Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt

 FFFFFUUUUUUU-

So, since I’m incredibly weak willed, I spent more of today watching an anime than doing revision for the English exam I have on Thursday.  That I don’t regret.  Watching the post-credit ending to Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt?  Yes.  That, I do.

(Warning: Explicit Content (Both the anime and the review (Are you really surprised?)))

Episodes: 13 (Mostly 2x shorts)

So that was a thing. That I watched in one day.  I’m not entirely sure what to say about it.  It’s certainly something.  I’m going to try to write a review, but I fully recognize I just don’t have the expertise to give it half the critique it deserves, and still emotionally shattered.
 

So, Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt (Heretofore PSG).  It’s an anime, looks like Powerpuff Girls (Or, more generally, Western cartoon animation), is pretty much nothing but successive innuendos and bodily humour.  It’s also probably one of the best damn satires of all time.

PSG parodies pretty much anything that moves.  All I know it that I probably didn’t get a tenth of it.  And I still got a lot of it.  PSG is almost required watching.  Otherwise it’s like reading Paradise Lost without knowing what that bible book is.  Seriously, you’d be missing out.

The first thing that hit me was the opening.  I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be expecting, since all I’d heard from TVTropes was that it was an anime, and that it was popular.  The name sounded like it would be dirty, but I had briefly seen the animation style, so I figured it couldn’t be that bad.  Western cartoons are wholesome, right?

Nope.  O_O

So, when one of the main characters starts taking off her panties, I realized that it wasn’t going to be kiddy.  Then they started swearing.  Wow, lots of swearing.  Innuendo?  Yep, can’t forget that!

It was dirty. Just really dirty and vulgar. Hilarious, enjoyable to watch, but unlike anything I’d ever seen.  Not like a traditional anime at all.

After the first episode, I decided to research a little more, and found that there was a dub. The Western art style wasn’t sitting well with the Japanese voices for me, so I tried it out, and was pleasantly surprised.  Doing a side by side comparison was interesting: the dialogue frequently diverged, but when I didn’t know what I was missing, I found I didn’t mind at all.  The English version was still interesting and funny, and the voices were not only skillfully done, but also very appropriate – each character had a stereotypical voice from western culture which suited them very well, and the western art style prevented the usual jarring charicaturisation from being an issue, since it fit.  So, I watched it dubbed, and I’d suggest others do the same.  I think it comes down to matching the vocal style to the show’s style, and the goofy voices American VAs use definitely worked for PSG.

The episodic format worked well, in that it slowly build up and introduced characters while preventing too much Cerebus from building up. Not that it really had much of a chance, given how Panty is pretty much able to ruin anything that even counts as a ‘mood’ just by speaking.  ;_;

Speaking of, the swearing. The dub has more. Apparently, Word of God is that Gainax asked them to write it with more, and inventive swearing so that the production team could learn some new material. I liked it.  It was refreshing to have an adult-oriented show, throwing around ‘f*ck’s and ‘c*nt’s like there was no tomorrow, calling each other ‘slutbags’, and frequently using extremely blatant innuendo. It was fun to watch, in itself, and certainly in how liberating it is to see that come out of the mouths of character designs that look like the long lost cousins of the Powerpuff Girls.

Character designs were, in my opinion, a mixed bag.  On one hand, it’s fun to see the western style for the parody it represents.  On the other, it wasn’t that visually appealing, other than making the anime-esqe angel shots so much more enjoyable by comparison. It did feel like it was raping my childhood, slightly, but that was to be expected once I knew what this was.

Don't worry, she's enjoying it

I found I was growing increasingly emotionally attached to the characters as time went on, which I was not expecting, considering how irreverently everything is treated.  The Cerebus near the end was surprisingly well done, satirically, anyway.  It did create horrible mood whiplash that I’m still suffering from, but again, to be expected.

However, the single most important thing I can stress about this series is that it is made by Studio Gainax, and as such, has a Gainax ending.  That means, after the credits have rolled, stop watching.  No, really, just stop.  Yes, I know that there are still two whole minutes of canon left.  No, you cannot watch them.  Yes, trust me.

Really, I cannot stress it enough.  If you enjoyed this show on an emotional level, if you connected at all with the characters, if you, in any way at all, want to keep the canon of the show as it stands at the end of the last episode, for the love of god don’t watch it.  This is one of those things.  Like Boku no Pico or something like that.  Don’t do it motherf*cka’s! (Aww, now I sound like Garter…  >_<  )(Which is shockingly, and thus horrifyingly, appropriate)

The standard reaction to Boku no Pico / The ending to PSG
(Not that it's the same thing  >_< )

If you just like it for the trolling value, and really couldn’t care less, then go ahead, have fun.  I won’t say I didn’t warn you.

Anyway, yeah, other than the last couple minutes, I’d definitely suggest watching PSG, assuming that you’re at least 15.  And alone.  And comfortable with every single excretion that the human body can produce.   And have a bin nearby.  And not offended by large quantities of sexual material.  But yeah, if you can stand those things, then it’s great.  Really!

Final score: Da fuq / 10  (Seriously, there is no scale.  I only even called this an anime because the internet does.)

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt