New PANTY & STOCKING with GARTERBELT
Episode 7
by Christopher Farris,
How would you rate episode 7 of
New PANTY & STOCKING with GARTERBELT ?
Community score: 4.5
It's been nice that New Panty & Stocking has consistently made time for Brief and Garterbelt among its multitude of fresher indulgences. They fit naturally into even the expanded Panty/Stocking/Scanty/Kneesocks main roster, being instrumental in this season's big premiere and regularly contributing reminders of how their places in this trashy universe have (and haven't) evolved. And here they have agency, being the ones to get fed up with all the anarchic and demonic antics at the church, and storming out for a joyride to not-Vegas. It's a perfect excuse for them to get picked up by Polyester and Polyurethane, so they (and the viewers) can get a little more dirt on these dudes. I was momentarily worried after the previous episode that these guys might not be consistently part of the cast, but they're here to hang out, added into the opening and ending themes, and they're key continuing players now. Thank God.
Since the debut of the Demon Sisters, it's been a rrrrule that the antagonists to Panty and Stocking are technically better-behaved than the heroines. The Angel Brothers specifically are stringent allies of the working man, taking full advantage of their days off and even maintaining work-life balances that let them forge an earnest friendship with Brief and Garter (and Chuck). It comes complete with matching Hawaiian shirts and an odd amount of peeing outside. There's an air of suspicion around their magnanimousness from both the audience and the characters—these boys are ostensible villains after all, and everything in Panty & Stocking is prone to getting screwed up somehow. But like the gregarious Ghosts that have intermittently popped up in this season, there's a sense that things could work out with these guys, regardless.
Of course, the fun times are doomed not to last. It turns out the Poly pair is so dedicated to that work-life balance that they won't immediately jump into action to stop a giant Ghost kaiju even if it promises a potentially huge payday. These guys are, effectively, people who would be fun to hang out with but would make for terrible co-workers, and we've all known that type. It sucks for everyone that they end up kill-stealing out from under the heroines at the end anyway, but it's important information to be imparted, regardless. I mean, I still love these guys, but I love them specifically because they're terrible.
This part's not bursting to the extreme like the Angel Bros' appearance last week, but it doesn't need to be anything other than simply fun, and showing the boys off (I appreciate that Panty & Stocking, even in all its stylized angularities, is still committed to the essential male nipple). They even complete the kaiju homage with Panty pulling an Ultra-rise. More than anything, I just want to know who told Hiromi Wakabayashi about the word "bussin'".
After the boys, it's back to the bitches for the B-part of this episode, which also interrogates that caustic side of womanhood, as Panty & Stocking is wont to do. This is, by my count, the second time this season that Panty's been dubiously arrested for a crime, and this time her and the other three gals all go along to do their best impression of women's prison pinky violence flicks and/or JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 6. The ultimate thesis of this entry is that the "bitchy women are cool" aesthetic that Panty & Stocking is founded on thrives when said women are being bitchy for themselves. Trying to pit queens against each other for gratification is nought but a fetish, and that misses the ribald, independent spirit that's powered such highs in this show as Panty reclaiming that vibe way back in the ending of the original season. It also mirrors Brief's grappling with his misgivings in the New premiere about pressing personality expectations onto Panty. It isn't about wanting these girls to act a certain way, but simply to act as themselves—to take their desires personally instead of having them handed to them as a motivating payout.
That is, admittedly, perhaps more dense and thoughtful a read than a Panty & Stocking entry is crying out for, to say nothing of the fact that the "bitchiness" of these particular women in prison is fictionally facilitated by real-life writers delivering these talking points. But also as par for the course for this show, that doesn't matter when those creatives are making being a bitch look so good. This marks Yoh Yoshinari's debut storyboarding and directing animation on New Panty & Stocking, alongside multiple others, and they come together to deliver one of the most lush-looking episodes yet. The action animation on much of this football fight is buttery smooth, while still fitting with the angular base sensibilities of the show. And the overall composition still looks great; I've loved how New Panty & Stocking has been indulging the tinted color palettes of evening and nighttime scenes, they're some really cool comparative shades.
The design touches in this whole episode are choice, from the sexy football uniforms worn by both teams to how Stocking's plush cat gets its own adorable little prison uniform. Also, I'm going to need some fan art of that seven-foot-tall tough tattooed prisoner lady on my desk by Friday, thank you. This is an entry into the new "standard" of New Panty & Stocking that feels like a proper balance of new and old material afforded by its updates. Not quite as eye-popping or side-splitting as the preceding episode, but a worthy building-on follow-up, nonetheless.
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.
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.
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