Foundations of Trigger and more Hideaki Anno Stuff
In a lot of ways, the early 2000's material behind Gainax led to a lot of what we know of Studio Trigger now. Those works with some interesting, horny, and chaotic energy like FLCL, Diebuster, Mahoramatic, and this series Re:Cutie Honey. You can watch these shows and see where the energy for TTGL along with Panty and Stocking content came into being. Re:Cutie Honey is another link because it's an ova series that could have been released around the time Kill La Kill came out and no one would be able to tell the difference.
With that in mind, Hideaki Anno is the main leading director behind this three episode ova while other directors took the reigns for each one of them. A certain Hiroyuki Imaishi took the first episode of this for instance. I mean, this was produced alongside or around the same time as Anno worked on the live action Cutie Honey film. I feel like these two things were the beginning of Anno working on his angle of things from his childhood. This was obviously the point before Anno started on his Eva rebuild film and then the Shin thing. This is the beginning for all of it.
Re: Cutie Honey's Story
Cutie Honey is a very famous series for a lot of reasons. It is a magical girl series by Go Nagai which means that it is horny, gay, and also very dark. A typical Cutie Honey series features a girl named Honey Kisaragi (an android) in high school who everyone (yes everyone) automatically falls in love with during the day. During the night, she is a very clever person who turns into the magical warrior of love cutie honey. She uses everything from a sword to costume changes to even nudity to stop her villains (Panther Claw led by Sister Jill) in her tracks. You know, as long as the nudity is on her terms and not someone else's.
Re:Cutie Honey only takes some of that because it's a reimagining of Cutie Honey to where she is a girl working a temp job that barely makes it on time. She still fights Panther Claws minions and Sister Jill. The difference is that she is an adult and so is everyone else in Cutie Honey's cast there. Also, Cutie Honey is still a warrior for love but she is not as clever as some of her previous incarnations because she is a very honest bimbo. It's different, but it works for what this story is trying to tell. In three episodes, we see a very lived in world where Cutie Honey is at the height of popularity and then is challenged into becoming the kind of hero she wants to be when faced against public opinion. All formed around her relationship with this show's version of Natsuko (a bad ass polic detective) who clearly is very in love/tsundere with Honey.
Anno and Themes of Loneliness
I remember an interview with Hideaki Anno that came from the documentary alongside the release of Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0, in a very paraphrased way Hideaki Anno mentioned how after creating Eva he could only create Eva. That is all part of why the Eva rebuild films came into being. After looking into a lot of themes of the material Anno has created with his works throughout the years, I can kind of see it. Especially with this work, Re: Cutie Honey. Characters are stuck in solitude and have to break out of it by becoming a friend to someone else and create a new norm of happiness.
In the beginning of Re:Cutie Honey, our main girl is fighting Panther Claw all by herself. While she does a good job of it by tricking goons through use of different costumes and sexiness, everything changes when she meets Natsuko. Natsuko is also a hardened cop that faces Panther Claw by herself because of how the rest of the cops are mostly useless. The two meetings have created a shifting of dynamics that helps each of them find themselves in places they wouldn't be otherwise.
Every major character has to go through drastic changes for that to happen. Honey has a bubbly personality and is trying to find a way to connect with Natsuko, but she doesn't know how to do that because she hasn't had friends before. Natsuko has to release the mental spikes around her body and allow Honey into it. The main villain is a prototype for honey, but also represents where Honey was at the beginning of Re:Cutie Honey. Lonely and trying to connect with Honey without genuinely knowing how to do it. The world almost suffers through another Human Instrumentality Project before Honey found a way to stop it.
How To Use Nudity?
Back to some of the basic tenets of Cutie Honey, I will once again say that there is a lot of nudity in Re:Cutie Honey. Gasp, such a shock. But it's used in multiple forms. Some of it is pure cheesecake because Cutie Honey wears almost nothing to nothing or has her outfit slowly disappear as she gets hungry. Especially in the Imaishi episode that was establishing Honey's power and full range of abilities and the show itself doesn't allow you to forget about it because the male characters like to leer at Honey and other attractive women in the cast. Even after sincere moments, it still happens.
Then there is that other side of nudity that I can get behind. For instance, I think that nudity can be used as a way for a character to open up to others. For instance, some of the nude huge between Honey and Natsuko is not only about warming Honey's heart that was fading. It was the two accepting each other fully and becoming friends. Or beyond friends because it is incredibly gay. Then there is the ending battle where Honey doesn't get hurt and is naked in front of Sister Jill ready to embrace Sister Jill for everything she is and he just completely rejects it.
I really wish the two didn't exist in the same space, but unfortunately that's how Re:Cutie Honey is. Maybe that is a part of the source material too or it's trying to be meta? Some things to think about as I move more into the cutie honey series because I am sure there is a lot to dig into here. Hmmm.
Visuals and Final Thoughts
This is an ova series and you can tell because the visuals are outstanding. I feel like this series could have come out alongside the Promare film and it would have worked. My hot take is that this looks even better. It doesn't rely on cg as much as promare does which makes it feel like it has aged really well. The character designs from the Panther Claw members Cutie Honey fights are very creative and sometimes really sexualized up to a bdsm level. Just cutie honey things. The fights are great, the action is really smooth, and there is a very good chaotic energy to it all when it's necessary that sells it all together. On top of that, there is a lupin feel to its limited animation that is used in a stylish way which works. I really dig the visuals for the most part.
As a whole thing, I really like Re:Cutie Honey. This is another Hideaki Anno thing that I gladly check off on my list while I try to hunt for the next thing. As a whole, this series really is a solid three act structure that introduces Honey, puts her through a wringer, and then sees how she turns out in the end. I think that guys leering on Honey was a bit too much at times instead of Honey being more in control was a bit too much at times, but there is a lot of good material around this ova that helps me to really enjoy it. Maybe if I was more familiar with cutie honey I would have complaints or not, but it feels like a good introduction to it all.
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