Now is easily one of the best times to be aFantastic Fourfan. Thanks to their inclusion inMarvel Rivalsand the release ofFantastic Four: Fist Steps, which has been met with incredible critical and financial success, the franchise is the most relevant it’s been in years, and it’s poised to remain that way for years to come.
Fantastic Fouris an incredibly hot franchise now, and surprisingly, even anime is getting in on the hype. Granted, there isn’t aFantastic Fouranime, but one of summer 2025’s hottest new anime just dropped a perfect parody ofFantastic Fourthat’s not only a loving tribute to them, but to the legendary man behind their creation, as well.
How Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt Delivered The Perfect Fantastic Four Parody
What Makes Panty & Stocking’s Fantastic Four Parody So Great
InNew Panty & Stocking with Garterbeltepisode #4, the final segment took a surprising turn whenNew Panty & Stocking with Garterbeltdid a full-fledged parody ofFantastic Four. The main villain had a weapon that transformed everything to resemble the cheap art style of the old ’60s cartoon, with the main cast even resembling the eponymous team, as well.
The parody went beyond paying simple homage to the oldFantastic Fourcartoon, though. Not only did the segment include references to Celestials, the Silver Surfer, Darkseid, and the New Gods, but it also heavily featured the Kirby Krackle, the signature quirk oflegendary comic creator Jack Kirby, who, naturally, created the mythos behindFantastic Fourand the New Gods.
What made it even better was how elaborate it became as the segment went on. The artwork gradually shifted from resembling the cheap cartoon to Jack Kirby’s signature style, even directly referencing his most iconic panels at times, and the story even began using the high sci-fi concepts that defined Kirby’s work and Marvel and DC, as a whole.
Studio Trigger’s Weirdest Work Is The Perfect Love Letter To A Comic Book Legend
How Studio Trigger Shows Their Love For Jack Kirby
While it would have been easy forNew Panty & Stocking with Garterbeltto just make fun ofFantastic Four, that was used to make jokes aboutJack Kirby’s iconic libraryas a whole, and the incredible attention to detail made the parody elements far better to watch than if they had gone for the bare minimum.
All of that did more than flesh out the parody, though. With every new Jack Kirby reference, the segment gradually took itself more seriously, and while that seriousness worked to emphasize the parody elements,New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt’s numerousreferences to Jack Kirby’s library works served as a genuine tribute to his legacy, even without the parody elements.
Jack Kirby was treated incredibly poorly during his career, thanks in large part to being overshadowed by Stan Lee, and it wasn’t until after his death that people began to truly understand how important he was to comics. As such, any work that pays a genuine tribute to Kirby is great to see, and that’s exactly what happened here.
Jack Kirby was also given a touching tribute in the end credits ofThe Fantastic Four: First Steps.
The fact that it was Studio Trigger doing it makes it even better; Kirby’s work was famous for its absurdity, so a notoriously weird anime likeNew Panty & Stocking with Garterbeltpaying tribute toFantastic Fourand the rest of Kirby’s library was highly appropriate, and there was no better way for an anime to have such a touching tribute.
New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt
Cast
New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt is an animated series following fallen angel sisters, Panty and Stocking, tasked with purging ghosts born from human desires in Daten City. As they navigate the fault line between heaven and hell, their mission challenges the boundaries between divine messengers and their potential darker roles.
