Off the Hook

"Don't get cooked... Stay off the hook!"

- Off the Hook's catchphrase

Off the Hook (テンタクルズ Tentacles) is a pop idol duo based in Inkopolis Square consisting of Pearl and Marina. They take over the Squid Sisters' duties from the first game as the hostesses of Inkopolis News at the start of the game, as well as Splatfest events.

Music
For solo songs, see Pearl and Marina.

Octo Expansion
When the game starts up the first time after Version, Pearl starts an Inkopolis Fashion Focus about a trend of "squidkids with weird hairstyles", which are actually Octolings. As the broadcast ends, Pearl says that the fashion focus was the 'only best thing' so she will probably never do it again.

Off the Hook makes an appearance throughout the Octo Expansion, helping Agent 8 and Cap'n Cuttlefish by giving advice and commentary on Agent 8's tests. They meet the duo after Agent 8 passes Fake Plastic Station through Cap'n Cuttlefish's walkie-talkie, as they were on Mount Nantai where the signal was the strongest. Pearl and Marina call themselves by their usernames, MC.Princess and DJ_Hyperfresh, respectively. If Agent 8 loses all of their lives in a test at least twice, Marina will offer to use Agent 8's test data and hack the Kamabo Corporation's database to trick the test into thinking Agent 8 passed. If Agent 8 has less than 2000 CQ Points to do so, Pearl will take money from her dad's wallet to be transferred into CQ Points, after which Cap'n Cuttlefish can be talked to, to pay the points back.

After Agent 8 collects all four thangs, Marina discovers they make a blender and the Telephone that had them find the thangs intends on blending Agent 8 and Cap'n Cuttlefish. Before it can do so, however, Marina activates Agent 8's CQ-80's distress signal, summoning Agent 3 and breaking the blender and phone in the nick of time. Marina then tells Agent 8 that they can escape through the hole Agent 3 made. As Agent 8 escapes the facility, Off the Hook shows up with a fleet of helicopters to pick them up along with Cap'n Cuttlefish and Agent 3.

As Pearl raps with Cap'n Cuttlefish, the platform Agent 8 was on rises up and turns out to be a huge statue of a human, with the Telephone, now known as Commander Tartar, intending on destroying all Inklings and Octolings with his blast of primordial ooze. Marina analyzes the statue and discovers that the statue is charging up by sunlight. Therefore, if they can cover it with ink, with the help of her Hyperbombs that Agent 8 has to manually detonate, then the statue will stop charging and Pearl can finish it off with a "Hypersonic Battlecry" to destroy it. After Agent 8 detonates all the Hyperbombs, the statue attempts to fire anyway, prompting Pearl to activate the. As the statue fires, Pearl lets out a giant Booyah and battles with the statue's blast before pushing it back and destroying the statue with pink ink. As the statue collapses into the sea, Pearl and Marina celebrate and watch the credits with their allies.

Live performances

 * On 2018-02-10, Off the Hook had their real-life debut in a concert called "Haicalive", held at Tokaigi 2018. They performed all of their songs except for "Fest Zest". New lyrics were also featured for most of their songs. They also collaborated with the Squid Sisters for the final song, "Now or Never!".
 * On 2018-03-31, at the Splatoon European Championships at Polymanga in Switzerland, a second Splatoon 2 virtual concert was held, as the first one outside of Japan. It was an English version of the previous concert at Tokaigi 2018.
 * On 2018-04-28, another "Haicalive" concert was held at Chokaigi 2018. Their song Nasty Majesty was performed live for the first time.
 * A fourth concert, titled "Off the Hook Live" (Japanese: テンタライブ Tentaraibu), was held at Tokaigi 2019 on 2019-01-26. It was the first concert featuring only Pearl and Marina. It featured more songs from the Octo Expansion in addition to their original songs.
 * At Nintendo Live 2019 in Kyoto, an updated "Haicalive" concert was held on two consecutive days, with the first being 2019-10-13. Off the Hook's casual outfits were given a new color scheme exclusive to these performances, and songs from their previous concert were added to the setlist.

Trivia

 * Off the Hook's Dutch, French, German, and Italian names resemble the English name for the Pokémon Tentacool.
 * Pearl and Marina share similarities with and have similar designs to the Squid Sisters.
 * They all have beauty marks.
 * They all wear gloves. The Squid Sisters wear white gloves and Off the Hook wear black fingerless gloves.
 * They all wear tights consisting of their main colors.
 * Pearl and Marie have light-colored tentacles, and Marina and Callie have dark tentacles.
 * Pearl and Callie have a pink color scheme and Marie has a green color scheme and Marina's color scheme is teal (a combination of blue and green).
 * Pearl and Marie wear a dress, and Marina and Callie's outfits consist of shorts.
 * Pearl has golden eyes with plus-shaped pupils and Marina has eyelashes like the Squid Sisters.
 * They are both expressive and excitable like Callie, and sassy and sarcastic like Marie, while Marina is more prone to being cheery, and Pearl is more prone to being sassy.
 * Marina has a chat room, similar to how Callie has a web blog.
 * In their Japanese text, Pearl and Callie extend syllables with ー, while Marie and Marina extend syllables with ～.
 * Marina and Callie are more noticeably kindhearted compared to their co-host.
 * Marina's voice clips are similar to Callie's.
 * Marina and Callie won the most Splatfests, while Pearl and Marie won the final Splatfests.
 * Callie and Marie's first song, Calamari Inkantation brought them success, similar to how Pearl and Marina's first recording of Ebb & Flow brought them theirs.
 * In contrast to the Squid Sisters, Off the Hook produces their songs.
 * The holes in their zippers are the shapes as their eye pupils, and the zippers are the same colors as their eyes.
 * In the liner notes that come with Splatune 2, Pearl's lyrics are rendered in hiragana, while Marina's lyrics are in katakana. In an interview with Famitsu, Toru Minegishi says that this is because Marina sings in a different in-universe language. This is consistent with DJ Octavio's in-game text and some of Marina's text during Inkopolis News, making it seem her text is said partly in Inkling language, and partly in Octarian.
 * Pearl and Marina's outfits in the Octo Expansion resemble those worn by late rappers The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur, respectively.
 * A previously unheard Off The Hook song (Nasty Majesty) was used as the music for the Nintendo Direct preview for the Octo Expansion.
 * When looking at them long enough while zooming in Inkopolis Square, Marina will wave at the player with Pearl glaring before smiling with a pose.
 * When the player looks at them long enough while as an Octoling, Pearl will notice them first and both she and Marina will notice that they are Agent 8 from the Octo Expansion. Both of them will give the player a determined pose instead.
 * The Octo Expansion reveals that Ebb & Flow was Off the Hook's first song, and there are three reiterations of it in the Expansion.
 * Marina made a demo tape by herself with a half-broken keyboard on Mount Nantai before she met Pearl.
 * An "Octo" re-recording of the chorus (with some different lyrics) plays when there is one minute left on Turf War on the NILS Statue.
 * A choral version of it plays when Commander Tartar is destroyed and Inkopolis is saved at the ending.
 * The Octo Expansion also reveals that until the events of the Expansion, Pearl was unaware of Marina's true nature as a former member of the Octarian army. After being informed by Cap'n Cuttlefish, she remains protective of her bandmate and reassures Marina that everyone will still love her.
 * The opening banter for the Squid vs. Octopus Splatfest still has Pearl unaware of Marina's true nature, suggesting that the Splatfest takes place before (or concurrently with) the Expansion's events. The "Bonus Track" chat log in the Octo Expansion reveals that Pearl had pulled an all-nighter for "the Splatfest" not long ago, supporting this theory.
 * It could also mean she is feigning ignorance for Marina's sake.
 * Hisashi Nogami stated that the final Splatfest was not based on Pearl vs. Marina because unlike the Squid Sisters, who had a form of a rivalry between them, Off the Hook is based on Pearl and Marina being together, with their bond being the strongest part of them.
 * When Off the Hook perform their catchphrase and pose in-game, it sounds exactly like they are saying their catchphrase in Japanese (Nuritakūru... Tentakuru!!).
 * In MakoMart there are cereals with Pearl and Marina's logo on it, possibly being Off the Hook branded cereal.

Etymology
Off the hook is an expression that can be used to express that either something is cool or that someone is out of trouble. Hook can also refer to either the tool used for catching fish or an element of a song that makes it catchy to the listener.

Names in other languages
'''Don't get cooked... Stay off the hook!'''