Welcome to Guest Review Wednesday where we’re dlighted to have a review from returning Guest Reviewer Eric P.! Please give him your attention..take it away, Eric!

Average middle-schooler Cocona—raised alone by her grandmother without having known her mother or father—is just living her life going to school every day, meeting with her friend, Yayaka, not quite sure what to do for her future. Then a mysterious, energetic girl named Papika drops into her life (upon a flying surfboard of all things) and whisks her away on adventures to an equally mysterious parallel universe called Pure Illusion. Each trip is a visit to different dreamlike worlds—one resembles a psychedelic Alice in Wonderland, another is styled like a dystopian-future desert battle, and yet another as a schoolgirl-horror setting—and Cocona and Papika navigate each one of them to find certain crystal shards under orders from an organization called Flip Flap. All that is known about Pure Illusion is that it reflects the dreams or even psychologies of people in the real world. The shards themselves supposedly grant wishes, but Flip Flap’s intent is to find them all before Asclepius, a rival organization, can use them to restructure the real world, and the girl leading the rival missions happens to be Yayaka.

All this makes Flip Flappers sound like an oddball series—and it is, but in an entertaining, charming way, yet one of the biggest criticisms it received was for its unevenness. The first half is focused on the adventures in Pure Illusion, where each new world is distinctly random and bizarre, and largely interpretative in their imagery and themes. Even if you never read the interviews with the staff, it is still evident they took a lot of inspiration and queues from surreal paintings. Yet this takes more of a backseat in the second half, in which by that time the story itself kicks into gear—Cocona discovers Papika’s connection with her, Cocona’s past comes to haunt and shatter her future as she discovers her life has been a cruel lie, and the climax can be considered a little Evangelion-esque. Upon first viewing it can be jarring for those that were hooked into the storyline by its more intriguing first half in comparison to the more conventional formula of the second. But when watched all at once upon second viewing, everything seen in the first half had been a set up for what was to come in the story’s second half, regardless of whether or not it still leaves as much an impression.

If there is one thing different between the two halves I do personally find at odds, it is the fan service. While the first half had some of it, it was far more minimal and subtle, whereas in the second half there were a small handful of more blatant shots, a couple of which of the girls’ undersides—just because. Not to mention that one of the new warrior girls that comes later in the story dons an especially questionable getup for someone her age.

My only major nitpick aside, as far as Yuri goes, there has been some debate on whether or not Cocona and Papika’s relationship was ever more than subtext. But based on what I read, it is indeed there. The Premium Edition release of this series comes with a hardcover booklet containing interviews with the staff, and the director is quoted saying, “I wanted to include elements like transformations, huge weapons, pretty female characters, as well as Yuri, all in a very cute package.” So based on that, unless Sentai’s translation is off, whatever depiction of Yuri one finds in the story is intentional. In Episode 7 alone, where Cocona finds herself in a world where she meets multiple variants of Papika, it is easy to interpret it as Cocona coming to realize her feelings for Papika are deeper than friendship. It is made indicative that Yayaka also has feelings for Cocona, which naturally complicates her own position in the rival organization. If one were to watch Flip Flappers with the English dub—which is very well done—all scenes of Cocona and Papika expressing their mutual affections to each other can certainly come across as far less subtext.

Having said all this, while the Yuri may be a focus, it is not necessarily the primary one. Flip Flappers as a whole is a mix of various genres, including action, magical girl, mecha, sci-fi, supernatural, as well as yuri. As said before, this series is an odd one, but that oddness is what helps distinguish it, becoming one of those types of series where viewers can get anything out of it. Almost everything seen is metaphorical of whatever the viewers make from it, including Cocona and Papika’s butterfly-styled transformations. Yet at its very core, it is a coming-of-age story with heart of a girl breaking out of her shell and flying off into the unknown where she learns to find and be her true self, while choosing to stay beside the one girl responsible for it all.

If one were interested in giving Flip Flappers a purchase, one should consider Sentai’s glossy Premium box set. While it may be pricier than the regular blu-ray, it does come with that mentioned booklet with both interviews and artwork (there is even a page detailing the work that went into the designs of the characters’ huge/adorable eyes), while also including some very nice artcards. So if one cares about any special features at all when Sentai normally makes their regular releases bare-bones, Premium is the way to go, and Flip Flappers is special enough for it.

Art – 9
Story – 8.
Characters – 7
Service – 4.5
Yuri – 6.5

Overall-8

Erica here: Thank you for this review! And a quick reminder for readers that Flip Flappers is also streaming legally and free (with regional restrictions) on Crunchyroll.