Twin Angel Break

Note: I consider it necessary to watch Tokimeki Paradise as a prequel to fully enjoy this series.
(edit: it wasn't marked as a prequel at the time of this review)

This one's a roller coaster, definitely the hidden gem of the season. It piles a ton of absurd comedy onto your lap but also has exciting climaxes that will have you cheering through the screen, and isn't scared to have some gut-wrenching dark turns along with one of the best villains I've ever seen in anime. Even though the series is largely parodic in nature, I still found myself tearing up on multiple occasions, and found the ... last few episodes quite thrilling.

All in all, this is something you will definitely like if you are into cute girls in comedic situations with plenty of fan service and some otaku-pandering twists and turns in the storyline. The supporting characters are top-tier, the romance between the cute trap and our guy Billy being a story worthy of further episodes alone. I giggle like a dumb baby every time baa-chan falls face flat on the floor. The transformation sequences are among my favorite in mahou shoujo, their super sentai poses and monologues hit just right. I think this series is very much worth watching, but make sure you watch the previous installments first! A lot of things happen that make more sense or are a lot more exciting had you watched the previous series, particularly near the end. I feel like most people who rated this low didn't watch the previous series under the impression that it wasn't a prequel, and were in the dark about quite a few things, and didn't enjoy the plot reveals those who watched Tokimeki got to enjoy.

Much like Twin Angel's first TV series (Tokimeki Paradise) BREAK is much better written than most people would expect and, as some might say, than it deserves to be. Whether one likes the content of the show or not, fundamentally BREAK tells a coherent story in a surprisingly mature manner (mature, relatively speaking for the kind of show that this is). Much like Tokimeki Paradise, plot points are revealed subtly and intelligently, and most importantly, the writing is focused on telling the story. With simple characters and a simple message, the most important thing a writer can do is shape the story in a ... way that feels natural to the viewer. It's simply good writing. It's the kind of writing a lot of 'mature' shows could afford to adopt. Unlike Tokimeki Paradise some of the goofiness is sacrificed for a somewhat serious story near the end. Oddly enough, or maybe because of how well it's handled, it works well. When something that is for the most part a light-hearted magical girl romp tries to be serious, dramatic or emotional one would expect some eye-rolling. But BREAK manages to slip dramatic, serious, emotional shit in without sacrificing the feeling of the previous light-heartedness, and it isn't like the goofiness goes away completely either. BREAK has found a great balance of being serious when it should but not forgetting that there's a limit to how much the viewer is going to care. That's self-awareness.

The show would be better off if it gave its side characters, like Billy, more screen time. There is some comedy gold to be found in their antics.

Also, the villain is actually a really good villain. It's almost uncanny.

We have new characters this time around, and judging from the first episode one would think it an iteration or spin-off. But [insert good writing here] as the story progresses we learn more about why this new Twin Angel team is running around. Also, it's refreshing to see these new girls. I personally liked their characters better than the originals. The ending could have been better but the build up made up for it.

There's not much else to say. Most people will refuse to admit that this is a solid show, simply on principle. And judging from the score here on MAL there is obviously a ratings threshold for 'shows nobody told me were good.' It's nothing ground breaking but simple done well is almost always better than extravagant done poorly.

The Twin Angel series is based off of a series of slot machine games, first as a 3 episode ova, and then a soft reboot/remake of those ovas in the form of a 12 episode tv anime. The original is a smartly written, fun parody of the magical girl genre.

Twin Angel Break is… a Pretty Cure knockoff. If you’re reading this you probably have some understanding of precure’s existence, but for those who don’t, it’s the biggest magical girl anime franchise and is the sole reason this genre hasn’t fallen into obscurity like super robots. (Please come back my sweet, sweet robot anime) and ... as a series that in japan is more popular then even madoka, it will of course have it’s share of imitators.

But that isn’t what twin angel was. What was once a parody is now playing everything painfully straight, but that isn’t even the biggest problem with it. No, a standard magical girl show can be fine, but the issue is the incredibly poor production quality of it all.

Let’s see, how can I describe the animation quality of this show? Uhm, how about absolute garbage. I haven’t seen a show this poorly animated in a long time, JC Staff can put out some high quality animation when it wants to, but they clearly weren’t even trying here. Characters move stiffly, fights have barely any motion, and it just looks bad at all times, hell even the color design is worse than the original! Bright colors were replaced by boring pastels making everything look washed out.

The characters of Twin Angel have never been amazingly deep or interesting, but this show appears to have gone out of its way to craft the least interesting cast of all time. I didn’t even know half the cast’s personality by the end. The main cast of the original are sidelined for boring, uninteresting replacements at best, or at worst transformed into the mascot. Yeah, did you like the third ‘Twin’ Angel from the original tv series? Too bad she’s a damn hedgehog now! This is quite frankly insulting to fans of the original IE ME, and you should feel insulted too, even if you didn’t watch the first one. Why? Because the show assumed it needed a mascot character to sell, because Precure has a mascot every season. But you know what show didn’t have a mascot animal? That’s right kids, Twin Angel.

I bet you think from this description that this is a show about the new Twin Angel being magical girls? Hahahahahahahaha I’m so sorry but this is a show about how tragic it is to be a robot. That’s right, for about a third of the run the plot is about two brand new characters, a robot girl and boy who were made by the villain to be idols so they could steal people’s happiness? And then they’re sad and stuff and what the hell does this have to do with twin angel???


Oh, and the villain of this season is so poorly defined in their motivations they might as well have had none. In the original the villains were thieves trying to steal art or riches or magic items and in this it’s some woman who wants to revive a different evil villain we’ve never met? Is he from the pachislot games? I don’t know and the show never even tries to make you care.

Sound, what sound? The music, voice acting, and sound effects are all so lackluster and standard I have literally no opinion on them. I can’t remember a single thing about it and I watched the last episode of the show like 20 minutes before writing this.

Twin Angel Break, like Nanoha Vivid before it, utterly fails to revive a classic magical girl franchise, and in the same way no less. It fails to understand the appeal of the original, offering an experience absolutely nothing like it’s predecessor, with the bare minimum of effort put into it.

Avoid this show, avoid it as hard as you can. Watch literally any other magical girl show (wait no, don’t watch Nanoha Vivid that sucks too), you’ll have more fun. Watch Precure, watch Nanoha or Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura or the original Twin Angel, but do not watch this one. Don’t accept this garbage, do not let japan think this is a passable magical girl experience.

You deserve better.