Flip Flappers (Second Episode Impressions)

Flip Flappers

Second Episode Impressions

Because you are now a wascally wabbit.

So, I watched the latest episode of Flip Flappers and instead of putting me off, it's just getting more and more interesting. It's very psychological in a very fairy-tale like way, and that appeals to me a whole hell of a lot. The second episode appeared to require the character with no fear of death to come to terms with why other people are concerned about it, plus a green alien-looking pet rabbit that looks like a kitchen waste bag... and on top of that... Holy hell, the whole thing looks like Acid Trip Animation from the 60s and 70s but with better technology. I know people who shouldn't ever watch this -- it'd give them flashbacks. Whoa. Who needs drugs?! We have anime.

Small summary and episode spoilers ahead:

In the beginning of the episode, we're left with the physically visible possibility that all of the previous events were a dream -- Cocona wakes up in her room, and her glasses sit on her desk, unbroken and apparently in their original state.

It was all a dream!!

 ...Until Papika shows up on her hoverboard, flying alongside the bus, very visibly visible to everyone inside. Papika then tries to insinuate herself into Cocona's life. Cocona rejects this.

A skirt-flipping hentai robo!!

The wild hunter discovers her prey.

The trip this time is all set off by Cocona's pet animate kitchen waste bag bunny Uexkull (who stealthily followed her to school in her backpack -- and I think there might be more to that than just cute animal stuff...) being chased by Papika and subsequently sucked into some kind of vacuum cleaner thing (which emerges from underneath of a copy of The Thinker to groom the lawn). Cocona finally snaps a little -- she basically claims that Papika has no sense of risk or understanding of death. After Papika claims she hears a noise from inside, the both of them start looking inside of the vacuum apparatus for some way to rescue Uexkull. They call for him together, and this triggers them entering into "Pure Illusion"... Along with Uexkull.

Uexkull, whose name I think is very interesting. Very interesting indeed.

Totally no suggestive subtext at all.

It turns out that in order to enter "Pure Illusion", two people's minds and hearts need to be somehow synchronized in their desires. (Which of course also reads as a little bit of innuendo.) We saw a little of this in episode 1, but it's confirmed more solidly here, as Papika explains she can't actually continue the search for those wish-granting jewel fragments on her own because she isn't strong enough to open the way to Pure Illusion alone.

So, there're  a few scenes and things I kind of feel like highlighting...

When Papika is stalking Cocona around the school, Cocona reaches a point where she goes to hide in the nurse's room. As Papika reaches the door, she stops, and covers her face, (her nose in particular, it looks like,) looking and sounding distressed... Papika's sense of smell has been a big focus of her character so far. It sure looks like she doesn't like some kind of smell wafting from the nurse's room, enough that it seems like it bars her from entering even more than the door does. Given how feral she seems, this sure looks like it's going to be linked to something important in a future episode...

Another scene involves Cocona noticing a painting in the school. The girl seen painting in the first episode is there... and there's a small interchange about it before Cocona is found and tackled by Papika.

Heroic Rabbit Man to the rescue!

So, back to the screencap I opened with there... It really feels to me like this whole episode's theme, and Papika's "awakening", was about learning sympathy and compassion... In "Pure Illusion", both Cocona and Papika grow rabbit ears and tails, and begin to feel rabbit-like things... like the unbearable desire to gnaw on things. (Cocona seems to be humiliated by all of this.) So, they've both taken on rabbit-like traits, senses, and perception of the environment... But it doesn't end there. Uexkull is also in the dream, and has taken on human-like traits. This might just be an example of anime anthropomorphism for the sake of coolness or weirdness, but I'm really not convinced of it being quite that shallow in this series, given all of the other clues dropped tantalizingly throughout these two episodes... It looks to me like their sensory experiences and and senses of being are all overlapping and contributing to the dream-reality that is "Pure Illusion". So the thing that 'awakens' Papika is much deeper than simply being presented with a situation in which she almost loses Cocona, even though this is still the primary focus.

Also, Mr. Salt claims his desire to is to "liberate" Pure Illusion, and I'm thinking maybe he wants to bust out some kind of hallucinogenic reality on the whole world, Evangelion and Escaflowne style. Evangelion had the Sea of LCL and humanity in a state of unified consciousness, and Escaflowne ends with the Zone of Absolute Fortune, a state that brings about all wishes. Both being unleashed on the world by misguided, emotionally immature patriarchs...

I love how visceral the feeling in this series is, in so many ways. There aren't many anime series that play out as a dream so well, that use that kind of unspoken language. For instance, it seems nonsensical and overly melodramatic when Papika is going after Cocona's glasses in episode one, it kind of perplexed me... but this episode really touched me in how it reassured the context of that overly-intense first scene -- Pure Illusion is another state, with the logic of a dream and the human subconscious laid somewhat barer. On top of that, it seems to have that 'wish-granting' element going on, on top of some kind of drive (whether from inside of them or some outside force, or any combination) towards the emotional maturation of the characters involved in entering it. It's important to remember the scenes in the first episode of Papika leaving -- she seemed highly motivated by... something. The two fill out something deeply existential in each other, something beyond just words, and which will likely play out at first without using many. It looks to be heavily implied that they're drawn together, almost a 'love-at-first-sight' sort of thing. But if this is the case, it would've been nice to see Cocona react to it in a similar way as well: "Why did I react so strongly?" ...Given the state they're in, it's basically "spur of the moment" stuff, and it felt like even the 'real world' scenes play out with the same kind of emphasis on emotion as a leader instead of conscious logic. In fact, the 'real' world seems to only be marginally more 'sensical' than Pure Illusion...

They probably don't have insurance, for so many reasons.

"All I need is... your voice." Oh, wait. Wrong fairy tale.

This really looks like it's setting up to be the kind of show that'll take two or more watchthroughs to really come close to understanding.

Oh, one last thing... In the scene just after Cocona grows bunny ears and a tail, we get a shot of the back of her head... and just one ear shifts backwards... I thought it was a great touch. If you watch rabbits, cats, or horses, they do this sort of thing frequently. You can tell where they're 'looking' by where their ears are pointed. I'm really surprised by the depth I keep finding in this series even in just these two episodes so far...

Bitey bite.

There's a really deep kind of 'joy' to this series, and I can't wait to see how it mixes with the darkness it's slowly revealing.

Step one, place girl in small cubicle.

Step two, OMGWTF?!!

Voila, empty cubicle. Profit?

Next episode is looking very Mad Max-ish...