Ranking every Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt Episode

 

Panty and Stocking Season 2 was a mythical thing like Kingdom Hearts 3 and Half-Life 3 that would never come out. But just like Kingdom Hearts 3, the legendary second season of P&S is supposed to come out sometime this year (still no word on Half-Life.) In celebration of that fact and to prepare for it I rewatched the first season and wanted to rank the episodes. 

If you're reading this I presume you know what Panty and Stocking is, but if you don't it's an adult comedy anime about two fallen angels full of vices named Panty and Stocking trying to earn their way back into Heaven by killing ghosts haunting Daten City. The series is famous and infamous for being over the top in its presentation and style, highly raunchy and adult, its incorporation of Western elements alongside more traditional anime elements such as a more "cartoony" art style and animation, Episodes divided into A and B Eps, and more Western character archetypes. 

Most of my reason for enjoying it isn't especially complex, I find the two leads very funny. I don't particularly find toilet humor that funny but I do find sex jokes pretty funny and those are the two most common forms of humor in the series with the latter definitely being more common then the former. But what I think makes Panty and Stocking's humor work so well for me is its commitment to the bit. Panty and Stocking's cartoonish animation complements how everything in its presentation is ridiculously over the top. I do also tend to appreciate series that can incorporate and blend elements of both Western and Eastern culture together. 

Episode Ranking:

26: Episode 10B- "Chuck to the Future": This seems like a pretty popular pick for worst episode of the series. I get WHY  it exists, the creators were homage-ing some Western films. But this episode is just boring to me. I like Panty and Stocking FOR Panty and Stocking and an episode just watching Chuck was always going to be a hard sell for me and there are episodes with parts in them I dislike more then anything in this ep, but this is the only ep that struggles to keep my attention. 

25: Episode 5A- "Raiders of the Nasal Dark": I am pretty sensitive to grossness. Usually P&S doesn't trigger this because it's SO stylized that gross things don't read to my brain as what they represent. That said I don't like grossout humor and this ep is one of the two that are probably the most gross, specifically focused around mucus and jokes about nose-picking. Also I can't really think of any jokes I found funny from it. It's slightly better then the prior just because Panty and Stocking themselves and I like their personalities but in terms of episodes that actually seem like a P&S ep, this is the lowest.

24: Episode 1A- "Excretion Without Honor and Humanity": The other gross ep, this ep strongly features feces which is something even grosser then mucus, though once again the art style is so stylized it doesn't read as feces to my brain. But yeah while this ep has the same problems as 5A it's NOTABLY better, with the grossout only taking only the latter part of the ep. Before that it mostly introduces the characters and has some amusing parts introducing Panty's sex addiction and Stocking's sugar addiction. I also think the grossout has mildly more narrative reason, as the first ep this ep is priming the viewer for what the show will be like and so it shows the most disgusting grossout in the show to tell a potential audience "if the sex or grossness in this ep bothers you, you can stop now." The first ep does really well as a litmus test for whether a potential audience member is going to enjoy the show, though I don't feel it really shows how good the show CAN be, only how extreme the show can be. 

23: Episode 10A- "Inner Brief": Brief for most of the series it the character that suffers the most comedic abuse. I don't find it that funny but it's usually so brief that it doesn't impact my thoughts on other eps, it usually happens in gags that left seconds between the show's usual gags or action sequences. This is an ep that is JUST abusing Brief the entire time and while it's not as unpleasant to me as grossout, it's still not a very fun experience to me. The only other thing to note is it's an episode about shrinking down and going inside someone's body which is a trope in Western Media, another example of the show taking inspiration from Western Media. But that's pretty neutral and doesn't really improve it's ranking. 

22: Episode 12A- "D.C. Confidential": I'm going to be honest the reason I like Panty and Stocking is for Panty and Stocking. I know some people prefer the Daemon Sisters and that seems really strange to me. Like yeah I can enjoy them as villains for the Angel Sisters, but especially after their introduction ep, the Daemon Sisters are not very interesting to me by themselves. They have far more homogenous personalities with each other, no conflict with each other, and no interesting relationships with anyone outside each other and arguably Panty and Stocking. This ep is a clip show ep where the Daemon Sisters recount the events prior to their leader Corset. So it has both the problems of being a clipshow ep and of not actually having the Anarchy Sisters and instead focusing on the, at least to me, less interesting Daemon Sisters. Outside of the Daemon Sister's incestual relations at the end this ep would be entirely forgettable to me. It doesn't have anything I really didn't like as the priors ep did but it's definitely not one I ever go back too unless I was just rewatching the entire series.

21: Episode 4B- "High School Nudical":  So we're moving from the eps where my reviews are broadly negative to broadly positive. This ep still is obviously on the lower end, it doesn't have many memorable gags though I do recall a couple such as mocking the notion of the underwear run being for activism as opposed to immature rebellion or Panty and Stocking making the boys and girls of their school respectively go hearteyes for them. It also has Panty and Stocking being completely oblivious to Garterbelt's barely disguised identity which was amusing enough. In the same vein though it also started the Garterbelt's desires for school age teens. Even for this show and it's extreme presentation, that is pushing good taste a little. 

20: Episode 4A- "The Diet Syndrome": Obviously if Panty and Stocking were going to make an episode about Dieting and Gaining Weight, it was going to be over the top and not sensitive to the topic at all, and in some way it's actually kinda respectful, treating it with the same cartoonishness and ending on Stocking being content with it. It's not a very funny ep by P&S standards to me but there's a couple of funny gags like the famous Panty pulling up Stocking's shirt repeatedly to expose her weight. 4A and 4B are pretty similar in funniness to me, but this episode is a bit more... I mean "wholesome" is not the right word given the show but something in that direction of "leaves me with a good aftertaste."

19: Episode 8A- "Of the Dead": This is another episode that has a rather famous gag, Panty and Stocking smacking down a zombie cat while calling it slurs in English. The episode outside that is a Zombie Movie Parody. Now I have never actually seen a Zombie Movie in my life so maybe it's funnier if you have seen it. If you haven't like me, the ep seems fine. I enjoy the famous gag from it but otherwise it's fairly standard. 

18: Episode 2B- "Sex and the Daten City": I initially had this ep higher but honestly the more I thought about this ep, the more I thought it shouldn't be that high up. While early on there's some funny jokes about being fame, after the halfway point the ep just becomes Panty and Stocking going around the world collecting copies of the sex tape to destroy before Panty slights Stocking and she uploads it anyway. There's not actually that many jokes and the ones that are there are meh. And it's not like there's stuff outside the humor, this is one of the few episodes without an antagonist. The first half is good and I enjoyed it enough to put it here but I couldn't put it any higher. I also read a pretty interesting argument that Panty is out of character this ep, which is kinda on my mind as I rank it.

17: Episode 8B- "1 Angry Ghost": Ever since I first saw the series I remember feeling this was a weaker ep and it's hard to say why exactly. It kinda just felt like another Scanty and Kneesocks plot like the others, this one with a legal theme. The Phoenix Wright parody was fun but rather brief and shallow. I also liked the joke about Panty's stripper Magical Girl transformation being interrupted by the judge angrily only for Panty to ask why a stripper pole is in here otherwise. And I also enjoy the explanation for why Panty and Stocking couldn't have killed Petter as their weapons always make the ghost explode. That said none of the ep sticks out especially compared to other eps for me. P&S has had better Scanty and Kneesocks plots, better parodies, better plots, etc. though it is more consistently enjoyable then 2B

16: Episode 1B- "Death Race 2010": So just as Episode 1A introduced the Comedic Side of Panty and Stocking, the sex jokes, and gross-out, and the comedically vice-filled personalities of Panty and Stocking, Death Race 2010 introduces the action side of the episode, basically being a giant spectacle fest of them chasing down a Ghost that changes between various vehicles over the episode. I can take or leave action sequences in general but Panty and Stocking does have some pretty great ones and there's some funny gags spread through the ep making it an enjoyable "ride" the whole way through. This ep is also very consistent but not outstanding like 8B, but feels slightly more internally unified and purposeful in its place in the season.

15: Episode 10C- "Help! We are Angels": So this is an interesting episode to rank because it's a music video complete with a lot of music references. On some level it feels weird to rank it this "high" but it does have a plot and in some way captures the spirit of Panty and Stocking. I enjoyed the song and felt its lyrics and themes really capture the feel of Panty and Stocking and I feel like the animation fit it well. It also had a t.A.T.u. reference which I was unreasonably excited I understood when I first saw the series. 

14: Episode 11B- "Nothing to Room": So this ep sets itself a hard task, it's just Panty and Stocking waiting for Garterbelt to finish making them a meal, no real plot and barely any progression, just Panty and Stocking chatting with occasionally bits from Brief, Chuck, or Garterbelt. I don't tend to like these kind of eps, and this ep does fall on the lower half of my ranking for me but like I said I do come to Panty and Stocking for Panty and Stocking. In that way this ep, to keep with the food theme, is like getting a main entree with no sides, appetizers or desserts. Like they might have been nice to have, but I did get what I came over giving it a pretty clear place in the middle of the ranking. Panty and Stocking are enjoyable as always, having fun back and forth and having a really interesting conversation where the two wonder if they even want to go back to Heaven at this point. While prior eps had a thing that didn't fully connect to me or in the case of last ep was the disembodied spirit of the series, this ep is the bare essentials, it's what I come to P&S for and nothing else. 

13: Episode 2A- "The Turmoil of the Beehive": This ep is definitely where I really started to get into the series the first time I saw it. It's interesting to compare to 11B, because where I felt Nothing to Room is at the halfway point of the ranking for being the core of P&S and nothing else, 2A is also sorta fitting of that role because it is to me the standard P&S plot. It has what I like about the series in general, the personalities and dynamic of Panty and Stocking, plus a few added on bits. This ep introduces Brief who I enjoy well enough, and it has one of my favorite ghosts in the series in that she has a more developed theme and personality then most with Barbie. This ep feels like vintage P&S to me and while both this and 11B share what I come to the series for without any substantial faults, this ep has that plus a bit more in a fun sidekick and a fun villain.

12: Episode 7B- "The Stripping": This ep involves Panty and Stocking having to make $3 million in 3 days to pay back the damages they caused to the city during their explosive fights with ghosts. The start of this ep has them try and fail at several jobs in amusing ways which I definitely enjoyed. After that they go to a Casino using their Angel Luck to win, and evolves into another Scanty and Kneesocks confrontation. Much as I'm not the World's biggest fan of the Daemon Sisters they're better then any of the Ghosts, and I like the snazzy vibe of this ep, and Panty and Stocking's growing desperation to win as they sell of pieces of the clothes they're wearing to stay in. Casinos as a locale really fit the vibe of Panty and Stocking and the Angels felt really in their element in the eroticized gambles for money there. 

11: Episode 3B- "Pulp Addiction": This episode has a gimmick. Nearly every line is an innuendo. It tells a fairly normal Panty and Stocking plot, except it has a start and end that is a parody of a war movie using sperms trying to enter a woman, and every single line is an innuendo. I have to be honest, this is really up my angle of humor: linguistically clever yet also really immature and juvenile it's sex focus. I especially love that this episode is no slower then most eps, yet innuendo are slipped into every line naturally. That kind of pacing for humor is just as fun for me as it is for plot. I act like a functioning adult but if you wanna know what my immature side is, this ep is really funny to me. 

10: Episode 12B- "Panty + Brief": So moving into the Top 10 we're moving from the good episodes to the 10 great ones. Panty + Brief is the first part of the three part finale. Stocking is accepted back into Heaven without Panty who loses her powers, setting up the climax of the series next episode. This ep is primarily, as the ep title suggests about the relationship of Panty and Brief, including the Aquarium scene, one of the most famous of the series where Panty sees the boy she had always dismissed in a new light unknowingly, and Brief at his absolute best, going from the picked on joke of the series to saving Panty and igniting feelings from her she's never had. Episode 3B is fun but 12B is an episode that contains part of what makes the series what it is. 

9: Episode 9A- "If the Angels Wore Swimsuits": So I know a lot of people are not super into this episode, because the animation is noticeably lesser and it is self-described a beach ep without much greater relevance. But I don't know I've always found this ep really fun. While this is the ep I probably find hardest to explain, I do know it's something about the atmosphere. The way it takes what could be and the series is admits is a mundane plot and imbues it with so much energy exemplifies what I enjoy about P&S's humor, the way it creates a stylistic exaggerated world everything is taken to an extreme. While the last ep has a lot better plot, I feel like this episode feels more like the series to me, capturing its spirit and atmosphere as much as 10C, but with actual plot, action, and jokes as well. 

8: Episode 13B- "Bitch Girls: 2 Bitch": The final episode of the series, after the emotional climax of the series, Panty and Stocking save Heaven and Earth from Corset. It has cool moments for all the heroes, great action and great jokes. In particular I love the joke of Garterbelt's line of "you saved Heaven and some parts of Earth, almost entirely according to plan." This ep would be even higher, but the ending of the ep and the season is a classic Gainax ending meant to be shocking for shocking sake and while I didn't hate it, I didn't enjoy it either, and I kinda hope it's not that important for the next season. Outside the ending, this ep has the benefits of both the prior episodes, and while the ending is rough, I do think it should be higher then them.

7: Episode 7A- "Trans-homers": I have to be honest, I have a pretty limited knowledge of the Transformers franchise, but even with just that knowledge, this episode is great. It's a transformers parody and I love how they recreated so many things I could recognize from the series, and probably more I couldn't. Panty and Stocking occasionally enjoys parodies as a type of humor, as do I, and this is the most in-depth best parody they've done, capturing the tropes of it and imbuing it with P&S spirit. This ep is thoroughly enjoyable in all parts, even moreso then the last few eps which while great overall did have some weaker parts for me. The only real question is what could be above this.

6: Episode 11A- "Once Upon a Time in Garterbelt": Most of this episode is an exploration about Garterbelt and in particular how he got to the way he was. There are a few episodes of Panty and Stocking with very different styles from the normal but I feel like 11A is the only ep that strikes a balance between feeling like Panty and Stocking while also being very different from most episodes. I found Garterbelt's story engaging and cool, and I feel like Panty and Stocking's natural sense of exaggeration felt more natural in the theological story of Garterbelt one of the worst sinners having to go through all of Earth's history to become a righteous advocate for God. Despite still being funny this is an ep I think really shows that P&S does sometimes go into serious topics while still keeping its own style. It feels more authentically P&S then 7A, while being just as distinctive in tone and presentation. 

5: Episode 3A- "Catfight Club": This episode Panty and Stocking get into a fight and temporarily part ways. While I think Episode 1A and 1B make sense to introduce people to the world of Panty and Stocking and there are better episodes of the series, if you asked me to show people one episode of the series to express what Panty and Stocking is and get them interested it would be this one. This is an episode explaining the relationship between the two main characters, it has their hilarious fighting including some of the most famous lines in the series, as well as the sweet way the two reconcile, the way they call each other names at the end playfully expressing the kind of relationship they have. This episode sort of defines what the series is for me, and I like it as much and as thoroughly as 11A but in most ways and in a way that better expresses the series' core feeling. 

4: Episode 6- "Les Diaboliques": Probably the most iconic episode of the series and the episode most often picked for best episode, Episode 6 introduces the Daemon Sisters, rivals to the Anarchy Sisters. Scanty and Kneesocks are easily at their best this episode: threatening, entertaining, with their own Dark version of the Angels Henshin, and fighting them in the best fight scene in the entire series. This episode has something for everyone, Panty and Stocking both have funny lines, Brief both acts as comic relief yet also helps save the day and has the real start of his shipping with Panty, Scanty and Kneesocks are at their best, even background characters get good lines. Beyond that, the ghost has more personality then others, the episode feels P&S yet also with an atmosphere its own just like the plot where Panty and Stocking's world is invaded by this demonic outside force. 3A is great, but it's a kind of great you can appreciate in a vacuum. Episode 6 is an episode that is great on its and even better when built up, the biggest challenge the Anarchy Sisters faced to that point, ideological and personality opposites to them and their victory through Brief foreshadows the end of the series

3: Episode 5B- "Vomiting Point" A rather controversial episode, Vomiting Point is one of the three gross out episodes along with 5A and 1A but unlike them it has a very clear reason to be. 5B tells the story of Terao, an aging saleryman with a banal sad life. For this episode alone almost the entire episode is switched to a more realistic and deliberately ugly art style. The only things in this episode that are still colorful and cartoonish are Panty and Stocking themselves. Terao's daughter is a big Panty and Stocking fan and while his life is terrible after they save him from a vomit monster, they give him an autograph for her birthday. This episode to me reads as a meta theme expressing the value of silly and non-mundane series like Panty and Stocking and expresses it beautifully to me. Panty and Stocking despite being full of vices are representations of something metaphysical that brings color and joy to the painful life of people with normal or bad lives. These breaks from reality present us with something enchanting that make all the more tolerable. I can very well understand why someone might rank this ep low because it's almost nothing like most episodes, but I love this episode. All the eps below I might thoroughly enjoy, including Episode 6, but these top 3 including 5B are episodes that excite me to think about and talk about. Episode 6 is great, but it's great in a lot of conventional ways. 5B is something that even if it's not unique perse, it's so much more distinct and says so much more I am not used to hearing.  

2: Episode 13A- "Bitch Girls": The emotional climax of the series, Bitch Girls has maybe my favorite moment in the entire series. After losing her confidence and being reverted to a virgin, unable to achieve intimacy with Brief in the prior ep, Panty starts this ep absolutely disgusted by sex the thing that used to be her obsession. She temporarily mentally reverts to an innocent shy persona, but after regaining her confidence despite reduced to the status of a mortal woman, walking up to Corset and the Daemon Sisters, refusing to be intimidated by them giving an amazing speech about not being defined by their arbitrary rules. She then engages in loving intimacy with Brief, far more powerful then any she's ever had as he becomes her paradoxical 1,000th and first, the sexual re-awakening reigniting her Angel Powers. It was for a long time a rather painful trope that for a woman losing her virginity was somehow a diminishment of who she was, one of a million arbitrary rules. To me this is the heart of Panty and Stocking as a series, what I took from it, that you shouldn't led stupid arbitrary terms and rules others give you limit who you are but should instead live freely. Panty not just being not diminished but having her Angel Powers, representing in Magical Girl Terms her feminine power awakened from loving intimacy returning her to the badass Angel Heroine she is was an amazing moment and to me is the pinnacle of Panty's character. Similar to the difference between 3A and 6, 5B is an episode that I love to think about, but it's an episode that is amazing in isolation, something you wouldn't even have to watch another episode to get. 13A is an episode that is the culmination of the series and Panty Anarchy as a character.

1: Episode 9B- "Ghost: The Phantom of Daten City": I said 13A has maybe my favorite moment in the entire series. That's because while it has Panty's peak as a character, 9B has Stocking's peak as a character. In this episode Stocking falls in love with a ghost, one who's disgusting both physically and in personality. To save her from him Panty prepares to kill him, only for it to be revealed that the Bachelor Ghost really did love Stocking and in knowing the love of another, is finally able to rest in peace. This is the only time one of the Angels saves a ghost instead of destroying them. It's said that when the production staff made this episode, they weren't sure were to laugh or be moved, and that feeling is incredible. This episode is looking at the common trope in media aimed at women, of the attractive guy with a dark side, that he can be redeemed by a loving woman's heart. It's kind of parodying it, making all the romantic gestures purposefully gross, making the bachelor's ghost exterior as repulsive as his actions. Yet at the same time it recognizes the impulse behind this trope, that archetypally feminine desire to heal a broken soul, to free a heart lost in darkness, is a noble one, and a beautiful part of love. So even as they break it down, play it for laughs, they make it all the more impactful when the Bachelor Ghost even in his stupid gross ways tries to genuinely show his love for Stocking. This to me is the peak of Stocking's character, the cynical snarky goth girl experiencing innocent love for someone who seems to not deserve it in all ways and that impossible paradoxical love, something that seems so absurd it must be a joke, reflects something beautiful about humanity. 13A and 9B are both fantastic eps and reflect the peak of Panty and Stocking as characters, but I feel 9B is a bit more focused and a bit more unique.