Cutey Honey Collection #1 (DVD)

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Episode 4 is titled "The Death of Honey? Battle for the Sacred Skyship!" The story picks up directly from where the third episode left off. Honey, Grandpa Denbei, and Chokkei´s parents fly in Honey´s jet to Dormeck´s flying fortress. Honey fights both Dormeck and his lieutenant, Dark Maiden. After she succeeds in running Dormeck through with her sword, dark energy flows out of him to Dark Maiden, who is really Honey´s old enemy, Panther Zora. I didn´t see this coming. I think that Panther Zora was the main bad guy from the old TV series, but it doesn´t matter because we won´t see anymore of Dark Maiden/Panther Zora in this episode. The denouement of the episode involves the possibility of Cutey Honey dying in order to save her friends...

Thus, the first DVD ends. All in all, each episode is pretty self-contained. Knowing that Cutey Honey once fought Panther Zora is not necessary for you to "get" the show, and knowing that Honey was an android would have ruined one of the two plot twists in the OVA series so far. Whether or not Panther Zora has returned is something that you´ll have to see for yourself when you watch the second (and final) OVA DVD. I don´t think that the creators honestly thought that anyone would believe that Honey was dead, and even if she was, I wouldn´t have been all that sad. The show is just too fluffy to make you care about the characters.

Video:
The video aspect ratio is 1.33:1 (full-screen on 4:3 monitors). The quality of the animation and color are pretty good, definitely better than animation that we usually see on TV. There were also no noticeable artifacts.

Audio:
You can watch the show with either Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo Japanese or DD 2.0 stereo English. There is an option for English subtitles. I watched it in Japanese with English subtitles.

I thought that the voices sounded clear. At times, it felt like the translation was a little spotty. The music is nothing to write home about. All of it is synthesizer-based, with the opening and closing songs having vocals from Les 5-4-3-2-1. Still, the music was clear and did not cover up the dialogue. Sound effects were not very good and occasionally were just plain goofy.

Extras:
There are four extras listed on the back cover, but really, there´s only three. The press conference and costume play are the same event, just split up. They are both from the Japanese production announcement for the "New Cutey Honey" OVA series. The costume play happens first, with a short skit from people dressed like characters in "New Cutey Honey" and a little of the opening song sung by the vocalist from Les 5-4-3-2-1. Then, the director of "New Cutey Honey" and Go Nagai say a bit about how they feel about doing the show, and the voice actresses for Cutey Honey and Chokkei (yes, he was played by a woman) are introduced.

This DVD also has one of the strangest extras I´ve seen on any DVD--phone messages. Honey, Chokkei, and Chokkei´s Mom each do two phone messages that you could presumably put on your answering machine.

Finally, there´s a production sketch gallery. It runs by itself, so if you want to look at any picture for long you´ll have to use the pause button.

--Miscellaneous--
The DVD comes with a single-page, colored insert with the chapters listed on it.

Film Value:
If I had to sum up this DVD with one word, I´d go with boobtacular. Honey´s large, bare, jiggling breasts are represented in fine detail at least twice an episode, as are, for that matter, every other woman´s in the series. I don´t personally enjoy animated nakedness, and because the plot is very thin, I wouldn´t recommend this to anyone looking for some anime to while away an afternoon with. This wasn´t the worst anime I´ve ever seen, and it´s certainly a lot better than hentai (hardcore pornographic animation), but there is precious little in "New Cutey Honey" for me to recommend over other anime titles. Besides, if you´re just looking for some bouncy action, there´s always "Baywatch".

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