Cutey Honey
"Oshrii na chiisa na onno no ko" roughly translates to "the pretty girl with the cute butt"--and that's the second line in the opening to Cutey Honey's original opening theme, which tells you a little bit of what you're getting into.
Cutey Honey is the creation of famous manga artist and all-around nutcase Go Nagai, whose other works include Devilman, Mazinger, Violence Jack, and Kekko Kamen. In Nagai's original manga, Honey Kisaragi is a student at a Catholic girls' academy, where she gets into trouble a lot due to her love of pranks. Her scientist father is murdered by a criminal organization called Panther Claw, and Honey learns she's not even human: she's an android, created by her father. Moreover, she has a device implanted in her that allows her to create matter from air--and Panther Claw wants it. Honey creates the superhero persona Cutey Honey, and uses her matter generator to transform into various crimefighting forms.
To this point, Nagai's manga was fairly straightforward, and Toei Animation picked it up as an anime in 1973. Unfortunately, the time slot it was scheduled to go into as a girl-centered shojo series was taken up by another series, and Cutey Honey was slotted into later in the night, a slot traditionally reserved for boy-centered shonen series. Nagai ran with that: the series was made more violent, and Honey herself became nude during her transformations, with panty shots aplenty. Even her catchphrase, "Honey Flash!" was loaded with innuendo.
Ironically, a series originally intended as a magical girl show for girls became a magical girl show for guys, and Cutey Honey revolutionized the genre--setting the stage for later (and tamer) series, such as Sailor Moon. It also was a runaway success, and allowed Nagai to go on to bigger and better things. It was also a huge inspiration for an entire generation of future anime producers and manga artists, including Hideaki Anno (Evangelion) and Kentaro Miura (Berserk). Cutey Honey would get several reboots and manga sequels, including Cutey Honey Universe, which premiered in 2018.
I ran into this Cutey Honey cosplayer at Anime Central 2018, where she was helping to promote Cutey Honey Universe for Sentai Filmworks' HiDive streaming service. She wears Honey's "Cutey Honey" heroine form, complete with pink hair and sword; Honey actually has six other common forms (Hurricane, Misty, Idol, Flash and Fancy). She struck a typically Cutey heroic pose for me and several other photographers.
As a fan of Nagai's often bizarre and hilarious works, it was good to see Cutey Honey back after a long absence from anime.
Cutey Honey
"Oshrii na chiisa na onno no ko" roughly translates to "the pretty girl with the cute butt"--and that's the second line in the opening to Cutey Honey's original opening theme, which tells you a little bit of what you're getting into.
Cutey Honey is the creation of famous manga artist and all-around nutcase Go Nagai, whose other works include Devilman, Mazinger, Violence Jack, and Kekko Kamen. In Nagai's original manga, Honey Kisaragi is a student at a Catholic girls' academy, where she gets into trouble a lot due to her love of pranks. Her scientist father is murdered by a criminal organization called Panther Claw, and Honey learns she's not even human: she's an android, created by her father. Moreover, she has a device implanted in her that allows her to create matter from air--and Panther Claw wants it. Honey creates the superhero persona Cutey Honey, and uses her matter generator to transform into various crimefighting forms.
To this point, Nagai's manga was fairly straightforward, and Toei Animation picked it up as an anime in 1973. Unfortunately, the time slot it was scheduled to go into as a girl-centered shojo series was taken up by another series, and Cutey Honey was slotted into later in the night, a slot traditionally reserved for boy-centered shonen series. Nagai ran with that: the series was made more violent, and Honey herself became nude during her transformations, with panty shots aplenty. Even her catchphrase, "Honey Flash!" was loaded with innuendo.
Ironically, a series originally intended as a magical girl show for girls became a magical girl show for guys, and Cutey Honey revolutionized the genre--setting the stage for later (and tamer) series, such as Sailor Moon. It also was a runaway success, and allowed Nagai to go on to bigger and better things. It was also a huge inspiration for an entire generation of future anime producers and manga artists, including Hideaki Anno (Evangelion) and Kentaro Miura (Berserk). Cutey Honey would get several reboots and manga sequels, including Cutey Honey Universe, which premiered in 2018.
I ran into this Cutey Honey cosplayer at Anime Central 2018, where she was helping to promote Cutey Honey Universe for Sentai Filmworks' HiDive streaming service. She wears Honey's "Cutey Honey" heroine form, complete with pink hair and sword; Honey actually has six other common forms (Hurricane, Misty, Idol, Flash and Fancy). She struck a typically Cutey heroic pose for me and several other photographers.
As a fan of Nagai's often bizarre and hilarious works, it was good to see Cutey Honey back after a long absence from anime.