Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt
An Essay on Social and Artistic Nonconformity
"Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt" is perfect.
I dare say that.
And I am going to tell you why.
What on God's green earth am I talking about, you ask? Am I talking about a mere set of undergarments or am I talking about Japanese cartoonist Hiroyuki Imashi's hit television show? Some of you may find yourselves in unease as I am speaking of the latter. To those who simply are not fans of this wonderful piece of animation, I wish you a good day. However, to those who express both selfish tepidity and overall abhorrence, I proudly extend my middle finger.
I am profane because for the longest time, for decades to this very present in fact, there has been a stagnancy that has sordidly polluted the seas of Japanese animation. This stagnancy threatens to swallow the visual culture of anime in Japan whole like a ravenous leviathan. For a while, it seemed that leviathan could not be tamed, but "Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt" may have punctured a significant wound in its hide. I speak not just as aspiring animator, but also as a survivor who almost fell into that beast's maw of malice and mediocrity myself.
Where do I begin with this thesis? Although we are the subject of nothing more than entertainment, there is so much that affected me in a manner that has filled me with a passionate drive for creativity. There is so much that I have come to adore about this particular work of art, and there are so many enthusiastic thoughts about it that have clouded my mind. I suppose the best thing to do is to cover the history of its creator first. You will have to forgive me if I go off topic or retrace my steps because I have a habit of struggling to contain my excitement.
Let us begin.
As recently mentioned, Hiroyuki Imaishi is a Japanese cartoonist, but he is not any Japanese cartoonist. What sets Imaishi apart from most people in his occupation is the fact that he has taken just as much influence from western entertainment as we have taken from the east. I will not write an entire biography on this person's life as that is not the point of this paper.
The fact is that Imaishi is known for his signature fast and frenetic art style. His characters jump and fly and dance and contort and shoot around like bullets. Although He takes after Yoshinori Kanada, an animator who started a similar movement of character exaggeration, his primary inspirations are from American animators such as John Kricfalusi of "Ren and Stimpy" fame. All three of these individuals share a number traits and beliefs regarding animation.
Yoshinori Kanada, who sadly passed away much too early in 2009 at age 57 from a heart attack, left a legacy of breaking down the directorial system of animation. He strongly promoted key animators to exert their own unique styles into certain works. These acts of individuality are what give Hiroyuki Imaishi his creative energy. The main themes of Imaishi's works include doing what you want when you want and how you want and kicking logic and reason to the curb.
His first adrenal foray into animation began with the colorful and crazy "Dead Leaves." Pandy and Retro are two characters who are sent off to titular prison on the moon for breaking the rules and having a generally crappy attitude. The movie featured both a cartoony art style that many would compare to the video game "Jet Grind Radio," which centered on inline skating and tagging graffiti, and toilet humor that was somewhat rare for a Japanese production. I first saw this movie when I was very young and my parents would have probably killed me if they saw what I was watching.
His second animated juggernaut, and what truly introduced me to the world of Imaishi, was the epic "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann." Simon is a young boy living in an underground society who is spiraled into an adventure for freedom when he meets and forms a brotherly bond with the hot-blooded Kamina. The show was a reconstruction of the super robot genre that responded to the deconstruction provided by the dismal "Neon Genesis Evangelion." Where "Evangelion" themed around realistic psychological trauma and horror, "Gurren Lagann" was a classic tale of man overcoming their fears and rocketing to the top and beyond.
After "Gurren Lagann," Imaishi was about to go into a bold new direction. One day, whether or not it was out of boredom one can guess, he and a friend took a trip to the United States…and went on a drunken bender according to rumor. Ultimately, however, after watching what may or may not have been "South Park," a show he himself has paid homage a number times to in the past, he awoke a sleeping creative lion within himself.
Before I continue, I would like to convey regret in not having watched his most recent success, "Kill la Kill." It's not that I am unimpressed or disappointed in any way, I am sure that it is amazing as always. The problem is that no other work of Imaishi's has touched me in the way that the work I am about discuss has.
With all of that said, I want to get into what is truly the main point of this letter. His third work, and I cannot stress enough, is my absolute favorite. I hold it very close to my heart and would never dare to let it go, even though it is often said that if you love something you must set it free. I want to thank Imaishi so, so much from the bottom of my heart for bringing this one work I want to write about into the world for me to see. With this work he has shown me that there are nearly infinite possibilities out there in the world.
I wish I could have given further compliments to the first two, as well, but I just cannot find the appropriate words. It's not that I do not care about them anymore, it's just that nothing has impacted me more than his third work. You'll have to forgive me again for I continue repeat random words that already been spoken. I think the best thing I can do is let these pieces of animation speak for themselves.
The number one creation of Hiroyuki Imaishi that I swear I will keep in my heart until the day I die is "Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt." I love this cartoon, not anime as I consider, to freaking death! There are literally one hundred reasons that I could go into detail about why this show has impacted me so much. The characters have personality, the situations are hilarious, and after viewing this for the first time, anything with an art style as colorful as this became right up my alley. This is without a doubt Imaishi's most creative next to "Dead Leaves."
The show is about two angels who were kicked out of heaven for being naughty, shall we say, and they need to buy their way back by killing ghosts. The staples for the show are its unique and vividly colorful character designs that take after "Dexter's Laboratory" and "The Powerpuff Girls," off the chain animation, and raunchy humor. This whole setup is one for the record books, I tell you.
I wonder if Imaishi is familiar with people like Genndy Tartokovsky and Craig McCracken. Where well-known western animators such as these and the respective teams behind "Teen Titans" and "Avatar: The Last Airbender," which was said to have been inspired by "FLCL" for instance, have taken inspiration from eastern animation, Imaishi seems to have done nearly double in return. I heard someone once say that he has never seen anything this western stimulated since the video game "Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater."
Come to think of it, I am suddenly reminded of another show that has an art style similar to "Panty and Stocking." It was an American and Japanese collaboration created by someone named Ciro Nieli. The name of the show is "Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!" It was an affectionate shout out to "Super Sentai," known over here as "Power Rangers," and the main character Chiro bares a slight resemblance to Joe Shimamura of "Cyborg 009." I am also reminded of various video games made by Suda 51, Treasure, and Platinum Games.
I need to sigh and recollect myself for a few moments as I have done nothing but ramble and ramble about him and his creations. Please forgive me a third time as I wish I could have written this important message to you much more professionally. I bet that you are wondering to yourself what it is that has me reduced to such a mess like this. Well, the answer is actually not that simple and my feelings come from a complicated place.
The honest feelings that I am about to express in this letter pertains to a number of things. Although it mainly pertains to this show, it also deals with the complicated loosely-termed relationship I have long had with the anime community. I feel the need to point out what I think is a lengthy record of negative habits it tends to leave, its effect it has had on me for one, and how hopefully it is not too late to break them for the better. Alright, then, with all of that out of my system, if you are ready, let's get this show on the road.
I had first discovered word of "Panty and Stocking" while surfing the internet out of boredom one day as I usually do when I am on a period of cooling down after certain activities. Like with the many new shows that always seemed to keep being announced every other day, I did not pay much of a mind initially. Then I happened to see a few clips for it on YouTube and it certainly caught my eye with its unique art style. Much later it got dubbed into English and I decided to sit down and watch the whole series…there is so much that I have come to adore!
"Panty and Stocking's" art style and direction must be one of the wackiest, grooviest, and most vibrantly colorful, creative, and adorable that I have seen in a long time. I enjoy it when the animation speeds up and the characters zip around like bullets in the moments that are crazier than normal. Panty and Stocking are the two main characters whose attitudes I wish I had. I love how they assertively do what they want, when they want, how they want, and not give a care about other people's opinions. I swear if I only the same kind of courage and abilities that these individuals have, I would be nearly unstoppable.
These are the two compliments that mainly sucked me into the show in the first place. The old-school wacky humor, endearing and energetic art style, and personality filled characters have scored a number of iconic moments from me. I love whenever Imaishi combines both two-dimensional and three-dimensional animation. I quickly shout "Oh my God" whenever something crashes or blasts off at mach speed, as I can easily feel the impact as if something had smacked me across the face, not in a bad way mind you. I am always at my chair's end bobbing and weaving whenever stuff is rushing or raining down in full three-dimensional mode.
Now at this very moment in time, I hope that you do not mind that I breathe a sigh of discontent for I am about to get into the second main point of this letter. I remorsefully inform that I have a number of concerns to address. Please do not worry as these concerns do not have much to do with "Panty and Stocking" save for its twist ending, which I am sure Imaishi has received zillions of other letters regarding. These concerns have to do with the general reception of the show and how I feel that it has negatively impacted both me and my views on modern anime. I have been affected by other people's perception of Imaishi and his creations that I am in a worried state for the future.
You may think that I am either overanalyzing or overreacting, but I hold some views on animation that I consider to be very important to me. "Panty and Stocking" has radically personally affected me in a way in which that has actually improved my life, believe it or not. I hope that you will understand as I try to explain as coherently as possible. You see, "Panty and Stocking" has taught me a number of important lessons about animation and myself.
Before I saw this show, I held a very shallow view of anime and the people who make it, taking a great many things for granted. I thought that anime in its current form had largely only appealed to maintaining a certain status quo. The manner in which it appealed to that quo was that people would appeal to the popular. To put it into words that can be more easily understood, I was seeing the same generic thing over and over again and people were eating it all up. I feel that nowadays people are playing it too much by the book and not taking risks like Imaishi does, sticking to one form of entertainment.
"Panty and Stocking" broke these rules by going with its own random, provocative, and satirical style. It did not conform to any of the following set norms…and there is a vocal group of people who sadly rebel against that, and that greatly bothers me. According to the status quo, which was set up by its very fandom, all animation must be held to the same integrities as Disney. These rules include that animation must be primarily as a storyteller, it must have some sort of moral, it must have a point, it must be romantic, deep, complex, and realistic, and characters must be developed and attractive, otherwise it's wasted talent. For example, there are these types of characters for males and females called "bishonen" and "bishojo" separately. In order to fit into this category a character must be physically youthful and attractive, and many animes feature these sort of characters.
There was a time where I thought that all anime was just cliché shonen and confusing comedies after cliché shonen and confusing comedies, just staying the course with one particular style. Heck, looking back on "Gurren Lagann," I am starting to think that it is a little too standard for my new set of tastes, as much as I hate to admit it. What is worse is that I fell for it and veered only to the eastern side of animation completely forgetting about the western classics that helped raise me up. Both "Dead Leaves" and "Panty and Stocking" returned me to the western side reminding me of the potential I was missing out on, transforming me into the young man I am right now.
When I looked at other people's reception of "Panty and Stocking", I was incredibly shocked! Most reviewers lambasted or dismissed it altogether for either trying something new or breaking tradition. The greatest example would be said vocal crowd labeling the exceptional character designs as ugly as sin. I encourage you to look deeply at these designs and ask yourself if that can really be.
When I showed a friend a picture of Panty and Stocking and I told her that many people thought it was ugly, she thankfully did not believe that. Everyone should know that art is an expression of the soul and that everyone has their own unique style, so why all the disrespect? Well, in my opinion, they are afraid that someone will disturb the cycle that they are already trapped in. They are afraid of finding out that there are better pastures out there and that they may have to move on. I'm not saying that anyone has the right to force them out of this cycle of repetition if they truly enjoy it, but it's completely unnecessary that they put down something that does not conform to that cycle or any of its supposed tenets.
People were getting overly critical about this particular work, and it got my blood boiling in aggravation. Over the years after the show was launched, it became increasingly easier and easier for me to despise the current anime community for its utter prudishness, absolutism, sensitivity, and lack of appreciation towards different or new ideas. The criticism that the show gets is widely inflated and unfair, I feel. If they're not fans of the show, then whoop-dee-doo, but this is just needless.
Another example that I don't even want to get started on is the humor. People are simply far too sensitive about it. I have watched the series from beginning to end and the jokes and situations are raunchy but hardly offensive as it is mostly bodily and is probably the only sort of jokes I can relate to. This group of people feels that it is the authority of what animation should and should not be, and I take it personally because they take it personally, going even as far as to shame people who are fans of this show's art and humor.
Firstly, I have listened to so much cussing growing up that I have been harmlessly desensitized by it, they're just words, and I have just started wondering who became the arbiter of these words and how they suddenly became "bad." Secondly, who is a little gross-out humor harming, people who got ate by their own toilet and spit back out covered in feces? Are people actually scarred by that sort of thing, because you would think they've seen what comes out of their body a zillion times even as a toddler.
To quote the Canadian Minister of Movies, a character appearing in the movie "South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut," I cannot believe that a show with some foul language and toilet humor would make people so mad even though American television has graphic violence all of the time. It is as if this is the first time that they have truly ever witnessed it. The film is almost legendary for ridiculing all those who wage war for the sake of good taste.
Then there are those blasted nitpickers and fence-sitters who put the show down as "average," "meh," "unoriginal," and "not that great," making it less than it really is. I am strongly irritated by people who use mixed words for they appear dishonest to me. I find all of that bias to be nothing but an insufferable ego booster.
Well, all those people can put their opinions as high as they can up on that pedestal because they are missing out on something grand. When you are as "pointless" and random and unstructured as "Panty and Stocking," you can basically evolve into whatever you darn well please. There is a time and place for drama, but with this show you have nearly all the time in the world. Pablo Picasso said it best that the search for purpose is the plague that sickens our age.
The way I see it, there are three roads you can take in life. The left road leads to Bestberg, the right road leads to Fail City, and the road in between them leads to Averageville. What if I told you that the both the left and right roads both eventually lead to success but the one in between leads to mediocrity?
A wise person once said that you can make a joke about anything so long as it's exaggerated, and Imaishi knew what he was talking about. Two other wise people also said that good taste is the enemy of both art and comedy. Imaishi already made "Dead Leaves" so he knew what he was getting into. Heck, jokes about my own body are probably the only sort of jokes I personally can really relate to as I'm mostly unaware of today's popular culture other than video games and animation.
I have been doing some reading on the internet looking for support on my part, admittedly. I have been looking up inspirational quotes made by certain to help through the problems I am experiencing right now, and what I found turned out to be very helpful indeed. I was looking up quotes on creativity one day when I came across one by an independent filmmaker. I searched further until I led to the blog of an artist and then a page full of quotes by a French writer.
"Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don't bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: "It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to." – Jim Jarmusch
With that said, I suddenly feel that I made a mistake in writing a letter to Imaishi. I should have told him that he should not worry about being original since good artists need to learn how to be good thieves, not unkindly speaking of course. Pablo Picasso, one of the most famous artists in the world even said that. To help validate that point even further, I next found myself on the blog of an artist. He had a collection of quotes by other artists that inspired into making himself a "collage" of art.
"I was…attacked for being a pasticheur, chided for composing "simple" music, blamed for deserting "modernism," accused of renouncing my "true Russian heritage." People who had never heard of, or cared about, the originals cried "sacrilege": "The classics are ours. Leave the classics alone." To them all my answer was and is the same: You "respect," but I love." – Igor Stravinsky
"You can calculate the worth of a man by the number of his enemies, and the importance of a work of art by the harm that is spoken of it." – Gustave Flaubert
"Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital." – Oscar Wilde
Forget all that noise, I want to see animation like it's called! I want action, I want to see things explode! I want to see color and wackiness, I want to see characters squash and stretch and jump and shoot like Imaishi does! John Kricfalusi, a mentioned animator whom Imaishi was inspired by, shares the same beliefs. Kricfalusi said that people are drawn in by visual pleasure, or eye candy, as it is called sometimes. Animation is about bringing things to life and it's about being colorful and expressive.
I have met many haughty and entitled people who dump all over "Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt" because it does not appeal to any mainstream sense of taste. I feel that Hiroyuki Imaishi is a man who truly understands what animation is supposed to be and that is animation. I do not know what it is exactly that makes him so polarizing and controversial, and I have never felt so alone before in this community. I feel as if I am trapped in a world that is always determined on perfection and appealing to the earlier mentioned status quo.
Everybody is so bent on having an opinion and criticizing for its own sake instead of being entertained. I'm sorry if I am being self-absorbed, but I feel that I am the only one who truly enjoys and understands this show, satire and all. Did Imaishi make "Panty and Stocking" just to tick people off, because if he did it really worked.
In two of my written fanfictions so far, I took aim at the general criticism judging "Panty and Stocking." Although the characters were gender-bent representations of themselves under the names Boxer and Sock, the point was still the same. The character Haruhi was meant to portray one certain opinionist I came across who had the delicacy of the typical soccer-mom, loudly citing the show's humor and art direction as distasteful and giving it an average score.
She said that just because someone can do these things does not mean that they should. She also practically labeled all of the fans of this show as absolutists. I'm sorry, but when you are essentially advocating that everything should fall in line to your sense of taste, you are not allowed to say that. When you get as offended as Haruhi, you are taking the first steps towards becoming a tyrannical control freak. In addition, she also claims to be of the dissenting party even though she is of the majority looking down on the minority that dares to be new.
That was just my first fic, in my next fanfiction I tackled the anime tribal viewpoints at large. According to these viewpoints, anything that tries to be different or push the envelope artistically is reduced as pretentious. "Neon Genesis Evagelion," a show that I for one am honestly not a fan of, but at the same time consider it wholly undeserving of the venom it gets, is the most named victim of this.
The American animated comedies "Drawn Together" and "Family Guy" are also victims. These two are also denigrated for breaking out of the box and pointing and laughing at just about everything they can get their hands on, both sides of the political spectrum for example. The weird thing is that there is a group of people who are willing to defend these two but hypocritically not "Panty and Stocking."
The opinionism was taken a step further when I discovered on the hate dump deviantART what I consider to be one of the most inexcusably impertinent acts one can commit, portraying characters as something that they are not in order to criticize. I cannot stand that one bit as I know the characters well enough to know that they do give a hoot about being funny or not. Why does something exist if all people are going to do is form closeminded opinions about them; this must cease.
Boxer and Sock are two individualists who do not give a care about anyone else's unsolicited input, exactly like Panty and Stocking except with their own exclusive quirks. While Panty and Stocking are somewhat close even though they argue a lot, Boxer and Sock largely differ by being the quintessential dynamic duo who that always has each other's backs. Boxer is the intelligent yet adrenaline junkie big brother while Sock is the sensitive but artistic little brother.
Indeed, I consider Hiroyuki Imaishi an anime satirist, and I feel that there is a lot of material in the world of anime and its fandom that needs to be mocked and reformed. I am tired of seeing the same generic and cliché tropes that are present in today's productions and the responses towards them. He is a much needed man of so much potential, I believe, that he could change the industry for the better, if he wants to of course.
Returning to when I said that "Panty and Stocking" brought me back to the western side of animation, a whole new door was opened up for me, and what lied beyond that door was more than a world of possibilities. I discovered that I did not have to stay within one certain set of boundaries and that some borders are meant to be crossed. Earlier I selected a number of cartoons made in my country that payed homage to eastern animation. Never before has anyone from the opposite side of the fence returned the favor until Hiroyuki Imaishi came along. When we made references to what was popular over there such as samurais, super robots, tokusatsu, spikey hairdos, and kaiju, he came and referenced back what was hot over here like "Transformers," zombies, and "The Gorillaz" in that absolutely sensational music video that fundamentally payed tribute to everything western.
My point is that "Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt" taught me to equally appreciate animation both eastern and western, or at least try to. I needed to pay attention more to the blocky art style that originated from "Dexter's Laboratory" and "The Powerpuff Girls" here in the west while learning more about was popular over there in the east. I want to thank Imaishi for helping me realize that. I want to see more of this part of him, the part of him that does not charm the lowest common denominator. I want to see more western influenced works from him just as I want to see more eastern influenced works from here.
I was told to put myself in the seat of Imaishi and I have made my decision on something. If people are going to call my art style ugly because it does not kowtow to any set of principles, then I am going to swear off art forever, as much as I hate to say it. I was not put on this earth to please that status quo, I am here to please myself. Panty and Stocking as characters inspired me to get naked, forget about right and wrong, and be all I can be.
Another decision I made is that I hereby divorce from anime. I refuse to continue on this path towards mediocrity. If this is the way things are going to be, then it is no wonder Hayao Miyazaki allegedly stated that anime was a mistake. I grow enormously tired of the same generic stories and designs as I thirst for the imaginative. It is crying shame that after all is said and done, people still label "Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt" as just another anime instead of an honest to God cartoon.
Maybe it was a fluke, maybe that leviathan cannot truly be tamed after all. I initially thought that that this show punctured a significant wound in its hide, but appears that the anime fandom has healed it. Yes, it seems that anime fandom truly wants to be sacrificed into its maw of malice and mediocrity for the sake of comfort rather than explore new options and grow. And perhaps a second season of this spectacular extravaganza will not happen. I was hoping that I made a healthy contribution because I bought the entire series on DVD, the manga, and three of their artbooks.
Then again, I could be getting cynical over nothing as when was the last time that average people such as the anime fandom ever changed anything for the better?
Maybe there is still a chance to fight the power.
Maybe I still don't have to lose my way.
Maybe I can still fly away.