Score: A

It’s honestly awesome to have this show back. It’s a sequel that I never imagined would ever exist. PANTY & STOCKING was just a great show that existed and never got a sequel. And that’s what life could have been. It’s been 15 years! Shows just don’t get revisited like this. I have to give full credit to the staff and everyone that was passionate enough to make this happen. It was just wild to watch this first episode and feel like it was coming back to the show. They even made a pun within the episode about how long it’s been on our side and then making it just a 5 minute gap within the show’s timeline! They just got right back into the insane action.

Everyone is just back

Speaking of giving props, I’m amazed that the voice cast is back. There’s a passion to voice actors in Japan that you can’t just match. Panty’s voice actress (Arisa Ogasawara) hasn’t done that much anime voice acting since the last time she voice Panty, but she got right back into it! On the other hand Stocking’s VA (Mariya Ise) is pretty darn active so no surprise she’s back. Just everyone came back which is great. That’s such a huge thing for the sake of a continuation. Recasting can happen and it’s just a way of life sometimes. But being able to watch the original show and then jump right into this show without a jarring dissonance in terms of voices is such a win.

Well that solves that!

I suppose one advantage to having an absurd gap between seasons is that they had more than enough time to figure out what they wanted to do about the Stocking shocker at the end of season 1! Fair enough to just go with brainwashing for this. It would’ve been a bit much to actually have Stocking really be a demon. I have no problem undoing that kind of shock ending. Besides they did carry on from the end of the last series. They just made this whole episode an absolute spectacle in resolving that and establishing a new status quo.

Same goes for dealing with Panty’s “death.” Obviously you can’t kill off Panty going into a new Panty and Stocking season. So they put her back together and carried on from there. And they truly had fun doing it! They gathered her pieces, created an insanely pure Panty (leading to Brief’s emotional crisis) and needed to get her last…piece in place before they could truly resurrect her! It was just so utterly insane and fitting for this show. I mean they seriously had the cast carrying her burning vagina piece like festival goods and rocketing up to slot it back into the empty spot! Because of course what other part of Panty would contain her soul than her vagina!?

Behold…how an angel fights

This episode was just over the top insanity and I give full props to Trigger for picking up where Gainax left off. There are few studios that could have handled this kind of sequel and Trigger is one of that very small group. I’m glad no one else tried! It wouldn’t have felt right. What can I say about their work? It’s a darn perfect visual update on a show that aired over a decade ago and yet feels like nothing has changed. We had a Giant Stocking Demon/Angel monster fighting a gigantic Panty and it all worked and was a beautiful spectacle! That fight was so good I’d recommend watching it no matter if you want to follow the show or not! That was just crazy fun.

I love how at some points there’s a worry that Panty might actually kill Stocking. Maybe not one that should have existed since Panty was revived from 666 cubes just fine. But she was going for it! But in the end it just turned into a pure bitch fight. These two were basically just messing each other up for utterly pitiful reasons by the end. And as you’d expect they changed gears fast and moved back into their usual habits without any lasting harm. That’s Panty and Stocking for you!

We are certainly back!

This was as close to a perfect return to Panty and Stocking as you could ask for! It was insane, fun, and ridiculous. I’m pretty sure this episode forced me to use the word vagina more in an anime blog post than I’ve ever had to! This was just plain fun. I’ve already got way too many shows to just watch this season (I seriously need to whittle it down), but I’ve got to watch this show! I probably won’t cover it this season, but I’m so glad that it’s back. This show was part of anime history and utterly unique. So glad we still in a world where this kind of show can be made.