NSFW Angels, and Daemons, and Dogs! Oh My! – Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt Throwback Thursday

So back before Trigger was a thing, Gainax had a wonderful team of crazy individuals that made a number of projects, one of my favorites being Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. With its insanely NSFW premises and wild and crazy episodes and characters, its definitely the kind of work that Trigger is commonly regaled for cranking out. This is also one of the few shows that is absolutely amazing if not better Dubbed in English, opposed to Subbed. The lines (especially the cursing) are just hilarious and entertaining because the VAs were able to combine and create interesting and laugh inducing swears, insults, jokes, and other nuances that just didn’t translate as perfectly from Japanese. I admit this isn’t one for everyone as it’s very crass and wild and random, but Panty and Stocking is one of my absolute favorite anime so let’s get to it and review this amazing show!

The show follows the angel sisters Panty and Stocking Anarchy in their quest to defeat ghosts and obtain heaven coins in order to buy back their way into heaven. These girls, while angels, are nothing near what one would imagine, much like Gabriel Dropout, but considerably more NSFW. Stocking is a complete and ultimate glutton with a huge sweet tooth and Gothic Lolita look to her. Panty is a slut (and trust me, I do mean slut) who looks very much like a blonde bombshell bimbo. The two of them face off against a myriad of unique and often disgustingly repulsive ghosts ranging from a monster made of literal shit formed of the vengeful spirits of plumbers who died on the job, to the ghosts of semen shot into tissues, to a ghost made of puke or boogers. Effectively every bodily fluid gets represented here in all its glory (I can’t state it enough, don’t eat and watch this show). Alongside the Anarchy sisters is their “guardian” Garterbelt a gay, bondage loving, pedophile immortal black man, a nerdy “geek boy” named Briefers “Brief” Rock who gets denied at almost every turn and is in deep naive love with Panty (even botching a few chances when she throws him a pity bone), and a dog that is repeatedly beaten, bruised, and murdered named Chuck, who is essentially the crackhead version of Gir from Invader Zim. They roll out in a rather kick ass open topped bright pink Humvee called See Through in the setting of Daten City, a pun for the Japanese word for “Datenshi” or empty orchestra fallen angel.

Opposite our anti-hero ho angels are the daemon sisters Scanty and Kneesocks Demon, their rat companion thing Fastener who is like a more sadistic and less retarded Chuck, and their superior, the Mayor of Daten City, Corset. Following a mostly consistent format of a monster of the week style approach to episodes, the 13 episodes are split into 2 parts per episode mostly focusing on the Anarchy sisters fighting ghosts, and occasionally the Demon sisters. One theme for the show is that they transform in a combination Magical Girl/Pole Dance transformation which in English is an amazing combination of the monologues from Hell Girl, Pulp Fiction, and Boondock Saints. Some episode stories take a different turn such as one focused around the insanity that is Chuck and his brain demon, which apparently is “romantically involved” with a daemon in Fastener’s brain. The whole episode is surreal and honestly I can’t put it into words all too well. The ending two episodes however actually formulate a proper story ending and have some real plot associated with it.

Demonstrating some real character growth, we see Stocking risen back to heaven while Panty is left on earth because she was too busy trying to hit a 1000 guy bang count (to which she gets 999) instead of fighting ghosts. Pissed and stranded, Panty roams Daten City with Brief then ditching him to hit her 1000 mark. He then takes her off to a party in the skyscraper of Daten City we constantly see and through an interesting series of events we have one of my favorite moments in anime because of the juxtaposition of the characters and a view we never see with Brief being in reality a mogul’s son and rather handsome under the hair and Panty being almost pure in her appearance. Escaping a plot from Corset and the Demon sisters to marry off Brief, they escape to a safe shack and while attempting to repay him with number 1000, Panty finds herself once again, a virgin. Her powers gone, Panty is helpless as Brief is kidnapped and revealed to be the key to opening hell on Earth. Culminating in a battle that I am hard pressed to explain in a mere article, Corset and the Demon sisters are defeated and all is well in the world. That is until the post-credit scene where a second season is teased (but never delivered) and a twist is thrown out of left field leaving everyone (even the characters) confused and dazed.

This fake ending aside, the show stands as one of my absolute favorite anime series released. And even more so, I love this show in English even more than in subbed format. The cast is an amazing lineup with Jamie Marchi who did Ayame in Shimoneta, Junko Enoshima in Danganronpa (another one of my favorites), Liara T’Soni from Mass Effect as Stocking. For Panty, we have Monica Rial who did the new Bulma in DBZ, Easy in Drifters, Anna in Shimoneta, and Rize from Tokyo Ghoul. Probably one of my most favorite casting decisions was Chris Sabat as Garterbelt who for those of you who have lived under a rock for the past 2 decades, has done such minor roles as Roronoa Zoro in One Piece, Vegeta, Piccolo, and Yamcha in Dragonball/Z/Kai/Super, and even recently All Might in My Hero Academia. If you have been following our blog for a bit you would know that these roles are all good characters in series that I greatly enjoy if not love. In fact I find it funny I haven’t tried the English version of this show until a couple months ago. All in all, a great cast, unique and interesting art, most certainly a wild and wacky plot, and overall a combination that I just love. I highly recommend it if you are looking for a wild time and don’t forget to comment, leave a like, or subscribe and most of all, REPENT MOTHERFUCKER!