DOUBLE K A COP DRAMA LIKE NONE YOU'VE EVER SEEN A TOWERING TRIBUTE TO ONE OF THE GREATEST TELEVISION SERIES LIKE EVER AND THE CULMINATION OF THE DREAMS OF A VAST CADRE OF DUDES FROM 4CHAN Will hit your EYEBALLS from ACROSS THE INTERNET ON APRIL 12th OF THIS VERY YEAR A new installment EACH WEEK, MWF BE PREPARED BECAUSE THIS SHIT JUST GOT EVEN MORE REAL THAN YOU COULD POSSIBLY HAVE IMAGINEDImagine an 80's Buddy Cop Show, like Starsky & Hutch, or better yet, Miami Vice. Got the bad acting, and cheesy one-liners, and horrible outfits filling your brain? Good. But most of all, do you remember the explosions, the gunfights, and the invincible protagonists who always fought against all odds to save the day? One man over at deviantArt did. That man was Nathan "Captain Osaka" Maurer, who decided to resurrect the buddy cop genre with the aid of... the cast ofTengen Toppa Gurren Lagann?Enter DOUBLE K, the comic so intense and over the top its name is written in ALL CAPS. Starring Kamina and Kittan as the titular buddy cop duo, DOUBLE K mirrors the story of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in the world of Teppelin Beach, a Miami Beach parody that is under the watchful eye of the GPD.What follows in this setting has to be seen to be believed, with fantastic art, brilliant jokes, and enough Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in-jokes to make any fan of buddy cop films or of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagannlaugh and watch in awe as the protagonists do ever greater feats.Somewhat extraordinarily for a fan-comic, paperback editions of it do exist, evading copyright issues by being sold at a loss. DOUBLE K: VOLUME 0, which covered the first 50 pages, was distributed at Anime Expo 2010 in very limited quantities, and sold out almost immediately. VOLUME 1 will cover the first 5 chapters of the book (with earlier pages seeing an exclusive re-mastering), and is being both distributed and funded via this KickStarter project. Which succeeded so far beyond its fundraising goals that, ironically, it created substantial delays due to having to print vastly more books than planned.
The Jiiha village chief seems pretty into that cute young hooker before realizing that "she" is not only a boy, but an undercover cop.
Page 71 shows that the village chief isn't the first one to fall victim to this. Kamina's Plan A seems to be dressing Simon up as a woman, and it seems to be a plan with a perfect track record.
Oddly enough, when the hookers find out Simon is a cop Simon suddenly has a lot of bodyhair, but is otherwise deliberately drawn to be, in the author's own words, "confusingly sexy".
Badass Arm Fold: Captain Osaka says that Kamina just needed to do the Gunbuster Pose here, because he never did it in the series and all. note Which isn't completely accurate. Gurren does do that pose in episode three. Granted, Kamina was sitting down on it's head, so it sort of counts.
Bar Brawl: Kamina evidently has a habit of starting these whenever he needs a lead on a case.
Kamina: This place is just lousy with desperate assholes, most of 'em just petty crooks... But you'd be surprised how many cough up some real-deal criminal connections after a good old-fashioned bar fight. Kittan:... Kamina: Y'know, now that I think of it, pretty much every major arrest I've ever made had a start at this place! Good times, man. Kittan: ... That's... That is spectacularly unethical.
Benevolent Boss: Lordgenome, actually. Sure, he's not happy with Kamina, but a large part of the reason he partnered him up with Kittan was to give Simon some chance to shine on his own.
Lordgenome: See, what'd I tell you? Five minutes without that idiot and you're already cracking cases like an old pro.
A mysterious sniper shoots Thymilph's chaingun out of his hands from off-panel just as he's getting ready to kill the two Ks. Several pages later, this is revealed to be Yoko, who appears to be both observing and protecting the duo.
Blatant Lies: Kamina states that there's a subtle nuance to the arrests he makes.
Bond One-Liner: Kamina attempts this after having rescued Simon and caught Shaku. It falls slightly flat, though.
Butt Monkey: Simon's treatment has been absolutely brutal.
As per the show, Simon has taken a level in badass by page 100. Kind of. He gets only one good scene all of 117 pages and thishappens. Talk about kick the puppy.
Buddy Cop Show: This is basically the entire premise of/inspiration for the comic.
By-the-Book Cop: Kittan. Graduated Police Academy with top honors, broke arrest records for his department three years in a row, and as a result created a budget surplus large enough to train the four recruits needed to take up his workload after he left.
Except it's all made up — his old chief wanted him out and threatened him if he didn't keep the ruse up.
Charm Person: Inversion: "I think making people surrender all voluntary control of their minds by saying the word PUSSY is Kamina's secret superpower."
Chew Out Fake Out: Kamina tells Kittan the story of a drug bust he handled, and he honestly expects the goody-two-shoes Kittan to berate him over it. Kittan instead proclaims, tears in his eyes, that it's the greatest story he's ever heard, and reveals that he's just as crazy as Kamina, and that his by-the-book image was just a fake-out so he could transfer to another department.
Cool Bike: ...And the King Kittan is a flashy superbike.
Cool Shades: Kamina appears to have at least 2 spare pairs of his trademark shades in his jacket. Kittan also gains a pretty kickin' pair of aviators, and both Simon and Yoko retain their goggles.
Voted 'loosest cannon' in Police Academy, holder of the GPD's highest arrest record... wrongful or otherwise... and the only officer to ever cause more collateral damage than the department could cover. That Kamina.
. If anything, he's even more Chaotic Good in this comic than the original series. Chief Genome makes it quite clear that Kamina only still has his job because he keeps morale high and everyone thinks he's a great cop.
Kamina on this drunk he was interrogating: They just sounded like a bunch of low-rent dope pushers, but hey, the possibility of doin' a raid sounded a hell of a lot more exciting than taking some slurring dingus back to the station. I let the guy go, but I totally snuck like 30 bucks out when I was checking for his ID, so it wasn't a complete loss.
Kittan as well; his entire record was fudged to get Chief Genome to take him.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Heroic example: Simon to the Jiiha Village chief pumped up on Spiral Power.
Doing It for the Art: In order to produce the paperback versions of Volume 1, Cap is required to actually sell them at a loss so as to avoid copyright issues. He's also not actually an artist by trade (rather a musician), so he produces DOUBLE K in his spare time, and actively turns down freelance jobs to work on it. The only benefit he gets is the satisfaction that his fans are enjoying the comic, though he admits himself that this is more than enough for him to be happy with the comic's outcome.
The print copies ofVOLUME 1 were intentionally delayed by Cap for specifically this reason; the earlier pages are noticeably different in style, with the first 20 being done partially by hand. This apparently didn't look great in print samples, and as such, Cap took it upon himself to redraw these pages. T he samples of the new pages are noticeably of a far higher quality and mesh with the current style of the comic more comfortably.
Doujinshi: As of the mass publication of DOUBLE K: VOLUME 1, it could be considered this. The issue of copyright is evaded by the nature of the Kickstarter project funding it: Nate is technically not profiting from the production of the books at all, due to the payment for each covering the production costs of it as well. The rest of the donations go toward setting up a merchandise store.
Dragged Into Drag: Simon is the victim, of course, though it was Kamina that made him do it rather than a group of girls.
Rossiu Adai first appears on the other side of the drug-runners communication on Page 70, and is officially introduced 74 pages later.
'80s Hair: Viral's mullet, which Kamina (and Cap himself) mercilessly mocks him for.
Even Evil Has Standards: And those standards include not turning away Girl Scouts — a fact that Kamina ruthlessly (and awesomely) exploits.
Expy: Several of the prostitutes were other Gainax girls, with Asuka-whore getting the most screentime. Along with Asuka-whore, there's Nono-whore, Lal'C-whore,and Rei-whore. There have been hints of other Gainax girls showing up in the background later. Of course it is also a reminder to the original's Hot Springs Episode, where they were in practically same role.
Gendo and Captain Nemo make an appearance...trying to pick up Simon disguised as a prostitute.
The core-drill-lookalikes, going by the street name "Spiral". The full extent of their effects is not currently known, but they seem to give their users a MAJOR boost in physical power, along with inducing extreme aggression, feelings of invincibility, and hallucinogenic effects. Which really isn't that different from what Spiral Energy does in canon if you think about it.
It seems that the ugly side of Spiral might rear itself eventually, in light of Kittan using it as a desperation tactic despite his self-confessed addictive personality.
Flashback Effect: "And what's this?! The ever-darkening panel gutters would seem to indicate the approach...OF A FLASHBACK"
On page 54, the first time we see Thymilph, his irises are spiralled. 49 pages later, we find out that this is a telltale symptom of Spiral usage, and that he also happens to be one of the primary dealers!
Page 129 features a shadowy sniper on a rooftop in the far background, as well as Kittan slyly stuffing some Drills into his left pocket. No prizes for guessing what these 2 hints will lead into.
Lordgenome has the same spiral eyes he had in the anime. Everyone assumed it was an artifact of his character design. It's looking like that might not be the case...
Seemingly on the road to a subversion, with the revelation that Kittan's Good Cop personality was an act.
As of page 151, it's been abandoned altogether in favor of Bad Cop/Bad Cop.
Groin Attack: When Kamina is interrogating a captured gang member, sticking a gun in his face does nothing to intimidate him. Aiming it at his nuts, however, makes him crack like an egg.
Gross-Up Close-Up: When one of the prostitutes takes a close look at the suspicious-seeming "girl" in their midst, the reader is treated to close-ups of the fake hooker's stubble-covered legs, baseballs stuffed into "her" dress, and beard shadow.
I Love Nuclear Power: The Beastmen are folks mutated by radioactive waste due to the Mayor making cuts on zoning restrictions of where to dump waste.
Impersonation Gambit: Set up and then immediately averted because, "true to form, Kamina immediately pisses away any usefulness this development may have brought."
The forthcoming merch store funded by the Kickstarter project will sell the above shot glasses, as well as other stuff such as Leeron's fabulously 80's pastel-blue unicorn shirt.
Lal'C-whore: You ain't no hooker Simon: S-Sure I am! I love getting paid for sex acts!
Mythology Gag: Predictably, there are more than a few.
The hookers look like other Studio Gainax female characters.
The GPD badge is the Dai-Gurren emblem, except the shades it wear are not Kamina's shades but Simon's star-shaped shades.
Just replace drill with police badge and you get Kamina's famous speech.
There's also the Gunk-Eye, a dive of a bar that's run by Adiane and Viral.
Kamina's gun is the same one Yoko gave him in the anime. You know, the one he almost shot his own nuts off with.
On a similar note, the page pic suggests Kittan's going to get a shotgun—the same one he used to try and hold off the Mugann.
The Jiiha chief starts rambling about doing impossible feats and how he can see invisible things when he uses the Core Drill.
On the page where Kamina kicks the puppy here, in the commentary, Osaka says "poor kid keeps getting left at the altar." This is also what literally happens to him in the finale (though via different means than one would normally expect).
A rather savage version of this came into play towards the end of Chapter 5: Kamina is set to be stabbed in the back by Thymilph, just like in the real series. Likewise, Kittan is about to go out in a blaze of Spiral power shortly before blowing up.
Captain Osaka points out that Thylimph seems to be gunning for Kamina exclusively, further referencing their "chemistry".
Kittan's line after punching Thymilph through the wall of the Gunk Eye is also his final line in the original series, almost verbatim. In both instances it's the first time he truly discovers the power of Spiral, but the context in which it occurs in DOUBLE K is somewhat darker, considering what Spiral has been established as.
Simon manning-up when Nia is in trouble is similar to what occurs in the anime.
Not What It Looks Like: Thymilph is not sure what Kittan and Kamina were doing in that bathroom stall, and he'd frankly rather not know.
Obnoxious In-Laws: Photo bombing at his sister's wedding qualifies Kittan for this. He's also prank called Dayakka enough times to get a special message on the answering machine. It's also why Dayakka fudged Kittan's records and shipped him off to Lordgenome's precinct: he couldn't stand him anymore.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Chief Genome seems to be a lot more patient and supportive of Simon by himself. He'd just rather not have him talk to his daughter while in a dress.
Schedule Slip: Very much so, which is unfortunate given the high quality of the comic — readers have waited weeks, if not months for updates, and it took 3-and-three-quarter years for the comic to reach 100 pages. Cap has attempted to commit himself to a more regular schedule several times, but ultimately his day job (among other things) takes higher priority. However, the KickStarter project founded at the beginning of 2012 will go a long way towards finally establishing a more regular (and much faster) update schedule.
The printed books were delayed for 4 months due to several conflicting factors, with new pages being suspended until the issues were resolved fully.
Shipper on Deck: Kamina seemingly goes out of his way to make Simon look good when Nia's around, and even asks him when he's going to ask her out. In front of the Chief (though ultimately the Chief doesn't seem too against the idea — he just doesn't want Simon asking her out while he's wearing a dress).
Thymilph bags a dual reference to the movie Predator on page 125; he whips out a chaingun, Blain's weapon of choice, and delivers a variation of a line from early in the film.
Page 128 continues a long line of ape-related jokes at Thymilph's expense by referencing Bedtime for Bonzo, a comedy movie from the 1950s involving a chimpanzee.
Averted. When Kamina tries fighting Thymilph, all the Gin he drank catches up with him, and makes it a pretty short fight.
Played straight soon after with Kittan after he uses Spiral, and he was in a far worse state than Kamina.
Sure, Why Not?: "Someone in the comments for the last page suggested that Kamina keeps a wardrobe of embarrassing, Simon-sized costumes in the Gurrenrod's trunk at all times for these kinds of emergencies. I think I will just go ahead and make that canon right now."
Suspiciously Specific Denial: "Just so we're in the clear, though, you're, like, talking about a drive in the sense that we go to the place of your choosing and you, uh, pay me to perform sex acts, right?... N-Not that I'm trying to establish probable cause or anything."
Talking Is a Free Action: Subverted. At the very beginning of the comic during a bust (but after his big entrance and speech), Kamina has a conversation with the prostitutes he's supposed to be arresting. When he turns to talk to Simon, Kamina then sees that his partner had been kidnapped by their suspect in the intervening time.
The Teetotaler: Kittan was one. Then Kamina got involved. Spiral getting involved will probably only make matters worse.
Kamina: You ever try just throwing something at a guy with a hostage? Of course not, who the hell does that? But that is exactly why it works every time.
Trailers Always Spoil: The artist's comments from page four. Spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and inflection have not been changed. note On the other hand, the Cool Shades gave it away even before the author did.
dude DUDE WHO IS THAT MAN RISING FROM THE TRASH CAN FIND OUT NEXT WEEK hint: it is kamina
Universal Adaptor Cast: The entire reason this comic works is because the cast of Gurren Lagann is one. Personalities and character designs are almost completely unchanged (except for Lordgenome), and they fit perfectly in the new setting.
Yoko's role in the story, according to the Cap'n. Seems to be a little more complicated than he originally let on; she appears in the Christmas 2011 art with the gang in the GPD offices, in her Yomako attire to boot. Hmmm...
Adiane and Viral have a makeshift forensics lab hidden in their staffroom, apparently dedicated to uncovering the truth behind Spiral.
When All You Have Is a Hammer: In this case its "When all you have is a wardrobe of woman's clothing, dress Simon in drag."
Wholesome Crossdresser: Simon's been in a dress since the very first strip. It's pretty much Kamina's only tactic.
, the comic so intense and over the top its name is written in ALL CAPS. Starring Kamina and Kittan as the titular buddy cop duo, DOUBLE K mirrors the story of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in the world of Teppelin Beach, a Miami Beach parody that is under the watchful eye of the GPD.What follows in this setting has to be seen to be believed, with fantastic art, brilliant jokes, and enough Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in-jokes to make any fan of buddy cop films or of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann laugh and watch in awe as the protagonists do ever greater feats.Somewhat extraordinarily for a fan-comic, paperback editions of it do exist, evading copyright issues by being sold at a loss. DOUBLE K: VOLUME 0, which covered the first 50 pages, was distributed at Anime Expo 2010 in very limited quantities, and sold out almost immediately. VOLUME 1 will cover the first 5 chapters of the book (with earlier pages seeing an exclusive re-mastering), and is being both distributed and funded via this KickStarter project
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