This week’s episode of Cutie Honey Universe gives the newcomers to the Cutie Honey franchise much-needed context, though I’m not sure if the way it was given was the most appropriate way. In an attempt to get closer to her and find out more about Honey, Inspector Genet asks about Dr. Kisaragi, Honey’s father and creator and Honey has no reservations whatsoever to talk about how her dad passed and the message he left her. I sort of saw all that as sensitive information, but Honey already seems set on trusting Genet, so now I’ll just have to look forward to when she finds out who Genet really is.
Anyway, we learn more about Honey and Panther Claw as well as some of the capabilities that Honey’s body has, like multiple transformations (looking forward to seeing a lot of them, Misty Honey particularly!) and that device sure sounds OP to be honest! She can create anything in existence, wow! No wonder Panther Claw wants to gets its claws on it. I was also glad to find out that the little boy and old man we saw a cameo of last episode were related to PCIS investigator Seiji. It seems they are all equipped to deal with the monsters so it’d be interesting to see if Honey will have their help in the future.
Once again, the fight scenes were the most entertaining part of the episode, they look great, there’ some pretty interesting directing choices that make the movements look unique, the changes in perspective and the music make the scenes exciting and animation-wise they stand out from the rest of the scenes. The rest of the scenes are all right, a little dry if anything. The show is a really easy watch, with some old-school tropes and humor, but I fear that I may have little to say about it since things don’t seem to advance too much. I’m quite interested in Genet’s goal though, as it hasn’t quite been revealed yet.
There’s a lot of suggestive undertones in her interactions with Honey, sort of like an oneesama vibe that can’t help but give me this doomed feeling as we know who she really is. It’s obvious that Honey wants to impress her and melts under her attention, but Genet, or rather Sister Jill has intentions that might be way different than what Honey is expecting.
I’m curious to see if next week I’ll get a bit more involved with the characters besides thinking ‘yay, fights look cool!’, honestly I hope so, otherwise I might just watch the rest of this casually. I’m almost planning to watch Re: Cutie Honey before then, as I’ve seen lots of comparison, so it might influence my final decision on sticking with this or not as well.