| abstract
| - 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 prototypical Magical 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 Fan Service, 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, her ability to transform, and the gender choice of the Monster of the Week. (Go Nagai eventually did create a "traditional" Magical Girl, the more kid-friendly and less successful Majokko Tickle, in 1978.)
* New Cutey Honey, a slightly Darker and Edgier sequel set Twenty Minutes Into the Future, with Cyberpunk overtones and several Lawyer Friendly Cameos by other Go Nagai characters. The transformation sequences were lovingly animated. This slightly infamous version of the story is one of the few officially released outside Japan, although it is admittedly faithful to Go Nagai's work.
* 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.
* Hideaki Anno and Gainax produced a Live Action Adaptation movie version in 2004, titled simply Cutie Honey. This is the only part of the franchise besides New Cutey Honey to make it to America.
* Gainax also released a 3-part OVA, Re: Cutie Honey, at roughly the same time. This series used the premises and characterizations from the 2004 movie, but played up the Les Yay between Honey and Natsuko, here revamped as an stern, tough as nails adult policewoman. Anno was also part of this series, but while he provided the overall series direction, each episode had a different director and it shows.
* 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.
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