Archive for the Cutie Honey Category


Live Action: Cutie Honey Movie

November 8th, 2004

All hail Go Nagai!

Everything about the previews for the Cutie Honey movie, had me squirming with embarrassment. It looked like it was going to be a travesty of immense proportion, much along the lines of the Kekkou Kamen live action (if you can really call them that…) movies.

Instead, I was amazed at the translation of the cheesy, yet charming, anime into an equally cheesy and perhaps even more charming live action movie. Right off the bat, the bad guys rocked. Their costumes were amazing, they actually acted the parts like they cared, and the special effects were exactly the right level of screamingly bad/amusingly good.

Satou Eriko was stellar as Honey. She was cute, she was enthusiastic and genki…she was an irritating bubble-head, and you couldn’t help but smile at her antics. And while the opening scenes had a fair amount of Eriko in underwear fanservice, that was basically it for the movie. As the plot progessed the fanservice sort of tails off into dress-up scenes, and then completely disappears. Refreshing and a bit puzzling, since in the beginning there’s so much energy, and by the end of the movie everyone looks ready to call it a day and go home.

The opening sequence was a *perfect* reproduction of the Cutey Honey Flash anime, while the rest of the movie has more in common with the new Re Cutie Honey anime that I reviewed last week. (Although, quite inexplicably Sister Jill has been turned into an ugly guy. In fact, the portrayal of Jill was significant in the lack of energy in the ending. Sister Jill wasn’t just draining the people of Townsville’s energy – she was sucking mine away too. But I digress.) Unlike the anime, we got to enjoy the wacky capers of the Panther Claw hench-dudes, who are always, erm, yeah.

Aki Natsuko was played to a tee by Ichikawa Mikako (who looks alot more like Na-chan than any real human should…). There was a bit too much Seiji – played with vim, vigor and the appropriate arrogance by Murakami Jun – especially at the end, where his exceptional competence annoyed the hell out of me.

The movie comes in at a lower yuri score than the anime, but still, the vibe between Na-chan and Honey was still recognizably there. If Seiji backed off for a second, I think you’d see some sparks flying. And in the end it was Na-chan and Honey who cry in each other’s arms, while Seiji just sort of looks out of place. So there, Seiji – nyah. ^_^

A few other nice touches – Go Nagai has a cameo as the driver of a car upon which Honey falls, butt first. He looks extra happy to be looking up at the view. ^_^; And the remix of the Cutey Honey theme by Koda Kumi absolutely *rocks.* Her voice is a little deeper and breathier than the anime versions. The video for the theme is refreshingly awful and I highly recommend everyone watch it until, you, like me, sing the damn theme for weeks on end, non-stop. Can you say “sticky”? I knew you could.

The movie did have some weak areas, especially the lackluster ending. I don’t know why, but Japanese live-action movies really suck the life out of bad guys. The live action Hana no Asuka-gumi movie had the same problem – Hibari was turned into the same kind of non-presence as Sister Jill in this movie. When the bad guy is supposed to be the motivation for the heroine’s actions, you’d *think* they’d give us an energetic and charismatic baddie…but instead, we tend to get colorless non-entities who barely even move their mouths. Drives me crazy. Especially when Sister Jill was so great in the anime. Oh well.

In every other way, however, this movie is a must-see for fans of yuri, classic anime, inutterable cheesiness or all of the above. It looked like everyone on the set was having a really, really good time making this movie, something that they communicated through their acting. It left me with a really good feeling about the whole thing.

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

Overall – A really strong 8.

This was one of the most enjoyable movies I’ve seen all year, bar none. I can’t recommend it enough. If I had seen this in the theater I would have been shouting and cheering through the entire first half like a lunatic. ^_^





Yuri Anime: Re Cutie Honey

November 5th, 2004

Let us all get on our knees and worship at the deranged altar of Go Nagai. (Oh, mighty one, we worship you and your totally insane need to give us sweet, innocent, yet frequently naked, heroines.)

Back in July, I reviewed the Cutey Honey manga and Cutey Honey Flash anime, as collected in the Anime Essential Collection. Today, it is my *great* pleasure to review what has been, to me, the most deeply satisfying anime I’ve seen all season. Re Cutie Honey strikes a perfect balance between honestly good and enjoyably bad.

Produced by Gainax In their 20th anniversary year, the animation for Re Cutie Honey feels like Powerpuff Girls meets Batman. More angular than past incarnations, more action-filled (although with less violence, go figure) the new Cutie Honey has changed more than just the spelling of her name.

Like all incarnations of Honey, this OVA begins with an origin episode that establishes the bad science behind Honey’s creation, and her blonde good-girl persona as Kusanagi Honey. In this incarnation, she appears to be an Office Lady in a city government office.

We are quickly introduced to Aki Natsuko (“Na-chan”) a tough-as-nails female cop, who almost instantly dislikes Honey and everything she stands for. For Na-chan, justice is not about flashy costume changes and mass destruction, but grunt work and police procedure – and she resents the damage that Honey’s “justice” leaves behind.

Complicating matters, Honey and Na-chan are next-door neighbors. Honey tries to make amends, and desperately wants to be liked by Na-chan, but the policewoman has worked too hard and long to see Honey’s point of view.

Episode 1 passes with nary a shared look between the two, but in Episode 2, Na-chan and Honey have a blowup, as Na-chan totally rejects Honey’s overture of friendship. The two spend a tearful, melancholic night separated by a single physical wall and a huge emotional one. Honey, rejected and distraught, shuts down in the middle of her next battle, but Na-chan, realizing that Honey actually *needs* love to survive, strips down and brings her back to life in a spectacular use of fanservice.

Episode 3 concludes the highly charged arc between them, as baddie Sister Jill (we’ve lost the original Panther Claw and her gang of mask-wearing baddies) tries to take over the town. Sister Jill desires to possess Honey (as well as, of course, the rest of the world.) It turns out that Sister Jill was also created by Honey’s father, and so is a kind of big sister to Honey, although Jill’s desire for Honey doesn’t seem particularly sisterly, if you know what I mean.

But, of course, love wins the day, as a super butched-up, bristling with weapons Na-chan takes on Sister Jill and with a faux-kiss that was pretty sweet, once again gives Honey the will to survive. The battle ends with a big bang, but I knew that the story wasn’t over, because I’m an old hand at this, and Honey *never* dies.

The epilogue shows us the new improved butchy Na-chan and Honey have gone into business together and appear to be (to discerning eyes wearing their Yuri goggles) a couple. As they ride off to the scene of the next attack, Na-chan in her Akio-red car and Honey on her motorcycle (we remember what *that* means,right?) we can sit back and bask in the knowledge that fanfic writers everywhere are working on their “Honey and Na-chan get it on” fics even as we smile.

Good, bad and indifferent all at once, Re Cutie Honey is a thumbs up for fans would don’t mind taking their Yuri with a shaker or two of parody, perversion and pathos.

Ratings:
Story – 6
Characters – 9
Art – 8
Music – 9
Yuri – 9

Overall – 8.

“Hey, You got your Gainax in my Go Nagai!”
“Hey! Your Go Nagai’s in my Gainax!”
“Mmmm, delicious.”





Yuri Manga – Yuri Anime: Cutey Honey

July 22nd, 2004

What’s that, you say? Cutey Honey has no Yuri? Well, you are both right…and wrong. This is, after all, Go Nagai’s baby, and hence, *will* have implicit, mild Yuri.

Let me back up. I was given a copy of the original Cutey Honey collection, circa 1985, from Rica Takashima, who was cleaning out her closets and thought, “A-ha! Here’s a desperate gaijin who loves crap! I’ll give it to her!” And she as right – I love crap…and I have a house in America, not a small apartment in Tokyo, so I can coexist with far more crap than she. She told me that Cutey Honey was her first favorite manga, because she was the first anime/manga superheroine not to need a man at all – that she’s totally independent and that throughout the series, she saves girls from various threats repeatedly. In effect, the perfect heroine for a young, Japanese babydyke.

And so I received the manga for Cutey Honey. Upon initial review, there is some mild akogare, as Cutey Honey is assigned to a private girls’ school to protect the innocent lambs from their troublesome, and occasionally lascivious, teachers (including the female ones.) Honey’s schtick is a full-frontal nude transformation, so there is alot of nudity, Honey’s and the other girls’, because, like I said, this is Go Nagai. The adoration the rescued girls have for Honey is sweet and really not terribly sexual, except as it’s frequently expressed while both parties are naked, it adds to the Yuri ambiance. ^_^

I also have a volume of the New Cutey Honey manga, which ran in 2002 or so, and that is quite a bit darker and more adult. The art has become more sophisticated, there’s a lot more blood, but less Yuri. I think as Go Nagai has aged, he’s decided that blood sells better than sex, because all his newer stuff is darker and violent. I keep meaning to look for more of this series to see whether there’s the usual implied Yuri, but it keeps slipping my mind.

BUT, last night I indulged in a spot of watching Cutey Honey Essential Collection, Episode 2 gave me *just* what I was hoping for – an evil S&M-type ojousama baddy, named the “Jewel Princess,” with too little clothes and a pretty girl fixation, who wanted to posses Honey’s body in a decidedly not nice way. :-) To my delight, when Honey transforms, she does so with these words, “You may call your self a Princess, but…” [insert nude henshin, while Erica grins like a moron, because she knows what’s coming next] “…but you can call me *Queen.*” At which I clap my hands in delight, because Honey has transformed into her “S&M Queen” form. And when the Jewel Princess *also* claps her hands and says, “Oh! Now I *really* want this one!” it just made my day. ^_^

So, of course, Honey defeats the evil princess – which is a terrible shame – and delivers a kiss to the peach-fuzzed cheek of the young lad who is the hero of the show, but I, and all other Yuri fans, know that there will be more than one evil Princess lurking out there who wants to possess Honey. ^_^

So, okay, this series is NOT a “yuri” show. It does have moments, and occasional whole episodes of big Yuri fun…and the manga has lots of naked girls hugging.

The “Yuri goggle” rating on Cutey Honey: Anime – 7; Manga – 6

And, before I go, let us not forget that a new live-action Cutey Honey movie has just been made. It looks not *quite* as awful as the live action Kekkou Kamen, but you know I’m going to have to see it one day.  It pairs Honey up with “seemingly cold policewoman Natsuko Aki” and you what *that* means, right? ^_^