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EP. REVIEW: Double Decker! Doug & Kirill


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Merida



Joined: 21 Feb 2012
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Tue Nov 06, 2018 3:01 am Reply with quote
I liked that the show pretty much left it open to interpretation whether the gun misfired, Doug missed on purpose or whatever. The parallels between Pat and Kirill where also nice and helped to understand why Doug would choose Kirill as a partner.
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ChimeyChime



Joined: 02 Mar 2018
Posts: 63
PostPosted: Tue Nov 06, 2018 11:38 am Reply with quote
I'm really loving this show. Snappy humor, awesome character designs, and great animation all in a nice neat little package.
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SHD



Joined: 05 Apr 2015
Posts: 1752
PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2018 12:53 pm Reply with quote
I really don't think the show is unsure in anything, be it storytelling or characters. It's just that it's not really trying to do what the reviewer seems to be expecting it to do. This episode, for example - I don't think it was ever meant to be an insightful character study for Max, similarly to the Deana & Kay episode. It's just that "hey, here's these two characters who haven't had their time in the spotlight yet, let's give them something to do." Also, Max is not a main character, so what we've learned about her in this episode (that is more than just "doesn't like proms") is enough, I think.

I enjoyed the episode a lot, it was fun, it had some touching moments, some sweet and cute moments. Not everything needs (or wants) to be Dostoevsky.
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Merida



Joined: 21 Feb 2012
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2018 1:02 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
It's frustrating since Double Decker has shown an interest in tackling bigger issues and more interesting plots previously, but it all just feels phoned-in this week. And it's worse that the opportunity to develop a potentially-cool character was wasted this way.


Wow, did we even watch the same episode?

I have no idea what qualifies as "cool" in your book, but to me Max came off as plenty cool and it wasn't just about "mean girls at prom" but about how true friendship means accepting someone completely.

The Milla thing looked like a gimmick at first, but after this episode it seems like the show is actually trying to make a point about gender roles and tolerance. I think it's no coincidence that all the Double Decker pairings are same sex and their version of a prom looked more like a gay bar my only complaint is that we didn't get to see Doug and Kirill dance, but i guess Doug is one of those guys who are too cool for dancing... Very Happy
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SHD



Joined: 05 Apr 2015
Posts: 1752
PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2018 1:24 pm Reply with quote
Merida wrote:
Wow, did we even watch the same episode?

This is something I wonder about rather often when reading ANN reviews... I think the show did a lot of things in this episode that apparently completely flew over the writer's head because he was focusing on finding something else that the show was not intending to do. Max wasn't wasted at all - we learned stuff about her, nothing incredibly groundbreaking, but enough that she now has a more rounded personality and works as a side character. Sure, she didn't get some sort of in-depth character study but she didn't need one to start with.

Merida wrote:
The Milla thing looked like a gimmick at first, but after this episode it seems like the show is actually trying to make a point about gender roles and tolerance. I think it's no coincidence that all the Double Decker pairings are same sex and their version of a prom looked more like a gay bar my only complaint is that we didn't get to see Doug and Kirill dance, but i guess Doug is one of those guys who are too cool for dancing... Very Happy

The show I think is definitely trying to make a point about gender and tolerance and whatnot. There's this episode with Max's backstory, the small details about Max & Yuri's relationship (that is not made explicitely romantic but also what else it would be considering all the other shots of them), also the Mila/Valery & Derick thing (whatever is going on with Valery re: gender), etc., but also there's the characters treating a gay couple as completely natural, nobody being all "ooohhhh you live together, eh? wink wink nudge nudge" about Max and Yuri, one of the characters chiding Travis for the "Travis' Angels" thing, etc.

(Btw I also wish we could have seen Doug and Kirill dance...)
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Agent355



Joined: 12 Dec 2008
Posts: 5113
Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready...
PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2018 1:30 pm Reply with quote
Was anyone else disappointed that they didn't go full 21 Jump Street? The D.A.R.E. presentation was cute and all, but Kirill would've made a fantastically amusing undercover teenager!

So I didn't find this episode nearly as entertaining as Space Dandy's take on "American high school as filtered through American movies." (Space Dandy *did* go undercover as a teen and had a full High School Musical parody---it's a hard one to beat!) But I disagree that Max's characterization was shallow. What really deepened it was Yuri's insistence that Max would be able to save the drug user. I don't think anyone besides Kirill had any compassion for the drug users they've faced before, so that hinted at depth and nuance---complete social rejection in high school drove Max's best friend to using and possible OD'ing, and the reason she "hates" proms is because she's seen first hand what that level of social pressure can do to a kid. Seriously, especially in Japan where drug use is even more criminalized than in the West, and on this show where drug users are villified to the extent of literally turning them into horrible, mutated, violent monsters, Max having compassion toward a drug user who violently attacked other students, and wanting to save her rather than just arrest her, is a really big deal that speaks to the depth of empathy of both Max and Yuri.
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MaskOfBrutality



Joined: 23 Nov 2017
Posts: 62
Location: England
PostPosted: Tue Nov 13, 2018 8:05 am Reply with quote
Rather liked this episode, surprising considering I was not looking froward to it with Max being the one character I disliked so far (she just looks a wrong'un) but nope, found it enjoyable, learned a fair bit about her for a side character (nice apartment) although the prom setting story was a bit eye rolley for me. Message came through loud and clear though.

Think like others have mentioned reviewer expected too much from an episode about a side character. We learned about the same if not more about Max than we did Deana. If anything I wanted more about Yuri but guess she may get an episode in a week or two? Who knows.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Tue Nov 13, 2018 12:23 pm Reply with quote
Agent355 wrote:
Was anyone else disappointed that they didn't go full 21 Jump Street? The D.A.R.E. presentation was cute and all, but Kirill would've made a fantastically amusing undercover teenager!

I would've preferred it to the silly mascot bit. At least he had all the boys hitting on him. Smile

I really like Max after this (so yeah, I'm another one who didn't get the reviewer's complaints). I felt the same way about prom, except without all the trauma. And Yuri is just the cutest robot I've ever seen. If she and Max are an item, I totally understand why. Also I like how Yuri knows Max so thoroughly. I admit I was pleasantly surprised that Max didn't go ballistic when Yuri told everyone her life story. Like she didn't feel the need to talk about it, but didn't care if Yuri did.

Still can't decide how I feel about Kirill not being told that it's not a secret that she's a robot. On one hand I think they make him too goofy about it, but on the other hand it's really sweet that he tries so hard to protect her "secret."
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Zof





PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2018 5:16 pm Reply with quote
The only confusing bit for me is Double Decker. I expect it to be doing so much better. I foresee it making a bunch of "unappreciated classics" lists someday.
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Zof





PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2018 7:04 pm Reply with quote
I feel like I'm the only person that gets this show. Like, to me it was obvious this episode was the first one in the final arc. How was that lost on everyone?


Protip: The clue is the big mean guy is back. This isn't rocket science. It's roughly the same intellectual workload as buffy the vampire slayer.
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Zof





PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2018 7:32 pm Reply with quote
That being said, I would love a DoubleDecker/GioGio crossover episode. Just for the fashion supernova it would cause. The world might break.
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SHD



Joined: 05 Apr 2015
Posts: 1752
PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2018 7:43 pm Reply with quote
Zof wrote:
I feel like I'm the only person that gets this show. Like, to me it was obvious this episode was the first one in the final arc. How was that lost on everyone?

...I mean, you're not the only one, and it's not lost on everyone. I do love the show and I do think I "get" it, too. And really, it's not a strange or eccentric anime at all, it really shouldn't be difficult to get.

What I don't get is the reviewer, what exactly he's trying to look for in this show, and why doesn't he find it at least a bit strange that the show is not doing what he thinks it should be doing, and wonder if perhaps there's a reason for that. Like, it's not a perfect anime, naturally, but some of the criticism even in this mostly positive review really makes me scratch my head and wonder how perceptions of the same thing can differ so fundamentally. (It's kind of like that person who once posted a long, detailed, in-depth criticism of Tsuritama on a forum, which detailed how Tsuritama was disappointing and how it did so many things wrong... because, apparently, it stubbornly refused to be the show they'd been desperately trying to interpret it as: some sort of subtle existential horror. Tsuritama.)
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Zof





PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2018 7:50 pm Reply with quote
SHD wrote:
Zof wrote:
I feel like I'm the only person that gets this show. Like, to me it was obvious this episode was the first one in the final arc. How was that lost on everyone?

...I mean, you're not the only one, and it's not lost on everyone. I do love the show and I do think I "get" it, too. And really, it's not a strange or eccentric anime at all, it really shouldn't be difficult to get.

What I don't get is the reviewer, what exactly he's trying to look for in this show, and why doesn't he find it at least a bit strange that the show is not doing what he thinks it should be doing, and wonder if perhaps there's a reason for that. Like, it's not a perfect anime, naturally, but some of the criticism even in this mostly positive review really makes me scratch my head and wonder how perceptions of the same thing can differ so fundamentally. (It's kind of like that person who once posted a long, detailed, in-depth criticism of Tsuritama on a forum, which detailed how Tsuritama was disappointing and how it did so many things wrong... because, apparently, it stubbornly refused to be the show they'd been desperately trying to interpret it as: some sort of subtle existential horror. Tsuritama.)


Well said. They try to make things what they aren't. I'm seeing that this season with Goblin Slayer, This show, Release the Spyce, and a few others. I think it's because so many of the "best" shows this season are the kind that spoon feed you. Where you literally know exactly what's going to happen because it's JoJo. Otherwise slimes and puppets can't seem to commit any of the same sins as slayers and spies and cops it seems. They are allowed to just be fun I guess.
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Merida



Joined: 21 Feb 2012
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2018 1:44 am Reply with quote
^Well, it's not like all of these shows are being reviewed by the same person, so different opinions et al...

That being said, i agree with SHD that the reviewer seems to have had certain expectations for this show and is now 'punishing' it for not living up to it...which is especially frustrating since this seems to be a pretty overlooked anime and i doubt these reviews will motivate a lot of people to check it out.
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Brack



Joined: 15 Oct 2005
Posts: 281
Location: UK
PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2018 2:44 am Reply with quote
After the earlier Big O reference in episode 6, we got Brian Cooper this week, a man with Roger Smith's eyebrows and a mysterious prayer on his mind... Not sure if homage, coincidence, foreshadowing or something grander?
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