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EP. REVIEW: Flip Flappers


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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 6:48 pm Reply with quote
This show has really surprised me. Not sure if it's just the style or something but the world the story takes place has such creativity.

I also love Papika so far. She reminds me of Pikari from Amanchu from Summer.
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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Joined: 17 Apr 2015
Posts: 3017
PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 7:17 pm Reply with quote
If every episode of this series manages to be as good as the first two have been, then it is likely that Flip Flappers will end up being my personal "Anime of the Year", and possibly also a contender for some kind of "Top ___ Favorite Anime of All Time" list. I realize that is a bit presumptuous to say at this point, but so far this show has managed to stuff itself full of all the things I love about anime and none of the things I hate.

That being said, I suspect that Flip Flappers is going to come across as "too weird" for a lot of people.
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Parsifal24





PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 7:46 pm Reply with quote
This would be my Anime Of The Season if I had not already given that honor to ClassicaLoid. Flip Flappers very much feels like a labor of love by everyone in involved in its production.

I want to see where it goes and the first two episodes make for a solid story in of itself the mixture of whimsy and darkness like someone mixed the 1871 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with Studio Ghibli and Lyrical Nanoha. I really enjoy it
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Arale Kurashiki



Joined: 24 Aug 2015
Posts: 744
PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 8:03 pm Reply with quote
This seems like a cult classic in the making. Maybe.

However, it's kinda sad to see so many people going "wow it's so weird!" To be sure, the show is strange and unique, but it's honestly quite light on those elements compared to anime back in the 90s and 00s. It shows how sadly normal anime has gotten now, that modern anime fans find this weird.
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Muffum



Joined: 09 Mar 2016
Posts: 100
PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 8:09 pm Reply with quote
Everything about Flip Flappers's presentation, from its music to aesthetic to it being dialogue-light, appeals to me so specifically that it's no surprise it's one of my favorite anime this season. Cocona and Papika are both lovely leads, and that the show manages to make them so likable in spite of a relative lack of dialogue is a definite point in its favor. The whimsy of Pure Illusion, combined with the hint of danger and darkness bubbling just under the surface, invites a perfect mixture of delight at the world itself and worry that the characters will make it out in one piece. If I have one complaint, it's that I worry that balance might be thrown off and lean too far on that sense of darkness later on. Though the fact that my major complaint thus far is worrying about what might happen later in the series, rather than anything that actually has happened, is definitely a point in its favor.
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Valhern



Joined: 19 Jan 2015
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 8:10 pm Reply with quote
I love thinking between the artstyles of both FlipFlap (for some reason I prefer writing it like this) and MP100, because both have the very flashy kind of fluid and kinetic animation, but MP100 is super rough and hot blooded, and FlipFlap is very fluffy and pleasant. I still think that my shonen loving kid hasn't died and I feel some more love for MP100 rather than for FlipFlap.

Conceptually-wise, I love visiting the world of Pure Illusion, it's got all the emotions in one, like the ending, it's scary, but cheerful; it's vast, but dangerous and it can get on all levels of awesome. I do hope that at one point we have more clear hints in storytelling, not necessarily an infodump.

I forgot to mention, but the soundtrack at times feels so much like a Western cartoon? Especially when Papika is in the school.
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killjoy_the



Joined: 30 May 2015
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 8:25 pm Reply with quote
Speaking of comparisons, FlipFlap's art style and animation remind me more of Kaiba than anything else -perhaps because I watched Kaiba somewhat recently. Story-wise, these first episodes remind me more of Kyousougiga's 0th episode than anything else - there's definitely something interesting there, but I feel like the show's too far up itself to get me too engaged. Kyousougiga itself wowed me with its actual episodes, though, so I'm hoping FlipFlap gets to that point - getting me to like the characters would be a good step. I can see what it was trying to do with Cocona's uncertainty towards her future in the first episode, but I felt like that was a bit too little.
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Luke's JRPG Channel





PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 8:49 pm Reply with quote
This is very unusual but I really want to watch this, it has me hooked for some reason.
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Via_01



Joined: 24 Aug 2014
Posts: 551
PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 9:51 pm Reply with quote
I love this show. Right now it's my favorite of the season. In a medium where these types of stories tend to be riddled with long moments of exposition, it's amazing how Flip Flappers avoids explaining anything about its world, instead trusting viewers to go with the flow and piece things together at their own pace.

It's interesting to note how every place that's transported them to Pure Illusion is well-suited for children make-believe games. There's the concrete tube that's often portrayed in anime as a make-shift playground for children, and they go down a literal rabbit hole during ep 2. I'm tempted to speculate that Pure Illusion is a world made out of people's imagination (the painting on ep 2 that resembled the snowy land seems to be a rather big clue), but I'll just wait for the show to reveal its cards before throwing around theories.

...oh yeah, and the aesthetics are gorgeous. But everyone's said so already.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 10:06 pm Reply with quote
I'm not really sold on it personally, for now it just feel like another one of those "predictably random" show, where everything is random for the sake of being random and since there's one of those every season or two it kinda give me a feeling of being there done that despite being utterly random. Like, nothing surprise me because I'm expecting nothing to make sense, it'd be more surprising if stuff made coherent sense. There's a bunch of inspiration here and there but there's nothing linking them together, it's like they just decided to throw random reference here and there just for the sake of appearing deep and meaningful, but for now it just feel shallow, that work for episode 1, but I expect 2 to set the foundation of something and it really hasn't done that.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 10:36 pm Reply with quote
I am into the show's "random" elements because they are not as random as they appear at first. There is a little discussion in the series discussion topic where a couple things have been talked about.

First episode's winter wonderland I think says something specifically about Cocona, that people can get the perception that she is cold and distant, although once one gets a closer look they can see that she is actually sweet. She is perhaps locked in a parade like march through life, which could be the school system or similar, Papiko disturbs this environment and Cocona has to break her defence mechanisms to let Papiko in. A lot can actually said in this anime by actually not speaking

The second says a couple things about Cocona like her relationship with her pet rabbit, Uexkull. Firstly that Uexkull's design does not look like just a rabbit, and instead reflects Cocona's perception of him as a little fluff ball who can be a bit weird, but she wants to protect him, which kind of seems odd because she tends to come across as serious. So we kind of get the idea that Uexkull might be one things she can open up to. The other one is how Uexkull transformed in Pure Illusion, where he kind of looked cool and strong, while one interpretation might be that this is how Uexkull sees himself, I tend to think it says more about Cocona. I think it is part of her own imagination where she could see Uexkull as that, after all she did name him "Uexkull", and I think says another thing about what he might mean for her.

The plot of the second Pure Illusion is also about Papiko, mainly that her lack of worry and following instincts can get others in trouble, and that she needs to learn some level of caution. Just as Cocona transformed from having to open up and get out of her comfort zone, Papiko had to think about the effects of danger, and worry. Neither of the girls are the perfect level, and it is through coming together and finding a balance that "magic happens".

Flip Flappers is not random for the sake of being random. It is creative, but things not said with words are instead told by everything else.
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maximilianjenus



Joined: 29 Apr 2013
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 10:45 pm Reply with quote
I am nto convinced by this show, memories of rolling girls emerge...
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 11:15 pm Reply with quote
DuskyPredator wrote:
Flip Flappers is not random for the sake of being random. It is creative, but things not said with words are instead told by everything else.


The problem with that kind of analysis is you can make it about absolutely everything if you look for it, human see pattern in everything, that's why we can look at cloud and think we see face and stuff. If the first world hadn't been a cold place you'd just be linking it to Papika instead, if it had been dark you'd be linking it to the unknown element of the show, if it had been a giant ocean you'd be linking it to how the show is about to dive into the great wild or something, if it had been in the sky you'd say it's about how Cocona world is about to open up and she'll gain freedom, if it had been about medieval europe town you'd say it's about reconquering the good old value in the modern world that Cocona seems to have lost touch with and so on and so forth. Everything can be link to everything if you think it's a show with symbolism, by not actually nailing anything down the writer are just letting the audience do the work for them. So they just throw random stuff around, act like they totally know what there doing, wink at the audience and stay quite.

I'm 100% certain you could literally grab any anime and any broad topic (stuff like adolescence, patriotism, modernization, ect) and could make the same kind of analysis stick just as much.
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Via_01



Joined: 24 Aug 2014
Posts: 551
PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 11:56 pm Reply with quote
meiam wrote:
The problem with that kind of analysis is you can make it about absolutely everything if you look for it, human see pattern in everything, that's why we can look at cloud and think we see face and stuff. If the first world hadn't been a cold place you'd just be linking it to Papika instead, if it had been dark you'd be linking it to the unknown element of the show, if it had been a giant ocean you'd be linking it to how the show is about to dive into the great wild or something, if it had been in the sky you'd say it's about how Cocona world is about to open up and she'll gain freedom, if it had been about medieval europe town you'd say it's about reconquering the good old value in the modern world that Cocona seems to have lost touch with and so on and so forth. Everything can be link to everything if you think it's a show with symbolism, by not actually nailing anything down the writer are just letting the audience do the work for them. So they just throw random stuff around, act like they totally know what there doing, wink at the audience and stay quite.

I'm 100% certain you could literally grab any anime and any broad topic (stuff like adolescence, patriotism, modernization, ect) and could make the same kind of analysis stick just as much.


...I mean, yeah, that's the point of symbolism, and of interpreting things. If things were different, then we'd look at it differently. I don't see anything too deep yet on the show, but that doesn't mean it's wrong to interpret it in different ways. There are elements that are clearly meant to be symbolic, and if people can read them in many different ways, the better.

I believe you're confusing the fact that this isn't a straightforward story to it being completely random. There IS a world that has its own logic; it's not just random stuff happening. If it was, the story would be incoherent, but it hasn't broken any of its rules. Just because it doesn't stop to lecture us about what is going on doesn't mean it's just "lol so random".
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 12:05 am Reply with quote
@ meiam

Except it was not any of those things. No, this was the first episode and a first episode needs to set up the main character, and it was not at all about what she was going to happen about her, it was about who she is now. And who she is now was described by the main prop in the Pure Illusion, snow. The cold and isolated world was not accident, and it being actually sweet was no pure random detail, it actually was not even new information. The entire first half of the episode was really about how Cocona can appear cold and distant, it was a defining trait we picked up, but you could also pick up from her interactions with her friends that she is not really as cold as the appearance. The following plot was about how Papiko liked her despite that, finding the sweetness and wanting to get along with her, but Cocona had to open up herself.

The second episode is even less contextually random as Pure Illusion largely mirrored what had happened in the real world, that Papiko had chased Cocona's rabbit and it had gotten stuck in the vacuum machine. It was literally what just happened, but with some context about more of what the rabbit means to her, Papiko learning a bit of what Cocona feels about fears of danger, a major part earlier where Cocona refuses to continue going to Pure Illusion. It really was not some random setting that you could read anything from, in both episodes they have been directly relevant to what happens in the rest of the episode. Why do you think Papiko showed up first as an unfocused and wild shape instead of like Cocona?

Saying that any random thing could have happened and you could have made meaning is like saying the characters could have said anything in an anime and you could have got meaning from what they said. The only difference is that instead of the writing showing up through dialogue, it is showing through with everything else in the show. And really that is what animation should do, use all of their tools to tell a story.
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