Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt Review

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt Review

Warning: The following review may contain spoilers. If you wish not to know some events in the story, or simply don't wish to find out what happens in the series, please leave the page, since I don't want to damage a watching experience for you.

With that said, thank you, and onto the review:

I've mentioned before that comedies are my guilty pleasure. I like a lot of comedies that I've seen, ranging from anime (D-Frag, Lucky Star, Azumanga Daioh, TV shows (2 Broke Girls), and movies (Clueless, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, She's the Man). I've read parody books of the famous vampire paranormal scene, but the majority of them are sub-par.

This anime sounded interesting when I first heard about it at the ripe old age of 12. I was expecting crude humor and a lot of sexual puns, but I didn't get a chance to watch it until more than a year later.

So, what did I think? Was it as good as other western cartoons that its style was based on, as well as its humor?

I'm going to start this off by saying this show isn't for the faint of heart. There is a lot of crude humor in this show, swear words thrown in a lot, and mentions of sex, and so on and so forth. But this actually didn't annoy me as much as I thought it would. Though the humor can get a bit old at some points, and the "ending" (Let's pretend that never happened) is a bit weird and out of place, I deeply enjoyed Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt maybe a little more than I should have.

Let's start off this review with the story:

Story

For this anime, we focus on the angel sisters named Panty and Stocking, after they are kicked out of Heaven due to bad behavior. They were sent to Daten City, a pun on the word datenshi, which means fallen angel in Japanese. Daten City is located in between Heaven and Hell, and the girls are both under the eye of the minister known as Garterbelt. 

In order to get back to Heaven, the two sisters must achieve enough Heaven Coins by defeating Ghosts, which are evil spirits that live in Daten City. They are able to fight these monsters by turning their undergarments into weapons. Panties for Panty, and stockings for Stocking, which is self explanatory enough.

However, their adventures take them many places, such as a famous star's cruise, and investigating an incident at the Daten City high school. But there's also their natural interests, which are sex and sweets. What's an angel to do?

Overall, the story for this anime was actually pretty interesting. It was really cool how the staff incorporated new situations to write ghosts into, and how the angels dealt with problems in their way. These can range from not getting any coins for a period of time before the demon sisters arrive at the high school, to them getting into an argument that has them not speaking to each other for about an hour, not getting enough coins, or staying in their living room for an extended period of time doing nothing but ordering food.

I also found it funny how the angels were foul-mouthed, and the demons were very proper. Thinking about this, you would expect the demons to be more crude, but it's in fact the opposite, which is actually interesting.

The final few episodes lead up to a destructive battle in Daten City where the angels battle the mayor named Corset. Events that happen before this include Panty regaining her virginity while trying to have sex with Brief to make her 1,000 men to sleep with goal complete, Stocking returning to Heaven for a few days, Breif's penis being the key to Hell's Gate with him getting captured, which leads to Panty having to live on a farm with a grandmother and a cute assistant, which then leads to the ritual to unlock the said Gate. During this battle, Panty has sex with Breif successfully, regains her powers, and together, she and Stocking defeat Corset (with the help of their mother), while maxing out Garterbelt's credit card in the process to buy weapons.

The events that follow after the credits are very bizarre, and make no sense. It does set the stage for some sort of special, however it will most likely not happen due to the show's low sales in Japan. So in my opinion, it's best to ignore it, unless you want to feel like this:

Characters

I will be talking about most of the main characters, but I will not include Brief. I find him to be really wimpy at most times throughout the series, and the only time he actually shows some strength is in Episode 12 during that whole "wedding" thing. Other than that, he's kind of weak.

Let's talk about the Anarchy sisters first:

Both of the girls are interested in very different things. While Stocking prefers cakes and bundles of sweets to keep her busy, Panty loves men and sex, and would rather sleep with at least 1,000 men before she goes back to Heaven.

Panty doesn't really take her ghost hunting duties seriously, while Stocking manages to even go check out a ghost rumor when Panty and her get into a argument. Their interests are different, as shown above, and their behaviors are different as well. Panty is very rude to nearly everyone around her, including the men she sleeps with. Though Stocking is nicer than Panty, she can also be just as brash as she is. In Episode 2B, Panty and Stocking become celebrities with a preview of their first feature film, Panty LOVES having this attention, as it gets her closer to the things she loves, in fact becoming slightly more famous than Stocking. Until she screens a porn film that she starred at their official movie premiere, and her fame has the potential to go down the toilet. Until she and Stocking decide to rescue the copies that were sold in order for Chuck to eat them.

And after this, Panty only cares about her fame, so she asks the director to scrap Stocking out of the film entirely. Stocking of course gets her revenge, and this show how selfish Panty can be.

However, they still have love for each other as siblings, and they often work very well together while fighting as a duo. Panty can use her panties to summon a gun known as Blacklace, and Stocking uses her stockings to summon katanas known as Stripe 1 and Stripe 2.

Overall, I liked Panty and Stocking as characters. They had their bad moments, yeah, but they remind me a lot of our own siblings, and how they work. Even though we often always argue, we still love each other at the end of the day. And that's what matters. Also, they just work very well for sisters.

Let's move on to Garterbelt:

Garterbelt is the reverend of Daten City, and probably has one of the only Afros that you'll see from some modern day anime characters, He is the one in charge of giving missions to Panty & Stocking, and is often very aggravated by their behavior. 

In his past, Garterbelt used to be a criminal who committed crimes under a wide variety. After he is shot and sent to Heaven, God tasked him with finding the blood kin of Hellsmonkey, which would help unlock Hell's Gate. When Garterbelt refused this task, he is punished with immortality, and is not allowed to die until his mission is completed. Also, despite his efforts, Panty & Stocking really don't give two craps about him.

When Garterbelt is not involved with helping the angel sister on getting back to Heaven, he can be found practicing bondage, having a slight interest in young males, and will occasionally sneak out of his residence to become Master G, an alias that he goes under whenever he feels like it. You only get to see it once though.

Garterbelt is, at most, very unique with a lot of character traits. I'm stunned that the creators were able to compile these all into one, but it does have its advantages. Though, it's pretty sloppy, and I've seen animes where this has happened, and they've done better, like cliches you see in anime over and over. Some will use them better than others. Regardless of this though, Garterbelt isn't that bad.

Last but not least, the Demon Sisters:

Scanty and Kneesocks first appear in Episode 6 when Panty & Stocking return to Daten City High School, and realize that popularity changes FAST! Not only have the Demon Sisters taken over the ranks, they've passed down some new rules too, which include uniforms. They are under the guise of Corset, the mayor of Daten City, and while in public, they claim they're his daughters. They also oversee the creations of ghosts in Daten City.

Both of the sisters share the same personality traits. Both of them are obsessed with rules, as well as being very formal. However, Scanty is more likely to blow her top when plans don't go her way, and Kneesocks's face turns beet red when she gets too excited. Weapon wise, Scanty has two pairs of panties that she can transforms into revolvers known as Double Gold Lacytanga, and Kneesocks uses her kneesocks to summon a pair of scythes called Double Gold Spandex.

Overall, I enjoyed Scanty & Kneesocks. At some points, they are the type of villains whose plans always fail, yet they still keep trying anyway, with little to no success. But their plans involve different scenarios, whether it's going under disguises, or a volleyball game at the beach. It's always nice for villains to have variation, and they both have that.

Other characters include Brief (A student at Daten City High School who's too wimpy for my tastes as mentioned earlier), the angel sisters sidekick who's often used as a punching bag and a pet, the mayor of Daten City (Corset) who's our main antagonist, and the demons sisters' sidekick. Both of the sidekicks are dog like creatures with zippers on them. Last but not least, we have our ghosts that were encounter in most episodes,

Animation

The animation for this series was provided by the studio Gainax, who are also known for Medaka Box, Gurren Lagann, and The Mystic Archives of Dantalian. Oh, and let's not forget gainaxing.

The majority of this show's animation is styled like a Western cartoon. Which is very fitting, seeing as the show overall was inspired by some of them, along with their dirty humor. Either way, the animation is pretty good for a parody for cartoons.

But however, Gainax still has some moments where anime style runs supreme in this show. Especially during the angel's transformations:

These scenes also look very nice, and besides the transformation sequences, they appear for brief moments in the series. But it's never inconsistent. So overall, it's still a good animated show with some great anime styled scenes.

Sound

The score for this series was composed by Taku Takahashi and TCY Crew. Taku Takahashi is most known for his producing on certain Japanese singles, and this is TCY Crew's first and only anime OST composition as of 2015. TeddyLoid, a Japanese electronic producer most known for his remixes of anime songs, also contributes tracks to the series as well.

Overall, the OST tracks don't do a lot to fully distinguish it itself from other series for me, minus a select few. Those select few probably being mainly the ones produced by TeddyLoid. They're all pretty enjoyable, Of course, some of them do have weird names, such as Beverly Hills C**k, and Dancefloor O**y. However, these two are some of my favorite OST tracks. Heck, my high school even used Dancefloor O**y in an advertisement for the school newspaper. So, anime songs FTW. 

My favorite songs out of all of them would have to be the transformation songs for both the Angel and the Demon sisters. Take a listen to them here:

Overall, both the Japanese and English versions offer around the same experience. However, the English dub ramps up the crude humor and language a tad. Both versions are great, but it's up to you on what to watch. Here are some clips to compare:

(Start at 1:56 and end at 3:29)

Highlights in the original Japanese are EVERYONE!

Highlights so far in the English dub are EVERYONE!

Let's be fair, this is a comedy series, and everyone does do rather well for their respective roles. So, cheers for everyone!

Verdict

For a comedy anime as raunchy as this one, I was pretty satisfied with this. Yeah, it isn't the best series who people who hate crude humor and language, but I still think it deserves a watch. Just skip the post credits after Episode 13, and call it a day.

Overall, this anime was super fun despite a couple problems, and it managed to keep me entertained. Also, the majority of the characters are pretty interesting, and some of the scenarios are wacky and fun.

Score: 8.5/10

Positives

Unique story.

For the most part, great characters.

Interesting animation style.

More electronic pieces of score.

Great either Japanese or English.

Highly enjoyable.

Negatives:

Not for people who don't like crude humor.

Some characters not developed enough, or aren't interesting.

Some pieces in score aren't that interesting.

Post credits in Episode 13.

Next up on my list, is a Winter 2015 anime season wrap-up. And because I love MLP puns, let's throw one in right now.