Saturday again? Already? (Or Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt pt.1)

Seems like it. So, what should we go over today? More Evangelion?
...No. I'm good.

Let's try another Gainax anime, shall we? Here's another one of my favorites, Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt.
...No, I'm serious, that's the title.

No, it's not porn! Here, look
er...Uh...
Damnit...

OK so it's full of fanservice. Sue me. Regardless, Panty and Stocking are two raunchy, bitchy angels who were kicked out of heaven and sent to earth. In order to redeem themselves, they must defeat ghosts and collect 'heaven coins' to purchase their way back into heaven. They are put under the care of the Priest named Garterbelt.
Yeah. After a few episodes, the angels make acquaintances with a high school nerd named Brief (affectionately nicknamed 'Geek Boy' by the angels).
Anyway, the series is directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi (whose repertoire includes anime like FLCL and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann). The artstyle is different from what Gainax usually produces; a cartoony homage to American animation. The animators vary on the episode, switching between artists from Gurren Lagann, but the same basic style stays the same in each episode.
The angels themselves do battle by 'transforming' articles of clothing that match their names into guns and swords. Upon defeating a ghost, the anime cuts to a real life model of the ghost, and the model then explodes with some kind of random word or phrase.
The church bell gongs, and everything goes back to normal until the next ghost appears. But where are all of these ghosts coming from? Who is responsible? Maybe a little bit more next time...
-Arlon The Enigma

A quick look

Saturday again, it seems. Another week where our other authors (The HelpeR aside) DIDN'T POST. Let's work on that, huh?? Christ...

Oh well, this week we will be looking at something very near and dear to my heart.Er...
There we go. Neon Genesis Evangelion. An anime from Gainax studios that never ceases to stir up discussions on forums everywhere. The original run of this series took place back in 1995, and followed the events of an awkward wimp named Shinji Ikari as he piloted what seemed to be a giant robot against monsters called Angels to prevent Third Impact (in layman's terms, the end of the world). The show seemed like every mecha fanboy's dream; giant awesome robots fighting monsters, explosions, blood, and even the occasional fanservice (example:see above image). However, around episode 18, shit went from kind of light-hearted with some comedic relief, to just plain serious and depressing. While the anime was still good, this began the slippery slope downhill where alot of fans stopped caring about the anime itself. The final episode (26) caused alot of problems, including threats towards the creator's (Hideaki Anno) life. Eventually, Anno released The End Of Evangelion movie, which seemed to be a retcon of the final two episodes, but seemed more of a big 'Fuck You' to everyone who had a problem with the series ending.

I mean, it seems legit. I'd be mad too if I made an award-winning anime and everyone bitched at me for ending my series the way I wanted to.
Moving on...

Years later (12 to be exact), Gainax releases the first of a tetralogy (series of four films, yknow like trilogy but with one more) of 'Rebuild of Evangelion'. As far as everyone can tell, it seems like a complete retcon of the series; crisper, smoother animation, Shinji being less of a wuss, new characters, some characters appearing alot sooner than they should, etc. For example, check this out:
Yeah, the one on the right looks a little better (that probably wasn't the best shot, whatever).

Now so far we can only speculate what's in store for the series as we go on, but Anno has confirmed that the third film will have a new storyline, and the fourth will be a completely new ending for the story. Knowing Gainax studios, we're in for a mindfuck of a ride. Speaking of mindfuck... Something seems a little off about Rebuild...
....-Arlon The Enigma