SEQUALS & REMAKES

Honey's exploits didn't end in the 70's. Go Nagai later resurfaced her in a new comic titled CUTEY HONEY '90, although it is also spelled CUTIE HONEY '90. Here, thirty years have passed since the original manga, Honey was the head of the Hayami Corp., a multi-national industry group originally owned by Danbei and his boys. Sister Jill and the Panther Claw had returned and were starting to breed their own army of monsters made from Jill's cells. One of which was an actress who was playing Kekko Kamen(another of Go Nagai's super heroes)in a live-action movie, so Cutey actually got to fight another Nagai character or at least a fictional version of her. Honey has more than one duel with Sister Jill, but Jill prooves to be more powerful than last time with her new regenerative abilities. She can even be split in half and still fight as two beings which takes her about a week to recover from. Cutey Honey teamed up with the police detective Todokori who became completely obsessed with Honey's breast size, not that anyone could blame him. The fight eventually brings in the U.N. forces in an all out assault on Panther Zora's dimension. In the end, the good guys win, but there is always the possibility that the Panther Claw will return. In this incarnation, Honey actually seemed more interested in carrying on a relationship with someone like Seiji Hayami, but this time it was the lucky Detective Todokori. She was less preoccupied with avenging her father's death and more concerned about saving the world from darkness. The highlight of the comic was the occasional interjection by a chibi-Go Nagai who would step in the panel to give in his own two cents about something. Unlike the first manga, CUTEY HONEY 90 was brought over to America in two volumes by Studio Ironcat and released in its entirity. It is possibly going to be put out into graphic novel format sometime soon also.

Go Nagai then brought back the anime story in an eight-episode OVA series called NEW CUTEY HONEY. This was a sequal to the original TV series that took place a few decades after the first one. Since then, Danbei became a cyborg and had at another son named Akakabu who got married to the punk girl Daiko. While Danbei was out exploring the world, the two of them had a son of their own called Chokkei. Chokkei grew up to be a fine young boy, despite the fact that his parents were a couple of small time bank robbers. When he became a teenager, he started to become a supporter of the new mayor, Light. Mayor Light tried to help bring peace back to the city. However, a new group of gangs started to infest the city lead by the criminal Dolmeck who seemed to have supernatural powers. Danbei returned just in time to save the mayor from assassination only to discover that his secretary was actually Cutey Honey. Apparently after Honey's duel with Sister Jill years ago, Honey had confronted Panther Zora herself and sealed her away in crystal using her morphing powers. But Honey had sealed away the part of her that was her superhero self too and only a fraction of her identity remained to be reborn as a normal girl. Dolmeck's interaction had caused the spark in Honey's new form to change back into Cutey Honey once again to tackle the new crime wave. With the help of the new Hayami family and Honey's new jet, the Honey Comet, she managed to succeed in bringing down Dolmeck's empire which it turned out was focused on resurrecting Panther Zora. His plan worked slightly because Zora was able to manifest back into the human world once again and influence various criminals and causing them to change into monsters to fight Honey. The OVA story ends with Honey tackling the new breed of criminals individually possessed by Zora. Go Nagai had apparently meant to do more with it, but seemed to give up on the idea after the eighth episode. The series has been brought over to the States by ADV Films on VHS in dubbed and subtitled format and on DVD. The anime also gets the occassional showing on cable television too. There was also a video game that followed the OVA called CUTEY HONEY FX that was apparently released in the U.S. too.

The original TV series was picked up again in a made for television remake show for younger viewers called CUTEY HONEY FLASH. This twenty-six episode series retold the whole story of Honey although with a new twist. This time Honey was a human and not an android. She battled the Panther Claw and Sister Jill like in the original, but there was also the addition of a new character called Misty Honey who was a darker version of Cutey Honey. Honey got help from a private detectiv who she falls in love with and eventually married by the end of the series. There is also a mysterious figure who helped Honey gain her potential as a hero, but who also seemed to help out Misty Honey too. The series was very popular and even spawned off a short movie feature too. There was alot of merchandise that followed including dolls, toys, posters, stickers, and more. FLASH helped bring a whole new generation of fans into the fold and redifined the character of Honey into a more shoujo-style, not suprising since it was made by most of the people behind the SAILOR MOON anime. There was also manga that followed the anime. So far, neither of these have reached the U.S. though through regular distributors. Hopefully it won't be too far off though. There is also the possibility of more spinoffs and continuations of Honey's exploits. Come on, Mr. Nagai! Don't stop now!