Daten City, where the lowest of the low come to live out
their afterlife in torment. This
includes Panty and Stocking, two fallen Angels who cant seem to catch a
break. Between the Zombie Apocalypse,
love sick ghosts, the search for decent paying jobs, an ancient war between
transforming robots, oh and those pesky demon sisters stiring up all kinds of
crap, it’s enough to make any pissed off ex-Angel crack. And what’s this? There’s even time for a kick ass music video
and a series of bizzare short focused on the girls ever faithful punching bag,
Chuck. Cause in Daten City, things may
look crappy, but theyre hardly ever boring.
Holy freaking crap.
If you were going to tell me that at some point watching Panty and
Stocking with Garterbelt I’d be watching a full on Transformers parody AND id
think it was far superior to any of the Michael Bay films…id don’t know if id
call you crazy or not cause anything is better than those boredom fest
films. I could spend this entire review
set talking about this episode alone.
The character models (especially the faces, Stocking is just channeling
straight up Generation 1 Megatron), the action, the references to Generation 1
and even the Michael Bay films, the narrarator that sounds exactly like the OG
narrarator from the 1984 Transformers cartoon…and it still has all of the Panty
and Stocking humor you’d come to expect.
After all, this isn’t your daddys war between Optimus Prime and the
Autobots against Megatron and the Decepticons.
No, this is Rottenass Panty and the Pantybots vs Gothitron Stocking and
the Stockingcons…and it is hands down easily the one episode of this show I
have laughed the hardest watching. I got
in 15 short and sweet minutes what 5 live action films have yet to achieve in
more than 12 hours of combined runtime…good Transformers fun (granted in the
most unexpected way).
And that was just the beginning. The third week of Panty and Stocking seemed
to want to go all out all over the place.
We got a volleyball beach showdown, a love story, a Zombie Apocalypse, a
music video and all the sexy and oh so wrong Panty and Stocking charm that came
with each new premise. Not everything was
a total hit but I cant deny I was having so much fun enjoying these four
episodes it was hard for me to think of any downsides. We even got multiple welcome and never worn
out returns from the sexy demon sisters Scanty and Kneesocks. Man. I
know I kicked things off with a love letter to the Transformers episode but
otherwise, where do I begin with this weeks highlights?
I’ll talk about my personal favs first. The Zombie apocalypse with Panty and Stocking
was about what one could expect from such a premise: the two Angels and
Garterbelt have to resort of an arsenal of sex toys to stave off the undead and
defeat Scanty and Kneesocks with hilarious, and surprisingly unexpected,
results. The Chuck to the Future Trilogy
was a nice break from the usual sex and language filled antics (mostly) in
favor of a more bizzare and art film house approach. It started nice enough with Chuck battling
his rival, Fastener, then quickly grew darker and darker, ending with a David Lynch
style finale that left my head spinning, it actually reminded me a lot of one
of the many Black Lodge sequences from Twin Peaks: The Return. The strangeness of Chuck to the Future Part 3
made the awesome D City Rock music video that followed all the more
welcome. Getting to see Panty, Stocking,
Garter and Chuck in a band, displaying nods to rock bands across the ages like
The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Gorillaz made me appreciate just how much thought
goes into each of these episodes. The
art staff know what they like and what inspired them and theyre ready to give
proper shoutouts whenever possible.
Also, the D City Rock track performed here, which has played in earlier
episodes, is an awesome song. I guess it’s
worth noting the soundtrack at this point.
Techno and party filled beats have been ringing in the world of Daten
City since the get go and it’s starting to rank up there with Cowboy Bebop and
FLCL as one of my favorite Anime Soundtracks yet.
I was actually more surprised than anything this week
with an story that felt a little serious compared to everything thus far. Stocking falling in love with a ghost, a
disgusting one at that, was unexpected and while played for laughs, there’s
something deeper at play with how the story plays itself out. You get to see surprisingly loving sides from
both Anarchy Sisters: Stocking with how she wants to share the truth about her
being an Angel with her love and be with him forever; and Panty, being the
older sister, trying to keep Stocking from making what she feels is a bad
choice. It kind of brings into the
question all of the unconnected and yet totally connected elements of the shows
progression thus far. You could say that
Panty and Stocking have been pretty consistent characters all throughout. But developments like these, and how the
situation resolves itself, I wonder if it will carry on through the rest of the
series…probably not but it was nice to see the sisters showing cares for more
than their personal vices for once.
As I mentioned, Scanty and Kneesocks made it clear they
were not one off villainesses for Panty and Stocking to ignore. We got multiple doses of my favorite demon
siblings and their rival filled banter with the Anarchy Sisters never bored me
or got old for a second. Even their tiny
servant, Fastener, got to play around a bit with Chuck during the Chuck to the
Future Trilogy, while also asking some bizzare questions about the inner minds
of both characters (Chuck’s a dude and Fastener’s a girl and their inner selves
both want each other...ok?). As fun as
it’s been watching Panty and Stocking not give a care about everything and
anyone, I wouldn’t mind at all if we got a Scanty and Kneesocks spin off at
some point. Theyre just way to over the
top screen chewers not to give it a try with…and personally I do think sometimes
they even outshine the titular duo in terms of comedy and sex appeal, just
check out the beach episode and I think some might agree with me.
Don’t get me wrong, this week was win all across the
board for every episode. I did say that
I liked some more than others though.
The casino episode and the death game show both kind of ran their bits
too long. It didn’t help that both
followed up the Transformers and the Zombie shootout respectively and those two
tales set the bar pretty high. Still they
had their moments, like having Scanty and Kneesocks as the main antagonists for
both and the fact that we got to see a failed marriage between ghosts who were
modeled after Ren and Stimpy. We also
got a lawyer monkey who eventually went the Phoenix Wright route with his case
delivery and I’m always ready for that kind of a reference.
Yeah, even if some episodes did falter a teeny, tiny bit,
this was a great week for Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. Each story was as, if not more, unique than
the one that preceded it. The amount of
imagination that was being thrown out was incredible. This show is an example of a studio throwing
out the word “restraint” and just going for an all out fun ride that has
been…well something (but in a mostly good way)…to watch from the
beginning. Also, feel like while this
week still had a lot of gross, uncomfortable moments, there were less than
previous weeks so I could go into a bit more detail than before, which is
awesome.
It does suck to say that this also means that next week
we reach the end of the road for the Anarchy Sisters and their afro sporting
guardian. Will we get more random tales
of awesome and disgusting greatness or will we get a last minute yarn that
skillfully ties everything together? If
nothing else, I want one more all out throwdown between Panty and Stocking and
Scanty and Kneesocks…though their volleyball match was certainly a good
continuation of their school duel.
It’s Christmas next week and the Angels are bringing the
presents. See ya next week for the
series finale review of Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt.
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