Cutie Honey Universe

Episode 5

Cutie Honey Universe thus far hasn't been the subversive, creative, or even consistently interesting reboot of the classic property I know a lot of people were hoping for. Sure it's had many moments of fun, but it seems like every cool fight scene or alleged plot development gets tempered with unfunny humor or a concerted effort to jog in place with the status quo. This fifth episode mostly falls into those latter issues, with a side-order of a misplaced effort to have ideas about things.

This one's plot concerns the out-of-nowhere revelation that the local mayor is actually a Panther Claw agent. This does land us an appearance by Honey's reporter form, and an interview where the writers fumble about for a point about feminism in the early part of the episode. It's almost quaint to see some latter-year takes on the subject espoused in a show like this, from the mayor's apparent position that Women Are Good simply because Men Are Bad, to her espousing the belief that Panther Claw can be negotiated with on the basis that they're only carrying out terrorist attacks because they want attention. It even culminates in Honey getting shut down in the argument because she's coming across as ‘too angry’ to have a discussion with on the issue. Of course, any argument from the mayor we are supposed to take seriously is null since we already know she herself is part of the terrorist organization.

After that weird establishing sequence of the Evil Feminist Mayor, this episode otherwise settles into being a totally by-the-book Cutie Honey romp. It is nice to see Honey using more of the old-school transformation-disguise infiltration tricks her older series is known for, as her flight attendant form pops up here as well. Unfortunately, so do Danbei and Junpei. It's not that these stock sidekicks can be written off as unnecessary; indeed they factor into the plot on many levels this week. It's just that they invariably bring a degree of irritation with them since their brand of humor is so distinctly not to my taste. Maybe a famous businessman and his ward can get away with harassing a flight attendant just because they vaguely recognize her, but there have got to be more original, clever jokes they can mine from such a setup.

It all leads into a climax that undermines its own ill-advised attempt at an earlier message as much as it underwhelms visually. As much as I've complimented Cutie Honey Universe's talent for visual excess when it really cuts loose, the CGI mannequin mooks that Honey has to deal with here are on the far-opposite end of the design spectrum. In fact this whole episode takes a noticeable dip on the visual quality scale. There isn't much of a fight with these creatures either, owing to their transformed-hostage-woman nature, and that's also where the aforementioned message becomes muddled.

The whole idea is that the mannequins are the women staffers hired by the Panther Claw Mayor, transformed into unwilling pawns as a result of trusting her supposed interest in their empowerment. This gets brought up in-dialogue, that Iron Shadow simply espoused some base platitudes she didn't actually care about to build up an army of followers. She even starts to threaten the mannequin-women by proxy to get Honey to submit to her. But then when it's time for a distraction to save the day, Danbei and Junpei start fondling the mannequins, which does get Iron Shadow's attention as she tells them to stop and leave them alone. It's a bizarre shifting of standards that mostly seems to rely on where the conflict and tension need to go, and what the writers think pass for jokes in this situation. Does Iron Shadow actually have any ideals about the treatment of women? Or is this whole thing the writers' critique of how they see feminist standards? Will we get through any future episodes without Danbei and Junpei molesting a statue of some kind? These are questions Cutie Honey Universe has little interest in answering at this point.

Even if I'd disagree with its fundamental take on the issue, it would still be preferable to have Cutie Honey Universe attempt to actually say something rather than throwing out nominal ideas and not doing anything with them. Because as-is this episode doesn't really have anything else going for it that previous ones didn't do better. The final battle between Honey and Iron Shadow gives way to a bizarre circus interlude wherein out heroine triumphs in the old-school manner of pulling new powers out of her butt as needed. And virtually no progress is made on the villain group sub-plot that should be the overarching life-blood of this show, given how much they keep reminding us of it. Cutie Honey Universe has been fun before, but take out the fun and replace it with these half-baked attempts at idea-based storytelling, and it just makes clear how seriously stuck on repeat the show is at this point.

Rating: C-

Cutie Honey Universe is currently streaming on HIDIVE.