The Essence of a Good Plot Twist

(Disclaimer: There are no spoilers of any sort in the following text or images)

Take a moment to ask yourself what makes a good plot twist.  Think of a plot twist of any sort you've seen in a book, movie, TV show or whatever then ask yourself what specifically about it made it a good plot twist in your mind?  The first requirement is for it to, naturally, be unexpected.  That's arguably in the definition of a plot twist.  Beyond that there can be other aspects such as the accomplishment of it "being right in front of your face all along".  One of my favorites is misleading the viewer from a true plot twist by allowing them to decode a more obvious one to make them lower their guard.  Truly, there are many was to go about writing a plot twist and I'm here to talk about a particular one in the anime Flip Flappers.

Flip Flappers is an... abstract anime to say the least.  While each episode is fascinating in their theming and presentation there is very little of a cohesive plot for the greater portion of the series. Protagonists Cocona and Papika go on adventures in the Dr. Seuss-esque worlds of Pure Illusion to find Pure Fragments that can maybe grant their wishes if they find an unspecified amount of them. The plot is just as zany as it sounds and for the most part that's all the viewer is given to go off of. The appeal of Flip Flappers came from those individual, episodic adventures that Cocona and Papika had and the wide variety of animation styles and aesthetics they showed off.  The seemingly lack of a plot makes the plot twist that happens all the more impressive.

Obviously, I'm not going to spoil the plot twist here, I feel like that would defeat the purpose of this article.  What's important is how this plot twist was executed and how it made me feel.  The plot twist was a simple scene, maybe three or four seconds in length.  It was, for all intents and purposes, a still frame.  No movement, no speaking, no music.  Just a single camera shot.  And yet in those three or four short seconds my feelings and state of mind were immediately aligned with that of Cocona's. The disbelief that this is possible, the unease of the implications this has, and the utter terror of your reality being shattered before your eyes.  All these feelings and more came rushing to my head and sent my mind racing and as I watched I could tell Cocona was feeling the exact same way.

This ability to synchronize the viewer's emotions with that of the character so succinctly and with such pin point precision is something that I had never quite experienced before.  As I thought back on the scene I realized even more how impressive it was considering a large over arching theme of the show was Cocona and Papika understanding and connecting with each other through their emotions. It was as if the show had pulled me in to become a character as well.  Even more amazing was how consistent the plot twist's execution was with the series's "show, don't tell" story-telling style.

What's funny is that in the greater scheme of of the story as a whole (and yes, a cohesive plot did show itself eventually), that plot twist turned out to not be all that important.  You could probably have removed it entirely and the story turn out exactly the same way.  Yet the way it was executed was brilliant and the emotions it made me feel were very much real.  For that, I think it was a better plot twist than most everything I've seen out there and I cannot praise it enough.