I have no idea what kind of impact this show had, because I don’t keep up with anime. I saw @BooDooPerson describe it as having a ‘midseason pivot from Jungian to Freudian’ though, and I ended up following through with the whole season.
For those who don’t know: it’s a magical girl show about traveling to a place called Pure Illusion and getting magical fragments that Do Stuff. I liked that pivot a lot, and thought the show was way better than it could have been. Anyone else watch it, like/hate it, have thoughts?
It was a pretty fun show; was paced a bit strangely (sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a way that rubbed me wrong, may have been better watched weekly than marathon-style). I adored the time loop episode for its conceit and aesthetic; was the highlight of the show for me. The pivot was alright but I definitely feel like things could’ve been… I dunno, deeper? Developed to be more interesting? It was solid but I felt it could’ve been fantastic.
I enjoyed Flip Flappers, but I’m a little ambivalent towards it. The show started extremely strong, with incredible style in spite of a lack of solid substance - and that was fine. I really enjoyed the show as a showboating stylistic work with some interesting themes. Unfortunately, as they added more and more plot into the mix, it kind of lost me. I still enjoyed a lot about it, but by the end I was really soured on the story by what felt to me like a dry, bolted-on wall of plot that honestly only served to drag the strengths of the show down.
I think that Flip Flappers could have been a lot better if the pacing had been shifted and the plot perhaps lightened both in quantity and in the raw exposition style in which it was often delivered, allowing for a greater focus on the stylish and weird dream-like worlds in which it thrived, but I still liked it a whole lot.
by the time loop episode do you mean the one set at the school, with the doll/horror folks? Because goddamn was that episode something.
I think you’re right, but at the same time I think that’s kind of what drew me to the show more than anything. I definitely have a fondness for when things try to go somewhere and don’t quite make it, which I think Flip Flappers did in The Most Ways. Like the way the Mimi stuff was like, given the story beats it should have had to work, but it also kind of didn’t at all? but then I liked it a lot?
I don’t know, it’s a weird show and hearing that it confused other people is kind of validating?
That’s really interesting! I think the awkwardness of the plotting is kind of what kept me watching, but I also understand that isn’t a strength of the show, necessarily. I feel like the way it started was definitely form over function, but one of the things I liked about it was how it kind of aggressively inhaled the function part halfway through like it had just discovered it.
I guess my read of the show is that it’s at first about a girl who gets thrown into something she doesn’t want, but kind of likes, and then it’s about exploring the fact that she likes it, which is messy as fuck. I definitely don’t think you’re wrong that it probably could have been conveyed better (whether that was the intended structure or not) but I guess for me a lot of that ‘plot’ stuff was more like the kind of bullshit stories we tell ourselves to get through the day, rather than an actual explanation of the world? I might be completely off about this.
Aside from the fanservice (literally the one thing that kept me from recommending this show to everyone, whoops), yeah, most issues I had that I can think of right off the bat involve the plot. One relatively minor thing that still sticks out to me is how Papika having memories of her past life got glossed over. It seemed to be messing her up (i.e. sometimes mistaking Cocona for Mimi) a little, so I was expecting it to be a bigger deal? Focusing on other stuff instead is fine, but there was potential there.
With that said, I still love the show a lot. It’s fun looking back on the first few episodes where I didn’t care about Yayaka at all, even after she was revealed to be an antagonist, but she ended up being My Fave Character??? I love the duo, sure, but Yaya’s the best. When’s Season 2 with the three of them as a trio going on wild adventures? “Never,” huh? Hm.
It was one of my favorite shows of last year, yeah! I think a lot of people went into it thinking it was more like Space Dandy (an animator’s playground anthology) and were burned when it turned out to be a mystery a la Dennou Coil. But there were some amazing stand-alone episodes even then, and I thought that even if the later plot developments could have been introduced in a more graceful way, it was justified in my books by some very sneaky foreshadowing throughout. Hell, there’s a pot of clovers on Cocona’s desk!!
You could certainly argue the show’s compromised by its late-night slot–there’s some unnecessary and frankly creepy fanservice stuff that could put viewers off, for one. Mitsuo Iso (who’s one of the greatest animators of all time and a fan of the director) says he thought the director’s capable of better. But for a first effort in the frankly dysfunctional modern anime system, I think it’s pretty damn good. And the director’s contributing the demon designs to Masaaki Yuasa’s upcoming Devilman project next year, so here’s hoping that turns out well for him.
I dropped it after 3, 4 episodes, mostly after being creeped out by the unpleasant fan service. Good designs, amazing backgrounds (I will at least try any show that Studio Pablo has worked on), but the potential of the characters really seemed to have evaporated after the first couple of episodes. Hearing that the story also didn’t pan out is unfortunate, but expected. I guess that does make it easier for me to go back to watch some of the animator highlight eps that I didn’t get to, though, just as standalone pieces.
I really enjoyed it. From it’s themes to it’s animation to it’s style and attitude. Reminded me a trippy mix of Madoka Magica and Space Patrol Luluco. It doesn’t have the most concise or original story but I enjoyed the way it was delivered. There was a real charm to it’s roughness; it felt like it was being explored through the lens of naive innocent children. Ceicocat did a really good video on Why You Should Watch It and you should watch it because she does good analysis videos and deserves more subscribers.
I really liked the style of it, the pure illusion worlds were stunning and most of the time a lot of fun. I wasn’t a fan of the ending though. I think maybe they could have done something more interesting with it if they were given more time, but as it stands I thought it felt very rushed and confused.
Its ED is really great… but yeah, it’s weird, it had sparks of real true greatness but as has been mentioned went into the creep factor quite a few times and had some serious pacing issues lol, like, I was worried when it got near the end and… how are you going to end this??? Glad I watched it for some of the animation alone but yeah, odd one.
I liked Flip Flappers quite a bit. It was beautiful, and interesting, and a joy. I don’t think it stuck the landing wholly, but that’s never a deal breaker for me.
But fucking hell, the gross camera angles and costumes were so offputting. If it weren’t for how much I loved the rest of the show, I never would’ve put up with it. Why did they do this? ):
