Flipped Upside Down

 This blog will be about anime that flipped upside down which could be in any context, the blog idea I made in 2018. I never went through with making the blog as I just lost passion in the concept and was stumped on what I could talk about, now I finally know. Kind of made them upset when I cancelled the blog, but hey it’s here now I’m better at blogging, now let's talk.

Gintama

Gintama is regarded as one of the greatest comedy anime of all time for good reason, the reason is that it flips comedy on its head similar to show’s such as South Park. It is really one of a kind and the most unique series out there, being a parody doesn’t even tell 14% of this anime as it doesn’t stick to its labels. Gintama parodies every popular anime out there and rivals it in quality, this anime even has its own plot and amazing action as well. It mixes parody, comedy, action amazingly having episodic stories then goes to its own arcs as well. You could start anywhere and land on an episodic episode and watch it no problem; it would compare this anime that took what made western material like Family Guy popular. Saying Gintama is the Family Guy of anime would make a lot of sense, but that wouldn’t give it any justice to how ingenious this anime really is.

It saddens me that this anime lost popularity and has been misunderstood since it came out. Gintama eventually getting the plug pulled on it because of declining viewership, is an insult to me because all media that tries to go outside the box will eventually get put into a box and shipped off to a dumpster. You can also see this with the anime called Nichijou, which rivals Gintama in comedy; for me being a better comedy even though of how short it is, it didn’t gain the virality it did in Japan when it was released, so ultimately the anime went off the shelves for the industry. However, that’s how the industry is in Japan; they prioritise native sales over international as of how outdated the boomers running the studio think. It sucks, but that’s how Japan works, they’ll welcome overseas as guests but never as neighbours; that I have even experienced first-hand by trying to befriend pen pals from Japan.

Flip Flappers

This series is in my opinion criminally undervalued and ignored since it was made. I watched this anime during seasonal binges and good thing I did way back then as I found this lovely anime. Flip Flappers being a magical girl anime, but not really as it doesn’t really fit the bill for one as these girls travel through dimensions instead. As being an avant-garde and visually stunning mahou shoujo anime that you don’t even need to like the genre to enjoy. It keeps you focused on the visuals, the fluid animations and original concept, however as the name of the anime suggests everything is flipped upside down during the later part of the anime. As I had to include this anime in this blog for obvious reasons and to bring another wave of attention to it. This anime goes from super sweet to kind of dark but still keeping the aesthetic the same, it’s not like Mahou Shoujo Site or Madoka (spoiler alert). This piece of art exceeds your expectations and will amaze you for how short it is, and it is even an Original anime. Original anime are great to find amazing works as more than none they are not only original conceptually but have amazing visuals, or plot; such as Land of the Lustrous or Kill la Kill. Not only did Flip Flappers flip the whole anime on its head, but also flipped my assumptions to regard it as a better anime.

Paprika

Moving aside now to movies, there’s one that really tipped creativity and influence on its head throughout the years. However, one that doesn’t get talked about especially with the newer generation of fans, is Satoshi Kon’s Paprika film, not to be confused with the spice but as a white person “what is a spice?” Paprika is a cinematic masterpiece, which is about travelling through spaces and time; where the lines between them are stretched very thin even merging together warping reality, to the point you cannot tell the difference. Does that remind you of anything? If you’re thinking of Inception, then you’re correct. This anime was so revolutionary that it made ripples even in real life, influencing the Sci-Fi genre as a whole and planting seeds for more geniusness to come to fruition. Paprika was also influenced by a Japanese novel. You can now realise how important influence can be for the industry, as a whole new world can be formed just from one out-of-the-box idea. Paprika is up there with one of the greatest works of cinematography and up there with the greatest movies in the world, not just in anime.

Satoshi Kon is the mastermind behind this film, his works don’t get enough attention and love. It is heartbreaking we lost him as he was one of the greatest directors going even though only a few of his works get popular but no one talks about his anime like Roujin Z, Paranoia Agent, Tokyo Godfathers, even doing the JoJo OVA. His involvement always added originality and brilliance. If you don’t know him, then I’d recommend watching the stuff he is known for, as you can really see how good he was at filmmaking. I also talked about Perfect Blue, that is just as amazing as this anime.

Akira

I have also talked about this one, which was for the same event as Perfect Blue. Although, I have more to talk about with this, so I’m not finished with it just yet as it’s so incredible more than you would know. Akira was released in the 80s, for its time the limitations were huge for the media; with limitations comes innovation and this anime embodies innovation as what Japan is most commonly known for. Japanese you can count on to bring wonders to this world. This anime was so ambitious for trying to put 120 chapters in one single movie, not only that they had to draw every frame on paper then go through the process of putting it all together. Consisting of 2,212 frames, 160,000 single pictures, which is like 3 times more than what is the average film, 327 different colours that they had to create 50 new colours just for this film. The records and standards demolished for this could be its own blog as to how genius this anime was back then. In 2023, it is actually impressive what they did for even today’s standards. So it flipped how they made films, but it also flipped the industry as well. This movie's influence is so huge, it is regarded as the most influential anime, if not in the world. What came out of it, that broke the limits of how animation was viewed and made, even its concept was stolen or inspired by works all over the globe. Influencing the matrix, stranger things, the dystopian sci-fi clique, even Kanye. This anime is what made anime as massively popular as it is now, because it gave anime eyes in the 80s and ignited people’s passion in anime. We can all thank Akira for existing.

Thanks for Reading!