Well it's simple. You fucked up the button combo for the transformation.

Funnily enough, PSG's default look is already supposed to be "western cartoon style" - it's just that Japanese people have a notion of what western cartoons are like that's about as divorced from reality as our own notions of what Japanese cartoons are like.

Prokopetz said:

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt is actually really straightforward, if you have the right cultural context.

You know how, in North America, we have certain preconceptions about what Japanese cartoons are like? This notion isn’t particularly accurate - a lot of it is based on stereotypes and third-hand information, and it’s strongly shaped by the fact that the shows that get localised for English-speaking markets aren’t necessarily the best representative examples - but it can give you a fairly solid idea of what’s going to pop into our heads when someone says “anime style”.

Well, Japan has a similar set of stereotypes about what American cartoons are like - and like our version, it’s pretty warped. In particular, adult cartoons like Drawn Together and ultra-violent web shows like Happy Tree Friends are much, much more popular than youth-oriented animation, to the point that Japanese stereotypes of American cartoons tend to revolve around that stuff, even though it represents a minority of our animation industry’s output.

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt is basically Gainax trying their hand at an “American style” cartoon - not by aping the style of North American cartoons as they actually exist, but by very deliberately taking all the popular Japanese memes and misconceptions and stereotypes about what North American cartoons are like, and playing them absolutely straight.

Makes a lot more sense when you look at it that way, doesn’t it?