Deconstructing Magical Girls / Review 2: Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt

For my second review this week, I'll be talking about something a little different. Don't worry, it still goes into the niche but more so derails into a parody of the magical girl genre as a whole, deconstruction or not. Before starting this review, I would like to mention that every parody can be a deconstruction but not every deconstruction is a parody. Now, onto the review. 

The story revolves around the titular characters who are kicked out of Heaven because of their behavior. They are sent to Daten City, which resides on the border between Heaven and Hell, where they live at a church named Cemetery Hills, under the care of the priest Garterbelt. In order to get back to Heaven, the sisters must collect Heaven Coins by defeating ghosts. However, the two are usually sidetracked by Earth's vices. 

Like I mentioned in the previous post, the deconstruction genre of magical girls is usually darker and realistic. And how parodies operate, they like to make fun of everything, even the nitty-gritty. Panty & Stocking can go into that, but they're making fun of everything. Take the art style for example, it's obviously a reference to western cartoons. This creates a false sense of security, with viewers thinking this is nothing but a run-of-the-mill magical girl anime...right?

Oh, you sweet summer child😏....

And before you say it, yep, that's from the official English dub of the anime. Which goes into my next point, vulgarity. This is where parodic elements come in. Remember the false sense of security and how Panty and Stocking get caught up in their vices than doing their job? Well, that's the beauty of it, its intentional chaos wrapped in satire. Panty's a sex addict who treats men like disposable candy, while Stocking is a gothic sugar fiend obsessed with sweets. Their personalities break the expectations that magical girls are supposed to have. 

Their transformation sequence perfectly mirrors this with the angels literally stripping in a club-like background. Take a look.

Even the monsters are crude, they're vengeful spirits, or ghosts, who died from funny or tragic reasons and haunt the streets of Daten. The only way these ghosts can be defeated is by the holy weapons that the sisters brandish. Panty can transform her panties into a gun called Backlace, while Stocking can transform her stockings into two katanas called Stripes 1 & 2. This highlights the monster of the week and the magical weapons that can only be held by the protagonists. Later in Season 1, the show presents us with two rivals that are sort of a dark mirror to Panty and Stocking. Their names are Scanty and Kneesocks.

(Scanty and Kneesocks are on the left btw)

Magical girls having rivals is pretty common, whether they're evil or friendly yet combatant. In this scenario, the demon sisters are obviously evil. And you're probably wondering how messed up these girls can be to be the secondary villains of the show. Well, they're not exactly "evil" at a first glance. Compared to Panty and Stocking, Scanty and Kneesocks are sophisticated, well-mannered, respects the rules, and so on. Of course, this doesn't mesh well with the angels' raunchy and wild lifestyle and the four clash throughout the season. 

Moving onto the themes, I can say that this show is very sex positive. It's a feminist concept that's open and encouraging about sex and sexual urges/activities. Things such as slut shaming is a sex negative because it shames others and discourages them from doing it. Panty is a prime example of this, while she's called a slut for sleeping with a lot of men, she isn't inherently bullied for it. Not to mention that she doesn't care what people have to say about her promiscuous life. 

Another theme can be freedom, which is a little cliche. Then again, take a look at the setting and the way they act, they're living on the edge! Those angels would rather get caught up in some mess than do their jobs correctly. And while there's nothing wrong with that, there's also nothing wrong with responsibility, which is a foreign word to all the characters in the series.

In closing, Panty and Stocking is that anime you expect to be cutesy and fun but gets turned on its head on the first episode. And while it doesn't look like a magical girl anime from a glance, it still has those familiar tropes that would make any fan of the genre interested.