Taichi Kabasawa is a 22-year-old fourth-year student at Meisei University, simultaneously job-hunting and striving for internet fame. His primary drive is a desperate desire to go viral, fueled by the conviction that social media metrics like likes and followers define personal worth. This pursuit leads him to fabricate stories, such as posting a selfie with taxi driver Hiroshi Odokawa alongside a fictional tale of their encounter.

Kabasawa projects cockiness and attention-seeking behavior, masking profound self-doubt. His actions, including creating misleading content, stem from an inability to accept himself and a deep reliance on external validation. This becomes starkly evident when he pursues the criminal Dobu for online clout. Dobu confronts Kabasawa, exposing his insecurity and explaining that his craving for attention springs from self-hatred, not narcissism. Dobu advises him to seek genuine mentorship over validation from strangers.

This confrontation sparks significant development in Kabasawa. He abandons his deceptive methods for chasing virality and shifts towards creating content grounded in honesty and responsibility. This change reflects newfound humility and a move away from apathetic disregard for others.

Kabasawa's animal-like pygmy hippopotamus appearance results from Odokawa's visual agnosia, a psychological condition rooted in childhood trauma. Kabasawa is human; this reality surfaces during the resolution of the series' central mystery.

His background includes attending university where he is known as a cowardly figure fixated solely on attention-seeking. He uses the online alias @kbsw_t on Twitter to share content aimed at gaining traction. The film "Odd Taxi: In the Woods" introduces no new narrative elements or development for Kabasawa beyond his television series arc.