Studio Gainax in Japan is a very strange animation company. Their work has been very hit or miss, and tends to find a niche audience regardless of the show's quality. I found that almost all of their shows seem to be based around being a parody of existing content, but meant to surpass it through deconstruction while still being aware of its stupidity. Only after realizing the creator's inside joke on the rest of the industry does their shows become watchable; shows like "Gurren Lagann" would be terrible if not watched with that mindset. Thankfully, it is obvious from the title alone that "Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt" is a parody, and is ultimately more fun simply because of that awareness.And what does this show make fun of? Mostly, American humor and cartoons. Panty and Stocking doesn't look like a Japanese anime, but much more like Cartoon Network shows from the late 1990's, such as "The Powerpuff Girls" or "Dexter's Labratory." Not only those cartoons, the show also pokes direct fun at Tom Cruise, Transformers, the Gorillaz rock band, and many, many other pop culture icons. The characters themselves are a direct parody of American people and their sense of taste or humor (or at least how most countries perceive Americans to be). Panty and Stocking are both fallen angels, kicked out of heaven for their crude behaviour, and are required to team up with a afro-sporting priest named Garterbelt to defeat demons on earth, and collecting the video-game-inspired coins that appear from their exploding corpses. Panty is a sex-crazed whore, and Stocking is a sweet-munching carnivore. Garterbelt also happens to have a interest in young boys, possibly making fun of him being a priest, or of the idea of a large imposing black man being gay. Sex makes up over half of the content, and one would think the jokes would be offensive or of bad taste. Frankly, most of them are, and will turn off many people. But it also makes this one of the funniest shows of its year, simply because it pulls no punches, and it isn't as offensive as one would think, possibly because you know exactly what to expect going in.In the second half of the show, the series does try to throw in some more serious themes and episodes, with mixed results. Certainly, it feels forced in a attempt to make the viewer feel for the characters, and ultimately you still don't really care about anyone in the show by the end. But it does also make for some interesting episodes that are on the borderline of artistic in terms of storytelling. Don't let that scare you if you're in the mood for humor. The show is funny, if rude and crude humor is within your style. The ending of the show is surprisingly satisfying as well, although the two minutes at the very end will give you a trick ending that will feel like the biggest troll joke you've ever seen.The animation and visuals looks purposely cheap, like a old flash American cartoon. But Gainax obviously felt embarrassed for the style, as they try very hard to make the action scenes look really sharp. They also change animation styles every now and then, and you can count at least four or five styles in the show. Therefore, I'd say the production values on Panty and Stocking are quite good, but you'll know whether or not you appreciate it by looking at a screenshot of the characters (cleverly, the style also helps prevent this becoming masturbation material, despite all the sex and nudity in the content). The visuals do suffer however from video-transfer on home video: for some reason, it looks like it really was made in the 1990's, and the colors aren't nearly as crisp or sharp as you think they would be. The audio has a few noteworthy vocal tracks that you'd want to sing at your local karaoke bar, but the real star is the English dub: it's clear the actors had a ton of fun with the crass dialogue and humor. The opening and ending are... surprisingly bad, however, and you'll want to skip them every time.
Panty and Stocking is cartoon humor at its best and most foul, and a parody of how the world perceives Americans. True, I prefer more classic, family friendly comedy, but in a world where most anime comedies revolve around naked girls blushing when a boy looks at them, it's refreshing to see a show with confident leading female characters that isn't afraid to come out and masturbate in your face. Wait, that came out wrong.... actually, if you laughed at that last line, you know if this show is what you're looking for.