DVD Corner

Panty And Stocking With Garterbelt- The Complete Series DVD Review

“Panty And Stocking With Garterbelt” isn’t the same ol’ anime (and that’s a good thing).

The plot: Panty (a horny sex fiend) and Stocking (a sugar lover) are sisters who have been placed in a sort of purgatory (Daten City) after being cast out of Heaven. In order to get back to Heaven, the two must exterminate ghosts which plague the city and collect special coins as a reward. As you can imagine, the 13 episodes are filled with various types of ghosts and other raunchy subplots as well. Expect to see stories about: a poop ghost, a vehicle possessing ghost, ghost cheerleader, a film starring Panty and Stocking, Panty and Stocking arguments and discussions, sperm ghosts, an obese ghost, an underwear ghost, a ghost with a blimp, a vomit ghost, the troublesome Daemon sisters, alien robots, money raising venture, zombies, a murder trial, water ghosts, Stocking falling for a ghost, Chuck (the dog?), a shrunken Panty and Stocking, a music video, the Preacher Garterbelt’s past, the villainous Daten City Mayor (Corset), Hell’s Gate, and the geeky character Brief. The 13 episodes each contain 2 stories per episode with the exception of “Les Diaboliques” (one story) and episode 10 which technically has 5 shorts overall.

As someone who gets tired of harem and mech stories, it’s fun to see an anime like ‘Stocking’ that doesn’t feel or look like anything out there. The animation style (which kind of resembles “Invader Zim,” “The Powerpuff Girls” and “Scott Pilgrim”) is very vibrant, colorful, and fluid making it fun to just look at. On top of that, the show is a flat-out zany, fast paced, funny, hyperactive, vulgar Adult Swim esque action-comedy that assaults you with more sexual innuendos (see Panty’s character), pop culture references (like “Transformers”), and sight gags than you can probably handle in 30 minutes. Sure it’s pretty formulaic and somewhat one note, but it’s a fun anime series that never gets boring in the entire 13 episode run.

Summary: The title may be awful, but if you’re open to raunchy, action-packed anime series, give this one a shot.

Video/Audio:

The series, which is presented in widescreen, look very sharp and very colorful. The only downside? Where is the Blu-ray? This is the type of series that would look mindblowing in Blu-ray. I’m sure a set is being planned for the future, but it seems odd not to release a Blu-ray/DVD Combo set for this show.

This set contains English Dolby Digital 5.1 and Japanese Stereo audio tracks. The English track really works well here. The Japanese track is also good, but I actually prefer the English track’s voice acting talent.

Extras:
* Trailers for “Hetalia World Series,” “Panty And Stocking With Garterbelt,” “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood,” “Fractale,” “Armitage III,” “The Sacred Blacksmith,” “Strike Witches,” “Freezing,” “Serial Experiments: Lain,” “Oblivion Island,” and Funimation.com.
* “Panty And Stocking In Sanitary Box”- A special consisting of 8 shorts about everything from a date and gum to nipples and a video game land.
* “Ghost Explosion Collection”- 16 shorts of various shots of different ghosts blowing up.
* A TV promo video and 6 commercials.
* Textless opening and closing songs.
* English dub outtakes.
* “Making Of Lingerie Scene”- An 11 minute featurette about how the scene was created.

* “Talk Live Animtated At Loft/Plus One”- A “Live Commentaries” chat show with the director and the sound director of “Panty And Stocking With Garterbelt.”

* “Ghost Explosion Collection Documentary”- A 3 part behind-the-scenes making of docu of the live-action explosion sequences.

July 15, 2012 - Posted by nicklyons1 | DVD review | Panty And Stocking With Garterbelt- The Complete Series DVD Review