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Flip Flappers was an anime that got me excited about watching something on a weekly basis for the first time in the longest time. It seemed to be a show that had a lot to offer while putting up a deceivingly generic look. It had a mysterious way of presenting itself that subtly distinguished it from something we've seen too many times already. Sadly, the same can't be said about how things turn out after about half way through.

The show had a lot of quirks that would have you question if they are being subtle or just written poorly but it showed a lot of ... signs that they were self-aware of where it stands that were reassuring. I hate to use the word "mature" but Flip Flappers really seemed to have something more serious with the themes that they were building up. A lot of the conflicts felt like they were leading somewhere important and "mature" to the point where ambiguity felt intentional. Even the aftercredit scenes that mysteriously never really got mentioned in the next episode felt like a narrative device that was going to be explained as an important part of the plot later on. A bit of a stretch, I know, but the show had me anticipate a lot of great things.

The characters, while still within a reasonably generic archetype, felt like something that belonged within the given universe. They were shown in a way that had me accept that they could very well be living people. Believable personality is something that is missed quite often in anime and I think Flip Flappers is proof that decent writing can make generic characters interesting and maybe even seemingly complex. There's something sincere about their overall behavior and makes a few cheesy scenes easily bearable. Though honestly, I'm just glad their personalities aren't dedicated to being simply cute. Though, I would still argue they are cute.

Every episode was a different experience especially with its surprising range of art direction. Overall quality seemed almost too good to be a regular TV show. They're filled with meaningless but cool references done tastefully and a lot of clever composition and dynamic lighting. You may not agree with me when i say Cocona and Papika are interesting characters, but I don't think many can deny that Flip Flappers had some impressive visuals. The change in mood for each episode is handled very well and makes it hard to guess what will happen next. I also enjoyed the atmosphere of impending struggle which made it exciting to see not just the new settings but also how the characters will react within it. They all seemed to work well for a show that sells itself as an episodic adventure.

However, things seem to go a bit shaky mid way and falls apart by the end. A lot of ideas and potential development seem to have dropped completely and everything just became extremely straight forward with a lot of underwhelming expositions that lack the same witty self-awareness it had before. Things that seemed important are either never discussed again or turned completely irrelevant. Characters start to literally explain the analogy behind certain imagery within the show as if it had lost its faith in the viewer's intelligence. Even the visuals are obviously worse than previous episodes for what were supposed to be some of the key moments of the show. As harsh it may sound, it turns into a show that really could have been any other show. Basically, it became something I originally avoided to watch Flip Flappers instead. A straight forward plot and a straight forward dialogue aren't necessarily bad, but it's definitely not what I kept watching Flip Flappers for.

The drop in quality took me by surprise and disappointment. To summarize my experience with Flip Flappers, it went from being more like the ED song to being more like the OP song. There just seems to be a lot of thought put into the aesthetics to the ED while the OP is arguably generic and unfitting with the tone of the show. Ironically, the outro/preview music that comes after the ED is very catchy as well.

I really wanted to like Flip Flappers and I genuinely did up to about episode 7-8. The rest is up for debate. Maybe I was just over hyping and over analyzing things. Despite what I have said, I would still recommend watching Flip Flappers as the first half of the show is worth witnessing regardless of how you may feel about the other half.