Flip Flappers has a very gorgeous, bright, and fun animation style, which is why it is ranked a six. it truly was a pleasure to watch, plus a stellar op and ed which i really enjoyed. but it does fall flat in terms of the story. the majority of points given are for how cute papika and cocona are, plus the visuals.
characters:
the 13 episodes focused mainly on papika and cocona, and they do have a very lovely relationship that i enjoyed watching grow, but the side characters also piqued my interest, so it was disappointing that they weren't fleshed out more.
yayaka's character development seemed to be going somewhere when she was reconciling her choices and her relationship with cocona, but she didn't have a major part in the final battle or an opportunity for her to "prove her love" in the way that cocona and paprika did in the final battle. yayaka could have been more than a side character, given how much love she has for cocona and how intertwined their lives are.
i appreciated mimi's character and how she represents the line between a loving, protective mother, and a controlling, violent mother. however, i would really have loved to see how she got to that point, and to have seen her "descent into madness"; it seemed like a missed opportunity. the same goes for salt, who in his earlier years is portrayed as a curious, kind researcher who turns cold and domineering.
i think that what really carries it for me is this soft spot that i have for this “type a meets type b” trope, with one character being the charismatic extrovert (papika) and the other being a hesitant introvert (cocona) but having two wonderful main characters seemed to have left the side characters neglected.
story:
as far as pacing, i enjoyed how the earlier episodes were focused on just the fun adventures the girls were having but they definitely could have added more information pertaining to the larger plot in the beginning to tie in the beginning of the show with the end, instead of having such a harsh division of "fun beginning" and "serious final boss end" (but, having all the information at once was a similar experience to how cocona found things out, so maybe it was intentional?)
there were many things that were left underdeveloped, such as the origin of the organizations, how pure illusion came to be, how the wishes work, or each person's wish, and the side story with the older art student. this story truly could have been something spectacular, which is why its a bummer that its not.
this could have potentially been solved by making the series into a movie (as my brother suggested) or by adding another 12 episodes, to hopefully spend more time fleshing out the world, while still having time for papika and cocona's fun adventures.
