Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt Review

Hello and Happy Belated New Year everyone. My holiday festivities only recently ended, which by festivities, I mean, being very busy on the weekend, while working my butt at my job and development, but no need to worry about that! This week, we're going to be looking back at the first season of the anime I chose to watch this season, and previewed back when it began: Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. Back in early October 2010, I said that this would be a fun, if not great, series. Well, it's been a season and what do I have to say about this title?

Story: Taking place in the city of Townsvi-I mean, Daten City, Panty and Stocking is the story about two angel sisters that were cast down from heaven for more or less being bitches. These are our title characters: Panty, a gunslinging woman who is the utter definition of a slut, and Stocking, a more melee adept angel, who has a obsession about having the best of sweets. To return, they must literally buy their way back into heaven, using Heaven Coins collected by ghosts the two defeat, ranging from giant poo ghosts to speedster ghosts, they end up fighting a variety of ghosts. Well, most of the time anyway.

That's the general premise, but besides that, there actually ends up not being very much if any plot. Being episodic, each episode really doesn't so much advance a bigger plot than it does just show how the characters react in different yet humorous situations. There does seem to be some level of continuity, but certain episodes end in ways that what little plot there is ultimately wouldn't make sense if these episode really happened, such the sisters being zombies at the end of one episode, or other episodes that ultimately don't contribute anything until than utter 'What the hell' moments.

Admittedly, things get interesting when a pair of demon sisters appear, proving initially to be equal matches to the angel sisters... key word being 'initially'. After this point, these demon sisters end up being reduced to almost comedic levels, which disappoints cause their initial appearance is just so awesome that it's easily the highlight of the 13 episode series, but quickly demishes when the series becomes rather gag-based than action based, with the series more or less resorting to movie parodies and references and just overly bizarre scenarios. Just like Gainax to do so.

With all that said, I can deny that the general writing of Panty and Stocking is something of a guilty pleasure. To make a long story short, Panty and Stocking as a story anime is just god awful. The writing can be immature, relying mainly on sex jokes and just simply strange visuals, with plot that seems to build up to something that ends up being genuinely awesome, but a lot of missed opportunies really hold the series back.

Then, there's the questionable ending, which manages to be on the level of over-the-top insane fun that the series has come to be known for, but then the last two minutes and it's such a bizarre and rushed turn of events that almost seems shoehorned, but you're just so stunned at how many odd series of events just happened in such a short amount of time, giving such a half-assed sequel hook that doesn't sound the least bit interesting.

Animation: If there's one thing that Panty and Stocking does right though, it's style. Forgoing a more realistic style for something that is very cartoonish and even reminincent of 90s American cartoons like the Powerpuff Girls, we get something of a abstract, mildly deformed art style that really makes the anime more vibrant when the action gets going. For a good section of it, however, the series' has relatively choppy animation, which combined with the overly cartoony art style, ends up being not very pleasant to look at.

It's a strange sort of mix bag, where you can go from overly choppy talking scenes, to fast-paced action with fluid, almost beautiful to watch animation, mixing in computer generated animation with the actual hand drawn animation. Overall, I do like the art for the series. It's just so quirky and unrealistic that it seems like like someone made a series out of Gorillaz music videos.

Sound: One of the series strongest points though has to be the soundtrack. Being a mix of techno and hip-hop, the sound is one that is reminincent of very dance club styled music, yet being very unique. It's fast paced, exciting, and just fun to listen to, which is good considering you hear a lot of the same tracks now and again, but it's never so repetitive that it's stale. It's more like like the lines certain tracks play when certain actions are occuring on the screen like a Sailormoon-esque transformation sequence with the catchy theme 'Fly Away' playing in the back.

The seiyuus also do a good job with a good mix of inflections and overall just really attention-grabbing one liners, such as the the needs for 'Rrrrruuuurrruus'. Garterbelt in particular with his monologues can go from just simply demanding to outright crazy with high pitches abound.

Overall: Overall, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt but again, I'd be lying if I said Panty and Stocking was a good series, because after all the stylish animation and good music beats, it's not. Beyond the general premise, there's almost no realy major plot save a small handful of episodes, and while that works for shows like Cowboy Bebop, in this case, each episode doesn't have the same impact and don't develop the characters at the same level. However, I'll defend the series, saying that it's obvious that the creators more or less just had fun making it and that fun translates to the viewer. Sure, it's not a life changing story with gripping characters, but the characters there are just fun to watch and the scenarios can be awesome even if they ultimately mean nothing.

If I were to give Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt a rating, it would probably be a 6/10, a slightly above average score. I like the premise and the characters, but the actual story itself is lacking and the sex jokes do get a little old after a while. Further the second half of the series can be just bizarre or overall pointless in the long run. Besides that, however, the animation and style of the series is something I find very creative if nostalgic of old cartoons I used to watch, and the soundtrack is one of the better anime soundtracks I've listened to in a long while, so overall, if you just want some mindless fun, then go ahead and give Panty and Stocking a shot, but if you're looking for something more serious and with more plot, then best avoid.