Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:43:51 — 47.6MB)
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Two episodes in a month! It’s practically an AWO double decker, so it’s only fitting that Clarissa review the surprisingly overlooked Tiger and Bunny spinoff of sorts, Double Decker! Doug and Kirill.
Introduction (0:00 – 48:48)
Despite lengthy technical errors and chat derailments into egregiously off-topic areas, the charity stream was a success! You can watch a VOD of the entire thing here. We’ve also got a Patreon set up, but it’s basically a tip jar. We’re not so sure about tier rewards and all that, but it seems that a few of you have already found it thanks to our tweeting about it one time. Over in the emails, we hear from Artist Alley crafter The Lumbering Blacksmith (who also has a Facebook page) on a rarely-seen way to engage fans of Japanese animation: woodworking! As the Reiwa era dawns–we got this episode out just under the wire–we bid farewell to two Most Dangerous seinen manga pioneers, Monkey Punch and Kazuo Koike, both of whom died recently of pneumonia in their 80s. There have been quite a few obituary tributes written for both, but we think Jog’s writeup over at The Comics Journal is the one to beat. He’s the only one bold and daring enough to include pages from Golgo 13, The Starving Man, and Offered. When we grow up, we hope to be as awesome as he–wait, what do you mean we’re the same age?!
Promo: Right Stuf Anime (48:48 – 51:15)
Megalobox is coming to Blu-Ray, and Right Stuf has an exclusive bonus for those wishing to get the Limited Edition. You’ll get 6 character art cards, each done in the style of a fight poster. Sure, right now as of this writing Megalobox is streaming on Crunchyroll and just wrapped up its Adult Swim broadcast last month. But years from now, who’s to say it won’t just suddenly vanish with little to no warning? We just saw that happen with Cat’s Eye, after all. If you liked that series and have the means to do so, you may want to consider buying the set just so that it’s always accessible for you.
Review: Double Decker! Doug and Kirill (51:15 – 1:43:51)
Clarissa reviews this recently concluded spinoff of sorts to the 2011 hit anime series Tiger and Bunny, which awakened a generation to their desire for dream daddies. If you never saw T&B on account that it happened at the start of the decade, back when it being simulcast was novel and Hulu was still free, don’t worry because the two are rather different despite having very similar appeal and production staff. Though we will note that for now, Tiger and Bunny remains in print on Blu-Ray and is currently streaming on Netflix, both dub and sub. Double Decker isn’t about superheroes, but it is about dynamic duos fighting super-criminals nevertheless. We talk about what makes this show so darned great and speculate as to why it just hasn’t quite caught on in the United States to anywhere near the degree it seems to have in Japan.
I was about to ask if you will cover that amazing Karl Marx anime.
And then I did.
I liked Double Decker a lot, enough to have done fanart even, but I definitely liked it more when it was in episodic sitcom mode than towards the finale when it remembered there was a plot to resolve.
Also I fully expected there to have been more people in the comments saying ‘I watched Double Decker and enjoyed it’ :/
I tried to watch Double Decker, as I’ll give anything AWO recommends a chance, but it just wasn’t a show I could connect with. I turn forty in 2019, and having handed in my expired otaku card in my late twenties, there are now very few new anime shows that engage me. Lingering affection for the medium means I still try and watch several shows a year but usually only one really sticks. The last show that really hit was A Place Further Than the Universe, which I expected nothing from but was incredible. Guess that kind of intense emotional sincerity is more what I’m after these days. Although I definitely approve of some of the female character designs in Double Decker. I miss the days of sexy anime WOMEN, and not “Guards, seize him!”
I think the reason Double Decker never really got its time to shine/appreciation from the anime fanbase was because it came out post-Sony acquisition of Funimation. They seem to figure that Funi doesn’t need any partnerships with outside companies to get by, and that means there was never any chance of it getting on Toonami – I think the live Tweeting audience would’ve given the show a good awareness boost, especially since it had some Black Dynamite the Series vibes.
That said, I also think that without that shared live experience while slightly loopy late at night, the show is kind of a slog to get through episode to episode, because so much of it (at least in the first 4 episodes or so) is just Kirill cringe. If you’re into that, it works great, but if you aren’t, the joke runs a little flat because they lean on it so damn hard.