Cutie Honey/Cutie Honey
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| Cutie Honey | |
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Cutie HoneyキューティーハニーKyūtī Hanī | |
| Genre | Magical girl, Shōjo, Shōnen |
| Anime series: Cutie Honey | |
| Directed by | |
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| Original run |
October 13,1973 — March 30, 1974 |
| No. of episodes |
25 |
Cutie Honey (キューティーハニー, Kyūtī Hanī; also spelled Cutey Honey) is a Japanese media franchise created by Go Nagai. Cutie Honey first appears on volume 41 of the 1973 edition of Shōnen Champion. The titular character of Honey is considered the prototype for the transforming magical girl.
Nagai's inspiration for the character of Honey comes from two classic tokusatsu superhero shows, 7-Color Mask (1959) and Rainbowman (1972). Both, creations of Yasunori Kawauchi, featured superheroes with seven different forms. Another Kawauchi creation, "Gekko Kamen", is parodied in Go Nagai's Kekkō Kamen. Honey is notable for being mischievous for a Japanese female hero, often teasing her male friends and mocking her enemies in combat. When transforming into Cutie Honey, she gives a brief rundown of the forms she has previously taken in that particular episode, and then declares, "But my true identity is..." before yelling "HONEY FLASH!" and transforming.
The franchise spans two animated TV series, two OVA series, numerous manga series, a drama CD, and two live action adaptations.
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[edit] General plot synopsis
Honey Kisaragi is a regular Catholic schoolgirl, until the day her father is murdered by the "Panther Claw" Organization. After his death, she learns she is actually an android created by him and within her is the Fixed System of Air Elements. By saying "Honey Flash!" she can transform into the sword-wielding red-haired superhero, Cutie Honey.
Panther Claw is ruled by Panther Zora, and her younger sibling Sister Jill. Their main goal is unlimited wealth, and obtaining the Fixed System of Air Elements. The series chronicles Honey's quest for revenge against the Panther Claw while attending Saint Chapel School for Girls. Aiding Honey in her quest for revenge is Hayami Danbei and his two sons, Seiji (a newspaper reporter and Honey's would-be love interest) and Junpei (who has a major crush on Honey, even though he already has a girlfriend).
At school, Honey is something of a "class clown," delighting in teasing her teacher Alphonne and tormenting Miharu, the strict dormitory dean. Much of the comic relief in the original TV series comes from Honey's exploits at school. Miharu initially sees Honey as an incorrigible pest, but Alphonne is attracted to Honey and goes out of her way to be nice to her. Honey's best friend at school is the cute, freckle-faced Aki "Natchan" Natsuko. In the manga, Natchan (as well as the other students) had a crush on Honey, though this was downplayed in the TV series.
[edit] Cutie Honey TV
The Cutie Honey TV series began on 13 October 1973 and ran until 30 March 1974. The TV series is much tamer than the manga version, removing much of the violence, gross out humor and lesbian undertones (aside from Miss Alphonne's apparent attraction to Honey). The anime borrows the Paradise School and the characters Naojiro and Goeman, a teacher at Paradise School, from Go Nagai's Abashiri Family.
Outside of Japan, the only country in which the original Cutie Honey TV series was released was France, where it aired under the title Cherry Miel ("Cherry Honey") in 1989.
For a television anime series, the original Cutie Honey achieved respectable ratings in Japan. Its peak rating was 11.6% for episode 18 (broadcast February 11, 1974); the series generally scored ratings of around 8-10% (1).
[edit] Staff
- Director: Tomoharu Katsumata, Kozo Morishita, Osamu Kasai, Hiroshi Shidara, Nobuo Onuki
- Script: Masaki Tsuji, Susumu Takaku, Keisuke Fujikawa
- Character Design: Shingo Araki
- Animation Director: Shingo Araki, Masamune Ochiai, Joji Kikuchi, Eiji Uemura, Kenzo Koizumi, Kazuhiko Udagawa, Takeshi Shirado, Satoshi Jingu, Kazuo Komatsubara, Shinya Takahashi
- Music: Takeo Watanabe
- Japanese Theme Song Performance: Yoko Maekawa (OP: Cutie Honey; ED: Yogiri no Honey)
- Producer: Toshio Katsuta
- Production: Toei Animation Co., Ltd. / Dynamic Pro / NET TV (now TV Asahi)
- Japanese Cast: Eiko Masuyama (Honey Kisaragi/Cutie Honey), Katsuji Mori (Seiji Hayami), Joji Yanami (Professor Kisaragi), Kazuko Sawada (Junpei Hayami), Kousei Tomita (Danbei Hayami), Nobuyo Tsuda (Panther Zora, Tsuneni Miharu), Noriko Watanabe (Sister Jill), Rihoko Yoshida (Aki "Nat-chan" Natsuko), Hiroshi Matsuoka (Naojiro Hayami), Noriko Tsukase (Ms. Alphonne)
[edit] Theme song
The Cutie Honey theme song appears through out all the anime incarnations of the character. In the original 1973 television series, it was performed by Yoko Maekawa. In Cutie Honey Flash, it is performed by SALIA. In the New Cutie Honey OVA, the original song is performed by les-5-4-3-2-1, and the English language version by mayukiss. Koda Kumi performed it for the Re:Cutie Honey OVA and its live-action adaptation. In Cutie Honey The Live, the theme is sung by Minami Kuribayashi as part of Wild 3-Nin Musume. The only other anime theme songs to have been used so consistently are Theme of Lupin III, which has been used continuously on Lupin III animated features since the 70s, and the GeGeGe no Kitaro theme song, used since the 60s.
Other artists have also covered the song, including GO!GO!7188 for their Tora no Ana album, Okui Masami in the Masami Kobushi album, a version by TWO-MIX and a Korean language version by Ahyoomee. Animetal also did a cover of the song for their Animetal Lady album, with the lyrics sung by Mitsuyo Nemoto of the Japanese pop group Pink Lady.
The song can also be heard during an episode of the 1974 magical girl TV series Majokko Megu-chan, when the main character watches Honey, in her pop idol persona (Misty Honey), perform it on TV; and in the seventh episode of the 2006 series Princess Princess, when the Princesses perform it. The show ends with Mikoto declaring "I'm going to change now" (Kawaru wa yo!), Honey's signature phrase.
[edit] Trivia
In episode 27 of Majokko Megu-chan, Megu watches Misty Honey on TV singing the Cutie Honey theme. The same vocalist, Yoko Maekawa, performed the theme songs for both Cutie Honey and Megu-chan.
In episode 50 of UFO Robot Grendizer, Hayami Seiji appears taking pictures in a crowd. This scene also featured cameos by Hayato from Getter Robot and Babel II from Babel II.
In the OVA adaptation of Kekko Kamen, Cutie Honey appears as a student. Her lesbian teacher from the 70's series, Alphonne also makes two brief appearances.
[edit] External links
- Cutie Honey anime (original) at Toei Animation (Japanese)
- Template:Ja icon Cutie Honey F (anime) at Toei Animation (Japanese)
- Template:Ja icon Re:CUTIE HONEY at Toei Video (Japanese)
- Cutie Honey/Cutie Honey at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia.
| Genre | Magical girl +, Shōjo +, and Shōnen + |
| Series name | Cutie Honey + |
