YMMV / Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt

• Adorkable: Brief. He seems like the type of guy you just wanna give a big hug to. And, when you pull back his hair...
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Was Stocking really working for Corset the whole time? Or was she just another victim of a Gainax Ending?
• Animation Age Ghetto: The show gives a big middle finger to the entire concept, especially in the dubbed version. Most of the art is done in a Thick-Line Animation style reminiscent of several Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon series from the later half of The Renaissance Age of Animation, but contains enough strong content to get it banned from television in the US. Containing over 500 swear words in only 13 episodes, it also includes very strong sexual references, as well as Black Comedy referencing The Holocaust, abortions, rape, and the Ku Klux Klan. Garterbelt is portrayed as an Ephebophile, and shown engaging in sadomasochistic acts in which he is tortured by pre-teen altar boys, and the song "Fly Away" is about having a one-night stand. In addition the cover for the anime's soundtrack is extremely provocative to the point of bordering on porn.
• Ass Pull: Gainax almost goes into full self-aware parody mode when Stocking dices Panty and reveals that she's a demon with only twenty seconds left of the final episode.
• Awesome Music: Has its own page.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: "D City Rock". There is no plot to it at all, has no context, comes out of nowhere and is just a parody of music videos. However, this is not a bad thing due to the shows already satirical nature and it's one of the most well known and popular scenes in the show and the music is the second most popular song in the series behind "Fly Away".
• Bizarro Episode: Episode 10 is strange even for this show. It starts off following Chuck as the focus character, which is unusual but still makes internal sense. But the longer it goes on, the more it gets into narrative non-sequiturs and bizarre imagery.
• Broken Base:
  • Panty or Stocking? Most would go for the latter, but the former isn't all that unpopular either. Of course, there are also those who choose both.
  • Panty and Stocking or Scanty and Kneesocks. Some fans like the former pair due to them being crass heroines, while others prefer to latter pair for being more morally upright despite being villains.
  • The art style. The series uses the American cartoon style for most of the time, but there are some moments where it shifts to anime style. Some fans believe the series could had been better with a traditional anime art style, while others say the American style gives a unique feel to it.
  • Should the series get a second season? Some feel like the Gainax Ending shouldn't be taken seriously, while others want the series to actually explain said ending so it can have a proper conclusion. A third camp wants another season, but only if the series is sold to Trigger, where most of the original crew went. Eventually, the third camp got their wish on July 2, 2022.
• Crack Pairing: Garter/Chuck as a BDSM pair in Episode 11.
• Critical Dissonance: The majority of anime critics didn't like this show, due to some people finding the comedy so dark and vulgar that it stopped being funny, with Anime News Network giving it a 1 out of 5. The audience on the other hand likes it a lot, with a 7.73 on MyAnimeList and a 7.6 on IMDb. Downplayed later on, as eventually critics ended up considering it one of the best anime of the 2010s.
• Crossover Shipping: Due to her personality, fans have shipped Panty with characters from other franchises.
• Crosses the Line Twice: The entire series relishes with line crossing. The manga chapters are even worse.
• Cult Classic: Compared to its predecessor and successor, which have become two of the most popular anime of their respective decades, Panty & Stocking certainly seems underrated. But its fanbase, however small it may be, is very much devoted to it. After the second season was announced on July 2nd, it may no longer be this, as the show gained over 100K tweets upon the announcement, becoming the top of trending on Twitter.
• Die for Our Ship: Panty for Brief/anyone else; this died down over the years, however.
• Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Look at the Gainax Ending, now look at how Set killed Osiris. You will find a couple of similarities.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Powerpuff Sluts" and "Powerslut Girls" (although only Panty can be termed a slut, it gets across the adult humour).
  • Powerslut Lisa for Panty.
  • Ghostbuster Dexter for Brief.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Brief/Stocking, despite having almost no interactions. And also, Brief/Panty/Stocking.
• Fan Vid: This is the link to a very popular Fan Vid of Panty & Stocking, set to "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)" by My Chemical Romance. Incredibly enough, most of the song's lyrics can be associated to the series!
• Fanon Discontinuity: One way some fans deal with the obligatory post-credits Gainax Ending is to disregard it altogether, treating the final scene before the end credits as the true ending since it gives some closure to events that took place in the past few episodes.
• Faux Symbolism: The ending. Two of God's creatures, one of whom kills her sibling. Does this remind you of anything?
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • There's a 99.9% chance that a Panty & Stocking fan is also a Kill la Kill fan or a Black Butler fan.
  • The series seems to be popular among fans of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, most likely because of the fact that Stocking and Twilight have extremely similar hair colors.
  • Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi fans have taken a liking towards the show due to the similarities between the main female leads.
  • The Powerpuff Girls for obvious reasons.
  • With Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2 for similar style, plot and humor.
  • There is one with Studio Killers popping up due to both works having familiar themes and musical style.
• Gateway Series: This series can easily be credited for the founding of Studio TRIGGER.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The series has gotten tons of attention in several Western countries, especially the United States. In Japan, the series originally sold only about 2,000 copies for the first volume and was beaten by anime like Yosuga no Sora and Samurai Girls. However, it did eventually gain a lot of popularity and generated a huge amount of doujins, cosplay and fan art.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Panty & Stocking follows girls who use their supernatural powers to create weapons in order to combat abominations that were once human beings, which drop items that are beneficial to our protagonists. This premise is handled in a very comical way and the anime almost never takes itself seriously. Two weeks after it ended, however...
  • Garterbelt making inappropriate looks at Brief would later look even worse, when his English voice actor Christopher Sabat would later be under allegations for sexual harassment and misogyny.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In the dub of "Les Diaboliques", Panty makes a comment along the lines of "Well fuck me in the keyhole" in response to the revelation of Scanty and Kneesocks' demonic nature. In the end, it's revealed that Brief's penis is the key to open Hell and during the final episode, Brief finally has sex with her.
  • In "...of the Dead", Panty and Stocking fight and kill several zombies with repurposed sex toys, including a weird oversized dildo within a leafblower/chainsaw base. Then we have Dead Rising 2 which has the option of attacking zombies with "massagers". It gets even funnier in Off the Record in that one of the new Combo Weapons Frank can make is a leaf blower that shoots "massagers" and looks reminiscent of Panty's weapon in-episode.
  • Panty and Stocking join the police in "...of the Dead". Their badges read R.I.P.D..
  • Panty's wish in the soundtrack to have the seasons keep coming until "Panty IN THE SPACE" can be seen as this. As of "Geek Boy Homecoming", she very well get to go there thanks to Nova, if not just the Multiverse.
• Hype Aversion: There are those who will never even give the series a chance because of the constant praise of what they only see as hentai, as well as those who tried it due to the praise and still didn't like it.
• I Knew It!:
  • More than one fan predicted that Panty would sooner or later use Stocking's panties to dual wield. Guess what happens in "Les Diaboliques"?
  • Brief is a Bishounen!
  • The Mayor is Corset!
  • Pretty much everyone has predicted that if a second season were to happen, it would be done by Studio TRIGGER due to it being formed by much of the show's staff (including director Hiroyuki Imaishi), on top of their keen interest in continuing it. Sure enough, these predictions ultimately ended up being correct when Season 2 was finally announced in 2022 by TRIGGER.
• It Was His Sled: Stocking is a demon and slices up Panty is pretty much this, given how many people mention the Gainax Ending.
• Jerkass Woobie: Panty in the last two episodes, especially in the end.
• Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales:
  • It was much better received in the US than it was in Japan, despite (or perhaps because of) being also a homage to/parody of US animation, presented as a bunch of dick-and-fart jokes, repulsive moments and lots of sex.
  • Garterbelt himself is a fairly rare (for the medium) example of a black Badass Preacher who's clearly a good guy by normal standards, let alone those of the show's setting. While it takes a while to see it as they seem fairly nominal as heroes at first, the Anarchy sisters are presented to play up their status as Chaotic Good angels with the defense of freedom as a dominant virtue, which feeds into the Americanized look. It also helps the show's not afraid to poke fun at its source; an episode done in a "Little Tokyo" ghetto with a distinctly changed art style manages to show Panty and Stocking, when they finally show up looking and acting no different than usual, appearing like actual angels simply due to contrast.
  • Speaking of Garterbelt, in spite of him being a Black caricature, there are many Black people who still like him and/or the show in general, judging by the huge amount of Black PASWG cosplays and fanart on social media.
• Moe:
  • Stocking. Even when the series makes a more realistic Art Shift, Stocking as a late teen/young adult still looks adorable.
  • Chibi!Panty and Stocking in the end credits, too, thanks to their Sanrio-esque looks.
  • Brief is just absolutely adorable with his kind, earnest personality, and probably needs a hug with all the abuse he gets from various ghosts. And Panty.
• Nausea Fuel:
  • In "The Buzz of the Beehive", it's implied that Panty does not know what a condom is. With as much sex as she has on a daily basis that, she would be a veritable cesspool of venereal disease. However, according to Word of God, "angels don't get fat, grow old or get sick". If the girls don't return to Heaven they'll become humans and be unable to maintain their lifestyles without some serious side-effects, which explains their motivations.
  • Being a Grossout Show, this series runs on this and Squick.
• One-Scene Wonder: Scanty and Kneesocks' Transformation Sequence. It only happens once, but it's easily one of the series' most iconic moments and helped cement the Daemon sisters' position as Ensemble Darkhorses.
• One True Threesome: Brief/Panty/Stocking has its fair share of popularity in the fanbase. Fan arts depicting Panty and Stocking teasing and seducing Brief is not uncommon and Panty & Stocking cosplayers like to do at least one photo based on this pairing.
• Paranoia Fuel: With "Pulp Addiction", you will be afraid of your own sperm and treat them like soldiers instead of just cells.
• Periphery Demographic: This series has a rather significant female fanbase, despite it very obviously pandering to guys. For some of the female fanbase, this has to do with the fact that Panty and Stocking are seen as good feminist icons because they're both badass without falling into the "we can't portray any females with flaws, lest it be a bad representation of women" cliché, they never have to be saved by men, and Panty's obsession with sex is only portrayed as bad because it gets in the way of her work. Panty and Stocking are also sisters who worry about each other, and enjoy hanging out with each other in spite of their obvious differences. Others simply like them for the same reason the male fanbase does or because they're genuinely entertaining characters despite their status' as the designated heroes.
• Questionable Casting: Questionable Dubbing in this case as no one expected FUNimantion to grab the license since this isn't really the type of series they would go for unironically. Their dub ended up being very funny regardless.
• Quirky Work: When only one episode had come out, and each episode that follows is weirder than the last.
• Rated M for Money: The series is crass, for adults only and is marketed towards them only.
• Refrain from Assuming: Before the soundtrack preview, "Theme for Scanty and Kneesocks" was called "I Want You" by the fandom, given that was the song's original name before it was remixed for the show.
• Ron the Death Eater: Panty's worst traits are ramped up to eleven in any fic where Brief needs to be paired with someone other than her.
• Signature Song:
  • Fly Away, the theme that plays for the Transformation Sequence and generally the Anarchy Sisters Leitmotif.
  • D City Rock, which is the song that plays for the music video. It also plays earlier in the show in The Stripping, when they're looking for jobs to work at, and failing at every single one of them, and in "The Turmoil of the Beehive" when they're embarrassing Queen Bee.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • It's very clearly inspired by The Powerpuff Girls to the point where it even uses the same episode structure. Depending on who you ask, it could either be considered a homage or parody to the series.
  • In the sense that it's an adult work that looks like something for kids that has moments of focusing on bodily functions, it's one to Conker's Bad Fur Day. Both this show and that game also has a feces monster that the main character have to fight.
• Squick: If you're adverse to gross sights, this isn't the series for you as it gleefully dabbles in a lot of bodily functions as early as the first episode, which involves fighting a feces monster. Later down the line, we got an episode based around vomit and another around cum. Not to mention all the sexual innuendos as well.
• Superlative Dubbing: Gainax basically told the dubbing team to make the dub as crude and raunchy as possible, far and above the Japanese original, and they delivered. Apparently, Gainax wanted a distinctly American flavor of raunch, specifically to teach their creative division how to curse like Westerners.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Almost the entirety of "Vomiting Point". You can't just sit through watching the poor guy's life without shedding some tears.
  • You would hardly expect a legitimate Tear Jerker from a series like this, but Gainax manages to deliver one in "Ghost: The Phantom of Daten City". The ghost that Stocking dated for most of the episode is an amalgamation of the regrets of men who had never discovered love. As soon as he found it by proposing to Stocking, he disappears from this world, having precious little time to experience said love.
• This Is Your Premise on Drugs: Bayonetta meets Futari wa Pretty Cure meets The Powerpuff Girls on pot. Another one is Invader Zim meets The Powerpuff Girls at a strip club on acid.
• Tough Act to Follow: None of Gainax's subsequent series ever made as much of an impact, domestically or overseas, as this one, and the studio is generally agreed to have never reach the same peaks afterwards. The main reason for this is because after this anime, its creative staff left Gainax to start their own animation studio.
• Ugly Cute:
  • The gonk version of Stocking.
  • Chuck and Fastener to some.
• Vindicated by History: The series initially failed in Japan. However, thanks partially to the humongous popularity the show enjoyed in America, it is now rather popular in the its home country too. That's probably thanks to strong advertising, with things such as: merchandise,^note Even teacups, food, and a tissue container! special exhibits and even a special menu based on the show in a popular restaurant. And from a critical standpoint, even IGN, Polygon, and Crunchyroll would name it one of the greatest anime works of the 2010s.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: The series looks like something from Cartoon Network, being drawn in the artstyle of The Powerpuff Girls, but the content is extremely adult, with very strong sexual references, and strong language. The show was given a TV-MA rating in the States and an 18+ rating in the UK. In comparison to other animated comedies that are for adults, South Park and Sausage Party were both given the 15 rating. The show's title, however, should make it easy for people understand that it is rather inappropriate for children.
• The Woobie:
  • The old man from "Vomiting Point". Poor guy.
  • Brief. He also counts as an Iron Woobie considering all the abuse he takes in the series and yet still trying to get in Panty's good favor despite it.
  • Stocking in "Ghost: The Phantom of Daten City". She finally falls in love with someone, but Panty keeps trying to separate the two, and she loses him in the end anyways.
• Woolseyism: The series is an ungodly raunchy anime that pokes fun at American cartoons, and has a lot of Engrish swearing. So when the time came for Funimation to dub it, they approached it as an American adaptation of an American-esque Japanese series instead of going for a straight translation. The end result is a Gag Dub similar to that of Ghost Stories with tons of Rapid-Fire Comedy, One-Liners, Character Exaggeration all around, and even more swearing, all while managing to keep the original script for each episode. And given the nature of the series, it works.

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