Well, that’s another series that’s made the cut.  I probably should have committed to Double Decker! Doug & Kirill already – it showed me enough in the first four episodes to make the call, but I had just a bit of hesitancy there for some reason.  But this week’s was a pretty solid level-up in many respects.  It may not have been the rollicking joy ride the earlier eps have been, but it showed for certain that this series can do serious, and be taken seriously as a crime story.  And it gave us some real character growth too.

We do get some signature D&K comedy, courtesy of the narrator – who tells us that the story of Derrick and Kirill’s meeting was “boring” and fast-forwards through it.  Instead we jump right into the meat of the story, and what a story it is.  A member of the Anthem crime syndicate Esperanza is about to be executed, and asks to be speak to Doug to confess a 6th murder (in addition to the five he was sentenced for).  This fellow is “Z”, Zabel Franklin, and he confesses to murdering “A” – which, since the leadership of Esperanza is ranked by letter (except it actually isn’t), is a pretty big deal.

There’s a lot going on here, both in terms of plot and character nuance.  Doug has a lot personally vested in the Esperanza file clearly (he later tells Kirill that his first partner – pre-Derrick – was killed by them).  Z is a master manipulator, who seems to be desperately bargaining for his own life, and the two death row guards make a study in contrasting methods.  His act certainly seems to suck Kirill in, and Doug scolds his young partner not to get personally swept up in the case.

The irony here is pretty clear, especially once Doug manages to get Z temporarily extricated so that he can lead the police to A’s body before the time of his execution as part of a plea deal down to life imprisonment.  All along on this excursion Kirill keeps telling Z not to keep raising his own death flags, but once the formidable Bamboo, better known as “B” (Namikawa Daisuke no less) attacks the convoy at the abandoned school where A’s body is buried (yet another gorgeous background design) Doug’s own lack of distance from the case reveals itself.  For once it’s Kirill taking charge of the moment and warning his partner to watch his own self.

I’m not sure what’s up with B, who seems to have superpowers and isn’t using Anthem to get them – could he possibly be a NEXT, and thus the long-awaited Tiger & Bunny tie-in at last?  But in fact he’s not the one in charge here, Zabel is – and the whole thing has been a ruse to get him out of prison, with the help of the abusive (and doomed) guard Ricky who’s been helping him all along.  It’s a good twist, one which I sensed was coming a few minutes before it did but still packed quite an impact.  Z is nothing if not opportunistic – he seems to have used the occasion to rat out several potential rivals to the police, leaving Doug and Kirill a consolation prize for losing Z.

This was easily the weightiest episode thus far in Doug & Kirill, and the series proved it has the lifting power to handle such stories without any problem.  It’s also nice to see Doug show a little frailty and Kirill some steel and grit under pressure, because the gap in competence between them has been a bit of a stumbling block to their partnership really taking off narratively.  I don’t want to lose the irreverent fun we got from the first four episodes of this series, and I don’t think we will – it’s just nice to know it has the arsenal to entertain in multiple ways.