YOU GUYS!

(Funny thing, I use “guy” as an asexual term. So is “”man”, in the context of “Hey man” or “Oh man!”. It’s not a sexist thing. Not consciously, at least. I’m just lazy. If you’re hetero/homo/trans/alien/male/female/all of the above, I’d still call you “guys”. It’s probably because I hang out with a lot of dudes, especially considering I studied in an all-boys high school and work in a very male dominated industry. Why are you reading this anyways? Look below for important announcement! Or above, because it’s in the title too! AAAAARGGHH)

Double K has returned!

Double K by captainosaka, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann characters copyright Gainax

3 new(ish) pages on the 19th and another one on the 21st. The signs are good  for a comeback. I thought the guy took the Kickstarter money and ran, but it looks like he’s back and kicking.

“What the heck is a K and why are there two of them?” , you ask.

Double K is a fan comic of the anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, but set up as a buddy cop series a la Miami Vice/Lethal Weapon. The eponymous “K”s in the title are Kamina and Kittan, two major characters in the original series, who form a chop-busting, crime-crushing, glasses-wearing, gun-stabbing, property damage-causing, heavens-piercing partnership.

The comic itself is fun and loud and brash and funny and outrageous and over the top. Much like its source material. Even if you’re not familiar with the original anime, it’s worth a look. The buddy cop tropes are probably enough to get you familiar with the story and the references to the anime are not critical to understanding it. However, I would highly recommend checking out the anime if you haven’t already. It is OUTRAGEOUS. Imagine a small car-sized robot that can combine with a larger house-sized robot that looks like a giant face wearing spiked shades to form a more powerful robot by drilling into them and then launches attacks with a gigantic drill (Why drills? Because drills are a man’s passion! Geddit?) that breaks all laws of conservation of mass and/or energy that then combines with even larger robots to fight using even larger drills until it combines with a robot inside the moon and then forms a gigantic galaxy-sized being of pure energy and and and BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! Also, the battle music is a rap-opera mashup. It’s a massive love letter to the super-robot genre, deconstructing some of its tropes while also embracing them and taking them to higher planes of kaboomitude. The OMGWTF factor is off the charts. It doesn’t just turn it to eleven, it pulls out the entire casing and wires it up to a supernova. It will melt your face off.

*phew* Enough about Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Double K does carry on the spirit of the original series, putting that same amount of energy and intensity into the buddy cop genre instead of the giant robots.

Double K by captainosaka, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann characters copyright Gainax

QUICK SUMMARY: Kamina is a loose cannon cop who plays “car-chicken” with criminals, and always uses his initial partner, Simon, as bait to lure unsavoury types. Even if it means dressing him up as a streetwalker. They get shouted down regularly by their boss, Police Chief Genome, who then reassigns Kamina to new transfer Kittan, who is initially presented as the straight laced by-the-book good cop. They fight crime. Then, EXPLOSIONS!

The art is nice and the transposition of the Gurren Lagann characters to the action cop serial universe is very well done. The plot is pretty predictable as it plays with a lot of familiar tropes of the genre, but the execution is just great. It embraces the cliches with such gusto that you can’t help but enjoy it. I love its madcap style of over the top humour, which reminds me of some of the ridiculous moments in Nextwave at times. It’s definitely something to check out. 3.5 out of 5 Galaxy Shurikens! (I had to deduct some for the long wait between updates, plus these things are fun to throw around. *THWIP* *THWIP*)