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Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt was ok, I guess

That’s what I looked like when I watched it

I heard all the hype. P&Sw/G was so hip and radical and antiestablishment and subverts tropes and doesn’t take itself seriously and is made by GAINAX. This had to be the best thing since Astro Boy. But before I could watch it, I had to figure out what stockings and garterbelts were. (I was sure I’d seen them before. I just never had a reason to know what they were called.)

Pictured: Panty, Stocking, Garterbelt, Golgo 13

As expected, stockings and garterbelts are two of many pieces of clothing that women think are sexy and men think, “Great, another piece of clothing to get off her.” Less is not more. Don’t let fat chick propaganda teach you otherwise.

I was reluctant to watch P&Sw/G because I expected it to feel gimmicky. To some extent it was. The Powerpuff Girls style lost its edge pretty quickly, especially considering how much better Panty & Stocking look in anime form, as seen when they’re stripping to that “you are secretly gay” song.

My bigger concern was that Panty and Stocking would be one-trick ponies. (A woman who likes sweets?! A woman who likes sex and isn’t a lesbian?! How bold!) Stocking did turn out to be pretty boring, but Panty not only defied my prediction that she’d be a total gimmick, she turned out to be the best character on the show. The worst character was one I never saw coming.

Worst character ever

I thought the idea was to take the best qualities of western animation and leave all the braindead bullshit behind. I rarely skip a segment of a show, particularly one this short, but Chuck to the Future pushed me to my limit at the 2/3 mark. I also skipped the recap episode, but anyone stupid enough to watch recap episodes would probably like Chuck to the Future.

For what it’s worth, the show had few dull moments. Getting me to care about its liveliness was the hard part. The show definitely had some good moments, but I often found myself spacing out, only to regain consciousness minutes later and feel like I hadn’t missed a thing.

Final Grade: +

I now await an anime parody of Johnny Bravo.

62 Replies to “Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt was ok, I guess”

  1. Sounds like we had just about the same experience. Some parts were a lot of fun, but in general my reaction was always “that’s nice, now what else is on?”

    In other words not a lot different from how I watch Western cartoons, but this was harder because I had to but effort into watching it.

    • I always find it a bit eerie when you have a similar opinion to me on shows I expect you to like/dislike a lot more. Didn’t this series do well in terms of animation and direction in you eyes?

  2. > I thought the idea was to take the best qualities of western animation and leave all the braindead bullshit behind.

    Well that certainly explains why you’d be underwhelmed. It was exactly what I expected. I don’t know who was hyping it up to be “the next Astro Boy” but clearly they were bored out of their tiny minds. It was just a giant troll on idiots who take their cartoons way too seriously. You know, probably the same people currently treating Madoka like it’s the second coming.

    > I now await an anime parody of Johnny Bravo.

    Fuck yeah. I’d also say “the Tick”, but we already had Sunred, and Madhouse is already busy proving how bad Japan is at re-interpreting American comic books.

    PS: I couldn’t stand Geek boy as much as I couldn’t stand Chuck. The show tried way too hard to be annoying, to it’s detriment.

    • Sunred: ++, review forthcoming.

      I remember seeing ads for the Tick (on FOX Kids) but never got around to watching it for some reason. If it’s like Sunred, I definitely missed out.

      My favorite “children’s” cartoon was Pinky and the Brain. That show was pure genius.

  3. Oh no, a person didn’t like a Gainax show, it must be because it was too deep for him and he didn’t get it.

    Meh, Gainax is just average and so is this

  4. Stockings and garterbelts are exciting not because of any aesthetic qualities they may have, but because they can tell a man that the woman is taking the possibility of good sexy times seriously.

    • That’s true in some cases, but stockings are garterbelts could just as easily signal a huge tease. Now, t-shirts that says “slut” or “cum dumpster” are crystal clear.

  5. If you took the first sentence of this review and made it more music-oriented, that effectively sums up how I felt about the show’s soundtrack. When people were raving on and on about how good it was and how it encapsulates the best of electronica music out there, then my only response is that the best of electronica must be pretty bland since P&SwG’s music was merely OK.

    Now, the Johnny Bravo theme song? That’s pure class right there. A++++ would listen to again.

    • I didn’t even know electronica was a real word until I read this comment. The music never struck me as something I’d listen to recreationally, but I thought it worked great with the series.

      My first reaction when I watched the Johnny Bravo opening after all these years: was it always this good? Maybe it’s the difference between earphones and TV speakers.

  6. That episode about Chuck was about as painful as watching all of the Naruto fillers, WHICH I’VE DONE.

    That being said, I found this anime to be pretty fucking awesome.

  7. Up until the sixth episode, the series was so-so: just funny enough to avoid being dropped, not funny enough to look forward to. And then came Scanty and Kneesocks, and the best action sequence I’ve ever seen in anime. Cool opponents, excellent soundtrack, and amazing violence. Turned out what the show needed was a bit of plot…

    • The sixth episode was by far my favorite. The plot towards the end was certainly a welcome addition, but Chuck to the Future + a recap episode practically canceled it out.

  8. I had a great time with this show. I enjoyed all the gimmicks, and appreciated most of the characters. Pretty much my favorite TV show from last year. If I took your + recommendation having not watched it yet, I’d be thanking you for the great time I had.

  9. Won’t watch it…
    I have a way-too-long-0list of things and shows I need to watch…

    I was kinda looking forward for a Popeye anime and sponge bob one for a change.

  10. Oh! Johnny Bravo! How many years has it been….? I’d so watch a Johnny Bravo anime parody. Not that I remember what Johnny Bravo was about =P

  11. this show made you feel like you have accomplished something by admitting how great it was when in fact, you just wasted half an hour of your life for every episodes. Like you said, it was okay but there’s nothing more to it. also, stocking is far more interesting than the horny bitch. seriously.

    • u h8 cuz ur jealous

      There was nothing wrong with Stocking; she just never did anything. Plus, her sweets addiction didn’t affect her interaction with anyone else, whereas Panty’s sex addiction naturally had to.

  12. i couldn’t push myself beyond the 3rd ep. and not because i’m a moralfag. i love tarantino, black humor, boobs and whatnot. more importantly, i love Gainax. but this show just felt pretentious, trying to show us how different it was…for the sake of being different. but, really, it takes more than turning cliches upside down and primitive animation for a show to be any good. the jokes felt really stupid. like anything in the world is funny if it involves dicks, shit or boobs…no, you have to put effort even in those kind of jokes.

  13. I’m not watching this anime. I flat out refuse. My not-girlfriend wants to do a genderbend cosplay of Stocking, and I think she’s crazy for it.

    But anime parody of Johnny Bravo…somehow I don’t think I’d be able to stay away from that.

  14. Agreed.
    I did in fact check this show out, and found it not to live up to the hype. “Oh wow, it parodies western cartoons!” “Oh gosh, it’s so revolutionary and so unique!” “Hurray for a woman who loves sex sticking it to the otaku perception of women!” Seriously?
    If this was produced by an American company, no one would give a hoot. In fact, I’d rather watch actual adult swim. They do all the gimmicks better, and at least they don’t have all the baggage the hype brought along. Btw. this series is not deep…

    • But it SUBVERTS TROPES! Does TROPE SUBVERSION mean nothing to you? How dare you judge shows on their individual merits rather than judging them within the context of the medium?

  15. Chuck looks like that sidekick from Invader Zim. Is it just me that thinks so?

    The show was so eh to me. I did not laugh once. I didn’t even giggle in my brain (Oh wait, I did giggle when I heard their mangled EngRish). I ended up watching Cromartie High School again (for the….50th time)and laughed my ass off even though I knew all the jokes. What is so funny about Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt anyways?

    • Never seen Invader Zim, but I heard that’s what they were going for.

      Cromartie is the superior show. No one denies this. Under the AMV exception to my anime ban, I’ve watched a few Freddie videos as of late.

  16. “But before I could watch it, I had to figure out what stockings and garterbelts were. ”

    Whatever happened to not watching anime for a year =,=

    Anyway, the show kind of parodies a lot of western media, but crudely, I might add. . .

  17. I have a total lack of interest in a second season if there is one. I’d rather watch another season of Ika Musume, and I barely have any interest in doing that.

  18. Why do people still think the whole point of PSG was to be artistic and daring? It was a comedy show conceived by a bunch of drunk people, with a stupid plot and anti japanese culture themes, which is why they rely heavily on american culture refs. The whole artistic animation thing only comes from the fact that it’s made by a studio with godly animation.

    I laughed my ass off so hard at this show, plus the music is godly on so many levels, the animation is great though it shines when it parodies something else (AKA transformation scenes or the transformers ep). Not every chapter had a great plot, even by comedy standards, the whole mucus containing bullshit gases thing was stupid as hell, and god I didn’t even get what chuck to the future 1 and 2 were all about, the only one I liked was 3. But overall is a great show just because it’s funny, has great production values and it’s got a lot of really good plots.

    • There were a lot of funny concepts, but they didn’t translate into laughs for me, just some approving nods. Production values rarely matter to me. Plotwise, it’s the same as the humor, interesting in concept but not so much in action.

  19. Shouldn’t that be ‘women think men think are sexy’? Also, ‘Less is not more’, do you mean less clothing in the first place? Or undewear? Hmm…

    I saw episode one and it was okay, but probably won’t bother with the rest unless my backlog suddenly disappears and/ or I happen to be in a particularly bored and perverted mood. The D City Rock music vid (epi 10, I think; Scamp tweeted a link at the time, I hadn’t seen any more episodes) was pretty good though, I’m sure you enjoyed some of those references(?).

    P.S. Shiki is better. So. Much. Better.

    • You’re a lot straighter than the women I usually deal with. They’re always calling their outfits sexy, not to mention calling each other sexy and calling other women sexy. Maybe they find it empowering. Maybe the like touching each other while drunk.

      I never get pop culture references. The vid was still cool though. And I don’t care what was tweeted on Twitter.

      Shiki review forthcoming.

      • And yet I like young men who look like young women – oh, the irony! I’m guessing that I probably am and that they probably do, or they indeed find it empowering, or it’s a sign of insecurity and they need to hear it back, or it’s a sign of envy/ jealousy in which case they need to say it in case the subject will realise they in fact mean the opposite and thus need to disguise those negative feelings, or blahblahblahyoudon’tactuallycaredoyou.

        Glad you enjoyed the vid, and yes, you’d probably hate twitter, unless you were very selective about who you followed and thus used it to make friends/ become closer friends with the people you more regularly exchange comments with (in which case, the silliness aside, it can lead to some pretty swesome experiences, so don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it! Even though I know you’re not gonna! Hmm…)

        Finally – yay…

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