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2.93 AVERAGE
2.93 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The brilliant scientist Dr. Kisaragi builds an android with the likeness of his deceased daughter, Honey. Honey's equipped with fantastic powers and abilities, courtesy of the Airborne Element Fixing Unit, an invention that harnesses and solidifies airborne particles into any matter you desire. Kisaragi enrolls Honey into St. Chapel Academy, a remote all-girls school. However, the ruthless criminal organization Panther Claw murders Kisaragi in an attempt to acquire the Airborne Element Fixing Unit but in the process Honey learns the true potential of the device to become Cutie Honey, a warrior to defeat Panther Claw. With the power to create or be anything, Honey is the only one in a position to fight Panther Claw but will it be enough to defeat the fearsome Sister Jill, leader of Panther Claw's Japanese division?
Here it is, Nagai Go's original, outrageous take on a transforming heroine from 1973. It's campy, trashy and filled to the brim with lewd, crude humor. It's Masked Rider with nudity and bondage, packaged for young boys and released with a companion cartoon series. It's the sort of comic that only could've come out during the seventies. It feels wrong on so many levels to read, filled with action scenes where a nude teenaged girl decapitates masked crooks as blood sprays everywhere and ostensibly humorous scenes where grotesque school staff whip crying nude students or the heroine's molested by the wizened father of her love interest. Yet even at this stage it's easy to see how something like Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon descended from Cutie Honey. The bizarre, all-female monsters of Panther Claw are lewder ancestors of the Sailor Moon animaton's usually female monsters, dispatched in gorier fashion. Honey remains one of the most iconic transforming heroines with good reason, and as wrong as it often is, Cutie Honey remains a fun time.
Here it is, Nagai Go's original, outrageous take on a transforming heroine from 1973. It's campy, trashy and filled to the brim with lewd, crude humor. It's Masked Rider with nudity and bondage, packaged for young boys and released with a companion cartoon series. It's the sort of comic that only could've come out during the seventies. It feels wrong on so many levels to read, filled with action scenes where a nude teenaged girl decapitates masked crooks as blood sprays everywhere and ostensibly humorous scenes where grotesque school staff whip crying nude students or the heroine's molested by the wizened father of her love interest. Yet even at this stage it's easy to see how something like Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon descended from Cutie Honey. The bizarre, all-female monsters of Panther Claw are lewder ancestors of the Sailor Moon animaton's usually female monsters, dispatched in gorier fashion. Honey remains one of the most iconic transforming heroines with good reason, and as wrong as it often is, Cutie Honey remains a fun time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Sexual assault
Moderate: Violence
dark
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
For being such an iconic and beloved franchise/character as well as arguably the most important entry in the magic girl genre, it's insane just how weird, dark, and frankly stupid Go Nagai's original Cutie Honey is. The anime and subsequent adaptations refined the concept and toned it down as much as they could while retaining the perverted edge.
Here, Nagai undoubtedly goes way too far into juvenile nonsense edge. Obviously Kekko Kamen and Devilman Lady are far more transgressive but at least those make it apparent. Cutie Honey's manga is weird because the tonal is just all over the place. Is it cute? Is it sexy? Is it fucked up Go Nagai demonic nonsense? It tries to be all of it in only 24 chapters. The tonal shift from "my entire school got carpet bombed and my best friend was torched to death" to "A bumbling pantsless detective has REALLY bad gushing hemorrhoids" needs to be seen to be believed. What whiplash. Only reax if you're a Go Nagai purist and can appreciate his fucked up art. Otherwise stick with the adaptations for a more fully realized and digestible version of what is admittedly a great concept (using disguises to fight female/animal androids). A pretty fun and quick "WTF" thrill ride but not much more.
Here, Nagai undoubtedly goes way too far into juvenile nonsense edge. Obviously Kekko Kamen and Devilman Lady are far more transgressive but at least those make it apparent. Cutie Honey's manga is weird because the tonal is just all over the place. Is it cute? Is it sexy? Is it fucked up Go Nagai demonic nonsense? It tries to be all of it in only 24 chapters. The tonal shift from "my entire school got carpet bombed and my best friend was torched to death" to "A bumbling pantsless detective has REALLY bad gushing hemorrhoids" needs to be seen to be believed. What whiplash. Only reax if you're a Go Nagai purist and can appreciate his fucked up art. Otherwise stick with the adaptations for a more fully realized and digestible version of what is admittedly a great concept (using disguises to fight female/animal androids). A pretty fun and quick "WTF" thrill ride but not much more.
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
This collection of an ecchi (Japanese for “sexy” or “naughty”) manga from the 1970s, it’s full of obscurity that’s humorous from its odd art style, characters and their personalities to its fanservice of its protagonist. Still, it’s a good funny series that provides some decent action scenes that balances it all (Grade: B).
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
fast-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Only bother reading if you like Go Nagai's art evolution and have a strong stomach for cringe and sexism. Otherwise stick to the anime
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Blood, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail
This collection has pretty much everything that a serial comic/manga could have to appeal to young adults of the 20th and 21rst centuries: action, comedy, girl power, cats, fashion, androids, more cats, as much tasteful and humorous nudity a teenager would want, and of course more cats.
While some might find this collection to be 'below their reading level' in terms of the previously mentioned, give it a chance. I would normally give this series a single read, but due to the way Nagai goes with the plot, and of course the dated look of the illustrations, I would read it all over again.
While some might find this collection to be 'below their reading level' in terms of the previously mentioned, give it a chance. I would normally give this series a single read, but due to the way Nagai goes with the plot, and of course the dated look of the illustrations, I would read it all over again.