Flip Flappers

Story: 7/10
The story follows Cocona, an ordinary, rather quiet middle school girl whose life is changed when she meets Papika, a very outgoing girl who tells Cocona that she has been looking for her. Papika takes her into a tunnel that leads them to a strange world which she says is called 'Pure Illusion'. Here Papika tells her they must find treasures known as 'fragments'… they aren't the only people looking for them. It later emerges that Papika is a part of an organisation known as Flip Flap.

At first I thought the plot was boring, but boy was I wrong! Watching the first episode ... made me say "wow..." and wonder what will happen next. Sure the story was normal, or more like a fairy tale one. But to me it was beautiful, imaginative, full of many plot twist that kept me watch until the end.

Art: 9/10
The art surprised me a lot, never thought it was that great. I loved the colors, especially in pure illusion, it was just gorgeous! The characters designs were also pretty good and fit the show very well.

Sound: 10/10
I gotta say, the OP and ED are both my favorite! I never skipped them watching every episode. The soundtrack was amazing and pretty catchy, and the voice acting does a great job, I loved Kayano's work.

Characters: 8/10
The characters are interesting and very unique. Cocona and Papika are the protagonists and they seemed pretty much the opposite of each other to me, Cocona is a calm and serious girl who's insecure about her future and Papika is a cheerful and energetic girl who's interested in Cocona. The two develop a strong friendship through their adventures in Pure Ilusion.

There's also Yayaka, Cocona's other friend, who's a determined and strong-willed girl. She's my favorite character.

I wish we get to know more about the other characters, I have nothing to say about them..

Enjoyment/Overall : 10/10
This show is incredibly fun, the characters, the art, the soundtrack and the story. Everything was enjoyable! It is definitely worth the watch.

RE-POSTING this review since it got deleted (b/c Flip Flappers finished airing or whatever), but I´m just gonna leave eveything as it is, inculding my update after completion c:

I'm gonna be straight with you, there's about a 50/50 chance that you will either absolutely LOVE this anime, or it simply just isn't for you and you'll find it “meh” at best. I, for my part, happen to be one of those people who've been waiting YEARS for something like this. Fair enough, this has its very own reasons. So let me tell you about Flip Flappers:

In its core I'd say this anime is about PERCEPTION ... and furthermore, PERSPECTIVE. We follow the main characters, Cocona and Papika (I honestly love almost every character in it, the twins for example are fucking priceless), and they go on adventures together in a world they call “Pure Illusion”. Said Pure Illusion is meant to serve as “visualization of the mind” ...although it's not always so clear, whose mind it may be (this time).

This is the basic idea behind it. I'm not going into detail here for fear of giving anything away, so let me do this review differently by starting with some “negative” aspects:

- ART: I get that a lot of people are probably thrown off by its look. This is exactly what happened to Madoka Magica. But while Madoka Magica did this to fool the audience in order to shock 'em later on, Flip Flappers looks like this because it needs to. If it weren't all girly, colorful and over-the-top, it wouldn't quite get its messages and its actual meaning across. Or at least not in the way it should be done. Which is why I think this style suits the anime perfectly, not least because it IS in fact a fantasy/sci-fi show, though, if you look closely, a coming of age story: very largely about self-discovery through overcoming fear, doubt and other obstacles. But before we're getting into spoiler territory I'm just gonna stop here~

- “FANSERVICE”: There's seemingly random bits of fanservice here and there. Or really just some weird scenes in general :'D For example episode 8, which suddenly increases in ridiculousness and made even me cringe a little - not because of the fanservice per se, rather because it's paired with such a cutesy look. But here's the thing! The reason why Flip Flappers gets away with it is because it's all within the context of 1. the respective world they're in and 2. the anime's true intentions. Meaning that, if you cringe, then that's because it WANTS you to. The show's aware of how you perceive it and might or might not do something to oppose that (for example when Hidaka takes off his glasses in ep 12!!! GOLD), and that's genius if you ask me.

But talking about true intentions, I'm actually done with everything remotely negative, so here's EVERYTHING I TOTALLY LIKED about Flip Flappers:

When I finished the first couple of episodes, I had literally no idea what I had just watched. I thought it was something like Adventure Time, only with cute girls giving off some innocent yuri vibes, or rather, another yuribait and nothing more- but hoo boy, did I underestimate this show...!

Really, it seemed so random at first, nonetheless so incredibly FUN. The show throws so many ideas at you, one after the other, similar to FLCL some would say. And for that alone it would've gotten 8/10 already. But then...you suddenly get it. That one thing the story itself may be truly about :-o And never ever in my life would I have dreamed of an ANIME whose story would actually, genuinely cover this exact issue, all the while doing such a great job at it. In fact, it's done so smoothly, I didn't realize it myself the first 4-5 episodes in, despite me relating quite well to it all.

This is a highly symbolic show with more than just one or two layers. It manages to criticize and “play” with genres and TV tropes, and it does this in such a charming way!!! It twists the tropes around, averts, subverts or underlines them. You've got your references to Alice in Wonderland, Sailor Moon, DBZ, Evangelion, Mad Max... Hell, even the KKK! Yes, the plot is certainly not flawless and it leaves some things unexplained.

But still, nothing this anime does is unintentional. *Except maybe Nyunyu's entire existence lol. However, if you're able to read between the lines/look past the screen, there's gonna be one or another aha-effect for sure.
-

UPDATE:
Okay so after having seen all 13 episodes, I think I'll have to lower the score to a 9, but hear me out! It's not like the ending was bad, I liked it. It's just that the last three episodes or so seemed terribly underwhelming compared to the sheer awesomeness that is ep 1-10.
There were some pacing problems, the animation worsened (b/c budget I guess) and it left some things unsaid which I feel should have been adressed very urgently. But you know what? I don't give a damn. Good show, adorable af ♥
The ending could've turned into complete shit and I'd still love, love, love this anime 'cause I already got everything I wanted from it prior episode 10 tbh :') Ep 10-13 may as well could've never happened. But overall it's extremely rewatchable. I feel like I've missed a LOT of hints that may make me see the big picture even better once I rewatch it, so I will.

This could've easily been a 10 if it flowed a bit smoother later on in the show.

Art, Sound and Character don't need to even be talked about, every single character was so unique and likable, the ost was fantastic, I didn't like the op all too much, but I never skipped the ed. The Art is inexplicable. Violet Evergarden, heard of it? Fantastic animation, in my eyes it's the best I've ever seen. FlipFlap? The art style is nothing like Violet Evergarden, but in itself there is so much it entails. If you hadn't read the synopsis yet, some girls travel to a different ... world with so much variety to the point where you can almost make an entire anime dedicated to each and every adventure they go on. This alone combined with my score for art should tell you that the animators didn't let anyone down. I can't describe it in words, everything told a story. There were so many places they visited, all of which were packed with slight, well thought out details. Every frame interconnected fluently, and with all this came a wad of diversity. Near the end (no spoilers don't worry), Some of the characters' eyes start to slightly change color, and you can easily tell why. The art in this show is soo good, all I can do is look up to them and wish I could explain how their art is so much better than many, many other shows.

Alright, I know I said those didn't need to be mentioned but I rambled on about them all anyway. Now onto the two lowest scored parts, both of which I rated nines, Story and Enjoyment. I will combine these into one little paragraph as the reason I didn't give enjoyment a 10 is because the story didn't quite reach a 10. At the beginning, I loved it. I told all my friends about it. Don't get me wrong, I did the same at the end, but things got a little wobbly in the last few episodes (just like before, there's no spoilers, no worries), but, like all shows, the climax started to kick in, and it started to get wobbly. Many things happened and plot holes were cleared up, some of which made a lot of sense, but others seemed random. Things began to happen simply because it made the most sense, and it did, everything was fluent, but when I started to fanboy about it, I realized there were some things that made absolutely no sense. And when some characters were going through changes it often times felt rushed and/or pushed to advance the show. To be exact, I felt slightly confused and annoyed by this a total of 2-3 times.

Other than these small little holes that arise when concluding an episode, or the show as a whole, the premise of the entire anime is (9) Great. I thoroughly enjoyed it and was eager to watch the next episode. The show kept my eyes glued to the screen, and this is without a doubt a fantastic show. Everything flowed together like bread and butter and gave so much room for creativity in such a masterpiece. There is so much imagination in the art, in the music, in the characters, in us, the viewers, and in every other part of the show. I hope everyone reading this gets to experience this journey of a show, it truly is something breathtaking.

Honestly, this anime it's a hidden gem, for me was an anime what don't knew the animation studio, and i really liked the animation in every episode.
I like so much the characters and her personalities, the history of Iro i liked so much, everything i liked, the colours, the staff of VA, the OST with Opening and ending, i liked so much that songs.
The historys of the episodies was so entertaining and the friendship(or love) of Cocona and Papika throught of the years was so spectacular
Flip Flappers definitely was my favorite anime of the 2016.
And for last of my review, the only "bad thing", ... was the way was be defeated Mimi, Mimi looks a character so powerfull, looks a character so hard to win her, and i feel that beat her, with so much protagonist power of Cocona and Papika but was so beautiful the final.
9-10 of rating

[This review contains minor spoilers.]
I slightly regret watching this.
I definitely wouldn't recommend this to others.
I have watched this once, subtitled.
I won't watch this again.

---- Positives ----

The first part of the series is superb, assuming you enjoy fast-paced fantastical adventures.
During ~most~ of the series [ignoring the final few episodes], the characters go on fantastical adventures that are made even more interesting through the series's great art style. Viewers learn close to the minimal amount possible in order to still be able to follow along, and this is great because by the time you're starting to understand one aspect of the series, clues about other aspects appear, ... keeping the experience exciting and fresh. The character types are played well and consistently, with each being unique enough to have its place in the series. There aren't any monologues - everything is figured out by the viewers and by Cocona along the way. We're never stopped and forcibly pointed at an explanation point - the degree with which things make sense depends on how much effort you put in while watching the series, also meaning that you can chose what to care about and focus on, and simply ignore other aspects of the series, all while still enjoying it overall.

The art is very good in almost all instances.
I liked the drawing style, which stayed consistent through most of the series. Character and camera movement during battles was also well done. In the final few episodes, quality fell a little, but was still good, since the baseline for this series was pretty high.

The ED is great.
The ending song and ending visuals are great. I got worried at first that the scenes depicted hinted at future events, but thankfully they didn't seem to imply what I thought they were implying.

---- Negatives ----

The series shifts for the worse near the end.
The feelings of wonder and superb stated-vs-implied balance that were so well-executed in the first part of the series are lost in the final few episodes. This shift is very abrupt and the problem persists through the end of the series, ending on a bad note. We suddenly get a marathon of previously-seen environments - previously, all environments were new and interesting, only appearing once. We see foes come back and be tossed aside again without any depth being added. Any sense of relative power levels are gotten rid of and replaced with the in-poor-taste model of combat exchanges merely for effect. The viewer, for the first time, is forced to focus on plot aspects that get mundane quickly [and won't be mentioned because spoilers]. The fantastical scenes in the end are suddenly tacky and predictable instead of imaginative and wonderful. There was a hint of something deep at the very end, when they return to the real world, but other than that, the series just trips over itself and ends - even that final gimmick was done too hastily to have any profound effect.
Opportunity for cancel: No. I was surprised and saddened to see this series start off so great and then just fall over at the end. There are multiple ways this series could have ended, and I don't understand why ~that~ way was chosen. In addition to overall story planning falling, visual planning fell too. It was frustrating to experience because this series was close to being one of my favorites. Instead, I'm just left with a mixed, uncomfortable opinion about this series now that it's over.

Flip Flappers wears its influences on its sleeve as a love poem to classic Gainax anime like FLCL and Neon Genesis Evangelion, but with a unique style that makes it more than worth watching for its own sake. With that said, heed my word: this is a yuri anime, even if it pretends not to be. If you are put off by the male-gazey sexualization and objectification of women and girls, or you hate lesbians, you might want to pass.

This anime is absolutely gorge. It serves cunt. It is extremely stylish, beautifully animated, and the characters are cute, though some of the outfits are a ... little tacky. There are a lot of gratuitous fanservice shots, but even they are stylish, less embarrassing, if only because it hardly feels out of place; shameless excess is the entire thesis. Flip Flappers is unbelievably indulgent, a pure pleasure, like hearing your favorite song on the radio with no advertisements, like picking up a $100 bill off the park bench and spending it on a movie date with your childhood friend who has recently confessed her desire to take "it" "further" who covers her head in your chest at the scary parts and laughs at your unfunny jokes after the viewing while holding on to your arm like a mast in the typhoon and nuzzling into your side like a dog.

But other things are indulgent too, like candy and ice cream. Sometimes your body needs nourishment. Narratively, Flip Flappers suffers just a bit from the problem of revealing its hand all at once and a little too late. A good story is recontextualized by its own development, making subsequent readings more exciting and fulfilling, allowing the reader to put the pieces together and read between the lines. There is not much "between the lines" in Flip Flappers. But that's not what this anime is trying to be, anyway. Flip Flappers is not subtle. It is bombastic, carefree, a little cheugy, like a wedding cake. At a lesbian wedding. I want to fuck Papika so bad it makes my stomach hurt.

Flip Flappers is a story which struggles with its own identity. Simply put, it was most enjoyable when it didnt take itself seriously.

The main premise is that 2 girls, Cocona and Papiko are to make multiple trips to an coexisting, yet elusive world called 'Pure Illusion'. The first 8 or so episodes really did a great job at unraveling this interesting world, and had me coming back to learn more. Every episode there was a new idea of Pure Illusion- the haunted time loop house, the neo-city, and the monster filled iceland, were the most memorable for me. Ideas were getting tossed ... around and it was a ton of fun. The interactions between the duo are cute and lighthearted.
The art is also worth mentioning, the way this show handles artistic story telling, with a color palette ranging from vibrant to dull, is incredible. Action sequences are consistently fluid, with the use of flashy sakuga.

The opening, Serendipity by ZAQ, embodies the whole mood of the show pretty straight on, with upbeat electronic music, beautiful fight scenes and with the beginning lines "into the sky"embodying the sense of adventure I truly felt when watching the first 9 or so episodes. But after that point, the opening just serves to remind us that the show has truly strayed away from what made it great in the first place.

The story at some point, takes itself way too seriously. There is a hilarious lack of build up for the tension that arrives. The drama crashes in like a toddler who was testing the limits of a bike. It is rushed: the reveals, the explanations, the revelations, the resolutions. It never feels right. At some point, I was thinking "what if they used their animation budget to make more episodes instead". Everything good about the show I've said before, besides the art, just gets thrown out the window at some point. It leaves the viewer unsatisfied. Nothing feels complete, or established. The show becomes over ambitious- attempting a plot to wow the audience but leaves its former identity in the gutter and its viewers scratching their heads.

Flipflappers is the guy in elementary school who is working on a perfectly fine art piece, peeks at someone else's, and ultimately ruins his own in an attempt to copy the piece he peeked at (aka me). Complicated plots are cool but there's no reason to fix anything that's not broken. I can't bring myself to give this show that low of a mark, because I truly enjoy a big portion of the show. But it is because I enjoyed it so much at first, it is more the disappointing that it turned out the way it did.

Flip flappers is a criminally underrated show.
Not a lot of people talk about it, and not a lot of people have seen it.
It's a magical girl anime centering around going into a different world and collecting pieces. Sounds pretty basic, but it's far from it.

It has a weird kind of art style, but it's extremely pretty and fits well with the show in general.

Flip flappers can be very energetic and confusing at times, and somehow turn dark the next episode. It's an episodic show with a nice ending, fitting the pieces of the puzzle together.

If you're the least bit intrigued by this, then go watch ... it now!

Why do you shoot yourself in the foot time and time again, anime? Can't you just give me a gorgeous looking anime with stellar animation, two quirky cute main characters, and NOT sexualize it 24/7?

Flip flappers is a work of art at times, with wondrous ideas that gain life by mastefully animating these moments. It is honestly a joy to see so much creativity presented on screen, and the story, alhough predictable and kind of bare bones, is still interesting enough.

But let's go down to the meat of my issue with the show: the constant fan service of the clearly underage girls that just ... makes the enjoyment from the beginning take a swan dive off the roof. It is really not necessary to plague your beautiful show with cameltoes and tentacle fetishes galore. Not kidding when I say there was at least one tentacle scene in each episode to the point you could make a drinking game out of it. They completely take you out of the story and make you just question who in the directing team has such pent up sexual arousal to be cramming all kinds of kinks throughout the duration of the show.

Have I mentioned the fact these girls are very much underage? Still in middle school and no shame in stripping them down to their panties (if that) whenever the writers have an occasion. Kind of revolting man.

And it is truly a shame because apart from that, flip flappers is a tight show, with most of the episodes showing the main characters going in a fun, little adventure that can range from cute to incredibly creative. As the show winds down to the end, some kind of plot arises and its good enough to mantain interest even though I felt it came out of nowhere and was not properly integrated.

Special shoutout to the ending song because it is absolutely adorable and has a jingle that will stick inside your head for a long time.

This series was watched in Japanese dub with English subs on Crunchyroll. Thus, the “Sound” category refers to the Japanese voice actors and actresses.

Flip Flappers has to be one of my favourite anime series.

Story

The story was good, 7/10. Each episode showed the journey Cocona and Papika going through the world of Pure Illusion in order to grab all the crystal shards. The story could have been approached a tiny bit better but I enjoyed the fact that it was not too cliché. The story appealed to me a lot, especially towards the end.

Art

The art in my opinion was amazing. The art showing the ... transformation when Papika and Cocona shout out “Flip Flapping” has a shoujo vibe to it which I am still am trying to get used to. This is where I felt where it could have been cut down and had a bit more of a realistic vibe to it but yet again, this part is basically the cliché part where they transform and eventually beat the evil; nothing else. Thus, I suppose it does not need to be realistic and it is just my tastes that I need to change.

Sound

The voice actors/actresses were amazing. It felt that the voices matched their characters. I did not notice the background music being awful. It blended in well with the certain scenes. The OP and EDs were not perfect but they were not all too bad. At first, I did not really like the OP but now I can stand it at least. The ED at the start does not really have a kicking explosive start but the chorus is where I decided to make the ED one of my favourite EDs.

Character

I felt that all the characters combined were well balanced. However, I felt that some characters did not react to situations in a realistic way. This anime, however, was not portrayed in a realistic way, but fiction. There were some antagonists were just there to be there, however, other antagonists did have motives. I also felt the supporting cast was perfect. They were not too bland. I generally hated the antagonists because of their evil nature. However, the antagonists needed to exist in order for this anime to be what it is or else their flip flapping adventures will become all for naught. (no antagonists mean they did not need to go on flip flapping adventures and just enjoy school life, making it become a slice of life anime instead.

Enjoyment

I overall think this anime is very enjoyable. I might even re-watch it. I feel that others can also enjoy this anime as much as me. This is probably an anime to watch for people who just cannot decide what to watch. I recommend this to absolutely anyone. Cocona and Papika shall stay in my heart forever. These two characters are what makes the show enjoyable.

Flip Flappers is an anime fairy tale. It brims with wonder from start to finish, much of its action taking place across various fantastical dreamscapes. The series features magical girls complete with transformations, but Flip Flappers neither follows in the footsteps of the magical girl genre, forgoing the emphasis on daily life and casual romance for full immersion into the magical, nor does it seek to be a deconstruction by setting its story in contrast to the norm of the genre, instead budding out into its own new branch.

The series begins episodic, each episode its own story with anything left unanswered at the ... end of the episode remaining unanswered, or cleared up in the unshown time between the episodes. As the series continues the episodes gradually gain more and more continuity, up to the final third of the series where the episodes are undeniably tied together. It is in this final third of the show that the story's moral question is brought into focus, as the main conflict of the series comes to light and is eventually resolved.

By far the most wonder-filled, fantastical, and colorful anime I've seen to date, Flip Flappers gets an absolute recommendation from me.

Flip Flappers is to say the least, a confusing yet highly enjoyable anime. The story is about 2 girls named Papika and Cocona travelling to other worlds to get these amorphous. Every world they travel to is unique and has its own gimmick. On the surface this story seems simple but it can be hard to keep up with.

The story is pretty good if you can follow whats happening however, to the normal viewer its hard to keep with the twists and turns. One minute you think you have it all worked out than suddenly, something else is revealed that makes you rethink the ... entire thing. At least it ended pretty good compared to other anime.

The animation is some of the best I have seen (To be fair though, I haven't watched many anime renowned for having great Animation). It looks great throughout and shines during the fight scenes. From the epic op to the final fight the animation is superb.

The op "Serendipity" is amazing, with the stunning visuals and the beautiful track. This is one of the few animes I watched the op everytime. The ed is ok at best though. It has some nice little clips but I found myself skipping it often due to wanting to move onto the next episode.

To sum up Flip Flappers, it is an anime with a confusing but intresting story, stunning visuals and a relatively good soundtrack.

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.

So if Diego Maradona wouldn´t have been playing football, he would have written this. This is the exact representation of what he would have done when high on drugs.

Flip Flappers is a completely unique series, and for sure one of the most underrated shows ever. You start with two nice girls doing a relaxed and sweet show and end up with a more complex, deep and serious plot. And the most important thing? At the end everything makes sense. Strange to say but it does. The way it was performed was amazing, "flipflapping" from a nice cartoon to an actual plot. You will have enjoyment ... granted, for sure. That last four chapters were by far one of the most intense show endings I have ever seen. Also the positive message it leaves makes this series one of the best.

Animation was really great. Maybe the character´s shape was strange, but the way the animation was made covered it up. It was visually stunning. Also OP Serendipity and ED Flip Flap Flip Flap are really great. The entire OST is quite interesting along both insert songs "FIND THE WIND" and "OVER THE RAINBOW" in that happy end.

Characters were great too. Having Cocona as a quiet girl and Papika as the lovely girl made a great couple of MCs. Also Yayaka and the twins, which still weren´t really developed, played a nice part. Hiroki and Sayiri were also nice characters, along the robot. And Dr. Salt at the end became one of the characters of the show, being crucial to the plot. Mimi was something strange, leaving us with crossed feelings while giving us a great plot. Definitivelly a great point here.

This is one of that surprise series you should see if you are bored or have nothing to do. But even there, this will aim really high. Tigre in Copa de la Superliga would be proud.

Here ends the review. Please drop a helpful if you found it helpful.

Story: 9/10
Art: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Character: 8/10
Enjoyment: 8.5/10 --> 8/10

Overall: 9/10
Should you watch it? Absolutely. Don´t miss it.

Flip Flappers is a strange anime that I bailed on when I first gave it a shot in 2017. I thought it was a mildly interesting anime with great art but completely insufferable dialogue—you will surely notice that the two main characters scream each others’ names back and forth over and over again for large portions of the show.

I came back six years later, and I’m not entirely sure why. Did I feel bad that I didn’t give it a real shot? Did I want it to be better than it was? Well, unfortunately for 2017 me, I stopped on the episode *just before* it ... started getting interesting. I’ll give you this piece of advice: make sure you give it 3 or 4 episodes just to be safe. It’s not that the show *fundamentally changes* or anything, but they really rush you into the premise during the first two episodes, and it takes a while to build up to the meaty bits.

So, what’s good about Flip Flappers? The art is fantastic. The character designs can be a little odd, but it doesn’t take long to get used to. Papika and Cocona explore some *wildly different* environments over the course of the show, and all in all they do a great job keeping everything looking fresh and interesting. The animation is fun, and they really flex their cartooning muscles throughout the series.

In addition, I’d say they do a good job with their mostly episodic plot. Some individual episodes I found to be special and impactful, and they do make a reasonable attempt to tie things together through foreshadowing and metaphor and these intangible themes that carry between episodes. The symbolism and meaning is easily confused for pure irreverence because of how well they’re able to do both at the same time. When it works, it’s great.

I don’t *love* the plot, though. My main criticism is that I wish they did a more consistent job tying the surreal mind-bending themes and environments to tangible truths in their “real world”. They do often, but other times they kind of phone it in and just let it be crazy for crazy’s sake. And this is totally personal preference; if you don’t mind that, then you’ll probably love it. But to me, some things need to be earned, and Flip Flappers takes a lot of narrative elements for granted that I wanted to see them build with honest work. Because of that, I didn’t come away completely satisfied. Also, if you’re watching in English, I’ve never loved Sentai Filmworks’ dubs. They have some good actors, but the direction clotheslines them.

Lastly, hate to bring it up, but I really wish the show didn’t push the sexualization of kids. Look, there are times where the adolescents are sexualized and I *got it*. It felt deserved, like these girls were learning things about themselves, exploring aspects of their personalities that they really hadn’t until now. But then the character designers get kind of greedy and really push it. From there, it rides in that typical anime “these girls are probably too young for this” zone… until the little girl shows up in the high-waisted spaghetti strap v-cut thong with a generous inch of fabric covering her genitals between her otherwise completely exposed midsection and upper thighs. There’s just no need for that, seriously. The show has adults, the show has young teenagers, and then there’s this kid—there is no question as to what’s going on here. It’s not good.

But hey, if you can ignore that last part, it’s a 13 episode series with unique art, and some good themes that they touch on here and there. It’s also a magic girl show so it has that going for it, I suppose.

I absolutely love Flip Flappers! This is one of my favorite series from Fall 2016. Without further ado, let's get into my review on why this anime is that awesome.

Story (8/10)
The story ain't anything special. It's just an adventure story between two girls. However, it is told in an interesting way. There are episodes with their individual story but the story are still well told. Nevertheless it still kept me entertained.

Art and Animation (9/10)
The visuals on this anime is just awesome. Each scene in this anime are well done. The art and animation are both unique. It doesn't follow the typical moe art style ... nowadays. The animation sometimes reminds me of studio Trigger and it suits this anime pretty well. Don't believe me? Watch the PV. Granted that there are people who will not enjoy this art and animation style, but personally I love it! The opening visuals did well in switching from the dark side to the bright side. The Ed theme is unique in using picture book style ending we normally see from Disney.

Sound (8/10)
The OP theme is catchy and the ED theme is cute to listen. The soundtracks are nothing special but each of the soundtracks is used in the correct scene. Never did a scene feels off because of its BGM.

Character (8/10)
This is where the anime shines. Although the character quirks are cliched, however it still can't change the fact that the characters are well developed and interesting or enjoyable to look at, particularly our 2/3 main characters. The relationship between Papika and Cocona are well developed and cute. None of the characters are annoying or unlikable, at least in my opinion. However, beside the main characters, the side characters just came off as bland and underdeveloped, nevertheless they are still likable characters.

Enjoyment (10/10)
I enjoyed this anime to its fullest because of the art, animation, OP and ED theme music and visuals, and also the characters. So I will definitely recommend this anime if you want an anime with a cute girl and girl relationship and also unique artstyle.

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.

Flip Flappers is deeper than you think. At first glance, I was confused. But as I progressed through the show, I became discerned of the aspects behind Flip Flappers. "Friendship".

This show represents friendship through sheer fantasy. The fantasy consists of chaos, yuri, daughter complex, and magical girls. A pretty cliche concept I'd say. But it works.

Putting aside the fact that Cocona and Corona is mere coincidence along with Mocks exam. I teared up, laughed, screamed and had goosebumps. If all the things that has happened to me during the show was for nothing then I would've not given this anime 10/10.

This show ... is underrated and it's amazing. This may sound one-sided, but there's no flaw in this show at all. It's a perfect masterpiece.

I'm speechless. I don't even know what else to say. This is one of the anime where it's messy but it just works.

Recommended to people who enjoyed Humanity Has Declined or people who want to see something unique that's messy but works!

Have ever tried mushrooms or LSD? Want to have the same experience, but without negative effect on your health? Boy, There is an anime for you!!!

Story: Flip Flap out of 10
The last sentence. Do you remember what it ...? Of course, not! You are high, now! Let's go to an adventure!

Art: Tripping out of 10
Whaaaaa!!! So many colors! Outlines! Shapes! Everything is liquid! Unless "it's really hard" (literally what Cocona said, if fansubs are correct).

Sound: INTO THE SKY!!! out of 10
No tripping experience is complete without appropriate music. And "tripping" is literally part of the lyrics of ED (in English, not translated).
...
Characters: Dripping tears out of 10
Papika, Cocona, love, 'shrooms! You still remember anything else about the characters? Let me give you another pill... uhm, I mean episode. What characters, it is just Pure Illusion!

Enjoyment: Socchi mo Kocchi out of 10
Do you watch drama to laugh at the characters misery? Do you watch comedy to cry about characters troubles? Do you watch action to follow the normal people's life? Do you watch slice of life for the action? If you are one of those kind of people, you might enjoy this anime. If you are not, well, you better judge this anime by its genre. But what is it?
Is it comedy? Is it magic? Is it sci-fi? Is it adventure? No. Do not believe MAL tags. This is entirely new genre, with the only appropriate name would be "tripping" or "mushrooms". Being one of kind, it achieve its one of a kind goal - getting high.

If you are serious person, who wants enjoyment in a limited time you have, perhaps you should skip this anime. If you are tired of anime and have nothing else to watch, this might bring you back to the dark side (or in this case to colorful land of Pure Illusion).

Style. Almost every episode has a style of its own. Almost like wasting ideas that could have been used on several different titles upon just one. The styles are not completelly different, they share the basic details in common. The overall drawing of everything is different from any other anime, resembling things like Kill la Kill maybe. The drawing is outstanding, everything is super-bright, colorful and shiny. Every frame is like a picture in itself, and every detail has a clear purpose in a visual sence. Playing of different of colors with each other has its own effect. Beautiful.

Bright charecters with charisma, sound, background ... music, fairy magical story about traveling between worlds, everything besides art plays along with the art so that all falls into the whole anime in a seamless fashion. As long as it's whole and seamless it looks magical. Anything extra would be just redundant. Everything is done excellently and nothing is redundant hence 10/10.