The Best Anime You’ve Never Watched: Flip Flappers

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Back in the day, when I had time, I used to love watching a few seasonal anime as they released. Getting a weekly dose of anime is nice, but getting several micro-doses throughout the week as new episodes are released? It’s a great time, and sometimes, to fill the empty gaps, you dig deep and take a gamble on something you expect nothing from. One such anime I tuned into in late 2016 was Flip Flappers, and I’ve discovered something since: absolutely nobody knows what it is.

I can’t blame them. Flip Flappers is a 13-episode anime series, a self-contained story, and… that’s it. There’s no tie-in manga, no huge merch drop, no spin-offs, no movie, nothing. It was made, it was released, and that was it. I mean, that’s the way most anime productions go – only the most popular series actually make a splash and a long-term impact. Flip Flappers just isn’t that anime – but god, it should’ve been.

Cocona is an ordinary girl who meets Papika – an abnormal girl, if anything – and quickly gets wrapped up in the Flip Flap organization. In each episode the pair venture into a world called Pure Illusion through a special machine in order to retrieve special shards – these shards also allow them to transform in Sailor Moon-style magical girls. The influences for Flip Flappers are worn on the sleeve.

In order to transform and do battle with a rival organization they meet in Pure Illusion, Cocona and Papika must harmonize their emotions, bringing them closer together. That’s the basic outline for the show, at least, but the plot really isn’t as important as everything else.

Pure Illusion is a completely different world each time the duo enter, and that allows the animators to do, well, pretty much anything. They can transform into magical girls to do battle, sure, but this really isn’t a shonen battle series. There are some amazingly animated and choreographed fight scenes, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not an anime about big fights and good overcoming evil. It’s something a bit more intimate and, well, gay.

Papika loves Cocona. There’s some shenanigans about alternate selves in a past life or whatever which makes this destiny, but here’s the bottom line: Papika really loves Cocona. She doesn’t want to spend a moment without her, and in that time harmonizing their emotions, their bond has become inseparable. It’s gay. It’s adorable. It’s beautiful. I love it.

Each episode of Flip Flappers is worth watching for the sheer flexibility the animators were given in producing the scenes. Beautiful landscapes and fantastic animation combine in almost every episode – it’s wholesome, beautiful stuff. It’s the kind of anime I want to see more often, something that feels born of passion and absolutely nothing else. Flip Flappers isn’t just a cosy good time, it feels like something that was made by people that love what they do.

If you want to watch an excellent anime that you’ve almost certainly missed, go back and watch Flip Flappers.