Cutie Honey: The Classic Collection

Cutie Honey: The Classic Collection by Go Nagai
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Professor Kisaragi creates a cute android named Cutie Honey and sends her to an all girls school for her education. When he is killed by an evil organization, Panther Claw, Cutie Honey swears revenge!

My dive into the early days of manga continues with Cutie Honey. If I was looking for a manga that perfectly illustrates the differences between Japanese and American comics of the early 1970s, this is it!

Cutie Honey is an android that resembles a cute teenage girl. Thanks to Professor Kisaragi's airborne elemental solidifier, she can switch between seven different forms, each with different abilities by shouting "Honey Flash!". And she's briefly naked between each transformation because why wouldn't she be?

So yeah, while this is largely a super hero style comic, it also has a pervy streak a mile wide, chock full of boob and butt shots, mostly of Cutie while she's between transformations but also when she's showering or taking a bath, which she does quite a bit.

Also, most of the female characters at the boarding school are lesbian, either cute like Honey or brutish and hairy. The cultural differences between American and Japanese comics are very apparent.

All that aside, the book is a lot of fun and action packed. Cutie Honey tears through the Panther Claw like a katanna through a watermelon, switching forms, kicking ass, and winding up in situations where she is naked and almost powerless.

The characters have interesting designs, Honey being the standout. I was surprised how much attention was given to developing the women in Panther Claw since most of them were cannon fodder for Honey. The art was better than Devilman, also by Go Nagai, and Captain Harlock from around the same time period.

A few oddities I want to mention but couldn't work in elsewhere:
- a guy gets karate chopped in the bleeding hemorrhoids four or five times.
- While Cutie Honey eats food for energy, she's too shy to reveal if she pees or poops.
- One of the ladies in Panther Claw is named Breast Claw. Of course.

Of all the classic manga Seven Seas has released so far, Cutie Honey: The Classic Collection is the best. No regrets on this purchase, either for its place in manga history or pure entertainment value.
4.5 out of 5.

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