For me personally, Flip Flappers earned a couple of titles: Anime of the Season in Fall 2016, Anime of the Year 2016 and, most notably, Surprise of the Year 2016. Because I really didn't expect to enjoy this show to this extent. I mean, looking back at the fact that I almost dropped it after episode 2 still makes me shudder at the thought of missing this experience.
- I tried to keep spoilers at a minimum -
Story
So, what the flip is this anime about anyway? Well simply put, it's about the "normal girl" Cocona, who gets dragged to a weird alternate world called Pure Illusion by "weird girl" Papika, to go collect mysterious shards who could supposedly grant wishes.
Of course, no sane person would keep watching this if the entire plot would be such a generic magical girl story. For one thing, that description completely disregards the competition in the search for the shards. And it also doesn't really express just how weird it really is. Or just how well the characters develop (more on that in the characters section). But most of all, it doesn't do justice to the huge variety of stories this anime contains.
Allow me to elaborate a bit on this last statement, by telling you a bit about how the show is built up:
In regards to the style of the storytelling: it's so interesting that Crunchyroll has written a total of four articles about it (might contain spoilers!): one - two - three - four (there could be more, this was just after a quick google search). Basically, the show uses it's visuals to throw around references, symbolism and surrealism.
So yeah, while the start was a bit rough, the overall energetic atmosphere, versatility of the show, the style of the storytelling and the great finale made me decide to give it a 9.5/10.
Characters
As is magical girl - tradition, this show is also partly a "coming of age" story for Cocona. Which means, of course, that she is the one who gets fleshed out the most, and who develops the most. On the other hand, this does NOT mean that other characters don't get any attention. Be it the obvious Papika, Yayaka, the enigmatic Dr. Salt or the stoic amorphous kids: they all get the screentime necessary to explore their personalities... except Nyunyu ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .
Animation and artwork
Well, I first picked up Flip Flappers because I saw a short clip of the great animation in episode 1 (Papika on her hoverboard), so I guess it's obvious that it's top-notch. Fights look pretty damn great too (probably the best animated fights I've seen since One-Punch Man).
The artwork is already adressed a bit in the style of storytelling: it's really creative and interesting.
On top of that, there went a LOT of care into the backgrounds, to the point where it's often Ghibli-level. (Crunchyroll has an article about this too: link)
The only thing I didn't really like at first was the way the eyes were drawn, but once I got used to that it didn't bother me anymore.
Sound
The only thing I can objectively think of that outshines the animation and artwork, is the sound in this show. The voice acting is perfect; the OP song is great and energetic, and gets you hyped for the episode, the OST and insert songs are really nice and the ED is one of the most addicting songs I've heard in ages (yes, a rare case of ED being better than OP!).
I really have no reason at all to subtract any points in this category, so I'll just leave it at 10/10.
Overall
This show is like an energetic little hamster, doing all kinds of random, creative crap to get out of the labyrinth it's confined in. While the first steps it takes seem boring, the middle part is tons of fun, and the finale is fantastic! Combine that with great visuals and sound, and you get a great show.
Now, go watch it!
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