キューティーハニー / Cutie Honey

The original fan service Anime!

After a long hiatus from Anime reviews, it's time to go back to our duties with the very few people in this still word that still like reading articles and/or reviews made by real fans and not "fans" in a pay roll. And what could be better than reviewing a sexploitation Anime from the 70's?.

Cutie Honey (original Japanese title: キューティーハニー Hepburn: Kyūtī Hanī, also spelled Cutey Honey) is a Japanese Shonen manga series written and illustrated by Go Nagai. First appearing in Weekly Shōnen Champion's 41st issue of 1973, the series ran until April 1974. It follows an android girl named Honey Kisaragi, who transforms into the busty, red or pink-haired heroine Cutie Honey to fight against the assorted villains that threaten her or her world. One of the trademarks of the character is that the transformation involves the temporary loss of all her clothing in the brief interim from changing from one form to the other. According to Nagai, she is the first female to be the protagonist of a shōnen manga series.

Honey Kisaragi is not afraid of losing her clothes in the name of justice.

1973-forever.

The Cutie Honey franchise spans many works, including numerous manga series, three anime television series, two OVA series, two drama CDs, and three live action adaptations. The first anime aired in 1973 and is considered a magical girl series in retrospect.However, our review will focus only on the original 1973-1974 Animé that ran for 25 episodes before it was cancelled.

For 1973, to have something this sexy was quite a deal. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure this would air unedited in America today. What the hell! Cutie Honey even turned out to be too much for the Japanese, where it was pulled after 25 episodes. Still, it had (has) a fan base that refused to let it go, so Nagai later gave us Shin Cutey Honey, Cutey Honey Flash, the live-action Cutie Honey movie, and something called re: Cutie Honey. More recently still, there is Cutie Honey: The Live, a live-action television series.

And that isn't counting the manga, such as the latest Cutey Honey: Legend of an Angel.

Toei Animation produced an anime television series, also titled Cutie Honey. It was broadcast on NET (now TV Asahi) on October 13, 1973 and ran until March 30, 1974. The TV series is much tamer than the manga version, removing much of the violence, gross out humor and lesbian undertones, but retaining Miss Alphonne's attraction to Honey. 

The series was directed by Tomoharu Katsumata (same man that brought you Devilman). The screenplay and script was in charge of Keisuke Fujikawa. Akira Itou wrote the opening and ending themes (Cutie Honey & Yogiri No honey respectively) while both songs were sang by Youko Maekawa.

Super powered android!

Her body is her weapon.

Originally, Cutie Honey was meant to be a shōjo series like the later Cutie Honey Flash, focusing more on Honey and Shun Kazama (Seiji)'s relationship and lacking any nudity or excessive violence. A great deal of merchandising was initially planned, such as 'changing' dolls of Honey. The manga was slated to run in the monthly Ribbon magazine, and the series was set to air at 7:00 on NET TV, a time slot previously held by mahō shōjo (magical girl) series. However, the time slot was given to Miracle Shōjo Limit-Chan (which garnered poor ratings) and Cutie Honey was going to air on the hour show, Majū Kaijin Daihenshin!!! which previously aired Micord S and Go Nagai's masterpiece Devilman. Because of this, Cutie Honey was now going to be a shōnen (young boys') series, making it the first magical girl series for boys. To make it appeal to a young male audience, more action was added and Nagai proposed to draw Honey nude during her transformations. Clever!

 

In the series, Honey Kisaragi is a 16-year-old girl who discovers she is a super android (actually more like a cyborg but who cares?) after her father is killed by Panther Claw. The Panther Claw hopes to attain "unlimited wealth" and to steal the device within Honey created by her father, which would allow them to "create an endless supply of jewels".

What would PC people say?

Fan art by NoiseTanker.

At school, Honey is something of a "class clown" who enjoys teasing and pranking her teachers Alphonne and Miharu. Much of the comic relief in the original TV series comes from Honey's exploits at school. Miharu initially sees Honey as an incorrigible pest, but Alphonne is attracted to Honey and goes out of her way to be nice to her. 

Honey is aided by the Hayami family in her battle. The eldest son, Seiji, is the first person to discover Honey's secret. He meets Honey by chance, and swears to help her. His father Danbei and brother Junpei also grow very fond of Honey. Later in the series, Honey meets Danbei's nephew Naojiro. He is the "boss" of Paradise School, a low-life school filled with delinquent boys. Honey joins the school and becomes the new "boss". 

 

Are you talking to me?

Fashionable attack!

Honey has a large array of transformations in this series, her most common personae including: 

• Hurricane Honey (biker). A woman who is "cool" with her motorcycle, anytime she needs to escape.
• Misty Honey (singer). A rockstar with a dusty voice, who uses her microphone as a weapon.
• Idol Honey (stewardess). A woman disguised as a flight attendant.
• Flash Honey (cameraman). A reporter who blinds her opponents with her camera's "flash".
• Fancy Honey (model). A classy model who uses a long-stick cigar as a weapon.
• Cutie Honey (heroine). A sword-wielding pink-haired warrior of love.

From student to heroine.

This anime, as far as I am aware, is one of the original Magical Girl series. Where a girl transforms into different clothes/armor/etc to defeat her enemies. It's a simple concept and this is a simple show. It's your basic Monster of the Week fair. Ultimately leading to Cutey Honey taking on the ring leader at the end. Each enemy Cutey faces is interesting, but most don't have too much development. The death scenes can be quite brutal with a fair amount of blood.

 
The animation style is dated considering modern standard. Characters are very "flat", meaning their visuals look like something half way between modern anime and, say, old and somewhat "lifeless" just like Speed Racer. They don't really move about well, deform during movement, and anime does not really portray "depth" anywhere.

The backgrounds in scenes resemble abstract painting, or old backdrops occasionally used in western cartoons from the same era, you know, when the Coyote is after the Roadrunner, a simple painting would be seen in the background repeated times during the cartoon.

Most of the mechanical objects are not very well drawn, and barely have any detail on them. Main character - Cutie Honey - is amazingly cute, but some of the other characters are not. Again, and this is just me, I think this was done in purpose to help kids identify with the main character rather than being confused by a lot of highly detailed characters. And, yes I've said "kids" two times here, because this Anime was meant for kids despite the sexual innuendo that led into its cancellation.

I would say that overall drawing style shares some similarities with very old titles - for example, it may slightly resemble the very first episode of Urusei Yatsura, and the very first episode of Sailor Moon... I'd say more similar to Sailor Moon, which had "swirly glasses" character.

Now we're talking!

Super clothes change activated!

Music wise, CH is amazing and catchy. Original intro is something you'd want to sing along to ("Kono goro hayari na onn-nano-ko...") and will get stuck in your head. There's also a constant "whispering" theme that usually plays when an episode displays this week's villain. (you'll recognize it when you hear "Shi.. shi, shi, shi- shi... SHAAAA!" in background). However, the anime doesn't have a long list of songs per episode. After watching two or three episodes you discover there's at most 5 songs being re used in every episode.

Character development is pretty much symbolic. Each character has a specific role or function and is completely defined by it. Cutie honey's role is to kill bad guys and look cute while wearing outfits, for example. Every character falls flat into the old "I'm the good guy, you're the bad guy" type of personality, and even though the main character sometimes try to look as a serious heroic girl, it doesn't really feel like that. However, considering how old this anime is, you could easily describe characters from the same decade using the same "good guy/bad guy" one dimensional personality that I presume, worked just fine with kids from those days.

The Hayami family.

Female & brave.

The only problem I have with the show is that, it isn't finished. I'm sure the manga finished it, but not here. Cutey defeats a main enemy, but not the main ring leader. By the time the show reboots with Shin Cutey Honey you just have to assume that somewhere along the way the main ring leader was taken out. It puts a damper on an otherwise fairly entertaining show. 

Overall, whether it is for historical purposes or just for entertainment, Cutie Honey is a must watch just because it was the first fan service focused maho shojo Anime. 

Last but not least, don't  forget to scream Honey Flash!

Now, let's get into the video section of our review:

The original opening:

The original ending:

A couple of compilation videos of Cutie Honey's transformations:

An updated take on the "Cutie Honey" theme by Koda Kumi:

The original theme sang live  in 1978 by Youko Maekawa:

Youko Maekawa performing the same song live in 2015: