Animini: Flip Flappers – Episode 12 – Pure Howling

Hello my Island Guests!  Sometimes you want to address a show as if it was a person, and if I could I would say “Flip Flappers  Dai-Dai-Daisuki”  My Arceus this episode yet again is so amazing… if the last episode can stick the landing at least a bit this will become one of my favourite shows ever, alongside Tengen Toppa Gurren more recently Kyousougiga. Sometimes a show resonates super strong with you and the message of Flip Flappers is basically the way i want to live my life. Dai-Dai-Daisuki!

The Summary

Jeesz.. this one is a bit trickier to describe without sounding like a raving lunatic!  I will do my best though! In this episode Yayaka and Papika chase Cocona and Mimi into Pure Illusion while the real world is still invaded by the snow monsters. While they are chasing their dear friend , Mimi is brainwashing Cocona to only listen to her mother.. she is one Disney song removed from Rapunzel’s mother.  Salt meanwhile has his mind set on finding the Elpis.. held by the evil organisation which seems to me like it is the original Flip Flappers now. He takes Nyunyu, Buu-Chan .. and the tracksuit Flip Flap girl whose name I forgot along on a perilous journey!  His leads him eventually into descending into the enemy base where Buu-Chan finally transforms into a muscle mode mecha.. and that gets defeated right away.. but Salt manages to get into Elpis. The Amorphous twins meanwhile can peer into deep Illusion as they try to recover their injuries and they actually see Yayaka made the right calls.

Inside pure Illusion we essentially get a boss-rush!  Evil Mimi makes Yayaka and Papika fight through the original stages of Papika and Cocona’s adventure.. but when facing that desert lady that brainwashed Cocona in episode 3.. Yayaka and Papika really struggle.. that is until an Amorphous shard lands into Yayaka’s possession. Papika tells her to think of her treasure and draw power from that. Yayaka realises her treasure is not the Amorphous but here dear friend Cocona.  Determined to take her back, Yayaka manages to Flip-flap into a magical girl much like her two friends. The Boshrush now gets pretty easily cleared until they end up in the cyberpunk world of episode 7.  Here Mimi alters Papika’s memory to break her resistance and make her believe she is right. This prompts the good Mimi to show in front of Cocona and tell her she should fight to make her own choices in life.. she might lack the courage but mother will give her that.  Mimi steals the magical girl powers of the girls.. but when Papika and Cocona confess what they mean for each other .. they transform into a new form of magical girls!  Together they easily punch the boss of the cyberpunk world away.. paving the path to the final episode and the fight against evil Mimi. Who wanted to use her power of Pure Illusion to create the perfect safe space for Cocona.

The Positives

I loved practically everything about the episode! Basically everything I had wished for in previous reviews of this show have been handed to me. It is confirmed that Cocona has a father, the Amorphous Twins got their head out of their ass, we got to see more magical girl stuff and best of all Yayaka got her magical girl powers.  Her power relaying around speed is a perfect accompaniment to the girls who respectively form the sword and shield together.  Now we have Strength, Bulk and Speed… amazing!  I really really liked her design as well. Her switching to a green hair colour was a bit odd..  but since Cocona swaps colours with Papika.. it kinda is fun to see how Yayaka combines colours with Cocona and giving her a green hair colour. Seeing Buu-chan transform but easily be defeated I like because this kind of reminds me of the powerscaling in Dragon Ball Z.. or Super.. how people suddenly become relevant again.. Flip Flappers basically just says… NAH! Just kidding this character still kinda sucks in terms of battle prowess.   

I still really like the choice of having Mimi who was captured and experimented on all her life as someone that is quite broken and it does work wonders in this episode. Clearly deep down she never was able to make her own choices so it makes sense that a part of her really wants to see Cocona do that. Yet she was als tremendously hurt, betrayed several times and she had a pretty horrible life. It makes sense that she would not want that life for Cocona either. Those choices are preventing each other.. those who make their choices freely will eventually end up getting hurt. And those who try to avoid being hurt at all cost never have a real choice in life. So it does make sense that these sides conflict with one another. I also like that these conflicts have been in Cocona from the start. She wants to have fun with Papika.. but she is also afraid to do the wrong thing. The new magical girl form looking more like their regular selves is also pretty empowering.. just be yourself and trust in who you are!   I haven’t even begun to talk about the awesome battles in this episode!   There is just too much goodness here!

The Negatives

I would love to say there are non.. but unfortunately one thing kinda missed the mark. Nyunyu tags along with Salt on her adventure and the way she does it is cute.. but also kind of annoying. It results in a few visual gags that while I did not mind in particular I did not really care for either. It’s there and I realise I rather would see something else than her sitting on a drone or using Buu chan as a helicopter swing thing…. which is weird because Nyunyu is my type of character. So the only conclusion I can make here is.. that I don’t really dislike her.. I just like the rest so much more that those scenes seemed annoying by comparison.  We are talking about her being like an 8.2  of entertainment while the rest of the show constantly is around 9.5 or higher. It’s not bad at all but it kinda feels like a big dip?!

That really is it though so since I have another paragraph I am gonna just rave about how awesome this episode was. The callback to old locations can be called cheap but I am the type of person that likes Boss Rushes.. because it can show how much you have grown and that is exactly what chain of events meant for me.  The ease with which Papika transforms, the way how they strategise now. That is delightful and I kinda disliked how Cocona constantly flipped between hating and loving Papika I get it now.. that is once more Cocona lacking the courage to make a choice.. following what society would say about their relation or having a friend that is so odd.. or doing something  not normal. It fixed my biggest issue with this show!  The ending might be a bit sudden.. but  it is quirky enough to work and it leaves expectations wide open.

The Score

I would like to give this a score beyond Star Fruit.. this episode while not my favourite in the long run did so much for the show for me.  It is more than just an episode.This episode for me is my favourite moment off all those Ocean Eleven movies.. you know when the jazzy funk music begins playing and they explain how they did it and we see some awesome shots of them sitting in a vault when we thought they failed the heist.. That is this episode for me.. I love that kind of thing and this is it’s own unique spin on that kind of thing so I love it even more!

I mean I could just rave about Yayaka finally being a magical girl and yelling Flip Flapping for the second time and I would be right to do so but….. aww .. who cares I am going to do it! SQUEEEEEE  YAYAKA FINALLY BECAME A MAGICAL GIRL! THATS MA GIRL! WEEE! This to me is one of those episodes where you scream and your screen  hoping to “send some energy” to transform along with them… I did not transform yet.. but I know one thing.. if the last episode is even half as good as this one I might very well choose Flip Flappers as my treasure to transform with!