Sunday, November 3, 2013

OGC Review: Panty and Stocking with Garter-belt

As a reviewer, I have seen anime at its finest, but my background was originally in western animation. While many readers may envision shows such as Thundercats or Reboot I'm afraid that was not the case as I preferred watching Bevis and Butthead and Celebrity Death-match in my early days. At its core, Panty and Stocking with Garter-belt pays homage to these series while creating what could only be described as South Park's Japanese cousin. While the previous statement would usually mean an instant recommendation to burn this anime, burry it and salt the burial location I find myself unable to do so. Indeed, while it is a base and tawdry attempt to appeal to a male oriented fan-base it has become a guilty pleasure.

STORY:

The story of Panty and Stocking with Garter-belt fallows the exploits of Panty and Stocking Anarchy; a pair of fallen angels who were thrown out of Heaven for being a sex-fiend and a glutton prompting them to earn their way back in under the watchful eye of a black pedophilic priest named Garter-belt. Our depraved duo does this by killing the demonic hordes that seem to be drawn to the dystopian hell-hole that is Datan City. In exchange for their work as exorcists the Anarchy Sisters are given heaven coins but, since they take on everything from an enormous monster made of feces to an army of spectral sperm one must question the value of this reward.


As disturbing as this premise is it's the only thing that distracts from the God awful movie parody episodes that seem to be spaced throughout the series. While these spoof episodes parody popular movies like Transformers and Saving Private Ryan the near constant references to sex and asinine scene delivery makes these fifteen minute mistakes an insult to anime fans and movie-goers alike. If the uncouth nature of the series doesn't discourage a would-be watcher the generic plot of mirror henchwomen A and B (Referred to as Scanty and Knee-socks) assist the demonic mayor of Datan City take over the world should. In short, don't use your brain while watching this unless you want to lose points on your IQ.

STYLE:

Panty and Stocking with Garter-belt was animated by Studio Gianax , the studio behind hits like Gurren Lagann and Fooly Cooly. Personally, I've never been into this studio's style and this series looks worse than usual since it hybridizes Japanese and American animation styles. The only good animation seen in this show is used in the show is strip-tease transformation sequences. The rest looks like someone stole it from new-grounds and added poorly done Claymation to the episodes for variety. Even the character designs are tragically underwhelming. Honestly, looking at this show is vomit inducing.

SOUND

Frankly speaking, the sound design is what saves this show from being considered fertilizer. Having seen the show in both Japanese and English he series I prefer Funimation's dub as it seems like the cast had fun doing it. It's good to see voice talent like Christopher Sabat and Jamie Marchi let their hair down and lend their own personality to the characters. Mrs. Marchi is exceptional as Panty as her use of slang made and the character believable.The voice acting and main theme is what kept me watching. That being said these aspects do not save the show as they cannot carry it alone.

To my knowledge, you cannot find a legal stream of Panty and Stocking with Garter-belt outside of Funimation's premium streaming service. As I do not recommend illegally streaming or torrenting the series I suggest purchasing the series box set from . However given its Robot Chickenesque runtime and the fact that the hybrid box set is a wallet straining $48.74 USD at the time of this review I encourage fans to wait on a sale. I recommend PSG for those of you who want to have fun watching an unsophisticated anime. If not then stay away. Alternatively I recommend watching other Funimation titles like Soul Eater and the supernatural mystery horror anime Ghost Hunt as they suit more refined tastes.

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