoid silhouettes. And the characters' reactions to him calling them animals look very suspicious.

• This doesn't fit, though, because they're still animals in scenes where Odokawa is not present, or indeed anywhere near them, which would make more sense with Through the Eyes of Madness. It seems more likely that in this universe, mentioning species is somehow a breach of Japanese Politeness, and Odokawa is established as being extremely blunt anyway.
  • Not impossible, though. Odokawa is the only character to mention species, and while neither character he's talking to outright rejects his assertion that they're animals, they're both doctors working through some vague mental health problems Odokawa has, and their reactions can be explained if they already know about Odokawa's condition. The doctor's reaction would become a "Well, yeah, I guess I am a big, hairy male like a gorilla." thing and the alpaca's reaction would be explained with "There he goes again with his animal thing." where she's simply humoring him. It would also explain the doctor's odd "What do I look like to you?" question in the first place.
    • Admittedly, he does seem to be a big fan of roughly 60s-80s rock, and if he sees himself as a walrus, well...
  • Also, showing the characters as animals even when Odokawa is not present may be deliberate if scriptwriters want to keep the mystery till the end.
• A side-note: Wouldn't it be weird for a group to be called Homo-Sapiens in a world where that species doesn't exist? I mean, sure, in the real world the same can be said about naming anything after dragons and unicorns, but we don't have scientific nomenclature for fantastic creatures, and there's no evidence that humans are a fantastic creature in this world.
  • Honestly, people come up with fanciful scientific classifications all the time, but that's not required here. "Homo sapiens" just means "thinking man". In other words, they're trying — and failing — to be a cerebral comedy act, or "thinking man's humor".
• On the comedy show during the flashback in "Tanaka's Revolution" there's a note of "The Walrus" in the newcomers to watch — implied to be Odokawa. But that could just be a stage name as well.
• And finally, all but confirmed with the official music video for the theme song - in addition to featuring various characters in human form (i.e., their voice actors), two humans are only shown in animal form when Odokawa glances in the rear-view mirror.
  • Actually, there is one instance where another character is seen as an animal; Rui is very briefly seen in a Mystery Kiss video playing on a screen in the city, where she's still depicted as a poodle (via footage from the show), and Odokawa isn't the one looking up at it when it happens. I personally dig the theory though!
• Odokawa seems to be a lot better at telling people apart than the other characters. In Episode 5, he mentions seeing Shirakawa, while Goriki can't understand how could Odokawa recognize her from the back. In Episode 6, he says he'll have no trouble recognizing Kabasawa among a crowd of students, much to Dobu's skepticism. Also in Episode 6, Kabasawa somehow mistakes a video of Tanaka (who is obviously a gray cat) for Dobu (a monkey). All of it makes sense if Odokawa is the only one who can tell people apart by "species".
  • The episode 5 thing is specifically a callback to something: Odokawa said that Shirakawa is the only alpaca in town, but Gori says that there's lot of people that look like her in the city, so this adds fuel to the fire.
• Rui does say that Baba looks like a horse when they meet for the first time on-screen, but she only says he looks like one rather than saying he is one, which could be evidence for or against this theory.
• Yano, when preparing to declare war on Dob, says Dob considers him an herbivore and then compares himself to a porcupine with quills (which he is). Although, much like Rui comparing Baba to a horse, it's very ambiguous. Especially considering Yano's preferred method of communication.
• Between Tanaka and the real Yuki Mitsuya, there are two cases of children whose species differs from that of at least one of their parents. It could be Interspecies Adoption, or extra proof that the characters are actually not of different species.
• In episode 12, the background in one of the scenes contains a billboard with an unmistakably human figure (although it's a stealth reference to a music video by Punpee.)
• Confirmed.

The girl from Nerima City is already dead...

... and the body dropped into the water in the show's very first shot is hers. The scene cutting from someone sinking into the water from their point-of-view to Odokawa jerking awake makes the viewer assume that the previous scene was Odokawa's nightmare due to the Kuleshov Effect, but it's actually the last thing the girl sees.

• Not impossible. However it's more likely that it was Odokawa, and he managed to survive somehow. Supported as he has a strong fear of water. The anime only hints at this when Odokawa's friend says that he never gets into the bath, but the manga shows he has a fear more clearly when Odokawa daydreams his car filling up with water and freaking out.
• This theory is now confirmed. The scene with the body dropped in the water is from when the real Mitsuya's corpse was disposed of.

Yuki Mitsuya (one of the members of Mystery Kiss) is related to the girl from Nerima City.

The security footage of the girl from Nerima City shows her to be a cat with dark blue or grey fur. Yuki Mitsuya is a cat with similarly colored fur.

• Granted, if an idol member seen on TV were related to a missing person, the news would likely mention it - unless those details were a secret.
  • Then again, the girl isn't named, which is probably due to some detail of Japanese laws concerning minors involved in investigations that would also affect mentioning relatives.
• This theory is now confirmed. Specifically, "Yuki Mitsuya" is actually a replacement for the real Yuki Mitsuya, who is the missing girl.

The third member of the idol group was recently replaced and the original may have been the missing girl from Nerima.

In Imai's flashback of Mystery Kiss's show one year ago, the girl identified as Mitsuya has grey fur an earring and fur tufts toward the top of her head. The current Mitsuya has black fur and tufts only on her cheeks. The footage of the missing girl leaving the shop looks way more like the Mitsuya in the flashback than the black cat we see. Imai also mentions that compared to the past, Mistuya's dancing isn't as good. In episode 5, Mitsuya refers to herself as new to the group which contradicts what Imai said about the group struggling to debut for two years. Shiho also mentions not liking Mitsuya and preferring the "way things were before" which could mean before Mitsuya was replaced. It would also explain the company's insistence that the girls wear masks.

• This theory is now confirmed.

Rui's doesn't actually have any legitimate feelings for Baba

She's only seeing him because it'll benefit Yamamoto in some way. While I'm yet not sure what Yamamato has to gain in getting close to Baba, I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be the case. Plus, it's becoming clear even just from reading about the show that the Rui's more benignant side is little more than a veneer.

• This theory is likely debunked; in episode 11, we see the relationship from Rui's side, and her feelings seem genuine.

The someone at Oodokawa's house is actually just a regular cat

Because of whatever mental issue he has that causes him to see people as animals he thinks that he's been housing the missing girl all this time that is shaped like the cat from the opening but in reality, it's just an actual normal cat, and he's either completely unrelated to the missing girl case or was involved in some way but the girl has long since left, leaving just the cat to hang around at his place.

• This theory is now confirmed.

Tanaka is delusional, and never actually won the dodo

The way gacha games work, winning the dodo should have been registered server-side—even if Tanaka's phone broke, his account should still have had the dodo in evidence. Since Tanaka isn't exactly the sanest person out there, it's possible he hallucinated the entire thing.

• Many Japanese gacha games only allow you to retrieve your account if you can submit the ID assigned to you when you started playing the game. The dodo may still be there server side, but if Tanaka never wrote his ID down it may as well not exist for him.

Nobody killed Yuki Mitsuya, she overdosed from drugs.

The only people at the office were: Odokawa, Rui, and Yamamoto. Odokawa gains nothing from killing Yuki. Yamamoto stands to lose all of Mystery Kiss' profits if he kills Yuki. So Yamamoto wouldn't have done it. Rui has an intent of killing Yuki in order to reclaim the center of Mystery Kiss. However, Rui didn't have any weapons on her as shown in the anime. Rui couldn't have poisoned Yuki because they didn't meetup before coming to the office. So Rui didn’t kill Yuki.

Yuki either died from being beaten, being shot, or from a drug overdose or having a heart attack. Yuki's body doesn't seem to have any blunt force trauma or blood at all. The office's chairs and table seem to be undisturbed so there wasn't any struggle. This rules out being beaten and being shot. Heart attack victims would have struggled or would have collapsed on the floor. However, Yuki seems to have died peacefully with her eyes wide open. The only possible explanation is a drug overdose. Shirakawa sells drugs to Dobu and Dobu could have sold drugs to Yuki. * Debunked. She was strangled by Sakura, who's plan was to crush the Mystery Kiss success and/or take Yuki's place.

The identity of the person who killed Yuki Mitsuya

is...

• Sakura, aka the replacement for Yuki? She certainly had the motive; Sakura was the 4th favored candidate, so the death of a single member could give her a chance to join Mystery Kiss.
• Yamamoto? His presence at the office seemed suspicious; also, although obviously distraught at Yuki's death, he didn't seem to react to it with too much shock or surprise. The weakness of this theory is that he seems to have no motive.
• Baba? As Rui's boyfriend, he might have learned about how distraught she was when Yuki was picked as the center of the group in Rui's place, and decided to fulfill Rui's wish. The weakness of this theory is that Baba doesn't seem like the type to kill someone, especially a teenage girl.
• Odokawa? He was the one who drove Yuki in a taxi to the office. The weakness of this theory is, again, the lack of motive.

The ending of the final episode confirmed that it was Sakura who killed Yuki, strangling her with a rope.

Sakura drugged Yuki before strangling her.

The cat from the apartment is the reincarnation of the original Yuki.

If Odokawa get killed by Sakura, Someone will get visual agnosia by accident..

And freak out to see themself and everyone as animals.

Odokawa’s mother is responsible for the death of the parents of Daimon brothers.

They both involved in car accidents(parents of Daimon brothers were killed by one in a hit-and-run, Odokawa’s mother attempted to murder-suicide by drowning all of them in a car). What if Odokawa’s mother work as a taxi driver and may cause the deaths of the parents of Daimon brothers. Maybe Odokawa got the idea of being a taxi driver because one of his parents was a taxi driver. Odokawa’s mom wanted to end her and her family’s lives because of her husband AND she killed someone but didn’t want to be charged for it.

If there is a season 2 and Sakura succeeded into becoming a famous Idol, she will later takeover the yakuza business.

Kuroda is retiring the yakuza business and it is unknown who takeover the yakuza business.

Sakura actually managed to kill Odokawa but got her crimes exposed to the public as a result.

Odokawa knew Sakura is planning to kill him so he hatched up a plan by putting a hidden livestream camera without her knowing. Camera began record live-streaming Sakura killing Odokawa and ends when she gloated about killing Yuki, replacing her and is now on her way to becoming a famous idol after she finished killing Odokawa. The video is leaked around the world revealing Sakura’s murder of Odokawa and the truth about Yuki’s death. Now that her crimes are exposed to the world, the police suspect it and were going to arrest Sakura. Odokawa may have died but he managed to exposed Yuki’s murderer.

• Debunked. In The Woods reveals that Odokawa survived his encounter with Sakura and turned her in to the police where she will presumably be held accountable for Yuki’s murder.

The person Odokawa drove to the office that night was the real Yuki and not Sakura.

• I don't know if this was meant to be deliberately vague or not... but I was under the impression that Odokawa drove the real Yuki (not Sakura) to the office the night that Yuki was killed.
  • My main reasons were 1) Rui said that she would pay for Yuki's taxi from Nerima (where Odokawa was), 2) when Yuki's death was reported and Odokawa went "It's not her...", I thought he was referencing the fake Yuki he drove with Yamamoto in comparison to the real Yuki he had already drove, and 3) he didn't clock Sakura as familiar like he did Shiho.
  • Ooh! Another thing I just thought of was Sakura's final lines to her mother about how she found the taxi she took "that night", and until now I thought it was referenced to the night of the murder, especially with how the scenes were cut. But could she simply be talking about the ride with Yamamoto?
  • Maybe the subtitles weren't faithful to the true dialogue, but with the twists and turns of this show, I thought that this just might be another one!

With Sakura apprehended, Rui's name will be cleared

• Her idol career is going to suffer if not is doomed entirely, but at least she'll avoid jail time.