This is my favorite piece of media to be released this year, but I unfortunately can't tell many people that because the show has such a crass, bawdy title.

I first discovered Panty and Stocking's first season in late 2015/early 2016 and immediately fell in love.
It follows two angels cast out from heaven, Panty and Stocking, as they work their way back into heaven by killing the various ghosts and demons that inhabit the human world of Daten City (and, key point, they kill ghosts by turning their underwear into weapons). Its irreverent, quick witted humor; its visual creativity; its incredible action sequences; its chaotic, high energy visual style; and the unapologetic bitchy attitude of its titular duo of heroines won me over in an instant. It became one of my favorite short lived TV Shows of all time, cemented Hiroyuki Imaishi as one of my favorite directors, and became a hidden gem that I would recommend to anyone who I felt wouldn't dismiss the show just because of its title.

Followers of mine who are also longtime viewers of my YouTube channel (a very small number of people, I'm sure) may remember one of my first videos being a twenty minute essay on just how good the first season of this show is. That video is unfortunately no longer available due to a false copyright claim (my follow up video about the show's anti-fascist themes is still available, however). In that video, I laid out the possibility of a season 2, and, based on information we had at that time, concluded that a sequel to this cult classic would never happen.

I have never been so happy to be dead wrong.

To say that NEW Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt was worth the fifteen year wait between seasons would be an understatement. This sequel not only lives up to expectations as well as the memories and fondness people had for the original, it surpasses it in almost every aspect to the point of quite possibly being the best thing Studio Trigger has ever done. While the original season was an exceptional comedy action show with more thematic and narrative depth than you would expect from a show with such a stupid premise, this one really puts on display Studio Trigger's pedigree. Since the release of the first season (which was produced at the now defunct studio Gianax), studio Trigger was formed by many of the people responsible for Panty and Stocking. Through studio Trigger, they released two of the most beloved cult classic anime of the 2010's right off the bat with Kill la Kill and Little Witch Academia, created some mainstream hits, made an actual movie, and even got work with huge studios and IPs; getting to develop and animate segments for Star Wars: Visions and helming the Netflix produced animation for Cyberpunk 2077. The staff at Trigger has come a long way since 2010 saw the first season of PSG.

That experience of the past 15 years is on full display here. While the show does still favor a simplistic animation style for the sake of gags, it very often veers into territory that is most accurately described as cinematic with camera movements that sweep you off your feet, expert framing, dramatic lighting, and fluid movement that combine into an enthralling visual experience of pure chaos. Visually, this show looks leaps and bounds better than the original, and the original already looked way better than the American cartoons that it was spoofing (they also changed the color of Garterbelt's lips so he didn't look like an unintentional racist caricature. Thank fate for that!).

The show goes farther with visual experimentation than the original, with one episode that visually tributes 60's superhero cartoons (while containing an inspiring message about being yourself in the face of adversity and systems that demand you conform) and another that completely shifts its art style in a homage to "Blood and Steel" fantasy movies like Conan. The latter episode is so well crafted and fully realized that it legitimately could stand on its own as a pilot for a different show. More than that, the decision to make the characters speak cryptic gibberish and make the subtitles unreadable gives you this feeling of being a kid and staying up to watch adult swim just to catch a show that you shouldn't be watching and that you absolutely don't understand, but that you will remember forever. It might honestly be my favorite episode of the season - it's just that good.

The talent of Trigger's writing staff is also clearly shown here. While yes, there's lots of ridiculous nonsensical plots here meant purely for comedy, there are also great episodes that show the staff's grasp of emotional resonance within a story. In particular, the episode featuring Vibe the ghost cat and the episode "666 Candles" come to mind as having narratives that were truly emotionally effective from a character perspective. The Japanese script is also significantly funnier than the JP script for the original. For the original season, I always recommended the amazing Funimation dub for English speakers, as it made vast improvements to the dialogue and humor on top of being hilarious and iconic. However, the Japanese version here is good enough that the prerequisite of an English dub is not necessary to fully appreciate the dialogue or humor of the show.

This fact is especially noteworthy since the original English dub cast was not re-hired, but was instead completely replaced by a set of actors that, while not terrible, do not live up to the energy and chemistry that original dub cast had. The re-casting of the iconic English dub is just further testament to the penny-pinching tendencies of a multi-billion dollar company like Amazon. And yes, it was penny pinching. Months after the release of Amazon's dub for this show, they started rolling out horrendous AI-generated dubs for anime. If that doesn't tell you that they would rather save a penny than give a show a respectable dub, I don't know what will. I do hope that the physical media rights go to another, smaller company that gives the show a new dub with the original cast, because many people (myself included) sure did miss their presence in this sequel.

But you know who did come back to make some fresh new audio for this long-awaited sequel? All of the electronic artists and DJs that composed the soundtrack to the original Panty and Stocking. The original show already had one of the most beloved soundtracks in anime, but the soundtrack for New PSG surpasses it. Even more than the original, there are so many catchy pop anthems, and dance-worthy club bangers. It should be illegal for a show this absurd and unserious to have a soundtrack this good. __K-Pop Demon Hunters can get lost. This was the real best pop soundtrack of the year.
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Above any and all technical aspects, though, what really gets to the heart of my love for this show is what it represents.

In the final episode of the season,

This show is incredibly silly, yes, but underneath that facade lies an immense love and passion that is infectious.
You can tell that everyone who worked on this show had the time of their lives, that they had something to say underneath all the gags, and their outlook shines through in the cracks of the show's absurd narratives. Ultimately, this show is about being who you are to spite a world which tells you to mute yourself. It follows characters that pursue their heart's desire and derive power from who they are on the inside despite others telling them that what they want or who they are is wrong. It's about celebrating creativity, art, sexuality, passion, relationships, and everything that makes the human experience worth living. As a bisexual atheist who lives in the southern region of the US, which is so restrictively religious that it's known as the "Bible belt," no other message conveyed in a moving image has hit harder for me this year.

I genuinely could go on about this show for hours, but I will save you the time. Panty and Stocking and its director have always been huge creative inspirations for me, so to see this long awaited sequel come to fruition and surpass the quality of the original show was genuinely the most surreal and inspiring experience I had watching anything this year. It should go without saying, but if you're not some pearl clutching religious nut who shuns sex, violence, and irreverent humor, you should go out of your way to watch this incredible mess of a show. You'll be happier that you did.