Double Decker: Doug & Kirill Episode 8 Review: Dancing! Academy Investigation!

Just as I was about to say this show had managed to avoid high school drama… well, there was high school drama. And god knows I hate listening to the unimportant things teenagers like to moan about.

Plot

The episode starts with a high-school girl having been attacked and the team investigating the circumstances and causes behind this attack. After finding anthem traces in the fingernails of the victim, they are led to her prestigious high school whose name does not matter so we’re gonna be skipping it, and find out that there is a prom party coming up soon.

As the school is way too prestigious for the police to be casually butting in, the boss orders the team to go over there and give a talk on drugs. Against drugs. While doing so , they get interrupted by a student who hates the prom and is trying to get it cancelled, as she considers it to be a superficial event based on superficial things like beauty (which, I hate to disillusion you – it is, it is one of the most appalling concepts of celebration in human tradition that objectifies kids and scars them for life).

After the anti-drug presentation, two students approach Kirill and Max and try to blame it all on the girl who is trying to get the prom cancelled. Max is skeptical. Even later, the anti-prom girl, the prom-king candidate and the prom queen candidate’s best friend find themselves in an incident that leaves the two girls injures and the king assumed responsible for that situation.

Max being an experienced prom-person manages to figure out that the culprit is the queen’s bestie, who can’t wait for her moment in the spotlight. After a pretty ludicrous hearty talk she convinces her to get her shit together. We also get to know Max’s backstory, which is cool. Yeah.

Episode Highlights

I don’t want no drama: I hate high school related media, stories, plots, everything. It’s just like a huge no-no to me. From american teenage comedy crap glorifying consumer culture and classism in western high school to anime that cannot seem to realize that HEY, your protagonists do NOT need to be 13 years old to have any sort of appeal to the general public, I find high-school culture redundant and parasitical, just like teenagers themselves. And before you ask – yeah, I was a pretty unhappy teenager myself. Ewww.

Prom: OH GOD WHY. It’s like the ultimate merger of my two most hated themes in media: proms and Japanese high-school plots. KILL ME

Kirill’s robot skills: His naivete and pretty fucking rad dance moves made my day.

Derick’s cooking: Yeah, he may not be a cook, yeah, he may only be cooking frozen ready meals, but HEY, give the guy a chance! He’s… nice.

Pleasantly surprised: When the boss was briefing the team, I could have SWORN he was gonna recommend them to dress up as students and infiltrate the school. Thankfully, he gave them a plan that… Made sense.

Looksism: I’m gonna go ahead and guess this means judging by looks. Very unlkely for anime to make such a reference in mainstream content, but then again, they did go all the way with having Max be so pr LGBT.

What a mess

Cute episode, loved the whole LGBT backstory twist, too sleepy to say any more.

How did you find this Double Decker: Doug & Kirill episode? Let us know in the comment section! And don’t forget to check the rest of the Fall 2018 anime reviews on MANGA.TOKYO!