Cutie Honey Universe – Episode 1 [First Impressions]

Nagai Go’s Cutie Honey is very much legendary. This ever-growing franchise is something that I had known about for a long time, but had always pushed aside in favor of other titles. Finding out Cutie Honey Universe would air this season seemed like the perfect opportunity to get a look of Cutie Honey so I gave it a go! I read a bit about the show and one thing everyone commented on was that they didn’t use the original Cutie Honey song that had been the opening in all previous installments of the franchise. That seems like a bit of a blunder to start off with, but as it is my first time watching Cutie Honey, I don’t have nostalgic attachment to the previous OP song.

That said, there is very little introduction in this episode and it seems viewers are required to be familiar with the franchise already, which is fairly ambitious, but also makes sense considering its age and relevance. The first thing I have to say is that the ecchi tag in this is no joke. There’s a lot of nudity and sexy fanservice and the first scene right after the opening credits sequence is two girls kissing. Then Jill-sama walks in and her harem of girls fawn over her. She is offered a white rose by a girl who soon gets turned into Breast Claw and the visuals of the transformation were pretty interesting and detailed. Sister Jill gives Breast Claw the mission of getting Cutie Honey’s Airborne Element Fixing Device and I had no idea what they were talking about, but I’m willing to suspent my judgement and disbelief for a while. That said, I did find interesting that Breast Claw was sent on the mission in the name of Phantom Claw but Jill expressed interest in destroying Phantom claw right after, so we’ll have to see where her allegiance truly lies.

After that I meet Kisaragi Honey for the first time and she’s so cute! She’s eating fruit with her friend Nat who seems to always be covering for her. We get some shots from the school gang, some tough-looking females and also two of the teachers going at it behind the bushes, which I found weird-funny. The show doesn’t shy away of being upfront about sexuality and only Honey seems to be oblivious to it, so it gives her a somewhat pure aura. Honey is called to action because Phantom Claw has a robbery in progress. Honey arrives and then she meets the new inspector arriving from France, Genet. She doesn’t waste any time in sexually harrassing Honey because this is based on a Nagai Go title! That’s supposed to be sexy though, so let’s move on. Soon enough gunshots are fired inside the building and the action begins. Soon Honey is inside and Genet follows her. They separate inside the building and Honey runs into three monsters from Phantom Claw and here is where those Nagai Go inspired designs shine. The monsters look amazing!

Honey transforms into Cutie Honey and that also looks amazing! The fights have some pretty cool moves with names and everything and I like the magical girl tropes they have going on. We still get some sexy shots and angles in between because this show is ecchi after all, but to me they’re appealing and tasteful. The animation seems more fluid and nicer in these fighting parts too. Soon Inspector Genet arrives to the scene too and gives Hayami a gun. The monsters are doing some gross stuff to Honey but to me all that is cool with Nagai Go’s legacy and I’ll be honest, I was a bit lukewarm at the beginning of the episode, but when she transformed, it was like a switch flipped inside me as well and I got excited about what was going on. Genet shoots one of the monsters who mumbles Jill’s name as she dies and then bam, Sister Jill is there in front of Honey. Genet is nowhere to be seen now, obviously. Sister Jill and Honey square off for a bit when Jill demands the device and Honey refuses to give it to her. In the end the battle is inconclusive, but Honey ends up naked at the end because why not. Later Honey goes back to school to find Nat-chan tied up in their room so she just casually tickles her for a bit. I thought this was another one of those weird-funny moments, but hey, I can’t really complain? I thought it was an easy and entertaining watch, I liked the music, the designs and the animation and I’m curious to find out more about Kisaragi Honey and what the deal is with Genet.

Possibility of watching: Very likely
Possibility of blogging: I’ll give it 3 episodes for the time being