Double decker? Isn’t that when you… hm, nevermind. 

— Anyways, I’m told that some of the people who worked on Tiger & Bunny are the minds behind this show. That’s all fine and dandy, but that just reminds me that Tiger & Bunny never really got a sequel. Sure, it got a couple of movies, but eh…

— But this post is about Double Decker, and you know what? I kinda like it. The show oozes style.

— Animation-wise, it’s pretty nice to look at. Lots of well-drawn, colorful characters on top of detailed backgrounds. The action can be a bit gratuitous at times, but you can also just call this style. Even when the show resorts to 3-D animation during a car chase — hell, what anime doesn’t resort to 3-D during a car chase — it doesn’t look so jarring. Of course, Sunrise’s quality tends to dip real fast once we get further and further away from the first few episodes, but who knows? Maybe the animation will hold up from start to finish this time.

— So why is this show called Double Decker? Boss runs Seven-O, a team of detectives in charge of Anthem-related cases. What’s Anthem? A drug with lots of gnarly effects. In any case, Boss coined the Double Decker moniker, because his detectives run in pairs… um, lots of detectives run in pairs. Y’know what? It doesn’t really matter.

— Boss is obviously not his real name. His real name is just Travis. Essentially, he likes nicknames, so he has one for each member of his team.

— Doug, one of the two main characters, is cool, sharp, and unflappable. He’s fittingly nicknamed “Veteran.” Unlike other characters cut from the same cloth, Doug abstains from being a “too-good-for-you” jerk. Y’know, the type who will be impatient with a newbie, because they don’t know the ropes just yet. Instead, our Veteran smoothly ambles his way through situations with his deadpan humor. That’s a good thing, ’cause…

— …he gets paired up with the other main character, Kirill. Somewhat androgynous in appearance, this young man aspires to be a hero. Unfortunately, all he seems to have is idealism. He’s almost the opposite of Doug in every way. He’s inexperienced, emotional, and a bit dull in the head. So what exactly does he offer Doug? How does he actually help? Well, we’ve got an entire series to develop his character, so there’s no need to pin Kirill’s true strength down just yet. For now, he’ll just have his pluck.

— Oh right, nicknames. At first, Kirill was “Rookie” (for obvious reasons), but this only lasted for a day. He then called himself “Okappa,” but that doesn’t appear to be sticking either.

— Kirill also has a missing big sister. They were both orphans, but she disappeared at some point. He became a cop just to look for her. I’m sure she’ll turn up at some point down the line. Whether or not she’s still in one piece is something to be seen.

— Of course, Seven-O has other detectives working for it, but we barely know anything about them just yet. After all, it’s been just two episodes. I imagine the show will eventually devote at least one episode to each of these colorful characters.

— Deana, AKA “Pink,” appears to be the resident sniper. She’s also rude and bit rough around the edges.

— Partnered with Deana is Kay, AKA “Rookie.” Yeah, she joins the team immediately after Kirill. On the surface, she seems to be the most normal out of all these characters.

— Then you have Yuri, the resident silver-haired character. Her nickname is “Robot.” Maybe she has the cold personality of a robot.

— She’s partnered with Maxine, AKA “Boxer.” Why Boxer? Dunno. Maybe ’cause she looks aggressive? I don’t know, but out of all the girls, I think she has the best character design. Maybe it’s just the hair. Either way, it looks like she and Robot might have a thing for each other.

— Finally, you have Sophie, who appears to work behind the scenes to help support the detective. I dunno why she looks like a doll.

— So like I said, these guys handle Anthem-related cases. If they see someone being robbed, well, that’s up to the police. But if the robber is under the effects of Anthem, that’s when Seven-O takes over.

— As you might expect, Anthem is a drug that gives you all that pleasant drugged-out feeling. That’s not the bad part. The bad part is how it remove your natural limiters and induce evolution right on the spot. This drug can alter your genome. The bad guy in the second episode managed to escape from a prison by using Anthem in order to make himself hot. Yes, the drug can make you handsome.That’s, um, wild. Unfortunately, you can’t always control what Anthem does to your body. Sometimes, the induced evolution can run amok. I imagine a few episodes will be devoted to where Anthem came about and why it’s being produced, huh? There’s a guy in the OP who even looks like he’ll be a recurring villain.

— The good thing is that after taking some medicine in the form of bullets, an Anthem-user can return to normal.

— It’s not that Double Decker is particularly fresh or original. After all, the first two episodes don’t exactly take risks in the storytelling department. The series begins by introducing us to Kirill, and how he eventually got roped into becoming a Seven-O detective. Let’s just say that although he wants to be a hero, he’s not exactly very capable. At the moment, anyways. Maybe he’ll undergo a great deal of character development as the story unfolds, but right now, Kirill is a bit of a hot mess.

— Then in the second episode, Kirill goes on his first case. He tries his best to contribute, but for the most part, the case is closed thanks to Doug’s sharp intuition. In awe of his partner’s aptitude for the job, Kirill swears that he’ll make himself useful one day.

— So what do I like about Double Decker? So far, it’s just well put together. The characters have a lot of energy, and although the humor won’t make you bust a gut laughing, it made me smile from time to time (especially this cheekily self-aware moment during a car chase). The episodes seem to move along briskly, never slowing down too much and boring me.

— The plot hasn’t taken shape, but we’ve only gotten two episodes. I just hope it doesn’t stay too episodic.

— Last but not least, the OP is nothing to write home about, but I like the ED.

— I’ll probably blog this show weekly unless there’s a huge drop in quality after the first two episodes. At the very least, this should be more entertaining to me than Planet With. Should.