A year ago Honey Kisaragi died in a traffic accident, but thanks to her uncle's innovative use of nanotechnology controlled by the I-System, Honey was brought back to life as the Soldier of Love, the super-heroine Cutey Honey. An office temp worker with a ravenous appetite for rice balls by day, in her off time the shape-changing Honey finds herself embroiled in a string of battles with the terrorist organization Panther Claw when they kidnap her uncle to help their leader, Sister Jill, gain immortality. As Honey tries to sort out what is really going on and battles the occasional colored Claw foe, she finds herself teaming up with loner police detective Natsuko Aki and supposed journalist Seiji Hayami, who seems to know quite a lot but is also fun to hang out with.
Live-action adaptations of anime series, whether made in Japan or elsewhere, have a long-standing and well-deserved reputation for being consistently awful by American standards. Even those that do prove at least mildly entertaining (such as the live-action ) typically still require viewers used to American production values to considerably lower their standards to be able to appreciate it. Thus it is with no small amount of surprise – nay, even astonishment – that I can actually give this one a favorable review and recommendation.
Oh, it's certainly not a masterpiece. For all its charm it is still cheesy as hell and suffers from cheap special effects and ridiculous costuming, but unlike so many of its ilk it does not try to pretend that it isn't cheesy. It instead makes the campiness an integral part of its substance and lets the actors ham it up appropriately, thus allowing even the sillier moments to flow smoothly within the context of the show rather than feeling forced.
It also never lets the silliness interfere with telling a story and, shockingly, actually even achieves a couple of moments of true emotional resonance. In many ways the approach here resembles Joss Whedon's handling of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series in the U.S.
in the mid-'90s, and the result is the same: a campy show that is tremendously fun to watch despite its low-tech flaws, can get serious when it needs to, and is not as lame-brained as it might appear at first. But why is this one so much better than its kin? One word: pedigree.
may be the creation of the legendary (who has a brief cameo – he's the driver of the car that Honey lands on in one late scene), but the live-action version was directed and co-written by none other than , who also has a significant supporting role as an office worker in Honey's office. Under Anno's skillful guidance the story stays simple but ever-present and effective as it spins a tale about the value of love and establishing relationships, and the negativity of hate, without ever feeling trite. It wouldn't be an Anno production without some visual innovation, and here he uses special effects to give hyper-powered action scenes a cartoonish look, occasionally intersperses the live-action footage with animation, and stages remarkably convincing action scenes given the overall cheap look.
In a couple of places his special effects do truly fall apart (especially in one scene involving the Tokyo Tower), but most of the time they are about on par with a typical Sci Fi Network made-for-TV movie. Part of the credit also can certainly be attributed to the casting of the lead role. A year ago Honey Kisaragi died in a traffic accident, but thanks to her uncle's innovative use of nanotechnology controlled by the I-System, Honey was brought back to life as the Soldier of Love, the super-heroine Cutey Honey.
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