新・キューティーハニー / New (Super Android) Cutie Honey

Honey Kusaragi, the fanservice goddess!

Background

Honey Kusaragi is a familiar name among seasoned Animé fans. Just by hearing her name, we're taken back to the early 70's where the 魔法 少女 (mahō shōjo) genre was born thanks to a fantastic manga that was published under the title Cutie Honey. its popularity immediately demanded the creation of an animated series that ran for 25 episodes until it was cancelled for being too sleazy for TV. Moreover, some say this Animé was the avant-garde of fanservice. Ultimate our naked heroine, would end up becoming a member of Go Nagai's holy trinity of characters, with Devilman & Mazinger Z being the other two.

 

Fast forward 21 years later, and voila! New Cutie Honey  becomes the 90's addition to the Cutie Honey media franchise. Inspired by continued popularity of the original 1973 Cutie Honey television series, and first announced by Toei Video in October 1993, it was the only Cutie Honey anime production to be licensed for distribution in the United States until Discotek Media released the 1973 series on DVD in November 2013. Unlike the original, it was developed as an OVA (straight to video). Its filmed episodes were released by ADV Films in the US, and have also been sold in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Australia, and New Zealand.

Dressed to kill.

She fights for love!

Context

Set one hundred years after the original, it follows protagonist Honey Kisaragi, along with her friends from the Hayami family, as she fights criminals in the fictional Cosplay City. Honey Kusaragi, a female android, has a device within her that allows her to transform into various personas, or summon weapons and other powers, by shouting "Honey Flash!" The first four episodes contain a complete story in which Honey battles the forces of Dolmeck, a man feared even by other criminals. In later episodes, she defeats other enemies empowered by her returning former nemesis, Panther Zora. The series staff planned to make at least twelve episodes, but it ended with eight in 1995. A 2004 DVD release included a scripted but unfilmed ninth episode—a Christmas story—as a drama CD.

New Cutie Honey includes many characters and cameos from or based on prior works by Nagai, such as Mazinger Z and Devilman. It has inspired merchandise of its own, including many scale model kits of Honey. ADV's English language dub of the series features Jessica Calvello, who Nagai picked for the title role. Critical responses to the series have focused on its production values and voice work, and have explored Honey's transformations—which often tear off her clothes and show her naked body as they occur—in relation to her strong character traits. It has also been compared and contrasted with other anime based on Nagai's works. 

Transformation time!

Honey Flash!

Review

This eight anime is actually a fascinating update. Basically, it takes every great aspect from the original cutie honey (1973), and then greatly improves every aspect of the original to make it look, feel and sound like a top notch creation from the 90's.

While the animation style follows the classic look from a Go Nagai series, it has been updated to 90's standards, making the designs more detailed & balanced, which is a good thing as it is meant to be enjoyed by newer generations, and not necessarily old school fans. The soundtrack obviously features the original main theme, because it was just too fucking good to not be reused here. Obviously, the reused music has been given the 90's treatment in order to appeal younglings who don't understand funky disco music, but then again, the changes are subtle, so that original fans can get the kicks out of it as well.

Honey spends a fortune in clothes.

But she doesn't go the gym because she's a super android!

While lifelong fans expected a true homage to the original series, the nods to it are light, and even the psychedelic look the original one had, has been replaced by a darker (you know, the 90's) overall mood that demands a more serious animation style in order to bring Cosplay City to life. The monsters and/or bad guys, have distinctive yet varied, physical features, and their reasons for doing what they do are far more believable now. Honey's friends have also been greatly improved in terms of animation and personalities.  However, the series maintains the very essence that made the original great: Comedy, great action scenes, and obviously world famous Honey Kusaragi's transformations that provide a  lot of nudity and fanservice, nevertheless it is handled properly - in humorous manner and does not feel forced. 

For the most part New Cutey Honey delivers a much more solid experience than the original. For those wondering, no, you do not need to watch the original 1973 series to enjoy this show. The original anime doesn't even finish the manga arc that this follows up. Just know a long time ago Cutey Honey beat up some bad guys and good enough.

You're so dead bad guy!

Back stabbing for justice.

The animation is fantastic in this show. It really gives a vibe of an early 90s anime or even American cartoon with it's dark cities and generally grosser enemies. It's a pretty large, and in my opinion needed, contrast from the 1973 series. I love that Danbei is now this cyborg thing. He still gets knocked around like before, but it shows the progression of his character needing to help Honey.

While the original did slip in small amount of nudity , this show opts to have nudity everywhere. Every transformation has nipples. So if this is your type of thing than you'll like it. There is also fan service everywhere, however I never feel it's enough to degrade Cutey as a character. Although it is certainly a lot more than the 1973 series.

The fault I have with this OVA is the story sadly. While the first arc is very involved with lots of progression, the show devolves into a monster of the week show after it. This is what Cutey was known for sure, but I just feel like things could have gone better way in such a short anime.

The many faces of Honey Kusaragi.

A perfect body is a perfect weapon.

Brick by Brick


Story:

The real Honey Kusaragi died a hundred years ago. However, his father was the Oscar Goldman of the series ("We have the technology"), so he saved her DNA and build a "new super android" body that allows her to return from the death to protect Cosplay City from new and old enemies. The first four episodes have a satisfying story arc that isn't episodical story telling. Unfortunately, the remaining four chapters are episodical, so they kinda feel like they were either filler material, or the producers didn't know what to do to give the series a proper finale.  Still, this isn't a bad thing considering New Cutie Honey is a remake of the original, so the apparent flaws the series has, might as well be understood as homage to the original which didn't provide fans with an ending to the story.

 
Art:

As above mentioned, the art & animation is top notch work. The original Animé suffered from technological and artistic limitations where it couldn't properly portray 3D space, kept deforming characters in movement, and monsters had stereotypical "evil villain face". However, in this anime, things are properly hand-drawn, characters and bodies have proper anatomy, at the same time somehow preserving cartoonish faces of certain side characters when necessary. Anyway, I'm not saying the original series looked "awful", all I'm saying is early Animé in general didn't follow a realistic approach when drawing characters, vehicles, and background. This update only follows the higher standards the 90's had in this matter.

Go Nagai's finest.

Honey's friends.

Sound:

For the most part, and I if I didn't say it enough times already, New Cutie Honey is a tribute to the original series, so most of the soundtrack, including the iconic original Cutie Honey theme song (reworked twice to fit the 90's musical needs) will please both old and new Honey fans.

Character Development:

Better than in the original series. Original characters in 1973 were pretty much embodiment of one idea or one role, but here they actually start resembling people. There's a very small bit of character development going on in some of the side characters, but in general, interactions between them are fairly believable/convincing. 

Bad girls.

Good girl.

 
Overall, 新・キューティーハニー is a fair update on what Japanese people saw on TV in the early 70's, and what fans outside Japan saw in the late 80's & early 90's on bootleg VHS tapes. While this new take improves greatly on some aspects, it still feels like unfinished business, which is the main problem this OVA has. Even some of the worst OVA out there featured a finale but here, we're just left wondering whatever is going to happen to Honey Kusaragi in her neverending battle against evil. The animation style is great, the action scenes are cool, the bad guys are great too, the music is good enough but the story could have been better. Anyway, if you want to see it, you don't need to see the original series in order to fully enjoy this one. Recommended for fans of Maho Shojo, Ecchi, comedy and adventure. 

PS: Yes, the original series misspells "Cutie" as "Cutey".

Here's opening 1:



Here's opening 2 with English lyrics:




Ending #1 featuring the "Circle Game" song performed by Les 5,4,3,2,1:



Ending #2 featuring "Rendez-Vouz In Space" also by Les 5,4,3,2,1:



the Cutie Honey theme live (a fragment of it. It's a special feature from the Blu Ray release):



Every outfit Honey wears to fight crime: