Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt The Complete Series Blu-ray Review

Director: Hiroyuki Imaishi,

Starring: Arisa Ogasawara, Jamie Marchi, Mariya Ise, Monica Rial, Kouji Ishii, Christopher R. Sabat, Takashi Nakamura, Ian Sinclair, Hiroyuki Yoshino, Joel McDonald, Yuka Komatsu, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Ayumi Fujimura, Cherami Leigh,

Running Time: 352 minutes

Certificate: 18

Extras: Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt Revealed: Unrated Cut, Sit Down With Panty and Stocking, Panty and Stocking in Sanitary Box, Ghost Explosions Collection, Ghost Explosions Collection Documentary, TV Promotional Video, Commercial Collections, Talk Live Animated Loft/Plus One, Making Of Lingerie Scene, Outtakes, Trailers, Textless Opening/Closing Songs,

Ever wondered what THE POWERPUFF GIRLS would be liked if one of them was a slutty sex addict and Professor Utonium was an S&M fan with a penchant for young boys? No? Probably not, but just because you never imagined it, doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it. PANTY & STOCKING WITH GARTERBELT is a twisted, over sexualised, foul mouthed, and revolting play upon Western style animations. It’s also hilarious in its unapologetic perversion.

In Daten City, a couple of angels named Panty and Stocking, are forced to live until they have enough coins to return to heaven. They earn these coins by slaying ghosts that run amok in the city. They live with a suspect preacher named Garterbelt, and an undead dog called Chuck. Panty is obsessed with sex and Stocking loves her sugar. A simple plot for a very simple show. It becomes more complicated with its constant use of disturbing imagery and behaviour.

Despite being an anime, PANTY & STOCKING WITH GARTERBELT owes much more to Western pulp culture than that of Japan. The character designs are blocky and cartoonish, and will be more familiar to those fans of Cartoon Network/Nickelodeon classics such as POWERPUFF GIRLS and INVADER ZIM. The individual episodes also often spoof specific American films such as TRANSFORMERS and Baz Luhrman’s ROMEO & JULIET. In fact, if you ignore the Japanese names on the credits, you would expect this to be of American origin. This design and attitude is very refreshing, but does sometimes mix the styles for comedic or storytelling purposes.

This cutesy appearance makes the show’s tone even more shocking, as we’re used to seeing anime push the limits in terms of violence and adult content. Panty and Stocking are masters of inappropriate language, often inventing their own vernacular in hilarious strings of insults. There is no limit on the bad language used here, so best be sure you are comfortable with all words. The comedy is mostly in the form of toilet humour, literally. Most episodes centre on some kind of bodily fluid or excretion, whether that be semen, vomit, snot, and poo.

PANTY & STOCKING WITH GARTERBELT may be gimmicky shock humour, but it’s done with a certain level of quality that makes it enjoyable and likable. The female protagonists may be disgusting, but it is taken to such an extreme that we’re soon swept up in their potty mouthed world. If you’re the kind of person that refers to your best friends as ‘hooker’ or ‘slut’, you’ll certainly get along with this gang. Under the surface of debauchery is also a lot of heart. As the films apes ROMEO + JULIET’s fish tank scene, you’ll still feel pangs of emotion seeping through before the next F or C bomb is spoken. Both sub and dub offer different perspectives at the humour, with the English voiced version containing much more colourful language, which actually suits the tone a lot better.

If having characters which spoof TRANSFORMERS, named Mingeatron and Cocktimus Prime doesn’t make you chuckle then this may not be for you. You may even want to stand far back. But for fans of edgy animation that like a bit of immaturity and fast paced episodes, PANTY & STOCKING WITH GARTERBELT is an absolute joy.

Extras: This Blu-ray/DVD Combo set has plenty of extras to sink your teeth into. You get a couple of sit downs with the English vocal crew, discussing their characters and adaptations made to the original. There are also a series of shorts which contain a few laughs, especially a ‘Chuck To The Future Part 4’ scene. The Ghost Explosions collection and documentary chronicle the live-action shots used to show the demise of each ghost. There’s also tons of promotional material to have a go at.

PANTY & STOCKING WITH GARTERBELT The Complete Series is released on DVD and Blu-ray on 24th June via Manga Entertainment.

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