First Impressions / Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt

Part 1

「インナーブリーフ」 (Innā Burīfu)
“Inner Brief”

Perhaps one of the few episodes with a title reference that actually plays out in the story, this time being Innerspace, the angels have become small due to a mishap from a ghoul. Brief pisses them off, so for some reason they decide to head into his body and wreak havoc.

Honestly, what can I say? The animation wasn’t horrible, but it sure wasn’t great to look at either. The plot was incredibly weak, with little to no depth other than “angels now stuck in Brief, must get them out,” which was a problem solved within seconds. Your typical Saturday morning cartoon had better writing than this. I suppose it was interesting to see Brief look like a pregnant woman, and the constant examples of Garter’s pedophile nature, but trivial nonetheless.

 

Part 2

「チャック・トゥ・ザ・フューチャー」 (Chakku tu za Fyūchā)
“Chuck to the Future”

In contrast, this title reference had nothing to do with the story at all, except for the fact that it was split into three parts. So let me try to make sense of the story here: Chuck is the main character, and the story focuses on his small adventure. The first part has him going against Fastener, the Demon sister’s pet sidekick, and the two battle it out like a classic Tom & Jerry episode. Sadly, it was nowhere near as entertaining as a T&J episode, at least until the kitchen scene where they throw each other everywhere. In the end, Chuck manages to “kill” Fastener (I wonder if he’s going to appear again; probably will for inconsistency’s sake), and the first part ends with Chuck being squashed.

The second part has him injured and wanting to urinate but can’t move due to all the bandages. Despite showing excessive healing powers from the first part, he couldn’t manage to heal himself from being splattered by a car. So a fly comes around, pisses him off, he kills it, unleashes a huge wave of flies which picks him up and throws him in a microwave. Somehow the microwave reconstructs him, which seems to be a reference, and then it goes into part three.

Part three is probably the worst. I think they’re trying to reference some creepy movie with an essence of psychological horror here (apparently it’s Eraserhead). Nothing really happens until the end, where Chuck “metaphorically” opens himself up, where the little devil man meets the devil woman who came from Fastener’s head, and then proceed to have sex. Now I’m not sure what kind of message that’s trying to say, with Chuck having to view it like some sort of torture device in his dazed state, but I think it’s something along the lines of this.

 

Part 3

「HELP!二人はエンジェル」 (HELP! Futari wa Enjeru)
“HELP! We are Angels”

I’m not exactly sure what went on for the first 16 minutes or why it happened, but it must have been to make this music video feel more awesome. The “theme” song that’s been occasionally played as background music for a while now is used for this MV, so people that liked it can now hear the full song. If you rip the audio, you’ll pretty much have a clean intact version of this song that will eventually come on the PSG OST due December 29th. A LOT of work must have gone into these 3-4 minutes, as the multiple designs for the homages were quite well done. No half-assery here.

While the first part of the video acts like an intro and their eventual path to fame, the latter showcases a flurry of references to famous artists over the years. I can recognize the obvious ones like the Beatles, GaGa’s “Telephone” MV, Gorrilaz, KISS, and a more obscure one like t.A.T.u., but the other ones I just can’t pinpoint. This one seems to be a band at Woodstock (forgive me if I’m completely off the mark), and these two look really familiar but are just faint memories. I’m sure someone can point out all the references, so please comment if you know them. Hell, even this interview show seems oddly familiar, but I just can’t remember.

To top it all off, you get some naked artist metaphors, and then the band causes a riot which leads to Panty getting arrested (which should be a reference to another famous occurrence in history of a band that did this, but again, I can’t recall). Being an otherwise cool music video that wouldn’t exist due to all the copyright issues (I think), PSG episodes like this will continue to polarize viewers into lovers and haters. Having only three episodes left, I believe the “Battle for Daten City Showdown” will start one ep before the last. If it comes out like the way I’m imagining it will, the series should end on a pretty high note.

Note: This lists out most if not all the references, thanks to MrTerrorist for the link.

 

59 Comments

    3. Ooooh, cheers for that. I posted my own list on youtube a few days ago. I didn’t get The Doors reference and mistook the Hendrix/Woodstock to be The Rolling Stones at Woodstock, but otherwise I got the rest, yay!

      My personal fave has to be Garterbelt as the cover for, “In the Court of the Crimson King”. The Oasis reference for their video “D’you know what I mean” was also ace.

      fathomlessblue
      Reply

  6. https://randomc.net/image/Panty%20&%20Stocking%20with%20Garterbelt/Panty%20&%20Stocking%20with%20Garterbelt%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2044.jpg
    Marilyn Manson
    https://randomc.net/image/Panty%20&%20Stocking%20with%20Garterbelt/Panty%20&%20Stocking%20with%20Garterbelt%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
    Oasis
    and the part where Panty burns the guitar is a Jimi Hendrix reference

    also apparently the part with the head demons having sex is a reference to the movie Eraserhead, though I haven’t seen it

    Crystal
    Reply

  7. I seriously wanted to kill that Shideto Koyama for writing those Chuck scripts. But they had a nice ending. lol She was getting hammered! They shoulda put up construction cones around those two! xDD

    The music video was just as spectacular as when I saw the Transformation Scene for the first time!! Leik, my eyes were wide open and I had this gay smile on my face the entire time! LOL (Glad I was in the comfort of my home for this one.) The different styles of artwork never cease to amaze me in this show. Now that’s some really talented staff for ya~! -inspired-

    I got huge kicks outta the references in the video. There was Elvis, KISS, and was that also a ref. to Deftones? (I saw a music video by them that had that same greyscale setting/camera angle..) lmfao @ Shinobi Costumes! xD

    My honest opinion:
    Stocking >Sorry Mio.. -_-”
    Panty >Lady Gaga, eat your heart out.
    Garterbelt < Ika Musume~!

    omfg I can’t WAIT to get my hands on the OST for PSG! (Hey that rhymes~)

    Shirt
    Reply

  8. I really liked the music video. I liked how they made references to lady gaga, the beatles, andy warhol( banana album), Nirvana, tatu, the gorillas, ven halen(im not to sure about the guitar on fire scene), Marilyn Manson, sex pistols, kiss, linkin park, elvis. I think i am missing a few more artist but the bands above are most of them. I laughed in the beginning when Panty was wearing a gurren lagann jacket. Has to show that Gainax is pretty serious adn awesome especially when the song starts playing

    MM
    Reply

  13. Part 1 was altogether pointless and did nothing but repeatedly say “Gartbelt is a pedo”. Though I’m 90% sure that male pregnancy is a fetish somewhere.

    Part 2-1 seemed like a generic western comedy chase.

    Part 2-2 and 2-3 are practically screaming “THIS IS A REFERENCE TO SOMETHING”, but if you ask me the references are too bloody obscure. Maybe some horror movie nut knows what those are all about.

    Part 3 *everbody* here gets to some degree because music culture is way more prominent than old movie culture.

    Vsin
    Reply

  14. the part where chuck gets reconstructed is in reference to the graphic novel and movie Watchmen. there a character named doctor Manhattan who get basically microwaved and ends up reconstructing himself

    pops
    Reply

  18. At the end of part 2 of the Chuck section he reconstructs himself like Dr. Manhattan of Watchmen fame does.

    The third part was a homage to David Lynch’s work specifically the film Eraserhead.

    Third one is a bit obscure probably more for the older folk and movie buffs. I suppose I enjoyed the Chuck section because I caught the references. Felt like a filler episode really, but can that even be said for a series such as this?

    Jatok
    Reply

  19. The first part was pretty…off. I was questioning why I was watching it until the music video came on and fixed ALL OF LIFE’S PROBLEMS. It was simply glorious <3 Other than that, I'd just watch the Chuck bit for lulz and skip the first half.

    Overcooled
    Reply

  21. can’t wait to hear the OST… the song is just pure win…
    though lol at the K-ON reference… that is slightly out of place… but I got to say, Stocking, nice job for imitate Mio 🙂
    the first two parts… no comments

    jrj
    Reply

  23. I have reason to believe the meeting between Chuck and Fastener is their FIRST meeting. After all, the scene in the beginning is from the episode with the Sperm Ghosts and tissue shortage (they mention the paper factory) so Fastener is hardly dead.

    Ian
    Reply

      2. Well, I’d like to think there’s no doubt the angels are going to fight the demons once more (because that’s been implied since episode six), and since the demon sister’s “father” is the mayor of Daten City, it seems natural that the fight would determine the fate of the city. Plus, knowing that the director of this show loves epic, fighting for the city would be the obvious choice for awesome. It could happen in a different way, but yes, it’s just the most obvious speculation.

        Kiiragi
        Reply

  24. Just something to nag regarding the music video, but…

    The episode segment in its entirety is an MTV reference. Note the little box that showed up at the beginning and end of the segment, plus the “PSG” watermark in the top left.

    Vsin
    Reply

  25. DIDN’T peep it yet… “need to check my reefer man” but i’m glad they put the song in! been dying to know what the hell the chick was singing *translation please* wud da hell? did they use vocaloid or something to make that track?? catchy as heck, but mumblled

    BROOKLYN otaku
    Reply

  26. wow, who would’ve thought they can stuff … at least 20 music-related references into 4 minutes of a music video *mind blown*

    (agrees to most posters’ comment of the “WTF?” from the first 2 parts)

    info600
    Reply

  29. The music video was awesome it had a lot of references

    Elvis
    Jimmy Hendrix (at woodstock)
    Jimmy Hendrix again burning his guitar
    Sex Pistols
    Oasis
    Queen
    T.a.t.u
    Nirvana
    Lady Gaga
    Pink Floyd
    The Velvet Underground
    KISS
    Gorrilaz
    and
    Beatles

    Chan
    Reply

  34. I guess if you don’t get the reference to part 3 of Chuck to the Future, then you wouldn’t like it. I know it’s been said before, but it’s referencing Eraserhead kind of, along with some other horror tropes. I really enjoyed it as they seemed to nail down David Lynch’s style of cinematography.

    Scott
    Reply

  36. Not too sure, but the whole arrested thing sort of ring’s My Chemcial Romance’s “Desolation Row” where the whole crowd and the band gets arrested, and the band gets thrown into the back of a police truck, and after they shut the door you can still see Gerad’s face.

    Taiakun
    Reply

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