Cutey Honey - The original action magical girl series that's greater that the sum of it's parts
Note that at the time of writing this, I have only seen up to episode 14 (and thus as far as this review applies), which is as far as the series has been subbed in English, and it doesn't look like the rest will be coming anytime soon. The project has stalled because the group that has been subbing CH into English, Spork, is in need of a translator. If you know anybody can help them out, please let them know, as this is an anime that definitely needs to be completed. That being said, I will update this review should those other episodes every come out.
For those that don't know Cutey Honey's historical significance, allow me to enlighten you. Cutey Honey was originally conceived by Go Nagai (whose work includes
Devilman and
Mazinger-Z) as a fairly typical mahō shōjo (magical girl) series. However, instead of being given a time slot typical of magical girl series, it was instead given a shōnen (young boys') series time slot, making it the first magical girl series aimed at young boys, and thus the series was retooled to be more violent and Nagai decided to alter his transformation sequence idea to show Honey nude during it. That's right, Cutey Honey was the first magical girl series to feature a transformation sequence, although it was fairly tame by some of the sequences that one can see today. Now, on with the review.
Animation - 7/10
Fairly well done animation by 1970s standards, although you can tell that they put priority on some scenes over others. Most crowd scenes for example are underwhelming and a bit too static to be acceptable, but they instead put their efforts into the fight scenes, which do turn out nicely, if a bit hampered by the 1970s view of the possibilities surrounding superhuman fights.
Sound - 8/10
For the most part the sound is your average 1970s fair, but there are two things that stand out as above average.
The first is voice actress Eiko Masuyama's work as the heroine Honey, which stands above the other voices in series, most of which are just played for laughs, and brings Honey to life. Lines that might otherwise come off as cheesy are handled seriously, which adds a legitimacy to Honey. You may recognize her name for being the voice of Fujiko Mine in the majority of the works in the
Lupin III series.
The second is the show's theme song, is a catchy disco pop number which has been used as the theme to every incarnation of the series, which, according to Wikipedia, makes it the third longest continually used anime theme song after the
GeGeGe no Kitaro and
Lupin III series. Here's a YouTube link for the opening with English subs (http://youtube.com/watch?v=cUO2_helmeo&feature=related). The theme also gets used as background music on occasion, most notably when they slow the melody down and use it for the more serious moments.
Story - 7/10
The story starts off rather suddenly, with the Honey quickly progressing from finding her father dead, discovering she's an android, and swearing to kill every member of Panther Claw for the afor mentioned father with her new found powers. From there, the first couple of episodes keep to a villain-of-the-week formula, with Panther Claw going after some highly valuable object and Honey thwarting them by killing every Panther Claw she comes across. And she out right kills them, often stabbing that weeks baddie right through the chest as a finishing move. One memorable scene is in episode 3 where Honey, dressed as , goes about Panther Claw grunts . Awesome.
Pacing and direction are fairly well maintained, with the exception of the occasional bit where things get sped along to move things along to the fight scene, but other than that things are keep within the standard.
Now, during the course of these first few episodes, while the plots are generally standard stuff, Panther Claw does learn bits and pieces about Honey's true identity, although nothing ever seems to come from this, until the game changing episode 14, where in which
Panther Claw's Japan branch head Sister Jill comes to Honey's boarding school, kills her best friend, blows up the school and seriously injures some of the teachers.
I was not expecting the series to take this turn, and keep to its villain-of-the-week formula until the end, but I welcome this turn and the potential this holds. Now, this is as far as I've seen at this point, but the preview for next episode seems to suggest that both sides will get more serious and up their efforts to defeat the other, which has greatly increased my interest in how the series plays out, and makes up for the earlier generic plot episodes, nut I'm hesitant to score story higher until I've seen these episodes.
Character - 6/10
Character designs were created by Shingo Araki (who was also animation director) and Go Nagai, and I should note that Nagai reuses some designs and characters from some of his previous works, particularly from his manga
Abashiri Family, which did get an
anime release in the early 90s. I'd also like to know why he gave Miss Alphonne, one of Honey's teachers who is infatuated with Honey, a mustache. I strikes me as such an odd thing do.
At any rate, the characters usually come in one of two designs: a more realistic and serious design, like Honey and her confidant/reporter Seiji Hayami; or a more cartoony still, like those of Miss Alphonne or Danbei Hayami, Seiji's father, which will let you know right away what kind of characteristics they will have. The cartoony characters are used mostly for comedic effect, such as Danbei trying his best to take on Panther Claw grunts and either being quickly outmatched or succeeding through luck, while the more realistic characters are generally more competent in their actions, such as Seiji managing to take on some grunts for a while until simply being outnumbered and taken captive or retreating. The trouble is that for the most part the characters, with the exception of Honey, are rather 2D and have simple motivations, but this may change after episode 14.
I should also make note of the villain of the week characters. They are for the most part 1 dimensional, with the simple goals of "Steal X" and/or "Kill Honey". The sole exception to this is episode 12, where the villain is given an actual back story and rather interesting motivation, but I felt that they didn't use this character as best they could, and thus limited the episode by keeping to their standard formula, which is a shame because the episode gives a glimpse at the potential of the series. I hope that this potential gets realized in the rest of the series. Also, the information that Panther Claw's operatives are all androids could have been shared sooner than this episode. Makes the whole "grunts vanish when defeated" thing easier to understand.
Also, while I'm taking about the VotW, even though most have generic powers and names, any show that can sell a villain whose powers include being able to grow super strong arms from her breast as plausible and nothing out of the ordinary for the hero deserves some note.
Value - 7/10
Cutey Honey has some important historic value, as mentioned above, and a theme that has been used in all incarnations of the show, as well as having popped up in a few other shows and been covered by a number of band and singers makes this one of those culturally significant animes, at least in Japan, and is considered a classic by some. I can't say more on the show's value until I've seen the complete series, but the show looks to become more serial and less episodic, which I hope will be beneficial to the show.
Enjoyment - 8/10
The first dozen episodes are rather generic VotW episodes, but are enjoyable for there classic 70s style, and I fell are a good reflection of what shōnen anime was like at the time, although if the translations had only included them, I might have only scored this section 7/10, and story 6/10.
The 12 and 14 episodes, as I've already noted, are the high points of what I've seen so far, and shows the series as being able to become more than what it started out as. I wish the rest of the series was translated so I could see how it ends and give a definitive score for the series as a whole rather than just the first half, but there's not much I can do about that.
I recommend you give this show a chance, as it had a fair amount of impact on shows that came after it, and it always helps to know what walked before to greater appreciate what came later.
