Kyûteî Hanî: The Live

First off, a confession: I've only seen a few episodes of this so far. With that out of the way:

Our mechanical angel of justice is a bit more ditsy in this version, or maybe naive would be a better word. Very different than the version in _Shin Cutey Honey_ or _Cutie Honey Flash_ or even the 1973 series.

Mikie Hara, the actress who plays the gorgeous android (the opening credits make it clear that's what she is, so this is hardly a spoiler), is not only super-cute (which any actress taking on this role had better be), but plays the role with a joy that is a delight to watch. Particularly some of the fight scenes, while a bit silly, show how much Honey enjoys her calling.

The exception, of course, are those fight scenes that end the first several episodes, in which we watch her get kicked around for five minutes straight. I understand that the hero has to take a few whacks so we can tell that she is truly overcoming an adversity. I agree that things can't be too easy, or else how do we see that she's a hero instead of a bully? But it gets to be a bit much.

There is a little nudity in this, unfortunately I haven't seen any from Mikie Hara herself. Maybe she shows us the goodies in later eps, but I'm not holding my breath. Still, she is the beautiful transforming android who fights for love and justice, and if you've liked other incarnations of the character, you should check this one out.

Yup, I wasn't particularly impressed the first time I watched this series years ago because I had no previous knowledge of the pits of hell that originated this franchise (I'm talking about the worst animated thing ever produced courtesy of emperor of japanese hacks Go Nagai, the 70's Cutie Honey exploitation "anime") nor of tokusatsus and not even of the main writer of this series, who turned out to be...none other than my favourite tokusatsu writer ever Toshiki Inoue. And once I wrote that I have really nothing else to say because this is another Masterpiece of his, in line with his best work in Kamen Rider Kiva, Changerion, Death Note and the almost perfect Avataro Sentai Donbrothers movie (which in twenty-minutes runtime destroys twenty years of Marvel and DC cinematic crap without even trying), with his usual, perfect style made of seamlessly mashing up shoujo writing, Disney Princess worship (this time around the due focus is all on the lovely princess Jasmine from the 100% certified Disney Classic Aladdin, I wonder when and if are we going to get Pocahontas, Ariel, Mulan and Aurora too), well choreographed fights, social commentary against the Keiretsu and corporative world colluded with parts of the government/military, psychedelic stuff and well-put sexual fanservice for the hetero men that does its job perfectly in entertaining the viewer and it's not simply a self-serving, horrible ma$t3rbati0n of the author like it was the 70's Cutie Honey or, for what it matters, anything with the direct contribution of Go Nagai in it. In a simple word, this series is Toshiki Inoue doing what you expect from Toshiki Inoue and doing it greatly, so if you're a fan of him like me - which is the whole reason behind my rewatch - you'll be thrilled from start to finish. As good as the Cutie Honey Flash remake (written by none other than Sailor Stars' main writer Ryota Yamaguchi) and with very few flaws to account for, as the Maestro says in the interview present in the package I watched. Highly recommended.

P. S. My personal "appreciation" for Go Nagai is so great that I skipped entirely the special episode (not written by Inoue anyway) because of his cameo, and I have no regrets of sorts.

I just watched all 26 episodes on blu-ray - buy quick while it's still reasonably priced. Mikie Hara is great as Honey - beautiful, upbeat, and fills out the costume as you would expect one to do if they are playing Cutie Honey. I liked Eriko Sato as Honey in the 2004 movie better and I liked that movie better overall; however, this series obviously gives more depth to the characters being 26 episodes versus the 90-some-minute film.

I like the addition of the "sisters" here. There is a good dynamic here and it gives Honey something and someone to work off of here rather than just villains. Nat is more of a minor character here. I liked her, but they could have done more with her. Seiji, the detective best friend, started off OK, but became annoying very quickly. He is really the only one who over-acts. Sure, the action is over-the-top and rediculous most of the time. The girls are all fine actors and do a good job carrying the series despite Seiji's terrible performances. Maybe he's a good actor and we have to blame the director and writers - I don't know.

There is some lazy writing to be found here. Some weak story lines where the characters have to be stupid to make the story work - existance tax, really?! And there was another story with a problem that could have been solved by the characters just talking to each other. The computerized effects are weak, but the make-up and practical stunts are good for the most part.

I found myself liking the dynamic between the "sisters" a lot and that is the best part about this series. Mikie Hara is great as I said, but I found myself liking Miki's (Ayame Misaki) character best. She is quite different than Honey and that is a good contrast. She was a more downbeat and dark person, and probably more relatable.

The ending was OK... I won't spoil it here, but I was hoping for a different ending. I predicted some of how it ended, but not all. I would recommend this; however, I would recommend watching the 2004 movie first. I like Honey much better in live action and would like seeing a higher budget, more serious adaptation of this material. Of course, we still need a happy-go-lucky Honey.