The most recent anime incarnation of the classic character.
Kawaru wa yo! ("I'm going to change!")
—Honey Kisaragi (quote from the end of the legendary OP song)
A popular superheroine from the bizarre mind of Go Nagai. Notable, among other things, for being one of the first female characters to star in a shounen series and through inspiration, the prototypicalMagical Girl Warrior.In the original series from the 70s, Honey Kisaragi was created as a Replacement Goldfish for a scientist's dead daughter, until the criminal organization (with ties to The Legions of Hell) "Panther Claw" kills the scientist while trying to steal his other Applied Phlebotinum. Honey soon acquires a secret identity as an Ordinary High School Student while fighting Panther Claw's forces, including an especially freaky set of Monsters Of The Week in the service of Big Bad Sister Jill and her Quirky Miniboss Squad.Honey's main power is the Phlebotinum her father was killed for — her body contains the only prototype. Most modern adaptations explain it with Nanomachines, but it's capable of assembling virtually any object from thin air (and disassembling them, too). Honey uses this to become a Voluntary Shapeshifter, able to switch between several forms with matching abilities, costumes, and hair — especially her most powerful form, the sword-wielding Redheaded Heroine Cutey Honey.While later revivals and the various manga are usually full of playful Fanservice, the original television adaptation was just tame and pretty enough to attract an unexpected number of younger female fans. It was also later broadcast in France under the title "Cherry Miel" ("Cherry Honey") - albeit not until 1989. It still wasn't enough to stop the original series from getting cancelled over its then-racy content.Ironically, Cutey Honey was usually described as a superhero and not a magical girl, but her spiritual descendants have essentially melded back into the genre to produce the Magical Girl Warrior. Most anime of that ilk owe a lot to Honey. Sailor Moon's very early broadcast incarnation, in particular, owes much to the visual tropes done in Cutey Honey, right down to her In the Name of the Moon speech and her ability to transform. (Go Nagai eventually did create a "traditional" Magical Girl, the more kid-friendly and less successful Majokko Tickle, in 1978.)The anime has been revived several times over the years:
Cutey Honey Flash: This incarnation was directly aimed at Sailor Moon's demographic - in fact, it was the next series to air in its timeslot after the last season and shared a lot of the same production staff. Aside from obvious reasons, was tweaked to play up the Magical Girl aspects of the character, right down to a sparkling stock footage Transformation Sequence and a Frilly Upgrade. This version also introduced a now standard trope, the Dark Magical Girl, Misty Honey.
Most recently, a Toku live-action series, Cutie Honey: THE LIVE aired in 2007. This series revolved around Honey (and two counterparts introduced later) fighting a radically different version of the Panther Claw. Quite possibly the most bizarre series yet as it pinballs between utterly shameless So Bad, It's Good fanservice and utterly serious, dark drama.
There have also been several different manga adaptations of the franchise.Despite its status as a legendary and influential anime in Japan, Cutie Honey is almost entirely unknown in North America. This series is not to be confused with another old-school anime, Honey Honey - although coincidentally both Honey Honey and the original Cutey Honey TV series had the same head writer (Masaki Tsuji) and some of the same animation/directorial staff.
Tropes found in multiple versions of this series:
Action Girl: OH SO MUCH. Every anime Action Girl is just following the example Honey established way back when. She's to anime what Samus Aran is to video games.
Anime Anatomy: Sometimes averted, with hair, scraps of still-transforming clothing, or camera angles keeping her out of NC-17 turf. Sometimes you get the Sailor Moon-esque situation of glowiness not letting you see anything (though really, it's just a little brighter over the areas you need to not display during primetime.)
Anime Theme Song: One of the most famous in anime history and covered for every subsequent production.
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: "You're under arrest on charges of robbery, destruction of property, running red lights, speeding, no helmet, and so on!" From New Cutey Honey.
Between My Legs: Commonly shows up in nearly every version of the show, usually as a Fanservice shot, not least of which is one of these shots with Honey's bare butt in the camera in Re: Cutey Honey.
Big Eater: The live-action movie and Re: Cutey Honey versions were this because of their powers; if they were too hungry, they lost vital energy and couldn't transform.
Bragging Theme Tune: The theme song talks about how great Honey is, including her fashion sense and bouncy her boobs are. Also see Honey's spiritual descendant Majokko Megchan, whose Bragging Theme Tune was sung by the same vocalist as the original Cutie Honey theme.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: A scene in the original TV series in which Honey is hanging on a cross (in an homage to Go Nagai's first popular manga series, Harenchi Gakuen) and one side of Honey's torn sleeveless unitard-dress is drooping down, exposing her breast, but stopping literally JUST short of exposing the nipple. One of her tormentors remarks, "That's as far as the broadcasters let us go."
Once per episode, almost without fail (At least in New Cutey Honey - in one episode the villain interrupted her by running away and she lampshaded how you don't interrupt the heroine's speech), Honey would recite the following to the villain: (Laughs) Sometimes I'm (the first shape she took in the episode), sometimes I'm (second form she took in the episode), and sometimes I'm (third form she took), but the truth is...HONEY FLASH! (Cue Transformation Sequence) Lovely Warrior...Cutey Honey-san!
Clothing Damage: Honey's clothes are shredded off during every transformation sequence, as with her the transformation's not just for audience benefit: the device within her that can rearrange matter is actually dismantling her clothes and reforming them, leaving her naked for real in real space, as opposed to the way transformations (including magical girl naked silhouette ones) are sometimes shown or implied to not look to the outside world the way the Transformation Sequence looks to the viewer. Re:Cutie Honey even had her clothes disintegrate whenever she got hungry. And there's plenty of combat-induced Clothing Damage, too.
Combat Pragmatist: Honey will use ANY and ALL dirty trick she can think of. She never plays for the enemy's rules.
Cool Bike: "Hurricane Honey" seems able to either materialize or find one at will.
The Corruption: This is how quasi-innocents become Monsters of the Week in some continuities.
Defeat by Modesty... which is averted completely and utterly. Honey treats nudity more as a minor inconvenience at best.
Dirty Old Man: Grandpa Danbei from the manga and New Cutey Honey.
Distracted by the Sexy: Honey Kisaragi used this as one of her WEAPONS. Although sometimes her transforming device worked wrong and she did it accidentally.
Distressed Dude: Every notable male character will always end up needing to be rescued by Honey.
Dumb Blonde: Honey Kisaragi in civilian mode, depending on the version.
Fan Disservice: The original manga has a lot of nudity, and it's not all Honey. There's the bullies at Honey's school — fat, hairy, and always topless — a private detective who never wears pants and whose anus frequently spurts blood, and Danbei's penis.
Foe Yay: Several examples; in the original manga, Sister Jill tried making a pass at Honey during a Phlebotinum Breakdown just before the final battle.
Genius Ditz: Exactly how much of a ditz and how much of a genius varies alot in every incarnation of the character.
New Cutey Honey was the only one to buck this trend, if only slightly. The majority of the monsters were female, but occasionally there were male goons and Monsters Of TheMontage. Not to mention that the Decoy Leader before Panther Zora reappeared, Lord Dolmeck, was pretty manly.
Mood Whiplash: It's hilarious and fanservicey.. and horrible things sometimes happen to characters you like.
More than Mind Control: Panther Zora recruits several Monsters Of The Week this way. In the latter half of New Cutey Honey we see this in action; a huge, muscular woman (part of a quartet of thieves) slowly becomes more psychotic as she succumbs to her rage and Zora's Mind Rape, and eventually she turns into an acid-spewing monster fully under Panther Zora's control and willing to kill (or try to kill) her former True Companions without a thought simply For the Evulz.
Refuge in Audacity: New Cutey Honey and Re: Cutey Honey don't even try to be subtle in their blatant fanservice.
Replacement Goldfish: Honey herself, created as the "replacement" for Dr. Kisaragi's dead daughter (though before dying, Daddy told her she should become her own person). In New Cutey Honey, she shows signs of this towards that version of Natsuko after the original's Heroic Sacrifice.
Averted somewhat in Re: Cutie Honey, where Honey is the original daughter's mind resurrected in an android body.
A darker version is shown in The Live. Proffy Kisaragi mortally wounded Miki and killed her family, made her into android with his daughter's memory, and then threw her away when he realized she was flawed. Miki came back to kill him later, though. He'd also done it to Yuki, and her memories of her life are all fake; he at least gave her what she thought was a good life after she proved flawed, though. The reason this Honey is The Ditz and not an Obfuscating Stupidity version is because he needed to make a replacement someone capable of loving anyone - even the monster he even saw himself as by this point.
Revival: Several times — New Cutey Honey, Cutey Honey F, The Movie, Re: Cutie Honey, and Cutie Honey: The Live.
A weird case of a revival revival: New Cutey Honey had a definite air of finality in its fourth episode, but production got renewed for four more OVAs, so Panther Zora started injecting her will into certain violent individuals to turn them into monsters.
Spared by the Adaptation: Alphonne and Miharu are killed off in the original manga during the attack on Honey's school and this is Played for Laughs. They get to live in the anime, where they made more appearances and such unceremonious deaths would have felt inappropriate.
Also spared in the anime: all of the students at Honey's school except Natsuko.
The original Cutey Honey was kicked off by the death of Dr. Kisaragi, Honey's father. In Cutey Honey Flash, he is merely kidnapped.
Spell My Name with an S: The series title has been both "Cutey" and "Cutie" over the years. The most recent releases use "Cutie", such as 'Re:Cutie Honey", but the older series definitely spell it "Cutey".
Talking Is a Free Action: Just about every episode, before one of her Transformation Sequences, Honey will recap the forms she's taken that episode before transforming into her Red Haired Warrior form.
Theme Tune Cameo: Idol Honey sings the anime theme song while on stage. Chokkei's father sings it to himself while peeping on Honey.
The Load: Almost in every adaptation the majority of the male characters have at best been helpful mowing down a couple of mooks (who are also men. Notice the pattern?), but will ultimately always become the Distressed Dude, leaving Cutie Honey to save the day.
Transformation Sequence: Which is either more or less fanservicey depending on which incarnation you're watching.
Younger Than They Look: Honey passes for a 16-year old human when she's not transformed to look older or younger, but was built more recently than that.
Bittersweet Ending: Panther Claw is never completely defeated in any series.
Sacrificial Lamb: Natsuko in the original manga and TV series. Prof. Kisaragi and Seira in Cutey Honey Flash.
Glamour Failure: In Episode 3, Honey and Seiji wonder why the owner of a new jewelry store refuses to let reporters take photos of her. Turns out she's a Panther Claw minion in disguise, and the camera shows her true form.
Hey, It's That Voice!: Danbei is voiced by the same guy (Ichiro Nagai) who voiced Happosai in Ranma ½ and Cherry in Urusei Yatsura. Honey's voice actress (Eiko Masuyama) is probably best known to Westerners as Fujiko Mine in Lupin III.
Hostage for MacGuffin: The baddies try this a lot, usually using Seiji, Junpei, and/or Danbei as the hostage.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Dr. Kisaragi brings this up in the first episode with his "What is a human? What is a robot?" speech, the gist of which is that even though Honey is an android, he still loves her like a daughter.
The Starscream: When Sister Jill chastised Dragon Panther, her subordinate openly rebelled, declaring Jill was too weak to order her around, and she would kill her and fill her position. It did not work how she expected it to.
This IS Unforgivable: Being a HotBloodedAction Girl, Honey is bound to utter the sentence several times. One example happened shortly after one of Panther Claw minions charred her best friend to ashes:
Honey: "Not only They did kil my papa... And blow up my school and kill my friends... My best friend.. They killed Natsu-chan too! I won't forgive you, Panther Claw! No matter what happens to my body, I will kill each and every member of Panther Claw!"
This Page Will Self Destruct: Dr. Kisaragi's robot recording and house do this after delivering his posthumous exposition. Honey is about this close to leaving Seiji to die so he can't tell anyone.
Anti-Villain: Natsuko's former friends Gene, Pokey, and Jan stole a bomb with plans to hold it for ransom, and then use the money to start over somewhere else. The bomb heist was going to be their last heist, before Gene got Hijacked by Panther Zora and killed Pokey and Jan.
Dude Looks Like a Lady: An inversion. Gene looked more like a Go Nagai man; huge, muscular, masculine haircut.
Foe Yay: Used as a diversion. Rocker Saline discovers Honey searching her dressing room, so to get out Honey pretends to be an enamored fan who loves Saline. A flustered and horrified Saline throws Honey out of her dressing room, screaming "I'm not into THAT!" (Honey, on the other hand, says "that was kind of fun!")
Immortality Begins at Twenty: Honey looks a few years older in New Cutey Honey, possibly due to having used her transformation abilities to age just out of puberty.
Lampshade Hanging: Quite a bit in Volume 2, though often it's straight fourth-wall breaking - like when Honey says she's contractually obligated to wear a bulletproof bra because the fans would be devastated if anything happened to her breasts.
Older Than They Look: Honey looks a few years older than she did in the original series, but not the over one hundred years she actually is by then.
Outlaw Couple: Daiko and Akakabu (Chokkei's parents)'.
The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Chokkei's parents Akakabu and Daiko rob banks for a living, but we only see this once during the intro, and they fail spectacularly as everyone in the bank lobby is armed and gunning for them as soon as they fire a warning shot.
Plot-Relevant Age-Up; The "Black Maiden" (a nude girl in a bottle on top of a suit of armor) turns out to really be Panther Zora's reincarnated form; when Dolmeck's armor is cracked open, evil power courses out and ages her back to her adult form.
Shout Out: This version has numerous nods to Go Nagai's other works.
Spy Catsuit: Invoked — Chokkei and Grandpa Danbei wear these while on a spying mission with Honey, and Danbei persuades her that she really needs to change into one, too. Danbei is disappointed when his grandson keeps him from peeping on the Transformation Sequence.
Stone Wall: Akakabu's "fighting style" (if you can call it that) is simply to absorb more punishment than the opponent can dish out. Daiko fell in love with this determination (because she was unable to defeat him, no matter how many times he got the crap kicked out of him).
A-Team Firing: Natsuko is Genre Savvy enough to take advantage of this; she either doesn't move or walks into the barrage of enemy bullets, and simultaneously takes out the Mooks firing at her with just a few well-placed bullets of her own.
Extended Disarming: When asked to hand over her pistol, Nastuko leaves behind a huge pile of firearms... and afterwards transfers the spare that was strapped to her thigh to her shoulder holster.
They Fight Crime: Honey, Miki and Yuki had a brief gig as a team of three in The Live. Of course, Miki and Yuki's system flaws, coupled with Yuki being manipulative, made sure that this partnership didn't last long.
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