Panty & Stocking S2
Short Synopsis: Season 2 of Panty and Stocking. Just go watch the original, it’s hard to explain, you won’t regret it.
Lenlo: I was really nervous about the Panty & Stocking revival because it had been almost a decade and a half since the original aired and I wasn’t sure they would be able to capture the same magic. And in some ways, that fear came to pass. It isn’t the same show it was 15 years ago, or I’m not the same person, at the very least the English dub has a completely different voice cast, and that’s how I prefer to watch the show. But after watching it twice, both once subbed and once dubbed, I can say with certainty that if you enjoyed the original show, you’ll still love the revival. Yes, it has a bunch of sexual innuendos, yes it’s a very horny show, yes it’s irreverent in the extreme. But it‘s also like nothing else being made right now, looks fantastic, has an incredible OST, and is really just… As weird as it is to say, it’s still a love letter to American animation and comedy, and it’s so much fun. Like Mario says below though, it’s not going to be for everyone.
Potential: 90%
Mario: The original Panty & Stocking was a sensory overload, with irreverent jokes and innuendos thrown at you every 3 seconds, and the visuals brimmed with dynamic animation and too much color. It also ended with a WTF twist that didn’t really beg for a sequel. But here’s that sequel after 15 long years, and I would say that the show still has the energy and the essence of the original. Everything is turned up to 11 as before, and it even finds a whimsical way to explain the 15-year-old twist. I would go so far to say that I find this episode’s humor stronger than the first season’s, mainly because it doesn’t entirely revolve around sexual innuendos. This show is still not for everyone – I bet many would feel overwhelmed or exhausted after this episode – but for those who yearn for the old magic this works like a charm.
Potential: 60%
Leviathan
Short Synopsis: In this alternative WW1 universe, the Prince of Austria runs away after his parents get assassinated and he’s about to meet an English common girl.
Mario: Studio Orange is one rare CG anime studio that I keep an eye out for. They are responsible for many of my recent favorites such as Houseki no Kuni and Beastars. Now there’s an entire season of their new show available on Netflix and I feel that it’s one of the reasons why this first episode is kind of uneventful. It isn’t really meant to capture your attention right away to hook you in for the next episode like a weekly airing show; it instead splits its time between two protagonists in different settings who I’m sure will cross paths in the future. As such, I found the girl’s story much more interesting than the Prince’s portion. She has a more vibrant personality, and her encounter with one of Leviathan’s “beasts” opens up the sci-fi world-building, where somehow our version of sea serpents have taken to the skies (and it’s great to look at). For the boy’s part, we have a dryer (and duller) implication of politics, mecha and explosions. I’m sensing things will escalate quickly in the next few episodes and by then, we will know more about the show’s core quality. As far as this first episode goes, it isn’t something that blows me away, but I feel it has the potential to grow from here.
Potential: 45%
Lord of Mysteries
Short Synopsis: After waking up in another world in the body of a suicide victim, a man’s life is consumed by the supernatural.
Wooper: A couple of folks recommended this donghua in our comments section, so even though I’m no great fan of Chinese animation, I thought I’d try it out, sight unseen. Having now waded my way through its 30 minute premiere, I realize that I never stood a chance. Lord of Mysteries shifts between dreams and dimensions without the slightest care for the comprehension of the uninitiated, starting in a gothic city on the verge of the apocalypse before traveling two months back in time, where our protagonist awakens in another man’s body, having transmigrated from Earth. Things don’t get any clearer from there, as his attempt to return to our world transports him to an astral plane awash in gray fog, where he forms an alliance with two Beyonders (people who obtain superpowers by drinking potions) from other realms before his consciousness is yanked back to his new body. Then he’s taken into custody by a pair of cops, one of whom is also a Beyonder, and was apparently controlling the main character’s dream for the majority of the episode… I think? I could forgive all this ambiguity if there were an emotional core to the proceedings, but there isn’t. The protagonist never appears to lament what he left behind on Earth, and the scene where he speaks with his host body’s sister does nothing to make either of them feel human. All the intricate 3DCG art direction in the world couldn’t make me stick around for twelve more episodes of this show.
Potential: Not for me
Being honest, the reason I’m hesitant to fully recommend Panty & Stocking s2 is that this premiere is merely just Imaishi getting to resolve that cliffhanger from 2010 given how much he was teasing that resolution for years. And everything in this does feel like what he was intending to do all this time. To that end, it’s great. I’m quite content with it (bad, stilted English dub notwithstanding).
Which then leads to the question, what now? Comedy sequels (to originals) are quite difficult to pull off, especially the ones released years apart, and I have some trepidation that the rest of the season will live up to the original. Fingers crossed.
I am sad that Colleen and Cherami won’t be back to play the demon sister but at least I won’t hear the awful voices of Marci, Rial or Sabat. I won’t nothing to do with them after what they did to Vic! As far as the episode goes, I imagine that the pacing (and English performances ) will improve as the series progresses. I just hope they introduce a better main antagonist because frankly the Angel brothers are not impressive to me.
So you actively support an open sex pest who has several decades of proven allegations towards him? Marchi, Rial, and Sabat didn’t do anything to him. Vic torpedoed his own career through his own actions.
It was already proven that Vic wasn’t a bloody rapist!@ i don’t support trash and actually believe in facts and a concept called INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY! MAYBE YOU SHOULD LOOK IT UP YOU BLOODT STUID MARK!
MarzGurl made a whole video documenting everything Vic has done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5Yh04dJOKc. He may not be a rapist, but he has sexually harassed people over several decades, complete with court documents and depositions proving as such, and has absolutely no respect for boundaries. He lost all of his lawsuits because judges were actually smart and recognized that he is a danger to society. You’re delusional to think Vic is some innocent victim when there is a literal mountain of evidence that you can easily look up on the internet that easily proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is anything but.
Don’t you dare talk down to me you bloody piece of crap!!! Unlike you I actually found a bloody viable source that proves that these allegations are crap. Yes Vic asked permission to hug fans but some said no and he left it at that. True asking for a hug is awkward but he at least back off when others refused. Vic isn’t a perfect guy but he would never bloody assault someone. The “movement ” against Vic has already proven to be toxic and disgusting. Accusations are not the same as actual proof. His “friends,” were jealous of him so they decided to screw him over and pretend he was the badguy along and gaslight anyone who disagree just like you are trying to gaslight me!@! Don’t you dare put words in my mouth and make me feel guilty!! I believe jn Vic unlike you so take your judgemental Crunchyroll loving backside out kf my face@@
A viable source? What viable source, exactly? Care to elaborate? Actually, why am I even bothering? It’s pretty clear that you’re beyond reason. The fact that you throw tantrums like an entitled toddler at anyone who even tries to interact with you or point something out to you says a lot more about you than it does anyone else.
Hope he sees this, bro.
@ Wooper: yeah, I kind of figured someone new to the series would be really confused about many things after watching the premiere. Some things are purposely left vague in the webnovel as well (the reasons for the transmigration, the secrets behind the gray fog world, etc.) and are slowly clarified over the course of the webnovel, but the more mundane details are much clearer in the webnovel. For example, the thing with the ‘cop’ isn’t supposed to be vague: he has the ability to make people fall asleep and enter their dreams, because people are generally more vulnerable in their dreams and therefore more likely to reveal their secrets. He was testing whether the MC was telling the truth, in other words. And the two Beyonders in the gray fog world are not from a different realm but from the same world, just from different locations in it. The third and fourth episodes were better paced and easier to follow, but at that point many of the new viewers will probably have already checked out.
In any case, it’s true that there isn’t much of an emotional drive behind what’s going on, and given what I know of your preferences, I honestly expected you wouldn’t like it (Lenlo or Amun would have been better bets, though they’d probably have some of the same issues). Strong character development is definitely not one of the series’ strengths: the characters aren’t bad, but they’re rarely deep or particularly interesting. The family is never more than a token ‘wholesome family that needs to be protected’, for example. The main strengths of the series, in my view, are the excellent and innovative world building (slowly unraveling the secrets of a world that is, compared to the lazy fantasy worlds of many webnovels – you know, the standard medieval world with orcs, or the hunter world with gates, or the wuxia/murim world – very original) and the competence porn of the protagonist (how he makes the most of his abilities to take down stronger and more experienced antagonists with many different powers, and usually makes very well thought out decisions). I personally enjoy those kinds of things (though as I said, they come out better in the webnovel – which is much better paced and much less vague – compared to the donghua), but if a strong ’emotional core’ is your priority, you’re not going to find it here.
By the way, it’s a shame Leviathan seems to get mostly middling reviews. I’ll probably still give it a try when I find some time (I’m also trying to get through Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth now), but I’ll adjust my expectations accordingly.
A good review. I didn`t even realize this came out.