Coming to a new school is a fresh start, a time to meet new friends, and an opportunity to realize our dreams. But in this week's featured anime for "The Hook," our protagonists learn that things aren't necessarily going to be all that easy.
This week, we take a look at the first episodes of Love Rice, a minisode series about Japan's favorite staple food, and Twin Angels BREAK, a magical girl sequel series based on a line of slot machines.
Love Rice
Sporting the full title Love Kome -We Love Rice-, this series of four-minute episodes is a pun-filled antithesis to Yakitate! Ja-Pan. In the not-too-distant future, rice is slowly falling out of favor in Japan. Meanwhile, all the grains compete in a Harvest Show (stay with me), with the top performers becoming known as HarveStars. Currently the bread HarveStars known as Yeast King reign supreme. A young rice strain named Hikari Hino dreams of becoming a HarveStar, but arrives at Kokuritsu Inaho Academy only to find that the school is about to be shut down.
No, you haven't missed anything. Each character is an anthropomorphized strain of rice and they're fighting to be more popular than bread.
The Hook: While the concept is off-the-wall and jumps right into this weird alternate universe with no warning, it does eventually read some familiar territory. Kokuritsu Inaho hasn't been as popular since their own HarveStars, Five Grain Rice graduated. So Hikari takes a page out of the Love Live! playbook and decides to save the school by starting a new idol group and becoming the new HarveStars. And so the journey begins to bring "Japan's soul food" back into favor.
Who is it for: This is definitely a strange little project, but fans of shows like Moyashimon -- series meant to highlight the places and things Japan is proud of and wants to support -- may be entertained by this. Also, if you're a fan of really horrible Japanese puns, there's a whole crop of them.
Love Rice airs Wednesdays at 8 AM PDT.
Twin Angels BREAK
From the world of strange inspirations comes a new magical girl duo -- Angel Rose and Angel Sapphire, the heroines of Twin Angels BREAK. A sequel to a series based on a series of slot machines (as the OP is proud to demonstrate), this series marks the tenth anniversary of the franchise.
Our heroine, the cheerful and well-meaning Meguru, dreams of becoming a hero, to the point that she's willing to be really awkward in public just to help people. She moves to Tokyo from a small town, hopeful that her new surroundings will give her opportunities for heroics. Instead, she gets told off by dour classmate Sumire, who informs her that being a hero isn't nearly as easy as Meguru hopes.
But as it turns out, Meguru is scouted out by Miruku-chan, a magical hedgehog, and told that she is one of the Twin Angels. And, in true magical girl anime fashion, her job starts now. She's also told she has a partner and -- surprise -- it's Sumire. But the two have extremely different ideas as to what their job entails.
The Hook: It's been six years real-world time since Twin Angel: Twinkle Paradise, but not nearly that in the world of the show. As it turns out, Meguru's inspiration to become a heroine comes from seeing the original Twin Angels team in action! And if the continuity doesn't do it for you, you might like Meguru's classmates, who include an occult fan, a sheep-girl, and the prettiest, girliest boy you ever did see.
Who is it for: If you're a fan of the PreCure franchise, this is very similar to the first two or three seasons -- both in terms of the focus on the duo and the style of action. Heck, if you're just a magical girl fan in general, give it a watch.
Twin Angels BREAK airs Fridays at 8 AM PDT.
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Kara Dennison is responsible for multiple webcomics, blogs and runs interviews for (Re)Generation Who and PotterVerse, and is half the creative team behind the OEL light novel series Owl's Flower. She blogs at karadennison.com and tweets @RubyCosmos.
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