It’s taken a bit of time to do it, but I think Double Decker! Doug & Kirill has shown that it can master the “hybrid” episode too. Eps #8 and 9 weren’t up to the level 0f the prior six (the premiere wasn’t especially memorable), which were pretty much all-in either on silliness or grit. But this one was a keeper, and it was equally parts irreverent Doug & Kirill tomfoolery and serious business. It was also another case of this series engaging (and very smartly, too) in serious social commentary – something not many anime out there seem to have the appetite for.
I guess we knew this series was set in the U.S. (I believe Tiger & Bunny was too, if memory serves) but this (smallish) wad of cash teenager Gus whips out in order to proposition Kirill is the proof. Kirill is there visiting Doug – who’s milking his paperwork so as to buy himself a little time off work (which is going to foil his plans by finding him anyway) – and there’s more to that proposition than meets the eye. Yes, Gus mistakes Kirill for a girl (that’s a near-weekly occurrence at this point) but he’s not trying to pick “her” up himself – it’s actually for his chronically ill dad.
Yes, Double Decker is taking on the idea that Anthem might have some legitimate medical uses – and I’m glad it’s going there, because any show that’s willing to tackle nuance rather than the black-and-white has a leg up in my book. The director of this hospital is Dr. Hope (irony intended, one presumes) and he seems to specialize in terminally ill patients. Four of them have turned up dead on the streets, which leads Deana and K to the hospital to investigate (where Deana gets propositioned by Gus too, and reactions with outrage – because he didn’t offer her enough, though Gus was actually after K).
There’s a rather big bombshell dropped here too – Kirill is actually a genius. Of sorts, anyway – he has an understanding of the genetic processes behind Anthem that impresses the hell out of Dr. Hope, who asks Kirill to try and get him an in with the military. It turns out Kirill actually authored a paper on “silent” genes when he was in high school, in order to earn scholarship money. This revelation – and the casual way it was dropped – certainly is an unexpected twist. And it seems relevant to the sudden interest the military has taken in Kirill after he revealed his “mantra” last week.
Make no mistake, Dr. Hope is a bad guy. He’s working for Esperanza, helping to try and decode the Anti-AMS bullets’ composition by experimenting on his patients. But as both he and Doug say, any drug can be cure or poison, and if it were theoretically possible for Anthem to offer relief at the very least and possibly even a chance at recovery for the dying, wouldn’t it be immoral not to at least explore the possibility? Dr. Hope is certainly the wrong messenger, but it’s not entirely clear that the message itself is without merit.
Having rejected the false hope Anthem as wielded by Dr. Hope provides, Gus’ father resigns himself to his fate. That means Gus is going to be an orphan soon, and he tries to make his father feel better about his future by play-acting a wedding with Kirill as the bride. That gag has been a long time coming, but it’s full of subtext – I mean, when Kirill tells Valery (he calls him Milla) that he’ll walk him down the aisle, that could be taken in so many different ways. As to the matter of whether Anthem has potential for good, it’s not going to die here, I don’t think – there’s more to be mined from this vein, that’s for sure.
Dop
November 26, 2018 at 11:55 pmI did like that Ghostbusters reference.
elianthos80
November 27, 2018 at 8:05 amKirill makes one beautiful bride :,) <3 also when need and cash calls he is a bit of a savant? Bring it on!
I do agree the serious and less serious mix worked well this week plus it the whole medicine angle is good food for thought and ethical dilemmas, I also wish we could be sure to have some more time to see the series tackle more stories and themes in this vein. It does seem like DD on top of its colourful stylish and diverse charm – and in spite of some uneveness in storytelling – has its heart in the right place and that's such a comparatively rare feature in my book…
Anyway the military subplot thickens! Is this the smell of backstory reveals and conspiracy 8D? And the Ghostbusters got busted?
Scampi
November 27, 2018 at 11:34 amIt’s quite interesting that one day after this episode came out there’s a furor over China making genetically modified babies, and the discussions are all about the morality of human genetic experimentation. It’s as you said that the inclination is that genetic experiment is only applicable for terminally ill patients. The thing is there’s no way to check for off-target side effects in a single generation. Imagine somehow these Anthem cured users get married and produce babies. There’s no way to say that the babies won’t be born without defects, and it’s unfair to babies and the next generation who have to deal with tainted gene pool. I’d recommend to read up on the discussion in scientific community to see how morality in scientific experimentation is.
Guardian Enzo
November 27, 2018 at 11:43 amInteresting. But would the Anthem-modified genes be something that could be passed to offspring? Unlike Kirill I’m no expert on this, believe me.
Scampi
November 27, 2018 at 2:15 pmIt can be passed on to offspring if the egg/sperm cells are modified too, which I assume Anthem to be capable of doing because the mutation seems to cover the entire body. It just seems really unstable compared to how NEXT works in T&B. The Overdrive mutation often go out of control and turn Anthem users into monstrosities. Realistically there’s no way some genetic antidote can return a person to normal after such physical changes, but anti-AMS bullets are super powered to enable hard reset, ignoring the irreversibility of real life genetic experimentation. So in DD the overall risks are much much much lower than in real life and there are understandably less qualms in using for experiments.
Guardian Enzo
November 27, 2018 at 2:20 pmWell, I definitely ascribe to the theory that if indeed this is the same universe as T & B, it’s a prequel. So everything, including the MacGuffins, is more primitive.
Collectr
November 27, 2018 at 12:12 pm“Doug is actually a genius.” I think you mean Kirill? And is this sudden outburst of utter genius consistent with Kirill’s character up untiil now? But quibbles aside, this episode did work really well. The more the show minimizes the snarky narrator, the better I like it. The characters are interesting enough – and the plot premise twisted enough – to keep the viewer engaged without fourth-wall breaking jokes.
Guardian Enzo
November 27, 2018 at 2:04 pmI did indeed.
I actually don’t have much problem with Kirill being a genius, because he does have some “idiot savant” traits about him. Maybe a bit more foreshadowing would have helped, though.