New PANTY & STOCKING with GARTERBELT

Episode 5

After last week's frankly transcendent trip through Jack Kirby's Fourth World, this week's episode of New Panty & Stocking brings things back to more typical Trigger times. That's hardly a bad thing when a show's energy levels have been as consistently crazed as they have here, and the three-shorts pacing and regular rotation of fresher talent keeps things feeling in-line with that "New" in the title. It's just that there aren't any ridiculous animation style shifts or serious tonal swerves to catch the audience off-guard as in "special" episodes like last week's—bar a few odd indulgences.

The first segment spotlights the Demon Sisters specifically, whom as I've discussed before, could use a little more time to distinguish them as main characters. There are some appreciably PSG pieces to define them here, like Scanty apparently waiting a whole week to take a shit, or the continuous background detail of Kneesocks' multiple part-time jobs. She's gotta keep up the funds for their expensive tastes somehow, though part of me still really wonders if this is leading up to some grander reveal and/or fun Kneesocks spotlight episode. For now, though, this is basically business as usual for a PSG entry, just starring the Demons. Scanty and Kneesocks take on a towering sushi chef ghost in the middle of a hurricane while being stuck on the toilet and in the bathtub, respectively. Scanty righteously shits herself in superpowered anger at the climax. This is the kind of high art being put to screen by animator Shō Ōi, whom I mainly appreciate for working on Trigger's incredible Transformers anniversary music video from last year. I mean that sincerely, as this is definitely one of the PSG shorts dedicated mostly to looking cool, and it comes together as a wild shit-storm of sushi silliness between Sho's storyboards and animation.

That's followed up with a segment that's more a curious distraction than anything else. I think it's ostensibly supposed to be a Garterbelt-focused episode, as he befriends a seemingly friendly turtle Ghost, prevents Panty and Stocking from killing it, then gets played as part of a Gamera game plan. There are a few more interesting whiffs of continuity here, like Panty's little kitty Vibe from the last episode getting a shout-out, and there's reference paid to the idea of Ghosts being sympathetic, able to be sated and moved on rather than murdered. This will play into the next segment as well. But in this case it's just a ploy that resolves somewhat weirdly. I like the giant Gamera-turtle-Garter-Ghost design, with his afro as the shell. And the little replicating turts plus Panty and Stocking's reactions to them are cute. But as with many of the shorter segments this season, it escalates and resolves too quickly for its own good—they don't even blow up a model of the monster at the end of this one. This is another script this season from Kimiko Ueno, a clearly skilled writer (she previously delivered ZENSHU) but I don't know that she's being put to her best use in this kind of constrained form.

Where a bit more ambition does come out in this episode is in its third, longer segment. Here, New Panty & Stocking plays with tone some more, in the jarring opening scene of grisly Jack-the-Ripper-style murder that would be so much harsher if it weren't in the show's standard chonky art style. It's a trick that gets repeated later on, with a brutally brilliant washing-machine/razor-blade blood-Cuisinart scheme. It's a fair translation of the slasher-movie sensibilities this episode stands in tribute to. It's also got some solidly funny bits backing up the interstitials in it, like Panty happily hanging out in a safe house full of blonde sexpots like her staffed by only the most bangable cops (Panty being someone who takes "fuck the police" as literally as possible). It also makes clear that Brief's interactions with Panty over the seasons so far might have left him just a tad obsessively damaged over her. There's a scene where the geek boy, dressed as Panty, jerks himself to climax while listening to her have sex with someone else, facilitated by a tracking app he's got for her. This is good, honestly. Brief was more a standard hopelessly naive love interest previously, so making him a right freak after all the craziness he's been through just fits him better into New Panty & Stocking's escalatingly weird circumstances. And he does get a moment of reflection on the roles of geeky genre adherents like him.

This entry's story and direction come from Noboru Furukawa, who previously put together the high-stakes ninth episode of Delicious in Dungeon at Trigger (that episode, not for nothing, was also written by the aforementioned Kimiko Ueno) so viewers can see that's where those genre-pushing murder sensibilities and ever-so-short moments of meditation might come from. It's got something going on, both in how it propels Brief into weirder places and another instance of a Ghost passing on instead of just being blown up, in this case after the Ghost itself has committed a grisly murder. It is interesting, if not as jaw-dropping as something like last week's showcase. So many of the creators mentioned as working on this episode are some of those newer faces on the Trigger team, and this episode fulfills the role of showing how they can contribute to Panty & Stocking in ways that feel in-line with the show overall, while still indulging a few stamps of their own sensibilities. Even if I honestly would prefer they got to just cut loose and use each sketch as a full, personal showcase, what we get is still new and cool enough on its own.

Rating:

New PANTY & STOCKING with GARTERBELT is currently streaming on Prime Video.

Chris has to slay a bunch of anime reviews to earn his own Heaven and Hell coins, and he hopes his editors won't deduct too much for occasional potty mouth here, given the context. He's probably reskeeting fanart of Panty and/or Stocking on his BlueSky right now, and you can also check out his own back catalog over on his blog.