Spring 2018 Anime: Cutie Honey Universe

Synopsis

Honey Kisaragi is a girl attending the boarding school Saint Chapel Academy. But secretly, she can transform into the superheroine Cutie Honey, fighting the evil forces of Panther Claw organisation that seeks Honey’s father’s invention, the Airborne Element Fixing Device.

Comments

Halimun Muhammad (The Indonesian Anime Times)

After nearly 15 years, Cutie Honey has returned to anime, and this time without the iconic theme song that has been used by every other Cutie Honey anime since the 70s. That aside, the first episode of Cutie Honey Universe is not an origin story of how Honey came to be and how she began to battle the Panther Claw organisation. Instead, the first episode began with Honey already battling the Panther Claw for some time along with the PCIS. This makes it kind of like the first episodes of some Kamen Rider shows where the main character has already became Kamen Rider and battling evil for some time, reserving the origin story to be told perhaps in some later episodes. Viewers who are not too familiar with Cutie Honey lore may found this start a bit confusing, but patience may be advised to see how the coming episodes expand on the characters and actions that has been briefly introduced in episode 1.

True to its roots, Cutie Honey Universe depicts sexualized scenes (but not too explicit) and some quite bloody violence with female characters whose designs range from cute to grotesque. The effect is that rather than simply sexually appealing, there feels like an emphasis on, to borrow from Susan Napier (2001), the “powerful, mysterious, and frightening” aspects of the transforming female body through the medium of animation. And it goes for Honey’s heroic transformation and the grotesque transformation of the Panther Claw kaijin, though in their own different ways, which could be interesting to explore more into in the coming episodes.

Facts and Figures

Screenshots and Trailers

The Indonesian Anime Times