Big fan of this one's setting, as the title might imply. Crime city: where everyone is a criminal, and anyone is open to turning into a fucked up creature. Is there anything else you could ask for? Well, yes, considering the final product, but I'll start with some positives.
I'll say this feels like a more realized adaptation than its original. Not in terms of text, again, I haven't read the original manga, but in terms of what I was looking for : a fun, edgy story with creative action scenes with indulgent fanservice, which, yes, I'll call it as such despite my otherwise open aversion to it in other anime, but in this it definitely has the same vibe as the original series, something that's marketed from the get-go, something the audience expects and is built into that universe, if that makes sense. And I do genuinely enjoy the setting, a dystopian, eternally dark city inhabited by various freaks really makes Honey's various transformations shine, whether they're for infiltration, combat, or just whatever's appropriate or funny for the scene.
While I do think their re-interpretation of Panther Claw as this much more fantasy, "born of darkness" type works for this, it does clash with their prior iteration as a soft sci-fi criminal organization of androids. Not that this iteration is out of place in the franchise, considering Cutie Honey Flash, for example, even if that was in its own continuity. I'm also enjoying the original villains, though their Panther Claw-esque transformations are kinda hit-or-miss for me.
I don't like Chokkei, y'all, I don't like that they put a young sidekick in this, I don't like his weird romantic arc with Honey, I don't like that she sort of reciprocates his feelings, I'll keep it short, he was my least favorite part, moving on.
I think that it's kinda blatant that, like the previous anime, this was cut blatantly short - and yeah! Four episodes behind of what was intended, and it reads exactly as a show that was cut at the two-thirds point.On first viewing, it especially made the episodes that were breaking from pace, like episode 6's feudal japan(?) amusement park definitely felt more jarring as a third-to-last than it was originally intended. I can imagine a world where, had they known of the cancellation in prior, they could've re-ordered the episodes in such a way to leave that episode 4 cliffhanger as the show finale, same as the original. Still, I had plenty fun, a genuinely great follow-up to the original anime in spite of everything, and its visuals still look great. Not really first Cutie Honey material, but still great.
The reveal of Mecha-Danbei in episode 1 was excellent and the most hype thing in the show, don't @ me.
Total Screenshots: 56, mostly the Not-Panther-Claw villains, some of the Devilman references, and some of Honey's fits
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