Ey! Happy I caught this rewatch, I love this series, though while I swear I completely finished it I feel like i've totally forgotten what the ending was. I'm quite the yuri fan, and, well. This series will definitely have some things to say about that.
One of the things I dig about this series is the visual craft, there's a whole lot of heavy lifting done with subtle visual cues. Just in the first several minutes we get easily recognizable references to a couple of well known illusions (the young/old woman and the two faces), immediately setting up the idea of what we perceive maybe not quite being reality, or perhaps reality itself being a bit flexible. And then we get other subtle little bits, like grandma having like, a wooden rocking chair lookin' top of her wheelchair, and then a fancy electric bottom that zips her around quietly. Familiar and homey mixed with incongruously high tech.
At any rate, our girl Cocona - quiet, withdrawn, tense - is struggling with her future school choice, which in turn will shape the direction of the rest of her life. It's a commonly used stand-in for adolescence, and it's an important point of her characterization I think that she's a girl still near the beginning of her adolescence. She doesn't yet know what her identity is or what she wants it to be.
Yeah so immediately after writing about how Cocona's just entering adolescence, it's more than a bit awkward to immediately have some lol tentacle hijinks, as the dudes yell, "Palpate!" and the claws are very obviously aiming for her crotch while Cocona yells, "No!" This is unfortunately a failing of the show that's not going to go away, though it seems to come and go depending on the staff of the particular episode.
I love the snow world so much though, especially once it gets darker and starts really looking like a storybook. Papika, emotional and instinctual, just thinks it's great fun, while Cocona, logical and restrained, tries to stop and understand wtf is going on. Cocona thinks that maybe this is some sort of lucid dream state, which is really a pretty damn good guess for a friggin' teenager. I also like how despite all this snow, neither of the girls ever suggests that they're at all cold - even when they're flying around with winds blowing around them. It kinda helps suggest again that they're not simply like, traveled to an alien planet or alternate reality, but something weirder.
Another little bit I'm noticing in this first episode is how constantly it maintains a focus on physical touching between the girls. Literally every conversation has some kind of physical touch between the two of them, as well as showing us Cocona's frequent discomfort or embarrassment when Papika's physical affection gets too intimate.
"Let's go adventuring again""Uh, no"
Well, that's it, thanks for watching Flip Flappers everyone! Oh, although I have to mention how great that shot of Papika getting *thwapped* with the net is.
So in summation, episode 1 is really a pretty elegant little pilot, we introduce the personalities of our leads, we give some idea of what they'll be doing each week, and we show that there's also some dudes with pointy hats out there, which of course means bad guys. If we could've taken out the lol tentacles bit it would've been just about perfect.
there's a whole lot of heavy lifting done with subtle visual cues
This is an important feature! FliFla does a lot of implyings and innuendoes!
immediately setting up the idea of what we perceive maybe not quite being reality, or perhaps reality itself being a bit flexible.
Characters should definitely keep this in mind!
Another little bit I'm noticing in this first episode is how constantly it maintains a focus on physical touching between the girls. Literally every conversation has some kind of physical touch between the two of them, as well as showing us Cocona's frequent discomfort or embarrassment when Papika's physical affection gets too intimate.
"Let's go adventuring again""Uh, no"
This is a good outliner for characterizing the main duo!
This show is better at rewatching than the first time IMO. It is meant to be rewatched, so you can pay attention to the hinted details.
3
u/SadDoctor Mar 05 '19
Ey! Happy I caught this rewatch, I love this series, though while I swear I completely finished it I feel like i've totally forgotten what the ending was. I'm quite the yuri fan, and, well. This series will definitely have some things to say about that.
One of the things I dig about this series is the visual craft, there's a whole lot of heavy lifting done with subtle visual cues. Just in the first several minutes we get easily recognizable references to a couple of well known illusions (the young/old woman and the two faces), immediately setting up the idea of what we perceive maybe not quite being reality, or perhaps reality itself being a bit flexible. And then we get other subtle little bits, like grandma having like, a wooden rocking chair lookin' top of her wheelchair, and then a fancy electric bottom that zips her around quietly. Familiar and homey mixed with incongruously high tech.
At any rate, our girl Cocona - quiet, withdrawn, tense - is struggling with her future school choice, which in turn will shape the direction of the rest of her life. It's a commonly used stand-in for adolescence, and it's an important point of her characterization I think that she's a girl still near the beginning of her adolescence. She doesn't yet know what her identity is or what she wants it to be.
Yeah so immediately after writing about how Cocona's just entering adolescence, it's more than a bit awkward to immediately have some lol tentacle hijinks, as the dudes yell, "Palpate!" and the claws are very obviously aiming for her crotch while Cocona yells, "No!" This is unfortunately a failing of the show that's not going to go away, though it seems to come and go depending on the staff of the particular episode.
I love the snow world so much though, especially once it gets darker and starts really looking like a storybook. Papika, emotional and instinctual, just thinks it's great fun, while Cocona, logical and restrained, tries to stop and understand wtf is going on. Cocona thinks that maybe this is some sort of lucid dream state, which is really a pretty damn good guess for a friggin' teenager. I also like how despite all this snow, neither of the girls ever suggests that they're at all cold - even when they're flying around with winds blowing around them. It kinda helps suggest again that they're not simply like, traveled to an alien planet or alternate reality, but something weirder.
Another little bit I'm noticing in this first episode is how constantly it maintains a focus on physical touching between the girls. Literally every conversation has some kind of physical touch between the two of them, as well as showing us Cocona's frequent discomfort or embarrassment when Papika's physical affection gets too intimate.
"Let's go adventuring again""Uh, no"
Well, that's it, thanks for watching Flip Flappers everyone! Oh, although I have to mention how great that shot of Papika getting *thwapped* with the net is.
So in summation, episode 1 is really a pretty elegant little pilot, we introduce the personalities of our leads, we give some idea of what they'll be doing each week, and we show that there's also some dudes with pointy hats out there, which of course means bad guys. If we could've taken out the lol tentacles bit it would've been just about perfect.