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Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt
Anime Review
One cannot recommend Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt without noting that it definitely stretches the limits of good taste; in fact, if the limits of "good taste" are something you tend to spend any time at all dwelling on, it's quite possible this show is not for you. This zany show, focusing on two selfish fallen angels who fight ghosts in order to earn enough money to return to heaven, packs enough cursing, crudeness and potty humor into 13 episodes for a show five times its length.
Our heroines (or whatever you want to call them) are Panty, an angel with few scruples when it comes to her love life- let's just say, she's a fan of men and keeps her social calendar very full- and her sister Stocking, a greedy dessert fiend who lives to eat all different kinds of sweets and cakes. When ghosts are detected in Datan City- where the Angels have been sent for their bad behavior- they turn their panties and stockings, respectively, into weapons of great power. They are accompanied by the Reverend Garterbelt, an immortal afro-sporting black man(who could be considered offensive if you were going to try to find somewhere to even start getting offended by this show), and Chuck, a cute sidekick character who will look very, very familiar to fans of Invader Zim.
 If this all sounds ridiculous, you don't know the half of it. The insanity of some of the Anarchy Sisters' encounters with the ghosts and locals of Daten City has to be seen to be believed, and no, the show is not above scatological humor.
One of the things that makes the show so interesting is it's visual style; it's an example of the kind of cross-cultural artistic pollination that goes on between the United States and Japan. While Powerpuff Girls was an example of American creators taking anime staples and inserting them into a show for American viewers, PSG takes obvious inspiration from Powerpuff Girls, with a healthy dose of American gross-out cartoons like Nickelodeon's Ren and Stimpy thrown into the mix. What results is an odd cocktail of simplified, hyper-stylized visuals and risque late-night TV jokes that you can never quite get used to.
Anime fans who are used to more lushly animated shows may take issue with PSG's simplified and deliberately choppy animation; at times, the sheer energy on screen makes up for the lack of detail, but other times the art can be underwhelming. Most episodes include a short transformation sequence featuring the angels in a much more detailed style- as though the animators are saying "this is what they would really look like if we bothered to draw them properly."
 However, while the show may seem like a completely absurd, turn-your-brain-off-and-enjoy fare, there is a little more to PSG than meets the eye. Some things that seem like little more than a source of cheap jokes, like Panty's turbocharged love life, end up being important to the plot. Furthermore, while trying to extract any kind of "message" from a show this random might be pushing it, the final episodes hint at depth that may surprise you. Panty's story in particular takes an unexpected turn that some may even find genuinely moving.
Finally, the show has a memorable soundtrack; while it was airing, even people who hated the lowbrow humor admitted they loved the ending theme, Fallen Angel.
In the end, it's certainly not for everyone, but Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt was an interesting experiment, and one we wouldn't mind seeing more of- something that may happen if the rumored second season comes to fruition. Until then, we'll just have to remember Stocking changing her thigh-high socks into a pair of deadly katanas fondly.
All 13 episodes of Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt has been licensed by Funimation for release on DVD in 2012.
Reviewed by Karen Gellender, September 2011
Below: Scenes from Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt.
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