#53 – Cutey Honey

Go Nagai is, as we say chez Brack, THE SHIT.

Innovator of anime and manga, and even more importantly victim of accusations of being the cause of moral decay, the man is unstoppable. While his draftsmanship and anatomy are far from the best, his creations have a pure pulp energy to them misisng from many artists work.

And Cutey Honey is his most popular creation, one that is continually revised and revisted for new generations. His creations dominated the US/UK market of the nineties through Manga Entertainment and ADV, and although his popularity seems to have declined this decade, Cutey Honey is still going strong.

Cutey Honey is the story of the titular character, an android capable of changing shape by saying “Honey Flash”. She is pitted against the evil “Panther Claw” organisation responsible for her “father's” death.

The first TV series ran 1973-74, and is the source of the above clip, with TWO manga (one by Go Nagai, one by Ken Ishikawa) running concurrently.

A second Honey manga ran in 1992-93 (I think this was the one released in the states by Glen Danzig's comic label), with an OVA series “New Cutey Honey” released 1994-95.

In 1997, Cutey Honey Flash was launched as a TV show and again TWO manga series (one by Ken Ishikawa & Kazuyuki Sasaki, the second by Yukako Īsaka). Unlike previous incarnations this is more family friendly and written as a straight shojo magical girl show. And Cutey Honey isn't an android here.

Go Nagai started another manga incarnation in 2001, and in 2004 Gainax made the Hideaki Anno-directed live action Cutey Honey film, staring Eriko Sato. In addition they released a 3-part OAV series Re:Cutey Honey, which is awesome. It beggars belief that it has not been licensed, one can only imagine the price is too high.