Following Casshern in an explosion of special-effects packed 70’s anime remakes, Go Negai’s 70’s cutesy “girl power” work, Cutie Honey, now gets its chance in the spotlight. Armed with a much lower budget, veteran anime director Hideaki Anno helps swing the deficiency around to his advantage by staying true to the campy tone of the original material with absurd villains, over-the-top acting and an infectious consistency for most of the 90 minute running time. Viewers who know what they are getting into will find themselves pleased. Anyone else may just be confused.
A year after Honey’s “rebirth,” the classic villain group, Panther Claw are after her technologically advanced “I system,” implanted by her late father. The film assumes the audience is familiar with the character, but her origin is later revisited and retouched, just in case.
Basically, Honey died in an accident, and her father transferred her mind to an android creation, implanted with a system that allows her to transform, bring life to dying things, pull out a sword and proceed to beat everyone with her heightened fighting skills, and a lot more. Alright, sometimes it does not even seem she has a concrete limit on her power’s potential, but it is all in the name of fun anyway. Viewers aren’t expected to be concerned about the trouble Honey gets into with the film’s carefree tone. Her biggest problem seems to be arriving to work on time at her real world job.
In any case, the Four Claws, in easy to remember color coded costumes, apparently work for a pink man-tree leader named Sister Jill, who manages to sustain his eternal life through some ambiguous methods involving young women. Upon his awakening, he hears of Honey’s advanced android system that can somehow grant him a more comfortable eternal life, so he wants it. Meanwhile, Honey, in between dealing with the Claws and vengeance for her father’s death, has to also deal with an overly professional cop and Seiji Hayami, the reporter from the anime.
And Hayami isn’t the show’s only holdover from the original series. The mood is accurately captured in this nostalgic piece of cinema as Anno opts not to reimagine the whole concept like director Kazuaki Kiriya decided for Casshern. The original Cutie Honey anime had a certain appeal with a lead character that burst out into song mid-fight and still proceeded to kick the henchmen around in amusing ways. While Anno has to resort to horrendously cheesy special effects and amateur fight choreography, the fun is definitely maintained, with the occasional moments of brilliance. When Honey has to dodge a number of missiles, a gorgeous anime-inspired still photo effect is employed, as she flickers around the frame with simple dissolves.
Still, action is not the film’s strong point. The better moments come from the downtime, the comedic set-ups, Eriko Sato’s obnoxiously cute performance and the chemistry between the main characters. Her naïve and sugary persona may eventually conjure up suicidal tendencies for some, but the best moments come in her friendship with Nat-chan, the cop that takes her job far too seriously. She often finds herself at odds with Honey and it leads to some genuinely funny, or occasionally human moments, until perhaps the turn to drama in the end, which feels a bit too forced when coupled with a terribly direct message of embracing love, friendship and happiness.
But that’s what this film’s entirely about. Broad strokes and silly jokes for nostalgic folks. A film like this could never be made elsewhere, for better or worse, and if viewers want to turn their minds off for an entertaining time, Cutie Honey will more than fit the bill.
Reviewed by Tarun
