I noted last week that Double Decker pretty much has two modes it operates in – the gritty cop drama and the absurdist sci-fi cop satire – without much of anything in-between.  Well, we finally got an in-between episode this week, one that was roughly equal parts comedy and drama.  And it may not be a coincidence that it was probably the weakest episode of the series so far, though that bar is high enough that it still leaves room for it to have been pretty good.

Watching this episode put me in mind of something like “21 Jump Street” – which I also tend to think was not a coincidence, as that’s the vibe Sunrise seems to have been going for here.  Make no mistake, some Japanese high schools do have proms (note that although the subs used that term, the script itself only refers to a “dance party”) and cheerleaders, but the overall tone here was much more like an American high school.  And it’s worth noting that Risvaletta (like Sternbild) has never been put out there as a Japanese location, and always seemed more like an American past-future hybrid anyway.

The school in question is Primus Academy, a snooty school that many of the top brass in the police department attended.  Someone is attacking prom queen candidates, Anthem is suspected (forensics bears that out) and so the Seventh is called in.  But they have to operate with one hand tied behind their backs because of the school’s pull with the police, leaving the only inroad as an anti-drug class co-opted by Doug, Kirill, Max and Yuri.

Max is the key figure here – in many ways this ep was her coming out party (no pun intended).  She has her own prom horror story that she doesn’t like to talk about, and about which no one will fill in Kirill (much to his irritation), including Max’ roommate Yuri.  That turns out to be the most interesting part of the episode, as the reveal is an interesting one – the boy she was in love with wanted to wear a dress to the prom himself, and Max – much to her credit – supported him.  That meant social ostracization for her and even worse for him, as his life entered a downward spiral of drug use and depression.

This is all perfectly fine and occasionally interesting, but it comes off as pretty uninspired by the standard of the first seven episodes (and Doug seems to agree – it seems like he’d have been happy enough to sleep through it and after trading up to mascot duty, almost does).  The venal world of the popular kids at a posh high school is hell, a nest of vipers – that’s certainly no revelation.  None of the students is especially charismatic or likeable and all in all, there’s a feeling of going through the motions a bit (apart from the reveal about Max’ past).  Maybe Doug and Kirill can make this third gear work and we just haven’t seen the proof yet, but I’d be just as happy if it stuck with either of the ones it seems clearly to be best at.