The witch labyrinths of Madoka Magica are a terrifying lure for magical women, however the Pure Phantasm worlds of Flip Flappers might have them beat.
The jarring colours, offset animation and eerie music that accompany a witch’s labyrinth make these remnants of magical women a very horrible opponent, a horrifying introduction that hints at what’s but to come back for the women of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. As seen by means of Homura’s transformation into the witch Homulilly, labyrinths can mimic complete cities and lure unknowing individuals inside because the witch wanders her dominion, encased within the grief that has consumed her.
Nonetheless unnerving these labyrinths could also be, nonetheless, one magical lady present from 2016 outdoes them. Flip Flappers is a fantastical expertise that Madoka Magica followers will discover enthralling because it journeys by means of genres to create a magical, terrifying and completely fantastical expertise by means of the worlds of Pure Phantasm.
Flip Flappers begins when younger Cocona Cocomine encounters a bare-footed lady close to her faculty. Introducing herself as Papika, she promptly destroys Cocona’s idea of the world as she’d recognized it, falling by means of an deserted playground tunnel right into a land of snow and mountains and large beasts that dwell on land and sea, like an ice age dominated solely by these worm-like creatures. Papika practically will get herself killed retrieving Cocona’s glasses, and that motion strikes a friendship between the 2 of them.
When the women tumble again out into the playground, it is solely to fall again within the subsequent day to a world stranger than the final, with jarringly vibrant colours and the tendency to provide friends bunny ears and a tail in an exceedingly bizarre homage to Alice in Wonderland. One other near-death expertise later, Papika decides to introduce Cocona to the group she works for. Flip Flap is devoted to exploring these alternate worlds generally known as Pure Phantasm, and Cocona and Papika quickly discover themselves companions, touring by means of Pure Phantasm and discovering worlds which are every more unusual than the final.
Pure Phantasm is unbelievable for the breadth of genres and types it introduces throughout the present. Whether or not it’s the lurid colours of the rabbit world, a futuristic sci-fi journey full with mecha or a Mad Max-inspired desert land, Pure Phantasm all the time supplies the sudden. The usage of Pure Phantasm to supply character introspection and reveal emotions that characters may not be stating out loud makes it a superb setting that may converse extra successfully than a monologue.
The connection between Cocona and Papika, for instance, is usually mirrored within the Pure Phantasm they discover themselves in. It’s much like the style that Homulilly’s loneliness and love for Madoka are mirrored by her labyrinth, however Pure Phantasm can tackle many alternative varieties to assist with that communication. Including the idea of magical women additionally permits for Pure Phantasm to play with the idea however use it as a fashion of wordless communication with the viewers. Pure Phantasm is among the most dynamic and vocal settings to exist inside not solely magical lady exhibits, however anime itself, continuously altering to match how the women and the plot are evolving.
Pure Phantasm additionally provides one thing that the witch labyrinths can’t: commentary on the setting of the world for the viewers alone. The mecha episode is staged in such a manner that it mocks the mecha style’s remedy of girls with the usage of digicam angles. The horror world that may be a image of sophistication S yuri — women’ love set in a college atmosphere — is a visualization of how the world would understand any relationship between the 2 leads.
These worlds are unusual and great of their existence. In sharp distinction is the fairly regular world the place Cocona struggles for her emotions for Papika as a result of variety of Papika impersonations throughout her — the delinquent, the seductress, the kid — all of them variations of Papika, however not the one she desires. Right here, Cocona is positioned in an area identical to one she would actually stay in and requested to decide, implying that that is way more severe to Cocona’s true emotions than something that occurs in a wonderland.
The quantity of creativeness that went into creating the worlds of Pure Phantasm is astounding, and Flip Flappers is the right anime for anybody who likes magical women, fantastical locations or just desires to look at some wonderful animation. Whereas Madoka Magica‘s witches are undoubtedly horrifying and animated to induce unease and even concern, the style wherein Pure Phantasm speaks to the viewers with references and character insights makes it not only a setting, but additionally a instrument utilized by Flip Flappers to the utmost. The truth that it may also be terrifying is a bonus.
Flip Flappers will be streamed on HIDIVE.
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