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kawaiiguy's Cutey Honey Tv Review

Cutey Honey tv Review

Story & Characters

Note: This is a review for Re:Cutie Honey, released in 2004/2005

Kiseragi Honey is an ordinary girl. She's frequently late, somewhat of a flake, and loves her friends. She likes cute things and is a major hit with the male population. Underneath her busty exterior, however, is a killing machine capable of transforming into any number of alter-egos. Sometimes she's a gorgeous biker, sometimes she's a helpful nurse, and sometimes she's a witty television producer. Her true identity? Soldier of love, warrior of justice, Cutie Honey!

A mysterious evil has appeared to terrorize the people of Tokyo. Going by the name Panther Claw, they send out their drones to wreck havoc and impress their mistress, Sister Jill. Throw in a witty reporter, a sharp shooting female officer, and a whole bunch of leg-humping card-playing car-exploding chibi-cops and the WTF meter goes off the charts.

Honey must fight this evil, using the special powers gifted to her by her late father, who was taken by Panther Claw's henchmen. It's her sword versus their guns as she charges into the fray, losing bits of clothing and leaving her dignity behind. The craziness just doesn't stop!

Rating: 7

Art

One of the things that struck me about Honey was the boldness in lines and color. The series looks and feels very "classic." The style has a very retro feel that was updated with modern animation techniques. The colors are bright and comic book-like, as if they were lifted straight from the pages of a magazine.

Since each episode was directed by a different person, each carried a slightly mood. The first episode was extremely outrageous and silly. The presence of an insane number of chibi cops enforces this. Seriously, they were everywhere. They were humping Nat-chan's leg, playing mahjong while the police cars were being blown up, and overall looking way to happy to be on the verge of death. Lots of freeze-frame animation was used in this episode as well.

In contrast, the third episode was far darker. Honey faces off against Sister Jill in this episode and the colors were much deeper and more intense. There were far less places for the battle scenes to be outrageous, but it quickly flipped around after the fight was over.

Overall, the art of Re:Cutie Honey fully met my expectations for a modern OVA. It was well planned out and provided a great deal of eye candy to the viewer. I certainly was never bored with the explosions, bright flashes, chibi cops, and fight scenes.

Rating: 7

Sound

As with the art, the music fits the retro 70s motif. While most of the background music shared a common theme, it certainly had a lot of variety. It ranged from comedic and light-hearted to sad and blue. The action sequences had music to match, mostly with quick paced and upbeat rhythms. Most of the soundtrack reminds me of Sumomo's Theme from Chobits, but far less annoying. The background music was far from disappointing and worked extremely well with the visuals.

The opening theme song was yet another re-record of the original Cutey Honey theme from the 70s. This time, it features Koda Kumi as the vocalist and an update version of the original instrumental. The theme has a very upbeat feel, with the background being decorated by a plucked bass (the string instrument, not a guitar). Some versions of the theme feature an R&B rift, but it isn't present in the album version. In my opinion, this was an extremely well done rendition of the theme and my favorite out of all of them.

Rating: 8

Presentation

Re:Cutie Honey was extremely enjoyable to watch. It was weird, funny, entertaining, and indecent all at the same time. The ecchiness wasn't wildly overdone like in some other series, but there is a decent amount of uncovered skin. It has a bit more than past Honey, though I wouldn't expect any less from Go Nagi. I loved the way the entire series worked together, story, music, and art. It certainly feels polished and well thought out. In addition to the new OVA, a live-action movie was also made. It features the same story line and comedic overtone. Most of the music was also the same.

If you're a fan of past Honey, you may not actually like the newest edition to the Honey legacy. It's far more light-hearted than the past versions and much more extreme. It scores high on the WTF scale (somewhere between along the lines of Excel Saga). Likewise, if you enjoyed Re:CH, you may not like past Honey. After watching (and liking) Re:CH, I found the original OVA and second TV series to be unpolished and boring. This is certainly the first time that Honey has been made an all-out comedy that doesn't take itself extremely seriously.

If this iteration of Honey were to make it to the domestic shores, I would seriously considering purchasing the DVDs. I liked it that much. It gets my seal of approval!

Rating: 8

Final Verdict

7.5000 (good)

Reviewed by kawaiiguy, Jun 29, 2005

Comments

  1. crsg Jun 29, 2005

    Sounds like a good review to me - the anime you obviously have a good opinion about, yet you were'nt biased about it.

  2. UberDog Mar 23, 2015

    Nice review, really like the details.

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