Common Name: Twin Angel Break
Alternative Names: Twin Angels Break, Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel: BREAK
Score: 5/10, 5/5
Length: 12 Episodes
Genre: Magical Girl, Action, Comedy
Summary: Following the defeat of the previous Twin Angels, the minions of the vanquished Dark Lord Zelucifer have been given free reign to wreak havoc on humanity. Their goal: drain the happiness from humanity so they might revive their lord. Yet one of the angels survived, albeit transformed into a helpless hedgehog, and has taken it upon herself to establish a new team of Twin Angels to rid the world of this evil once and for all. Now, the fate of the world hinges on how well the spunky Amatsuki Meguru and the distant Kisaragi Sumire can work together. They might not be the strongest Twin Angels the world has seen, but they're the best we've got.
Review: Alright, all cards on the table--if you haven't noticed by now, the way that I regard and evaluate shows hinges on one thing over all else, "originality" or by another name "creativity." If it sticks to the mediocre while having a story to tell though, I tend to rate it better than average. Similarly, when a show refuses to do anything new or interesting, without being outright offensive, then it'll likely fall slightly below the average. So, with that mindset established, it really doesn't take much to see why I'm content to let Twin Angel Break sit on a perfect average score.
Especially when you realize the only reason I ever considered rating this show any higher was because
of the side characters: Sheep girl (best girl), Fake Psycher, normal girl, and "IT'S A TRAP."
I say I'm comfortable putting it there because there really isn't anything particularly interesting about Twin Angel Break but there isn't anything particularly uninteresting about it either though. It just kinda sits as this perfectly calculated medium of mediocrity that does what it's supposed to--i.e. tell a pretty generic magical girl story that'll get someone's kids to sit down in front of the TV and shut up for half an hour--and nothing more. To give you a pretty solid idea of what I'm talking about, consider the American release of Sailor Moon or, more recently, the PreCure franchise. These are stories about young girls fighting the forces of evil while they are still growing as people. While that concept could lead to a lot of variety, there are always a few big staples that define these shows. First, there's probably some league of villains who each have some weird, but strangely youthful, shtick. Second, there is probably some kind of love interest who helps the cast but hides his identity. Third, the show takes on something of a wave pattern of the heroes losing to the villains but they somehow win out in the end. Lastly, there's probably a good chance that things might take a suddenly dark and murder-y turn toward the end because you have to have an enemy you can root against without a second thought. While the previous two shows I mentioned would likely earn a solidly above average score, since they are the shows that set the precedent for the genre, Twin Angel Break falls in the middle because it does all these things I mentioned without a hint of creativity or nuance behind it. Everything from the characters (except the quirky side characters I mentioned), to the conflict, and the overall course of the plot is something you've likely seen or heard of if you're even remotely familiar with the magical girl genre.
Heck, I bet you can tell everything you need to know about the main characters
from this single, unimportant picture alone.
Yet, at the same time, I can't say it's a totally heartless or uninteresting show. It walks the balance necessary to keep things amusing without actually having anything to say. If I had to make a comparison, all the other Magical Girl shows I've ever seen and talked about in the past (minus the grimdark ones) are friendly and amicable people that are more than willing to strike up a conversation with you for better or worse. Twin Angel Break, however, is like that bland and unimportant acquaintance you can talk at for hours but only responds with affirmative grunts to reassure you that they're listening. Sure, it's nice to have someone like that in your life but they likely won't leave any significant impact on your life or decisions. So, in that way, it's neither good nor bad; it's just kinda there for you when all your actual friends are off...I don't know...playing sports or something?
Heck, maybe they're out saving the world while you're just watching this...thing.
Jokes aside, there really isn't much to say about this show other than, "it's a pretty OK magical girl show." It follows the formula without much positive or negative deviation. There are a few cringey and funny moments sprinkled throughout the show, but all they really do is add enough variation to sway things back toward its average center. The characters of Meguru and Sumire aren't really anything more than 2-dimensional cutouts who are as expressive and variable as that restriction allows. While they don't necessarily get along, due to their conflicting personalities, they do form something of a workable friendship that balances their tsuntsun and deredere natures for the sake of saving the world. That developing friendship is about as far as their character development goes, however, so it really isn't worth much note. The villains are idiotic and campy in that same way that's typical of the magical girl and sentai (aka magical guys for boys) genres.
Actually, a good way to think about it is that this show is nothing but camp and tropes
that have been proven to work, and all this show does just reaffirms that fact.
In spite of how average it is though, I'll admit that I kinda liked it. For me, Twin Angel Break was a palate cleanser for the other shows that aired during the season that kept me engaged enough to watch it week after week without developing any amount of fondness or disdain. It is simply the quintessential magical girl genre distilled into a science. Yet, I can't deny that I feel a little sad for it, since this brand of mediocrity doesn't live up to the Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel name. As I mentioned in my summary, this show is technically something of a sequel to an older magical franchise, one that was about as fun and quirk as any other magical girl show but still had the kind of childish creativity that this show utterly lacks. Even considering that, though, I can't bring myself to hate Twin Angel Break for how little it cares about being fun and creative. As a stand-alone series, it was good solid fun that had all the components necessary to make a pretty average magical show, so that's what it did. Does that mean I'd recommend it though? Sure, I guess. I mean, there's no reason not to do so if you're a fan of magical girl shows. Just don't go into it thinking that this is some troll review hiding a show that will blow your mind because it really isn't that good.