Grey Liliy reviewed Cutie Honey by Go Nagai
Review of 'Cutie Honey' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Cutie Honey has always been one of those series that's been on my peripheral. I know she's important to the magical girl genre and has one of the best anime theme songs ever. However, I had never read the original manga until now!
I was pretty shocked reading the first few pages and had to double check what I was reading. Ha ha ha. I did not know the original Cutie Honey was erotica, so I was a little off put, but I eventually read the entire thing--Cutie Honey is such an impactful work that I had to see what was what. It blends eroticism and violence into a manga depicting Honey's struggles with loss and revenge.
The story at its core is great and I can see why Honey is so beloved years later, but I also felt the fast changing tones of the story was a bit much …
Cutie Honey has always been one of those series that's been on my peripheral. I know she's important to the magical girl genre and has one of the best anime theme songs ever. However, I had never read the original manga until now!
I was pretty shocked reading the first few pages and had to double check what I was reading. Ha ha ha. I did not know the original Cutie Honey was erotica, so I was a little off put, but I eventually read the entire thing--Cutie Honey is such an impactful work that I had to see what was what. It blends eroticism and violence into a manga depicting Honey's struggles with loss and revenge.
The story at its core is great and I can see why Honey is so beloved years later, but I also felt the fast changing tones of the story was a bit much for me. It swapped between pure erotic jokes, serious death, slapstick, humor featuring bodily functions, and back to seriousness so fast I'm impressed Go Nagai got it all into two volumes.
While reading, I felt many of the jokes did not age well (particularly the ones about the "ugly" girls), and I wish I'd known the genre of this book before I started reading (that's on me for not looking up the history lol), but I can see why this book is such an important work, for both erotica and the magical girl genre.
I really enjoyed the two interviews in the back of the book, one discussing Honey's creation and the second talking about the importance of erotica as a genre. They were a nice touch at the end of the book.
Whatever her start, Cutie Honey is an iconic character and I'm glad to have read the original.