Panty and Stocking with Garter Belt   Starring (voice): Arisa Ogasawara, Mariya Ise, Ayumi Fujimura and Hiroyuki Yoshino Pathé Distribution RRP: £29.99 MANG5254 Certificate: 18 Available 30 July 2012

Panty and Stocking are a couple of angels with behavioural problems, to such an extent that they are exiled to Daten City, a place which exists at the nexus between Heaven and Hell. Here, under the watchful eye of Garter Belt, the two must battle an infestation of evil spirits, with their ability to turn their underwear into weapons. Winning the battles gains them Heavenly Coins which once collected will allow them to be rehabilitated into Heaven, but this simple mission is continually interrupted by the girls interest in the opposite sex and anything sweet...

Panty And Stocking with Garter Belt is an anime show, originally broadcast in 2010. The series was directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi for the Gainax studio.

It would not be a big stretch to say that between the synopsis and the show’s title, you pretty much know what you’re going to get, especially as it has an age rating of 18.

The show has been released in a three DVD disc set, containing thirteen episodes, each a little over twenty minutes long. The show has a very simple visual style, reminiscent of many a CBBC American import show, although the content and language would be wholly inappropriate. You get a wide screen picture with audio options for an English DD 5.1 or Japanese DD 2.0 track, with subtitles.

It is almost redundant to discuss the stories as the main reason for the show's existence is to assault your senses with bright colours, loud music, sexual references and humour. The unrelenting pace leaves you with a real WTF feeling after watching an episode. It won’t make any sense, but it certainly makes an impression.

For the most part the gags work, although the result is more humorous than funny, unless you are a lonely fourteen year old male, with no mates. There is not much in the way of fan service in the show, the style of the animation precludes this as it just wouldn’t work, though the language includes the ‘F’ word a lot, explaining the eighteen rating.

There is a fair amount of extras on the discs including Explosion Collection (21 min, 19 sec) which has various angles of ghosts being blown up. Extra Explosions (40 min, 01 sec), which continues the documentary about how they set up and destroyed the ghost models for the show.

Sanitary Box are eight very short shorts. You get a bunch of trailers (14 min, 25 sec) for other shows, as well as the clean opening and ending sequences. There are Outtakes (5 min, 08 sec) from the English dub actors fluffing their lines. The extras wrap up with Loftplus 1 (23 min, 49 sec) which has the Japanese directors and actors presenting a panel and doing interviews.

The show is certainly unique in its approach to animation and content; as such it creates an experience unlike other shows. This also means that you're either going to love it or hate it. I’m not really sure where I stand here, I certainly watched them more than once, enjoying the experience, even though most of the time I had no idea what was really going on, but then I don’t think that this is the point of the show. If profanity doesn’t bother you there is a lot of fun to be had with Panty and Stocking.

7

Charles Packer