Flip Flappers

I am having more fun watching Flip Flappers than I have had watching a season of anime for a long time. No question you should watch this show if you are even the slightest bit interested. I will attempt to convince you to watch it even if you aren't, but if all you wanted was an opinion on whether or not to watch the show than YES, WATCH IT. If you want to know why, read on! Art: The most apparent thing about Flip Flappers from the get is that it is immediately visually striking. The art is sharp and colorful, with elements reminiscent of both something beautiful and charming like a Miyazaki movie and something sharp and flashy like Kill la Kill or any other Trigger show really. It is worth watching for the visual alone. Character: My other favorite aspect of the show. The cast isn't huge, but on the whole they are both very well developed for a show of this length and surprisingly full of pathos. They get put in situations that give you the feels. The two main characters, Papika (basically a super manic magical Little Orphan Annie) and Cocona (who pretends that she doesn't want to go on awesome adventures but also not so secretly LIVES FOR IT), are strong and sympathetic. The secondary characters are just as well-rounded, particularly Cocona's grumpy friend Yayaka. A particularly great episode explored the relationship of one of the less prominent side characters and an elderly friend who is beginning to show the signs of her advancing age. I cried a whole bunch. I had coincidentally also drank a whole bunch prior, but as mentioned above it hit me right in the feels. To say much about the characters themselves would be a spoiler, but I suspect you will like them all if you get to know them. Suffice it to say, some of the best character work in recent anime for me. Story: In brief: two young girls, Cocona and Papika, find out that together that they can travel to Pure Illusion, which is essentially a series of fantastic and varied alternate universes. Craziness ensues. While the story has been consistently uplifting and entertaining in equal measure, it could be said that it is also a bit confused. One of the particular selling point of this show for me is that each episode feels distinctly different in tone. While this does make for a very enjoyable watch, it does bounce around crazily between fun and sad and scary and cool a bit too quickly at times. The pacing is kind of frantic as well, but the nature of the show kind of supports this breakneck pace through the story. All in all I would say great but overambitious for 13 episodes. Sound: The opening song is great, really puts you in the mood to watch something flashy and fun which is what the show offers. The ending credits are quieter but SUPER cute, and shows us the girls navigating a more familiar and straightforward fairy tale. Overall: The best part of Flip Flappers is that watching it feel like as much of an adventure as Cocona and Papika are having living it. It immerses you in its remarkably vibrant world and is consequently 100% worth your time, whoever you are.

First: The outro is an insanely addictive earworm and I recommend watching it. The show itself is weird fantasy. Kind of like for people who liked Alice in Wonderland. But at the same time the show isn't really great, it's just serviceable at best. But you might like some of the scenes/plots, which is why I give this a 6 overall. The show does stand out compared to other isekais / fantasy worlds with its weird and unique style. Reminds me of that show "Humanity Has Declined" for some reason, but this one is better I think. Doesn't hurt to give it a try and see if you really like it or not. The weirdness does its thing for you that way.

The show began as what felt like a man's show- lots of action, heavy sci-fi elements, etc. and then about halfway in it feels as though the writers changed and suddenly all of the before elements were replaced by forced, sappy emotional drama. It became a soap opera marketed to women. The worst issue with this is about how poorly these emotional elements were handled. They felt forced and inauthentic, and the show also committed the great sin of "telling and not showing". A truly great show doesn't narrate everything that appears on the screen. As it's said, a picture tells a thousand words. The best moments in fiction are conveyed entirely through imagery and not words and they strike the mind more potently due to this. However Flip Flappers felt the need to put all of the emotions, twists and drama into explicitly stated words, as though the audience is mentally retarded or perhaps five years old. Overall I still enjoyed the show, but it felt like they could have done a much better job.

This anime is highly under rated in my opinion. It's visually creative and avant-garde, yet its direction is neat and its story is coherent, original and appealing. I've watched a lot of works that offers something interesting in visual art and rhythm, but disappointed me with a poor story telling and lack of character development. The first two episodes got me staying for the alice in wonderland flavor and its craziness, but I expected Papika to become quite annoying and the story to lacks in substance. I was pleasantly wrong and the two main characters benefit from more depth than you would expect from your average yuri-flavored anime. So yes, Papika still is unrealistic in her never-ending energy and enthusiasm, but not incoherent nor shallow, which got me thinking those are different things. Especially when you know that she isn't following an obscure organization for nothing like they would in madoka. The story itself has something of elfen lied, less dark yet as deep. It lets a bit of space for interpretation and imagination, which I appreciate and isn't something you often see in anime where the story often has to be explicit. You know, those annoying, unnatural monologue a character would do to be sure you got it. For yuri fans, I'd definitely say this is a yuri anime. It does have the 'we are lover but let say we are friends who likes each other so much', but it does not have the fan-service aspect to it that makes a poor, overseen and annoying equation. "I touch your breast and lick your neck, but we are friends". Ew. In Flip Flappers, love is in the air and it's obvious enough to be satisfying. It doesn't oversell it and that's refreshing. For the downside, I'd definitely give a warning for loli fan-service, especially with one of the enemy that appears at the middle of the show. It doesn't ruin it, but seeing 10 years old girls with overly sexual outfits really bugs me. That's really the only issue I see with this anime, fortunately apart from the outfits and a few useless camera angles, it does not dive into creepiness. So if a mix between madoka, elfen lied and alice in wonderland with a very good and positive "adventure time" vibe sounds good to you, please give Flip Flappers a chance !

Flip Flappers is an interesting magical girl anime that has a dark undertone of a looming plot throughout! No that doesn't mean that it's a Madoka clone. A seemingly normal girl gets dragged into fantastic adventures into an alternate dimension by a girl named Papika of the Flip Flap organization. One important thing to take note when watching Flip Flappers is that absolutely everything has a reason. This makes for a compelling and comprehensive watch when all of the pieces finally fall into place towards the third act. The characters are colorful and the scenes are bright. The animation is solid and the sound design is excellent. Why more people haven't watched Flip Flappers is beyond me.

Flip Flappers. Yep, Flip Flappers. An anime about… something. With a name like that, Flip Flappers could be about a number of things. Most people would think it’s some sort of children’s show. But anime are children’s cartoons anyways, hurr durr. But, is that really so? Well, this original anime by Studio 3Hz, which did Dimension W, that ran from October to right before the New Year of 2016 is a mash up of many genres. While MyAnimeList lists Flip Flappers as comedy, adventure, and sci-fi only; it is not actually so. I don’t even know why it’s being touted as a sci-fi anime. It’s not sci-fi. Anyways, this little 13 episode monomyth has basically got it all. Drama, yuri, comedy, horror, and you name it. Many people have resorted to describing Flip Flappers to be: “‘Inception’ met ‘FLCL’ and they both had gratuitous threesome sex with ‘Kodomo no Jikan’ in a liquor-fueled one night stand to produce this coming of age story about two middle school mahou shoujo probable closet lesbians”. Yeah, I was paraphrasing up there but I bet I caught your attention with that. If not, then, go read the MAL synopsis again. If you read the synopsis and thought that Flip Flappers sounds like any other mahou shoujo anime then you, sir, are horribly wrong. Let’s first talk about the story. Being compared to Gainax’s actual magnum opus, that is FLCL and not that trash Neon Genesis Evangelion, one would expect a lot from Flip Flappers – especially in the department of ‘God, I have no idea what’s going on but I sure am loving this!’ While FLCL and Flip Flappers do share a lot things in many departments, the story is actually the place where they are the least similar. FLCL had a distinct style of relaying its story that heavily relied on comedic exposition through visuals and saucy dialogue. Flip Flappers adopted style and slightly changed it into an episodic format friendly one. With each episode, the style metamorphosed just enough to let each individual episode come off as its own unique portion that subtly builds on the world of Flip Flappers through creative use of varying scenarios in the anime’s rather flip-floppy plot device (maybe location in this context?) called Pure Illusion. To be honest, this way of story telling is very confusing for viewers who aren’t used to noticing every teeny tiny detail in a scene. Bring subtitles into the picture and the viewer tends to miss out on even more details. That means to fully enjoy Flip Flappers, at least second watch should be essential for most. I know I will be rewatching it as I think I missed out on a major plot point. And, if I didn’t miss anything then Flip Flappers has a giant plot hole. Either way, not going go discuss that part due to fairness. This also shows the kind of issues prevalent with stories like the ones Flip Flappers and FLCL have. At times the pace might be really slow and then accelerate matters into full gear in five seconds tops. For an anime like this, that isn’t really a problem unless if the areas of snail-hood go into filler-like territory. This is, sadly, something Flip Flappers tends to do a lot. While Flip Flappers is director Kiyotaka Oshiyama’s first full-fledged work, he still has had a lot of practice with anime greats like Dennou Coil, the Fullmetal Alchemist movies, and the second season of Space Dandy. He did a good job with Flip Flappers but, honestly, he could have done a bit better. Other than these points, Flip Flappers has an engaging story with a somewhat satisfying conclusion that’ll require you to fire up some neurons to actually understand the story. It’s nothing mind-blowing but you still get that warm feeling like the one you get right after an intriguing puzzle. In my opinion, the greatest thing about Flip Flappers’ story is that everything is in the anime itself. You won’t need to go online or harass your neighbor’s weeaboo pet dog for answers. In the case of FLCL, pretty much most of the story was almost entirely up to one’s imagination. That thing was cool chaos in animated form but it didn’t help itself by butchering it’s coherence. Now onto the characters. For a coming of age story, the main character has to be great. Coconoa is not. She is just okay and that wouldn’t have been a problem if she wasn’t the worst character in the entire anime’s cast. Even the two twin villains, whose most recognizable trait is that they repeat the one another’s line, she routinely goes up against are more interesting that her. Maybe if Coconoa was just a bit less emo for her age then she would have been loads better. It’s true that she is empty and the anime is about her finding her identity but she wasn’t handled well in that regards. The biggest moment of these to not is when she blows fuses a couple of time for tiny reasons which is something her character isn’t supposed to do at all. In comparison, Papika was handled much better better. While she was still a tad one-dimensional at first, she quickly rose up to shine as having the most and best character development by the time the last episode hit the credits. Going into detail about Papika would require me to spoil the story but I will say that she should be paid closer attention than Coconoa. The same goes for the rest of the characters. While being heavy cardboard cutouts, they each had their own funky charm. Hell, the Goddamned pet rabbit of Coconoa had more personality than her. Nearing the end~ The character designs and the fun use of many saturated colors provide the animation with kind of spunk and whimsical intensity a show like Flip Flappers need. The animators knew what they were doing. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the time to fully realize their goal so many corners had to be cut. As usual, I watched the anime in 1.5x playback speed and noticed a number of places where the color was missing and things like a character having an item in one hand and not having it in the next were very common. You shouldn’t be noticing things like these in visually heavy anime at increased playback speed. I’d be damned if I don’t say that at times the animation had many frames missing and it felt like I was watching at reduced speed… The background music was fun. I may snag the OST sometime soon. I didn’t like the OP. The ED was just perfect. Voice acting is same as most stuff. The crazy scientist was the summit and all of the times Papika goes on her usual ‘coconoacoconoacoCOnoaCOcoNOAAAAAAA’ spiels was downright fucking annoying. To end, I’m going to say that Flip Flappers is a 7.5/10 in my book. Ignore the rating and still watch it. It’s a fun ride I’d recommend to anyone. Except for lolicons.

"Flip Flappers" is an outstanding show and I highly recommend it if you are looking for a short anime that is really engaging. The story line has so many great plot twist and will keep you watching until the end. The art is outstanding because the artist show many different forms of art in just one anime . The sound is really good in sub and works well in the anime. The character development is so complex and intertwined but not to much to get most people confused. I really enjoyed this anime and I give it an overall 10. This is one you have to watch.

Español (English one down below) Kill La kill+ Panty and Stocking+ Madoka Magika+ muuuuuchas drogas. No será la mejor serie del mundo, es un poco inconsistente, no es muy original... pero tampoco quiere serlo, más bien es una colección y una celebración de todos los grandes hitos del medio (quien la haya visto entiende lo que digo), una obra que no busca ser pedante, catárquica o trascendental; Es una obra sin pretensiones que te promete hacer pasar un buen rato, y siempre que se lo permitas, diablos si lo consigue. English: Kill La kill+ Panty and Stocking+ Madoka Magika+ a loooooot of drugs. It may be not the best show ever, is a little bit inconsistent, not very original... but it dosnt want to be like that, is more like a collection of, and a tribute to, the great tropes of the whole media (who saw it, knows it), a show that dosnt seek to be pedantic, cathartic or trascendental; Is a show without pretensions that promises you to have a fun time, and as long as you let it, hell if it does it

Flip Flappers might not be a masterpiece, but it surely is a hiddem gem. Immerse yourself in this beautiful world "Pure Illusion" and join Papika and Cocona in an adventure to find their true identities. I feel like this anime is better enjoyed not knowing what it is about, but I'm sure anyone will find enjoyment in this series. Don't worry about plot, or anything, everything will develop beautifully. Enjoy the great soundtrack, psychodelic scenes, great character development. Give this series a try, you won't regret it. I can praise this series for their beautiful ED, great OP, and likeable characters. Most of them have a reason to be there (except maybe Nyunyu). If there's something negative I can say about this series, it would be the fact that the story doesn't explain a lot and just creates things because it looks cool. Also, sometimes the Art leaves a lot to be desired. Leaving that apart, nothing is terrible, everything is enjoyable and this is surely my favorite anime of this season.

What's to say? Aloof schoolgirl gets kidnapped by a bats### crazy magical lesbian girl on a hoverboard who REALLY likes her to explore nightmare parallel universes/dream worlds at great threat to their own safety, sanity, and mental health. There's imagery of nightmares, ruined childhoods, pet rabbits who go all rage mode, Mad Max, fountain orgies... wait what? Anyway they're to go to these worlds for some reason, collect their crystallized essence, try not to die or irreparably harm the psyche of their friends in the process, and fight the Klan. Yes, the Klan. As in Ku Klux, those guys with the hoods who have their own magical guy/girls. I wasn't really sure what the Klan was up to lately--seems they've branched out. This is supposed to somehow make sense but comes across as if Kill la Kill and FLCL had a baby that didn't get enough oxygen. Oh, and you'll be singing the closing theme whether you want to or not, that thing is an ear worm. Yes, I'm sure there's meaning to all that imagery and the pop culture references can be maddening at times, but honestly they're trying too hard to be everything at once (magical girl deconstruction, concept anime, coming of age, an exploration of the mind/madness) and have managed to out Gainax Gainax in the end.

I would recommend Flip Flappers to many people. I don't usually watch this type of anime, and I've mostly watched slice of life in the past, but I was immediately hooked on this one. It's a light-hearted, quirky, and often bizarre show. I was reminded of Alice in Wonderland in some ways. The story is a thumbs up. The fast pacing and different themes (mechas, magical girls, sci-fi, fantasy, fantastical) prevented it from ever being boring. However, it could be a bit confusing at times. That's understandable since it mostly takes place in other dimensions, so it has a surreal type of atmosphere. Even if it seems odd, there was a purpose behind most of these themes. You might notice a common recurrence of 1) repetition/looping time and 2) a thine line between reality and the fantasy world called Pure Illusion, making it hard to tell what's real. I'll leave you to interpret the meaning yourself. The themes of the story deserve a seperate paragraph. Many negative reviews are criticizing it's lack of a profound message, but that's because they're looking at it on a literal level. It's a Bildungsroman. Cocona, the protagonist, learns an important lesson and matures. This is a difficultstory to write without it being cliche and generic. But through clever and interesting symbolism, they make a unique coming-of-age story. I have no serious complaints about the soundtrack. The OP and ED were really catchy, but the soundtrack throughout the show was nothing remarkable or memorable. If there were one reason to dislike Flip Flappers, it would be the characters. I'll admit that Hidaka, or "Mr. wacky science man" as I call him, was a hilarious comic relief character. The protagonist was also a great dynamic character, as she should be in a coming-of-age story. The rest, however, were flat and cliche. You have Papika, the unrealistically hyper and optimistic girl, Yayaka, the misleadingly cold girl who isn't honest about her feelings, Dr. Salt, the badass guy with a trench coat, and then there''s Nyunyu. I don't even know what Nyunyu is supposed to be. She's a useless comic relief character who doesn't really do anything but act cute. If you don't mind slightly cliche characters, don't be discouraged from watching Flip Flappers. I have no complaints about the voice acting. All of their voices are in-character and they have good acting. I especially enjoyed the voice acting of Hidaka, the wacky science man I described earlier. He perfectly portrays the eccentric, hotheaded, loud, mad scientist and genuinely made me laugh almost every time he spoke. A few parts seemed like subtle fan service but it's debatable whether you could call it that. Some clean-minded people wouldn't even notice it, and I had no trouble ignoring it. Next up is the art. Thumbs up in that regard. It's colorful and unique, with Ghibli-eqsue backgrounds. It's impossible to be bored by an anime with such visually appealing art and visual effects. An observant viewer will notice many visual callbacks. Overall, I loved Flip Flappers. It's not for everyone, but it's so refreshing and entertaining that I had to forgive it for its flaws.

Flip Flapping! Our indecisive protagonist is flip flopping! A young girl can't make up her mind and is forced to go adventuring! Throughout, she confronts death, despair, loneliness, and loss. It's not all dark! We see delightful sequences of fun, frolicking friendship. As the show continues, she takes agency and fights for herself, her future, and her friends. It's a glorious trip through Pure Illusion. Or just an excuse for a talented staff to show off. The shounen and magical girl influences are clear throughout. The power up and transformation sequences are straight from the 90s. While always visually stunning, some episodes take a detour to the introspective, diving into the depths of tertiary characters. The show walks the line of overstuffed and under-baked with its 13 episode stretch, but the short run gives it a frenetic pace that matches the animation and story told. Flip Flappers is a slapper.

What a fantastical fantasy show! This is really something super special in its own way. It's on a different level. Probably the greatest acid trip since Yellow Submarine back in the 60s, and definitely worth the ride. The characters are so well done and the voice acting was amazing. The visuals were key in the perception of how great this show is. Both Cocona and Papika make fantastic protagonists. They have strong characters and a great resolve to do what they need to do and are a wonderful pair. Watching them grow together and grow closer is so well orchestrated that you almost don't see how close they are until near the end. There are amazing twists throughout that just fit in because of the way the rest of the scenes are done and developed and executed visually and how it impacts everything else in interpretation. I'm not sure why this is rated as low as it is, but everybody's different and I vote high for it. This won't be a disappointment if you take the time to watch it through.

Flip flappers is one of the only magical girl animes that don't re-use the same plot over and over again. It's not repetitive like most of magical girl animes. I honestly can't recommend this enough when getting into magical girl animes. The art isn't outstanding BUT this anime does have some impressive scenery for it's time. This was one of my first magical girl animes I watched and honestly I think it really helped me develop a taste for magical girl animes. The character story and the twists really got me wondering what would happen next. I definitely would watch a season two if it existed that's how good it is.

Overall - 7: This show is a well animated, enjoyable mess of a show. The plot is all over the place and nothing makes sense, but if you look past that you might enjoy the show. Story - 3: I'm not going to try to dress this up, the plot is bad. In addition to either being far too complicated to reasonably explained or much too magical to try to put rules to the show focuses too much of its effort on delivering plot twists. I love plot twists, but in order for them to be meaningful the story has to make a reasonable amount of sense and follow through on what those plot twists mean to the story. This show fails in both those aspects. The plot functions well when it's not trying too hard to deal with the bigger picture and just focuses on the fight at hand, and it does this well in the beginning. Unfortunately this didn't last. Art - 7: The worlds the characters go to, the fights they have, and the character designs themselves are all top. The day to day stuff not nearly as much, but it's still functionable. Sound - 8: The OST really has some good tracks in it, and the ending theme of the show is one of my favorite anime songs of all time now. Character - 8: The characters are great, and the more screen time they get the more you understand about them and feel for them as well. This means that some of the side characters just aren't as appealing, and characters who don't get much screen time in the beginning can seem bland until they get their development. The characters also suffer from some of the bad elements of the plot, making their relationships to each other get confusing. Enjoyment - 8: This show was very fun, and I really enjoyed it (when it wasn't too caught up with the plot). There were times where I was hyped up for the fight, amazed by the worlds, and choked up by some of the sadder moments. I was annoyed by the frequency with which the characters called out to each other (seriously, not only did this happen like every episode but they just keep calling out again and again).

(This review has been adapted from my blog/reddit thread. Spoilers ahead!) I rarely, if ever, flop over. That’s thanks to my favorite chair at home. Its leather has frayed. The base squeaks oddly. I place a soft blanket on the seat because it hurts my bottom otherwise. For anyone else, this chair looks and feels like junk. But it has always kept me from flopping unnecessarily. Flip Flappers contains a lot of flipping and a lot of flapping. And, while it doesn’t have its own chair to sit on, it likewise doesn’t flop. STORY Flip Flappers is a story about Cocona’s maturity from childhood and into adulthood. A bold statement. Maybe some out there are saying to themselves right now, “Dude, what are you talkin’ about?” When the anime begins, it treats the audience to something fun but not yet worthwhile. Papika and Cocona have a cute relationship. The worlds they visit are fascinating in their weirdness. And the death-defying stunts, the magical-girl transformations, and the silly-centered comedy provide many a scene that keep one’s attention. Yet, simultaneously, the makings of a subtler, more involved tale exist. For instance, the anime infrequently depicts famous trick drawings. Two faces stare at one another to outline an hourglass, and a young lady’s pose makes her seem much, much older. It also drops names that are too specific to be coincidental. Cocona’s rabbit’s name is Uexküll, a reference to Jakob von Uexküll who championed biosemiotics (the study of biological signs and symbols among species). Similarly, the evil organization chants Asclepius, a reference to the Greek god of medicine who was killed by Zeus for meddling with human immortality. Even the worlds themselves, while often rooted in goofiness and genre, tell more than they let on. A strange plain of existence with only white walls and floors stretches towards infinity, and a desert considers BDSM and invigorating potatoes the norm. Subconsciously (a relevant word for Flip Flappers if there ever was one), the anime feeds the audience these nuggets of intrigue. It slyly plants its threads, ingraining in the viewers the realization that the show is deep. Impressively so. A set of worlds and themes and ideas that cry out their avant-garde status. Take episode six. Cocona and Papika enter a gate within Pure Illusion. Within this new realm, the two simultaneously exist as a young girl named Iro, living out her dichotomous lives as a child. On one side, the destructive family home harboring hate and cold. On the other side, a kind old lady welcomes and warms the soul. “Iro is Iro,” yet, when their neighbor succumbs to dementia and forgets their (shared) name, she wants to switch places with herself. While an impossibility, they at least remind their neighbor of their name – and accidentally alter reality as a consequence. In short, and in just this episode, Flip Flappers targets the duality of life, the self, and how memories shape one’s future. Pretty darn avant-garde. Crazily enough, the anime takes this approach all the time. It doesn’t only dive into these dense themes offhandedly or sparingly. Indeed, it does so constantly, threading together larger themes on identity, thought, and perception. In episode seven, Cocona, having lost Papika, encounters different versions of her friend. A younger sister, a delinquent boy, a destruction-hungry senior classmate. After meeting with them and hanging out with them, she still concludes that these people aren’t really Papika, tying back to its theme on identity. The end even involves its theme on perception when it’s Papika who finds Cocona since, to her, she was the one who was lost. In episode eight, Cocona and Papika befriend a tiny scientist and defeat a massive alien. That scientist built that entire world, defying the odds stacked against his stature. In turn, Cocona and Papika (and Yayaka) do the same, obliterating their foe beyond recognition. Here, perceived capabilities are challenged as is one’s thoughts on the task at hand. In episode ten, specific plot details manifest as obscured truths. Papika unknowingly had amnesia. Yayaka pretended to be Cocona’s friend. Cocona’s “grandmother” lied to her. These thought-inspired revelations tear down Cocona’s perception of reality to the point that she loses her own identity. The show contains an uncanny number of instances related to these motifs on identity, thought, and perception. Too many to both list here and dismiss as mere straw grasping. However, the examples from above should illustrate that Flip Flappers explores its many themes in both interesting and varied ways even late into its run. Like Pure Illusion, though, it goes deeper. Looking at these threads, they interweave, but it’s not fully clear what bigger picture their knitting creates. Thankfully, Yayaka’s words in episode five start to reveal the grander interpretation behind Flip Flappers. She says, “Once you enter a Pure Illusion world, you’re influenced by its nature.” The most important word there? Influence. For Cocona, when she enters these otherworldly places filled with sweet snow and spider monsters, the environments influence her and the actions she takes. Often, she can’t stop herself from living out Iro’s life or squaring off against Papika as a mind-altering mask brainwashes her. But that’s more than being influenced; that sounds more like control. It happens almost every time Cocona enters Pure Illusion. The snowy forest controls her movement, carrying her along the backs of giant worms. The haunted mansion controls her time, sending her through the same loop again and again. The plain of nothingness controls her position, locking her away as Papika and Yayaka clash. Even the whole point of collecting the amorphous – controlling Pure Illusion – relies on the concept. Identity, thought, perception, control. Flip Flappers has enough thematic density here to hand out to every anime around it and then some. Yet, somehow, someway, it still doesn’t stop. In the final arc of the anime, Cocona’s mother Mimi (officially) arrives. She takes control of the situation and of her daughter, reinforcing its themes once again. More importantly, her arrival forces Cocona into the last major conflict of the story: breaking away from her mother. Cocona must leave her parents’ nest so to speak. Only the nest is a boat in fantasyland and her parents are a tabletop condiment and an aural receptor. Nevertheless, Cocona must finally mature. Astoundingly, Flip Flappers has always followed this same story: Cocona growing up. Only it’s been framed in that avant-garde manner the entire time. Remember those worlds in Pure Illusion? They also featured Cocona experiencing acts of a pubescent or sexual nature. Teething as a bunny. Getting all “hot and bothered” around the ghostly girls. Laying on a bed, in nothing else besides a black gown, next to the succubus form of Papika. Remember those events in the regular world? She repeats many of her early actions when she has the same dream, puts on her clothes in the mirror, and heads off to school. That is, a routine which doesn’t define her. She fails to find purpose in her future, tagging along with Papika on their adventures just because it’s fun. Remember those themes throughout the whole journey? Knowing one’s own identity is a part of maturing. Thinking more critically is a part of maturing. Understanding different perspectives is a part of maturing. Controlling one’s own fate is a part of maturing. What at first seemed like just an anime involving a cute relationship, weird places, and action on occasion comes together as this smart, rich tale of a girl finally growing up. In other words, Flip Flappers becomes that bold statement: a story about Cocona’s maturity from childhood and into adulthood. Even after all this dissection, two important points remain: the integrity of the narrative itself and the coherency of the connections made. Starting with the first po…

Flip Flappers feels like a show influenced by Madoka Magica, and you would definitely enjoy it if you loved Madoka. It's a magical girl show that goes in unexpected directions, with a platonic romance at its center. The thing that makes Flip Flappers enjoyable no matter your preference in anime is its aesthetic. It's a beautiful-looking, smoothly-animated show with lots of exciting action scenes. The characters visit various fantastical parallel worlds, and the art direction really shines through here. Every episode is a visual feast, even indulging in spoofs of genres like horror or mecha. The main cast's voice acting is great, not so much in the sense that it transmits incredible emotion, but rather in that it really feels like they embody their characters. The quality of sound design in general complements this. So Flip Flappers is a wonderfully-produced show from a relatively unknown studio, which is already a win and should have won them a bigger audience. Aside from the unseemly amount of shameless fanservice in a show about middle-school girls, my only real problem with Flip Flappers is its story. It's not that it doesn't make sense--it does, but you have to be willing to yield to the show's dream-logic a bit. What really bothers me is that the story doesn't proceed in an organic way at all. Characters simply go along with unusual situations without asking questions; important revelations fall flat because characters aren't given the time to react to them. The story doesn't really begin to take shape until the second half of the series, and by then I think there wasn't enough time to get through the whole thing. From then on, the plot becomes really predictable and secondary to the fantastic visuals. Still, Flip Flappers has inherently likable characters populating an amazing world, and it should at least entertain just about anyone who likes anime. The show also has a sense of humor about itself; the preview for the final episode tricks viewers into believing that they ran out of animation budget and it's going to be an audio-only, Evangelion-style affair. It's a very fun show, definitely more fun than Madoka in its first episodes. It just becomes a little underwhelming towards the end.

If you've ever wanted a season long shoujo magical girl ala cerebus syndrome anime of Paprika (2006), with friendship and magic saving the day, then Flip flappers is the shit you've been waiting for your whole life. With one of the hypesest openings made in the 21th century, soundtrack with both very ambient and poppish songs, Studio 3Hz pushing for new level of visuals I've never seen them do before, and original story on par with Paprika and Madoka in terms of creativity Flip flappers is sure to offer something for all anime fans. Combined with good voice acting, Flip flappers leaves very little room for non-nitpicky and non-personal preference sort of complaints. Overall Flip flappers is up there with all the rest of the big heavy hitters of 2016 (Mobb, BnHA S1, Erased, Re:Zero, Gintama.. Although it won't appeal to everyone who found some of the prior entertaining.) Especially recommended for fans of Panty and Stocking, and Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica and Paprika.

Flip Flappers is intended to be a take on the traditional "magical girl" genre. That said, those familiar with such themes will most definitely be thrown through a loop, at least for the first 8 episodes or so. Cocona is a middle schooler with a seemingly unexplained past, who is met by the eccentric girl, Papika. Papika brings Cocona through to Pure Illusion, a world with seemingly limitless potential, in order to find fragments said to grant wishes. This leads to the two girls going on a grand adventure with many interesting experiences This Anime could have very well been a solid 9 for me, however, the later episodes let me down thoroughly, making me hover between a 7 and 8. I'll go over what pushed me to go with 8 later, but let's start with the issues. If you were unaware, around episode 7, the lead scriptwriter of the show left. Whether they were removed or left of their own accord, I can't say, but what I can say is that this change definitely feels like it comes off in episodes 8 - 13. It's hard to tell how much of the story was planned out to end the way it did, as there have been reports some episodes being completely different from how they were originally planned. Regardless, in my opinion, the last 4 episodes of this show end up being incredibly disappointing. It's a huge shift from seemingly subtle storytelling and character building to shoving as much dialogue and exposition into every final episode as possible, almost as if they realised they wouldn't have enough time to fit their overly convoluted plot into a 13 episode season. And it really didn't need to be so complicated. They just as easily could have closed off the series with an equally subdued ending as the rest of the story and it would have been absolutely fine. I'm guessing budget is a big issue, and it definitely shows in the final episodes. However, they still manage to make relatively interesting settings as a backdrop to the underwhelming exposition. So after all that, why would I consider giving this show an 8? It's somewhat hard to explain. Throughout those first 8 or so episodes, I really felt connected with the characters and the adventure. Travelling through so many interesting settings and slowly understanding the story of each episode was really a fantastic journey. Including the fact that episodes 5 and 6 were up there with my favourite episodes of any anime I've watched. I honestly wish I could recommend just watching the first 8 episodes of this anime, but the entire lack of closure you get viewing up that point would ruin the experience. However, this is one anime I would be very happy to re-watch, now that I have that closure and I don't even have to worry about the later episodes. Regardless, if you're willing to go through half of a really good anime and fine through wading through half of a not so great anime, I would highly recommend for you to watch Flip Flappers.

Throughout my time of watching various anime, I’ve occasionally come across series that, while they may not have been popular (or no longer talked about), I found them to be legitimately good despite the lack of a real following. People commonly refer to these types of series as a “hidden gem”. This is a term that I find reflects Flip Flappers perfectly. The story primarily follows Cocona, a girl who is unsure about her future and who’s reluctant to make choices for fear that she’ll come to regret them later on. One day, on her way to school, she has a chance encounter and meets Papika, a very tomboyish and action-oriented girl who takes her hand and leads her on an adventure into a fantasy world known as Pure Illusion, where the two girls are tasked with finding magical stones known as “amorphous” that are said to grant wishes. Their adventure takes them through multiple dreamlike worlds on their hunt for the amorphous’, where they face fellow hunters, dastardly villains, colossal monsters, and overcome their own pasts and personal adversities. Story: While I personally think that the story in Flip Flappers is wonderful, I find the execution to be...quite confusing. There were times when I’d be watching an episode and would have absolutely no idea as to what was going on. It’s not that the story is badly written, per se, it’s just that many important details about the plot, it’s characters, and the world of Pure Illusion are explained in small details that can be easy to miss if you're not paying attention. There were multiple times while watching this series that I’d have to pause or even rewatch a scene to understand what was going on. Also, while it should be obvious at this point, this anime doesn’t spoon feed you the story, there will be times when you’ll actually have to think about how certain story elements work, or connect the dots from the dialogues, since some things are not expressly explained, but can be deduced from the bits of information that they do give you. While it can be confusing, I certainly don’t mind this form of storytelling. I also find it worth mentioning that this series does indeed contain some fanservice and yuri undertones. However, since both are fairly low-key and not really prominent, I didn’t find either to be particularly offensive in any way. It’s just something that I wanted to point out for people (like myself) who are put off by absurd amounts of fanservice. Luckily, for Flip Flappers, it’s nothing over-the-top. Characters: The key characters have a reasonable amount of depth that gives each of them their own unique personality. What I found most enjoyable about the characters is how their friendships were portrayed and developed. At first, Cocona’s friendship with Papika (her partner in crim-I mean adventuring) and Yayaka (her classmate) seem to take a lighthearted and predetermined route. However, throughout the series, they each have to fight and overcome their own personal challenges and feelings to retain and save their friendships with one another, which is an aspect that I personally appreciated seeing. Art, Sound and Animation: The art is perhaps one aspect of Flip Flappers that I enjoyed most. It’s beautiful, vibrant, and has an almost dreamlike quality to it that I found myself enjoying more times than once. Some of the background art is simply wonderful and almost reminds me of a couple of Studio Ghibli’s works, as well. In fact, there’s a few background scenes which would make wonderful desktop or smartphone wallpapers. I think that the OP and ED songs fit the series well. I especially enjoyed the latter, finding myself humming the song on more than one occasion. Frankly, I didn’t really notice the OST all that much, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It had the right tracks fitting for the scenes in question and...that’s about it. The animation in this series is truly unique and worth mentioning. At times the animation resembles works from studio Trigger or even Gainax (especially during the early combat scenes), giving the animation a very unique quality that I don’t think I’ve encountered in another anime. I do think that it’s also important to note that, while the animation was fantastic for the first part of the series, I did notice that the overall quality seemed to diminish in the latter episodes, which could be attributed to the change in studios midway through the series. While it still looked great, I noticed that in the more action oriented scenes, the animation had certainly been turned down a notch. Although I came into this series with next to nothing in the way of expectations, I was pleasantly surprised by the end. With the myriad of seasonal anime that fall into either blatant mediocrity or in the realm of “it’s OK”, I can confidently say that this falls into neither of those categories. Despite the few small problems that I had with this series, I still give Flip Flappers a 9/10 and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good fantasy anime that doesn’t hold your hand or spoonfeed you the story.