Cutey Honey Flash

Director
Kazuo Sasaki
Production
Toei, TV Asahi
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
39 episodes
Year
1997

Cutey Honey Flash

By Stephen Lerch
11th Oct 04

Cutey Honey Flash is a 39 episode TV series that ran on Japanese television from February 15, 1997 until January 31, 1998. Unlike past Cutey Honey shows, this one is geared towards a younger, and female, target audience. It was followed up by a 40 minute theatrical feature, not reviewed here. All names are in Japanese order, family name first.

Short Synopsis:

All of the main characters in this show are from the original Cutie Honey TV series, with a few exceptions.

Thankfully not everyone's 16th birthday begins in this fashion.

Kisaragi Honey is a special 16 year old girl. Her father is a great inventor and she is privileged enough to attend Saint Chapel Academy, a private school. On her 16th birthday she is given quite a surprise and it changes her life forever. Her father is kidnaped by the evil organization, Panther Claw, and her home is destroyed. At the scene of the destruction she is greeted by a mysterious man with silver hair, Tasogare no Prince (the Prince of Twilight) who gives her a ring and a choker, an invention of her father's, along with the secret of there use. With these Honey is able to transform her appearance and take her ultimate form, Cutey Honey to fight the Panther Claw!

Sometimes appearing as a reporter, Scoop Honey, sometimes a motorcycle racer, Hurricane Honey, sometimes a nurse, Nurse Honey, sometimes a flight attendant, Escort Honey and finally, sometimes a singer, Stage Honey. Along with the Cutey Honey form, Honey fights hordes of Panther Claws and attempts to rescue her kidnaped father from their clutches.

She is joined in her fight by Hayami Seiji, a rather caring detective she meets in the first episode. He suspects, after all of Cutey Honey's appearances near the places Kisaragi Honey is, that Cutey Honey is actually Kisaragi Honey. You and I know it's her, but as with all magical girl secret identities, it's kept secret until a surprise is needed. Seiji develops feelings for Kisaragi Honey and is always there to help her. Does he win the girl? You'll have to watch and see for yourself!

Other important characters include Honey's long time friend, Natsuko Aki or Natsu-chan for short. Hayami Danbei is the principal of St. Chapel Academy. Miharu-sensei is Honey's class teacher. Alphonne-san a rather disgusting looking woman (they dropped her mustache from the original TV series) who takes in the school kids after St. Chapel Academy is destroyed by the Panther Claw. There are 6 other students that attend the school, though they generally only get token appearances when needed. Sister Jill is the second in command of the Panther Claw and the one who usually sends others after Honey. Panther Zora, whom never is given a true form, only that of a giant panther statue giving her underlings orders, she is the leader of the Panther Claw. You also have Prince Zera, who bares a striking resemblance to another main character and you learn of his affiliation with this other as the show progresses.

Not to be forgotten is one very important character, specifically designed for this series, Hazuki Seira, whose secret identity is that of Misty Honey, the evil twin of Cutey Honey. You won't meet her until episode 14 or so, and she brings plenty of secrets and surprises with her.

Video:

This is a relatively new show and I was a bit surprised by one of the issues to surface during my viewing. To the best of my knowledge Toei used the same 'new component masters' process used in their other recent releases of older shows such as Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger and Grendizer, so the picture should have been as close to perfect as possible. The reason I am surprised by something is that there are scenes where it appears the very top of a cel or the very bottom is missing, or is damaged by water. After some investigation and a little information from another fan, it appears as though this isn't actually damage, but a side effect of using cheap TV cel animation that new masters may not even be able to clean up. The problem only surfaces on a single frame at a time, so it's really hard to notice if you aren't watching intently. It is barely noticeable unless you watch for it, so I will be forgiving.

Other than the above problem, the transfer is perfect. There are a few instances here and there of dirt, but they are few and far between. The colors are spot on and the transfer rate is high.

Audio:

You have one option here, Japanese Dolby Digital Mono. As this is the R2 Japanese release, there is no English dub and no subtitles.

There are no pops, hisses or any other noticeable audio issues to be found, it is an extremely clean mix.

The opening theme is a remixing of the original Cutie Honey TV theme and is well done. The ending theme is new to this show and fits well with the series. One interesting thing to note is that there is a scene in which Stage Honey sings a bit from the original TV series' closing theme, Yoru Kiri no Honey.

The voices are well acted and fit their characters well; high quality voice acting all around.

Extras:

Each package contains a booklet with character sketches and designs for different things in the show. On each disc there is a gallery of design sketches, different from the ones in the booklets. Usually they are character designs for the various Panther Claw baddies Honey fights during the set of episodes on that particular disc. Included on the first disc is a creditless opening and ending, though only the first opening can be found on the entire series creditless. There are two other openings, only slight variations on the original, that aren't done with a creditless option. The only other extra is a set of commercials for Cutey Honey Flash toys and accessories found on the last disc of the set 4.

Packaging:

There are 4 sets of 2 discs each . Each set comes with the 2 discs held in a double disc capable single sized Amaray case, one disc on a hub the other on a hinged DVD holder. There are ten episodes on sets one, two and four, with set 3 only having nine episodes.

The artwork on each disc is well chosen and coincides with what happens on the discs they adorn. The keep case cover art is highly detailed and are very good matches for the series (though the cover of set 4 sort of is a spoiler, though it's not surprising and Jill on set 3 isn't exactly attractive anymore). The covers all have episode listings for the discs included. You have Honey, Seiji and Tasogare no Prince adorning the backside of the keep case inserts on the 'hub' side with precautions and other such things on the opposite side. Each set comes with a different colored background, from pink to orange to green to purple, which gives the clear Amaray cases a hugh matching the colors on the insert. Nicely done and all of the packaging is consistent.

Final Analysis:

I really enjoyed this show more than I thought I would. I had originally planned on getting it just to have a complete set of R2 Cutey Honey DVDs. Having not watched a Magical Girl show in a similar vein as Sailor Moon in quite some time, I was pleasantly surprised that I came out enjoying this series alot. It has suspense, drama, love and humor; what more could a person ask for? It's also well animated and a solid release all around.

The show ends on a high note, and given how many people that are close to or become close to Honey that don't make it to the end of the series, I was happy with how it ended. They sort of left it open, saying that Cutey Honey will fight the Panther Claw forever but I think they knew it was over, but wanted to leave the possibility they would continue or start over at some point.

While the show retains a lot of the characters from the original series, it should be noted that some of them change roles to an extent. Danbei and Seiji aren't related. Alphonne-san isn't part of the school perse and Danbei's son/Seiji's brother from the original never makes an appearance. This is like Cutey Honey in an alternate universe. Cutey Honey Flash is also much closer to the Magical Girl styling of Sailor Moon, going for a younger female audience than that of the original TV series, which was targeted at boys but girls ended up enjoying as well. Flash also has some of the Sailor Moon production team on it and took Sailor Moon's time slot when it finally finished airing.

The addition of little appearances from past Nagai Gou work rears it's head in this series as it does in some of Nagai's other animated works. There is an episode where some scientists are kidnaped and they look suspiciously like the 3 scientists that are always together in Mazinger Z. One of the other appearances of something from Mazinger is in the same episode where Honey hijacks one of the Panther Claw's newly created weapons that looks similar to Kabuto Kouji's Pileder! I am sure there are other cameos I missed, and that's part of the fun in re-watching these shows.

My favorite transformation had to have been Stage Honey. The oddest transformation would have been Crab Honey.

This is a great show for fans of the Magical Girl genre. A shining example of how a Magical Girl Anime should be done.

Score: 10

-- Stephen Lerch 11th Oct 04

Cutey Honey Flash Images