Honey Kisaragi thought she is just a normal teenage girl in an all-girls academy, all until the day her father, who is absent for long time periods due to unknown trips, is kidnapped by an evil organization named Panther Claw, and their house is found burned down. Honey is contacted by Prince Zera who gives Honey a necklace which enables her to transform into various identities, including superheroine Cutey Honey. Honey is joined by inspector Seiji, and is supported by friend Natsu. A new transfer student, Seira, announces she is Honey's lost sister and that she hates her. Honey finds out her father once worked for Panther Claw, creating a universal matter transformer, but used it to create Honey, who is an artifical lifeform. Seira was seperated from them and is killed by the Panther Claw. Father is also killed. Finally, Cutey Honey battles and defeats Sister Jill and panther Zora. The students escape from the vilain hideout in a Zeppelin. Three years later: Honey and Seiji have a daughter and get married, despite Sister Jill showing up to try to attack them.
24 years after the first anime adaptation of Go Nagai's 'magical girl' story "Cutey Honey", a new version appeared, "Cutey Honey Flash", which is an improvement. Just as "Sailor Moon Sailor Stars" concluded in 1997, several staff members of said anime—including directors Yuji Endo and Takuya Igarashi; screenwriters Katsuyuki Sumizawa and Ryota Yamaguchi; and animators Shigetaka Kiyoyama and Miho Shimogasa—picked up right where they ended and continued their work on this anime, which gives it a similar feel, including a more romanticized mood and genuine emotions as compared to the rather grotesque original '73 anime. "Cutey Honey Flash" embodies the classic 'magical girl' traits—a teenage girl is given superpowers to fight against the forces of evil, and in the process grows up and finds love—which touches upon some universal human archetypes, such as coming-of-age, realizing that there are dark sides to the world which come with growing up, self-actualization and discovering hidden potentials within. Sadly, as with most modern anime series, the first couple of episodes are great, only to then "give up" and settle for ordinary stories when routine comes to dominate the narrative. The pilot episode is indeed fantastic: the heroine Honey is shown winning in a fencing duel, while all the school students around her cheer, to give a sly foreshadowing of her destiny as superheroine Cutey Honey who also uses a sword to fight the villains, and as the camera pans up, it stops at her head, Honey takes the sabre mask off, reveals her face, the background changes and becomes illuminated by a glow for a second, and then it returns back to normal as Honey wipes off the sweat from her face.
A few episodes after it are still inspired, such as #3 where the Panther Claw wants to steal a wedding dress of a woman with jewels on them, so Honey and Seiji decide to lure them in a trap by staging a fake wedding with themselves in the church. The priest pronounces them husband and wife and tells them to kiss, causing an awkward feeling between the two "actors", and as Seiji leans forward towards her, Honey thinks to herself: "Where are you Panther Claw? Hurry up, already, damn it!" Sadly, other episodes are a lot weaker, and mostly revolve only around Panther Claw trying to steal diamonds or jewels from somewhere, or Honey's matter transformer. The second season introduces a new character, Seira, Honey's lost sister, but it doesn't work (she proclaims how she hates Honey and wants to destroy her, yet, for some reason, nobody reacts in the academy nor threatens to expel her), and thus it is welcomed when she is removed again in season 3. Here and there, a few good ideas appear that stand out, such as in episode #33, where Panther Claw hijacks a space station, so Seiji asks Honey to simply transform into "space shuttle Honey" and fly into space, upon which she replies: "Don't talk nonsense!" And #37 features a suprisingly tender, albeit brief and subtle "sex scene" when Seiji wants to leave, but Honey hugs him from behind, and they are shown separately naked later. But most of the other episodes are standard, when the story needed more highlights to justify its running time of 39 episodes. However, the closing credits' song of Honey standing alone on a meadow on a hill is a chef d'oeuvre of magical and endearing melancholy, and is even more fascinating in the penultimate episode #38 when all the students, Seiji and the three teachers appear with Honey on the same meadow, in a unique finale. A follow-up wedding episode #39 is solid. There is only one "Sailor Moon", but in its absence even a lighter 'magical girl' version like "Cutey Honey Flash" is a good substitute.
Grade:++
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