Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: The Complete Series [Blu-ray]

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt...The story of two foul-mouthed angels that were kicked out of heaven for bad behavior and have to brutally kill "Ghosts" to gain money to buy their way back.You know, I actually bought this on a whim. I had no idea what I was getting into and yet now I've started a little craze of it around here with all of my buds. I've even gotten guys who aren't into anime at all to really love this. Not surprising, though...considering it's hilarious.It's certainly not for those who don't consider profanity funny. This show is loaded with it and I promise you that you'll probably find at least one part of it that will make you cringe. It's vulgar, rude, crude, and outlandish, but if you come to love it...that's probably why you love it. It dares to be as naughty as it can be and really, that's kind of impressive considering how hit and miss that can be with audiences in this day and age.It has loads of references to pop culture, games, movies, you name it. It loves to make fun of American culture in general, though. That much is blatantly obvious. I find that funny, though. I wont give out all of the references they make, since that'd ruin the surprise...but some are really obvious and others are barely noticed. Makes it interesting to watch it again and see what you missed.This isn't a show for someone who wants a very interesting story. The story is interesting to me, but for most it's hard to understand upon watching. It's really not meant to be loved for the story, but rather the comedy and characters themselves.Speaking of the characters...The characters are all very unique in this and the dialogue between them is the best I've ever seen in an english dub. It's so fluent and delivered perfectly. Makes the already vibrant characters even more vibrant. The english dub is far better than the sub on this one, for sure. Both are good, but trust me when I say that you have to hear the dub to understand why so many love this show.One other thing that I adore this show for is the music. Good lord...It has the catchiest songs I've ever heard in an anime before. Every time "Fly Away" plays, I have to start bobbing my head. Can't help it. I'm tempted to buy the soundtrack, honestly. It's hard to describe what it's like, though. You'll have to listen for yourself to see. You can tell that they put a lot of work into the music and it's definitely appreciated.The colors and artstyle were made to mimic western cartoons like old school Power Puff Girls or Invader Zim. Things of that nature. If you're someone like me that grew up watching those shows, this feels like an adult version of those shows. Nostalgia overload. It's great to me, but for the more traditional anime lover...that might be an issue. The transformation scenes are traditional anime, though. More like what Gainax typically does. They're all really well done, regardless.This show does have a lot of comedy, but I dare say it has it's fair share of action too. It's over the top and comical, but some of it is quite impressive to me. Especially on my personal favorite episode; "Les Diaboliques." I might just be easily impressed, but it can be quite a wild ride at times if you're into that.All in all, I'd recommend this show to anyone that wants hours upon hours of laughs and it's a blast to watch with that best bud of yours that you share your dirtiest jokes with. Just keep this one away from the younger ones. It's way too much for them, trust me. It may look like an old kid's show, but it isn't in the slightest.It's become my second favorite anime and that's not something I say lightly.

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt takes place in Daten City, a city located between Heaven and Earth. The series follows the Anarchy Sisters, sex-obsessed Panty (Arisa Ogasawara) and sweets-loving goth girl Stocking (Mariya Ise), two angels that have been expelled from Heaven. Under the guidance of the perverted Reverend Garterbelt (Koji Ishii), they fight and destroy ghosts that are harassing Daten City to earn Heaven Coins with the goal of one day earning enough to buy their way back to Heaven.This series is primarily about the comedy and parody. Specifically, it is rare in that it is an anime heavily inspired by American animation rather than the kind of styles and content typically associated with more traditional Japanese anime. What we get is a hilarious send up of Western-style cartoons and humor.The art in this anime is fantastic and rather unique for an anime. As mentioned above, this is inspired by American animation such as the style made famous by cartoons such as The Powerpuff Girls. As such, there are a lot of high-paced scenes especially those involving battles and fighting. But the artwork and animation also contributes a lot to the series' humor as well with a ton of visual gags as part of its zany storytelling and premise.I also thought that the soundwork was excellent as well. This not only includes the music which, for a comedy series, is unexpectedly catchy and fun to listen to, but the voicework all around is great, too. In line with the humor of the show, the voice actors put in a lot of energy in their work. This is true for both the original Japanese and the English dub. Indeed, even for those that prefer subbed anime, the English dub is a must watch for fans. I want to especially highlight the work of Jamie Marchi as Panty and Monica Rial as Stocking, both of whom did a superb job. Supposedly, Gainax gave Funimation a lot of leeway to make the dub as raunchy and hilarious as possible and one can really tell that the English actors had a lot of fun with this.The story itself is really just a premise to allow for copious amounts of humor and parody. Just like with the animation style, the humor and writing takes a lot of inspiration from adult American animated shows, especially the crude and raunchy humor made famous by shows such as South Park and Drawn Together. As such, the show relies heavily on this type of humor with plenty of toilet humor, sex jokes, profanity, and just an all around sense of irreverence. I found that this type of humor to be absolutely hilarious that never takes itself seriously. It is a great show to watch just to get some laughs. Also, again as a result of its Western inspiration, the show contains many parodies and references to Western media. These run the gamut from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ghostbusters, Transformers, among many others.This Blu-ray set includes all thirteen half-hour episodes with the option to watch in either Japanese or English. In addition, there are a couple of hours of bonus features including some making-of featurettes, promotional material, and a few shorts.All in all, I found this series to be very enjoyable and hilarious. While the immature sense of humor may not be for everyone, for those that like American-style adult cartoons looking for something that is not serious, you will probably enjoy this.