Archive for the Cutie Honey Category


Cutey Honey a GoGo Manga, Perfect Volume (Japanese)

November 14th, 2007

I hereby nominate Go Nagai as a candidate for having his head put into one of those head tubs from Futurama. I don’t think we can afford to lose this kind of genius.

In April of this year I found and fell in love with Cutey Honey a Gogo. My biggest complaint was the volume ended abruptly, right in the middle of the story. And no Volume 2 ever appeared. It was criminal, when you consider how awesome CHaGG was. Then, one innocent day, Amazon Japan emailed me with one of its automated suggestions and lo and behold! It was for Cutey Honey a Gogo, Perfect Edition. Oh, how I rejoiced.

It is perfect (and totally not coincidental) timing for this volume’s release, as a new Cutey Honey Live-Action TV series is running even as we speak. Review will be forthcoming…of course.

Historically, Cutey Honey is rather important to us, the Yuri audience, and especially those of use who are female. Honey was the first, ever, magical heroine who succeeded all on her own, without a man in her life. It’s true that the Hayami family existed in the anime (Seiji, his kid brother and repulsive grandfather,) but they were there to primarily serve as victims, hindrances, perverts and other forms of comedic relief. Honey didn’t need them – in fact, she probably would have done a lot better if they had gotten out of her way. The fact that there has been some light to moderate lesbianism in pretty much every version (excepting Seed, which really isn’t about Honey at all) just keeps it on the list of series we should keep an eye on.

Cutey Honey a GoGo originally came out about the same time as the Live Action movie and Re Cutie Honey. And like those two, it was pretty great. Honey in these versions was much more like the original Honey; smart, fun-loving and mischievous. She’s also self-reliant and strong, with a clear emotional bond with Aki Natsuko.

In the original manga Na-chan was Honey’s classmate, another student at St. Chapel Jogakuen. In all three of the 2004 versions, Na-chan was a police detective. MAJOR powerup for Na-chan. I approve. She’s awesome as the tough-as-nails cop. Much better than as Honey’s beloved, but ineffectual, school friend.

So this perfect volume includes CHaGG Volume 1 and the never-before printed Volume 2. (For which artist Itoh Shimpei apologizes in the back, but I have no doubt that it is not his fault.)

Volume 2 picks up the story after Honey has been staying with Na-chan for some time. Na-chan is not falling for Honey, or anything, but as Seiji picks on her about it, Na-chan just says, “all the flowers are blooming.” When she had lived alone, she had tried to take care of all sorts of plants, but no matter what she did, they just died. As soon as Honey arrived, the flowers all blossomed. I (and Seiji) think that’s an apt metaphor for Chief Aki Natsuko’s life as well. ^_^

The plot picks up with more Panther Claw baddies doing the usual bad stuff and Honey doing the usual to stop them, with Na-chan bringing up the rear carrying the heavy artillery.

But they learn that bizarre things are occurring at – can you guess? – St. Chapel Jogakuen! So Na-chan signs up as a teacher and Honey as a student and they head off to this mysterious and strict private girl’s school.

They are met by the obviously sadistic Miharu-sensei, who was not a Panther Claw operative as I suspected, but another nod backwards to Honey’s history and the odious Histler. And here’s where the story gets wacky. ^_^

Honey’s roommate, Ayumu, is a nice kid. But Miharu-sensei, when she can’t catch Honey during her nightly transgressions, and frustrated with her inability to punish Na-chan who drives her nuts, targets Ayumu. Honey appears to be stalked by a dark, large and very gloomy upperclassman, who ultimately (I’m skipping a lot here) turns out to be in love with Ayumu. She blames Honey for Ayumu’s troubles, and attacks her, but when the Panther Claw attacks the school and lots of random, unnecessary and unpleasant deaths occur, she backs off and let’s Honey stop Spider Claw. The horrible deaths are yet again a nod back to the original work in which *everyone* died. Horribly.

At the end of this volume, Sister Jill-sama names four new top Claws – Black, Gold, Cobalt, and Scarlet and if you watched Re CH or the live action movie, you’ll be familiar with the names. At the end of the book, Na-chan vows to protect Honey (not the first time she has done this, and we all know where that leads) and Honey vows to fight to the bitter end to stop Sister Jill.

Bar none, this is my *favorite* version of Honey. I can only hope and pray and the manga gods are smiling favorably upon this lone fan and wait to see if we ever get more. It worked once, I’m not going to stop now. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 5
Service – 7

Overall – 8

How much do you think it would cost me to pay Nagai and Itoh to continue this series for me? ^_^





Live Action: Cutie Honey Movie (English)

July 26th, 2007

I reviewed the Cutie Honey live-action movie back in 2004 when it first came out and fundamentally, none of my opinions have changed. It remains an incredibly silly, thoroughly enjoyable, and overwhelmingly fannish look at one of anime and manga’s longest-lasting superheroine series, Cutie (or Cutey) Honey.

For new readers, Cutie Honey is the name of a cute female android created by a Professor Kisaragi. Honey uses the I-system (a pun on “Ai” the Japanese word for love) to transform into whatever form best suits the situation. From motorcycle rider, to Office Lady, to S&M Queen to Bad Guy henchclone, Cutie Honey’s form will be just what is needed to save the day. Her true form is as a ally of love and justice and several times an episode we are given the opportunity to enjoy Honey’s at least partially nude transformation, because that’s the way the series works. In this live action movie the transformations are more coy but we get plenty of partially-clothed Honey for other, even less justifiable reasons, because that’s the way the movie works.

In every incarnation, Honey fights the crazy baddies of the evil Panther Claw gang: in this case the nipple-ringed Gold Claw, creepy Cobalt Claw, short-lived Scarlet Claw and pop idol-wannabee Black Claw. It comes as no surprise to anyone who has watched any of the Honey series that she will win in the end. Because, after all, love always wins the day.

Because I did indeed already review this movie, I just want to make a few comments on the official US release. One – go get it. It’s really wonderful. Thoroughly cracktastic – from the music to the use of animation, the bizarre body language to the choppy cinematography. It’s like Power Rangers for grown up otaku.

Secondly…the subtitles. *What* was going on with the subtitles????? The two most obviously persistent problems were in regards to Sister Jill-sama, the chief bad guy. Sometimes translated “Lord Sister Jill,” sometimes “Lady Sister Jill” and other times not translated at all, the phrase “Sister Jill-sama” because a cue for me to try and guess the next version. Worse, the translators apparently had serious issues with Honey’s Uncle’s name. You say Uzuki, I say Utsugi – the translators used both. Indiscriminately. And they never settled on one version by the end of the movie. If it hadn’t been so sad, it would have been hysterical.

Thirdly, and most importantly. Is it love between Na-chan and Honey? Despite reporter Seiji’s aborted attempt to get close to Inspector Aki Natsuko, by the end, it is SO Honey who has taken over the tough-as-nails inspector’s heart. For pity’s sake – even Jill’s creepy butler notices. And when, in the final scene, Seiji kisses Honey’s hand, no one is gonna tell me that Na-chan’s reaction is not pure jealousy. Not for Seiji, either. It’s really obvious that it’s on Honey’s behalf.

I’m not sure that someone new to anime and manga would “get” this movie, but for anyone who is even remotely a fan of the legend of Cutie Honey, it’s a must-see. It is just so much fun!

Ratings:
Story – 8
Character – 9
Cinematography – 8
Costumes – 9
Music – 9
Yuri – 5

Overall – 8 edging into 9

 





Yuri Manga: Cutie Honey a GoGo

April 9th, 2007

You really come to understand how inherently unfair the universe is when you learn that the impossibly dull, full of retread passive female sex object plot “complications” Cutey Honey Seed is on Volume 6, and the incredibly excellent, full of powerful females, and lots of yummy Yuri subtext Cutey Honey a GoGo failed to go past Volume 1 (update: This series was finally completed in 2007 in a Cutey Honey a-Gogo, Perfect Volume.) This is especially heinous considering the history of Honey, who was pretty much the first magical heroine who was completely self-sufficient and didn’t need a man to support her.

This particular iteration of the Cutie Honey Mythos comes from 2004, the same year that brought us the most awesome anime Re Cutie Honey AND the live action Cutie Honey movie, both of which were really great. (The movie, btw, is slated to be released here in the US this month. Here’s a link to it on Amazon.)

Well, Cutie Honey aGogo can easily be seen as the manga version of those fine anime and live action stories. While Na-chan’s character design is nothing like Ichikawa Mikako or the look-alike used in the anime, this is the Na-chan *I* would have created, had they asked me. (insert happy, yet slightly evil, laughter here.) In fact, the art was done by Itou Shinpei, the creator of Hyperdolls. I approve 100%.

In this version of the tale Aki Natsuko is a squad leader for the public safety bureau and her subordinates live in fear of her. Her butchy suit-wearing, chain smoking, gun wielding, impatient with everyone around her personality keeps all the guys working for her, in their place. She has her own personal butt boy, Todoroki, who lights her ciggies, gets her coffee, files her reports and is completely incapable of keep up with her on any level.

I think she’s perfect. ^_^

The story begins, as it does in so many of the other Cutie Honey adaptations, as evil Sister Jill and her Panther Claw gang have invaded the city. It is only the timely appearance of Cutie Honey that saves the city from total destruction. (Lots of blood and violence, as usual for a Honey story.) Of all the police and safety officers at the scene, the only one who has the balls to really involve herself is, of course, Aki Natsuko. Machine gun in hand, she throws herself into the mêlée.

When Butterfly Claw has been defeated, Na-chan takes it upon herself to arrest Honey for disturbing the peace. Honey likes this “reckless O-ne-i-san,” as she calls Natsuko. Like Sham-pu’s “Onee-nii-san” in Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, this form of address recognizes the “two-heart” quality Na-chan has. (In fact, she is later seen in a dress, and seems as comfortable in that as in the suit. But no less muscular and confident. I really like this Na-chan.)

The second time the Panther Claw attacks, Na-chan is all over it. She’s also right there with the handcuffs for Honey, who cheerfully…a little too cheerfully…goes along with her. There’s a great panel as Honey gives Na-chan a very knowing look as the handcuffs lock into place.

After she’s released for the second time, Honey (in disguise) brings Na-chan back to her father’s lab, and all the basics are explained – Honey is an android, the i-system, Sister Jill, etc, etc. Prof. Kisaragi asks Na-chan to befriend Honey and help her become more human. When Na-chan arrives home that night – there’s Honey, who wants to help wash her back in the tub. ^_^ Resigned, Na-chan can only comment on the size of Honey’s breasts. Of course. Because I’d think the same thing, if a *transforming android* was in my bathroom…

…

The end of the volume is the inevitable loss of Honey’s father, and her reliance on Na-chan for comfort and support as she sobs in grief and eat lots of gyuudon. Na-chan, not so good at the softer emotions, is maybe not as kind as she could be but she does her best as the book ends, promising to continue the story in the next volume – which it never did. This is *me* sobbing with grief. I have no doubt at all that this would have been the Yuriest version of the bunch. It was set up perfectly for it. Honey definitely had some interest in Na-chan, and my god, Na-chan is so gay, there is simply no way she would have been able to stop herself. When I write the inevitable fanfic, it will be *this* version I will be working with, you can be sure.

/mutter/Stupid dorky otaku who like sex dolls better than women with balls. You suck. It’s *your* fault that stupid Cutey Honey Seed is doing better than Cutie Honey a GoGo did. I blame each and every one of you personally./mutter/

Ratings:

Art – 7 (I did tell you it was Itou Shinpei? I like his art)
Story – 7 – the same story as always
Characters – 9 (Honey and Na-chan 4tW!)
Yuri – 4 with lots of potential
Service – 7 – please, this is Honey, we’re talking about. Hell, this is Nagai Go we’re talking about.

Dear Mr. Nagai – Please, oh please, make more Cutie Honey a Gogo!





Cutey Honey Seed Manga, Volume 1

May 19th, 2006

Ah, the perfect thing, to end trash week – Cutey Honey Seed. There are so many things wrong with this series I’m not sure where to begin.

Okay, so, let’s play “let’s pretend.” Let’s pretend that Cutey Honey is nothing more than a wildly successful franchise of anime, manga, live action movies, games and related goods. You know, the kind of things that appeal to lonely otaku… ;-)

Cutey Honey Seed is like the bastard child of every horrible impotent dorky boy – oversexed beautiful babe manga ever. We meet Yuuta, a typical example of otaku-dom. He’s got a beautiful girl living next door, Midori, who is really nice and *obviously* likes him, but hey, he’s too nerdy to actually ask her out or anything. So when an alien crashes nearby and he’s saddled with an even more beautiful girl, he’s paralytic with incompetence. He gives the alien the name Kisaragi Honey, just like his favorite media heroine.

Honey is an alien, therefore naive, innocent and impressionable in every way, except that she gets the “flaunting your body parts” part right. As circumstances require, she develops “super powers” just like the “real” Cutey Honey’s, in order to save herself, Yuuta and his loved ones. After she watches most of Yuuta’s Cutey Honey collection, she ends the volume by transforming as Honey does to please Yuuta – even going so far as to shout “Honey Flash!”.

For his part, Yuuta spends the entire volume being as tiresome as possible, trying to hide Honey’s existence and when that fails, just bald-facedly lie about her, while juggling sexual fantasies about Midori with sexually suggestive situations with Honey that he doesn’t follow up on. For her part, Midori, who stumbles upon Honey almost immediately, thereafter follows up by coming in on Yuuta and Honey in a remarkable number of suggestive positions without once being suspicious or irritated. How nice for Yuuta that the two women in his life are physically sexy without having a single brain cell between the two of them. To the kind of person who shares their evening with blow-up sex toys, these two must look like the perfect mate. Let us not forget the over-sexed teacher, Midori’s hostess mother, and Yuuta’s little sister. Yuuta is surrounded by a whole world of female stereotypes, none of which he will ever go to bed with. How exhausting.

Oh, and the cute actress that plays Cutie Honey in the movies that Yuuta likes is somehow drawn into the story, as well.

This series is written by Go Nagai, but not drawn by him and it looks it. The art is slick, typically harem-shounen-dorky boy with beautiful, frontal lobe-less babe. Nothing like Nagai’s disturbing and surreal take on the human form. In this first volume we’re not given any Panther Claw-type baddies – the emergencies Honey handles range from a pack of tedious guys trying to pick her up for a little light gang rape to Midori’s mom setting the house on fire by falling asleep with a cigarette lit. We can only *pray* for the intrusion of the Panther Claw. No Na-chan. Boo hoo.

Ratings:

Art – 6 It looks like every mediocre harem series ever.
Story – 4 A vaguely interesting meta-twist on on the Honey story
Characters – 1 Seriously, if you think these are good characters, you and I will never, ever be able to be friends
Yuri – 0
Service – 9
Overall – 3

Unless future volumes leap into my lap with a “YURI!” sticker on them, you won’t be seeing any more reviews of this series here.





Yuri Manga: Cutey Honey 1984

August 29th, 2005

I really wasn’t kidding when I said that the new shelves have allowed me to find stuff I haven’t seen in forever.

A few years ago Rica Takashima, the magnificent author of Rica ‘tte Kanji!?, was cleaning out her apartment and she gave me a bunch of cool early yuri magazines and manga. Her foundational works. One of these was a collected volume of the original Cutey Honey manga, by Go Nagai. When she gave me the book, she commented that, as a little lesbian, she was really into Honey, who was the first heroine who really didn’t need a man around at all. I never had a chance to read it thoroughly and then, as my manga collection grew out of control, I wasn’t able to find it. I knew it had to be *somewhere*, but couldn’t pin it down, until I got these new shelves. ^_^

Anyway, last night I sat down and really read the story and wow! was this one of the grimmest, most violent and depressing stories I’ve ever read! It was quite amazing.

The spoilage on this story is so huge that I won’t put it in the main review – I’ll add it in as the first comment, so no one who doesn’t really want to know has to suffer.

In any case, like the first iteration of Cutey Honey in anime, Kisaragi Honey is awakened as an android, the Black Claw attacks her father, she swears revenge. She attends a girl’s school and befriends Na-chan, who immediately falls for her more than a little. The two main teachers are, as in the anime, the openly lesbian and thoroughly repulsive Alphonse-sensei and the pinchy-faced and sadistic sensei who the girls all call “Histler.” (This is not a typo. Histler, *not* Hitler, nuh-uh.) The Prinicpal of the school is a no-name doughball who, before the final traumatic ending finds love (and hot, yet horrible to contemplate, lesbo sex) with Alphonse-sensei.

Honey sneaks off every night, naked transformation scenes abound and she always beats the Claw henchmen. Lalalala.

Oh, and btw, Seiji in the original manga is a total doofus. He mostly gets captured and tortured and Honey has to rescue him. I think Nagai-sensei really let his character get out of control and become too important in subsequent versions. Bad insane genius, bad!

Because this is Go Nagai, there is a ton of nakedness, male and female, lots of torture, some seriously hideous lesbians, and general horribleness of all kinds, including a topless gang leader with exceptionally hairy…erm, everything. Shudder. She was horrible.

The end of the main part of the story is violent with a capital “Oh my god!” Which was made truly appalling by the light-hearted romp that was the final chapter in which Honey destroys Sister Jill and sings her own musical theme.

Ratings:

Art – 6 (Early Go Nagai….bad anatomy….)
Characters – 3 (each more horrible than the last)
Story – 5 (c’mon! she has a CLAW coming out of her head!)
Yuri – 8

Overall – 5 for normal people.

On the whole, I really liked it, except when…oh, hell, I’ll admit it. I thought it was brilliant. Brilliant, disturbing, weirder than anything I could come up with on acid, Cutey Honey was, and is, a lesbian manga icon.