Flip Flappers Episode 11 Review – “Pure Store”

Recently, I’ve been shaking my head whenever I say the words, “Flip Flappers.” This episode has only caused the headshaking to intensify.

(Spoilers in this review) 

In my opinion, Flip Flappers is starting to show its true colors now that the flashiness has been put aside (it’s no coincidence that there’s been almost no Pure Illusion scenes during these two previous episodes. Perhaps Pure Illusion was… purely an illusion? Okay, I’ll stop).

The show is scrambling to throw in backstories and flashbacks to explain the current situation, yet nothing really seems engaging. It gets the job done, sure, but I expected better. Because if you set aside the fluff, the intricate symbolism that fans have been clamoring over for months, then you get a story that’s a little boring. Just a little predictable. Suddenly it makes sense that the first 8 episodes or so focused so much on Pure Illusion. Gotta hide the bare bones story with vibrant imagery!

Enough griping, though. Let’s go over what happened, shall we?

Mimi has possessed Cocona’s body and now has the ability to turn people into greenery/shrubs/flowers/plants. She can also spawn tentacles. Absolutely no explanation was provided for these sudden powers.

Yuyu and Toto are seen running through some tunnels. Toto is bleeding again because his wound reopened. His sister is not as stoic as she looks and asks for their orders to be recalled. They get no response since they’ve all been turned to plants. Where’s Yayaka? Well, you’ll find out shortly.

We then get to see the most useless character (the third amorphous child) bully Bu-chan. Why was Nyunyu even brought into the show? She hasn’t done a single thing. And she won’t be breaking that trend this episode, either.

Meanwhile, Sayuri and Hidaka are shown escaping from Flip Flap. Salt left to do other things and Sayuri is left worrying for him. God, this show gives us ship tease between a young lady and a middle-aged man but not a good story?

Then Nyunyu, aka USELESSNESS, shows up and threatens the scientists of Flip Flap. Guess who’s here to save them? You get three guesses and your last two don’t count.

Meanwhile, Salt meets Mimi-possessed-Cocona in the spot in which they used to play. She claims she’s only doing this because Salt couldn’t protect Cocona, to which he agrees as he turns around and pulls out a gun.

 

And then we get a flashback.

In short, they explained the Pure Illusion hellgate that C+P entered back in episode 6 as ELIPIS. Papika and Mimi enter the ELIPIS with Salt’s father as the source, which only served to drive him insane and obsessed with Pure Illusion (as you probably have noticed, Salt’s father’s is the evil organization’s leader).

After asking Salt to join them (he declines), Mimi and Papika run away from the lab for a year, but they’re captured eventually. Turns out the scientists had Cocona as a captive (so is Salt the father?)

Salt breaks them out after finding about Cocona (he didn’t know!) only for Cocona’s ankle thing to trap her to the floor. Mimi and Salt are captured and Cocona is taken away from her. Mimi freaks out. Mimi teleports to white house in the field where she’s always playing with Salt and Papika. The walls fall down and then she does a switch with some sort of evil Mimi in order to protect Cocona?

Guess this evil Mimi has the powers of tentacles because she uses it to destroy everything. Oh, this is where the flashback from episode 7 ties in, too.

Seems like Salt picked up a fragment in the aftermath, though.

Now we’re back in present time. Salt tries to stop Mimi/Cocona as Papika flies in and basically does nothing. Salt is handily defeated and thrown into because he’s a softie. Papika fares about as well as Salt. Mimi even does a low blow to Papika by saying, “I hate you” in Cocona’s voice (reference to the previous episode).

Mimi and Cocona have a bit of a mother-daughter situation. Cocona is all too content just to let her over-protective mother spoil her after she’s felt betrayed by everyone else.

Now the real world is being affected by Pure Illusion.

Turns out Salt survived. Sayuri rushes to his side like a housewife, oh, baby. He then begs for Yayaka to… save Papika? Not Cocona? Hm.

Oh, and USELESSNESS seems to have switched sides. Why was she added into the show, again?

Using the amorphous Salt’s been carrying around since Mimi turned evil, Yayaka and Papika enter Pure Illusion. I actually like this ship more than CxP or CxY because fuck Cocona.

Episode ends here. Different ED plays while the last two minutes or so happen.

Some more exposition is to be expected since a lot of details are still missing. Get ready for that next week, too, folks.

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Next week’s episode is titled, “Pure Howling.” See you next week.