I have a problem, and it’s the second episode of Double Decker! Doug & Kirill’s fault.  It’s late, I have work in the morning and I didn’t set aside much time for this post, figuring it was going to be a pretty brief check-in.  But I’ll be damned if it didn’t almost blow me away, this ep – I mean, it was really good.  I liked the premiere OK, but it didn’t exactly make a deep impression on me.  It was more agreeably odd than outright impressive, but that oddness got kicked up a few notches this week.  And that really made a difference.

I wouldn’t say Doug & Kirill reminds me so much of Tiger & Bunny per se, though there are similarities.  But it’s staking out an aesthetic that’s quite its own.  So far at least it’s definitely sillier than T & B was.  That show was definitely outlandish and fantastical, but only rarely silly – whereas that seems to be Double Decker’s stock and trade.  From the goofball narration to the repetitive bizarre close-ups of the bizarre chief Travis to the ED (which is my favorite of the season so far by a mile), this show embraces its own absurdity in quite a winning way.  When you’re going for this style you have to embrace it with total abandon or it simply doesn’t work.  Half-assed, and you’re just trying too hard.  But Double Decker is definitely going at it whole-assed.

There do seem to be some serious themes here.  There’s the drug trade (Anthem).  Kirill talks about being an orphan and losing his sister.  And I was kind of blown away when Doug said his reasons for wanting to be a detective were to eliminate poverty – and class.  You don’t see that subject broached too often in anime, and I was frankly expecting Doug’s answer to be a joke.  But mostly, it’s just silliness.  And more fun than a shipping container full of monkeys (minor quibble – those are chimps.  And chimps aren’t monkeys).

Doug comes off as an especially interesting character in this episode.  He looks like a matinee idol take on a cop.  And he’s damn smart – or at least, has amazing intuition.  But he’s also a major space cadet and given to bouts of incongruously odd behavior at inopportune moments.  We can see Kirill begin to develop a worshipful awe towards Doug, but he definitely can’t figure him out.  As for Kirill himself, he’s still mostly playing the butt-monkey (not chimp) role.  His overeagerness could go either way at this point, and the success of Double Decker may well hinge on how well he wears as a character.

For now though, it’s all pretty good.  I quite liked the plot this week, which saw Travis (who’s still hiding something, of that I’m sure) telling Kirill he was fired but being talked into giving him a week to prove himself.  This he does with an assist from a convenient prison break and his old informant.  It was good exposition for the crime mythology, and broadly entertaining.  I also love the art design here.  The backgrounds and location shots are fantastic, the direction is quite clever and stylish.  In short, good stuff – we’ll see if the next few episodes can maintain this high standard.  If they can, we have a keeper for sure.

ED: “Buntline Special” by Vickeblanka