Well, I just got my hands on ep#1 of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt so I might as well put down my first impressions. Being the Gainax/Imaishi/Yoshinari fantard I am I've been anticipating this anime ever since it was first announced.
The premise is simple; an episodic show about two angel sisters who hunt for "ghosts" (aka monsters of the week). Panty is a blonde sex addict who's panties turn into a gun. Stocking is a cake-munching gothic lolita who's stockings turn into a pair of swords. Their boss is Garterbelt, a black priest with a huge afro.
With a whole cast named after underwear this is nothing too highbrow. A pretty juvenile show really, with the first episode already delivering a giant poo monster and countless dick jokes. As much as I love director Imaishi's wacky shenanigans I would've appreciated something more clever... but it's still fairly entertaining with the right mindset, and I trust that the best episodes are yet to come.
The visuals are fresh and cool, that's the main treat here. The art style borrows heavily from American cartoons and a bunch of animator superstars are taking turns going absolutely nuts with it. PSG looks awesome and it's full of surprises. The backgrounds are neat and stylish while the streamlined character designs work perfectly in the fast-paced action scenes, spiced up by typographic sound effects. There are bits of CG thrown in too, but they blend in almost seamlessly and are well used to complement the action. This is a real blast to watch.
ALSO, MAGICAL STRIPPERS.
(Gorgeous sequence animated by Atsushi Nishigori & You Yoshinari)
(Gorgeous sequence animated by Atsushi Nishigori & You Yoshinari)
Some poor gags aside Panty & Stocking is an enjoyable piece of eyecandy and I'm definitely looking forward to future episodes. Might write another entry about this once the series is over.
Thanks for this post - I've been really curious about this show but no one's been able to give me a proper description until now!
ReplyDeleteAmusingly, Zac Bertschy seems to think that the magical stripper henshin was "chickening out."
ReplyDeleteI have mixed feelings about Genndy Tartakovsky going all kinds of giant robot crazy with Sym-Bionic Titan, but this show is just pure Powerpuff awesome!
ReplyDeleteMickey Quinn: You're welcome!
ReplyDeleteTsubasa: That's an odd way to put it. How could this show NOT have fanservice :-D
muuten: It definitely has potential, yup.
Wow, just dropping by to say that it's refreshing to see a blog looking at anime from a fan's POV that focuses on the art aspect. It's very frustrating to me seeing a lot of anime fans who have no understanding of animation, demand more detail, don't accept new styles, etc.
ReplyDeletePGS is a pretty cool looking show, but yeah, the first episode's gags didn't work for me. I find the later episodes much more amusing, actually. Sometimes the animation is a bit low quality, but they're clearly investing in the standout action scenes. One of the great things about gainax too is that they've got artists who know how to take expressions and really have fun with 'em - like in FLCL.
But yeah, awesome blog, and good art, too!