Reviews

Jun 24, 2023
Mixed Feelings
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.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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