I take back anything I said about Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt.

I suppose, some months ago, when I first watched Gainax's Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt that I wasn't in the right frame of mind. "Oho," I thought. "It's a Japanese version of a second-rate Adult Swim cartoon" -- and I turned the episode off after a few minutes, mainly because I found the art style annoying.

Not what you expect from Gainax.

Turns out I should have watched longer, and with a better outlook.

This anime is AWESOMESAUCE, with extra sauce on the side. Sure, it looks like something from The Cartoon Network, but The Cartoon Network could only hope to do something this funny and risque. It's multimedia in the best sense of the word, combining regular animation (with hilarious use of art-shifting, e.g. the main characters' transformation sequence shifts to standard anime style and they pole dance), CG and live-action miniature work. The show is foul-mouthed, rude, crude and one of the best things I have seen all year.

Imagine, if you will, a North American cartoon like Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends or Jimmy Two-Shoes with an NC-17 rating and you get the idea. However, the animation is far, FAR better in only the way Gainax could do it. I'm not going to do a long description of the anime; it has been done better elsewhere (like the Wikipedia page on it, for example). I will say this, however: fer crying out loud, Panty (the blonde character in red in the pic) uses her panties as her main weapon -- they turn into a gun -- and Stocking (the goth loli) uses her stockings in the same way.

Consider me a convert. This is the kind of anime that people who don't like anime could easily watch and enjoy.