Nostalgic Anime Retrospective No.7] Immorality and bewilderment felt by a first grader! The Showa-era thrill of the original cyborg bishojo anime "Cutie Honey"!

Veteran writer Keisuke Hirota talks about the golden age and decline of Japanese animation in this "Nostalgic Anime Retrospective. Let's enjoy the atmosphere of a bygone era in good company, whether you are an old generation who knows those days or a new generation who knows nothing about them. Now, " Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie " will be released on June 20. Motoko Kusanagi, aka "Major," is a cyborg heroine with a prosthetic body. The original sexy cyborg heroine was, of course, " Cutie Honey" (1973)!　Later, "Cutie Honey F" (1997) for girls, "Re: Cutie Honey" (2004) for anime fanatics, OVAs, live-action movies, and dramas were also produced, but I'll focus on the 1973 version, which broke all the rules the most!

First of all, I worked for a video game company for a while and was involved in the production of "Cutie Honey" pachinko machines as part of my job. I was particular about the aesthetic world of "Cutie Honey" without any male characters. I did not show any male combatants, and focused mainly on the battle with Sister Jill. The "beautiful women vs. beautiful women" composition was intended to create a sexy atmosphere throughout. But by the time the slingshot was released, I had been restructured, so they ended up adding a male combatant as well. That was not good enough. The presence of Danbei and Junpei, who were looking at Honey in a dirty way, and Seiji, who was touching her boobs in the opening scene, were a nuisance to me. It is "we ourselves" who have illicit feelings for Honey. I felt that the male-female relationship in the play was unnecessary, and this selfish belief remained unchanged when I was in the first grade at the time of the broadcast and when I was in my thirties when I was involved in the pachinko project.

This belief (miscellaneous thoughts), that "the dirty desire for honey is the strongest in me," arose in my heart, for example, when I stayed at my uncle's house and watched "Honey" together with my relatives. In the scene where Honey is trapped in a leopard's cage, she is bitten from behind and her buttocks are exposed. It's a naughty cartoon, isn't it? Uncle laughed. I was happy inwardly, but I did not react, saying, "My dirty mind is only for me, I should not share it with my uncle. Even though I was excited by the transformation scenes of honey getting naked week after week, I had the feeling that I would be dead in the water if the adults found out about it. Now that I think about it, maybe it was guilt. Around the same time, "Dorororon Enma-kun" (1973) began airing, and the heroine, Princess Yukiko, would occasionally have a bathing scene. That scene would make me want to give a thumbs up and say, "Okay, I got a bite this week!" but I had a feeling that if my parents found out about it, they would not let me watch it the next week. First-graders were dirty, immoral, and cunning to that extent. That same year, 1973, "Doraemon" was first animated (Doraemon was voiced by Kosei Tomita). In that version, I remember that there was no bathing scene for Shizuka. I remember that the appeal of Honey was not so much the bathing scene, but the fact that Shizuka was "forced to transform" and "proudly" and "aggressively" become nude without hesitation. Even as a first grader, I understood the coolness of her sexy costume with visible cleavage (the pink and black color scheme was also cool), her valiant swordfighting, and the beauty of her perversion in daring to expose her defenseless appearance to her enemies. She was the first "adult woman" I had ever met in my life.

The girl-oriented "Cutie Honey F" had a yuri element, and the OVAs "New Cutie Honey" and "Re: Cutie Honey" were eye-opening anime for adults who knew how to appreciate sex, including biting it. That "embarrassment of intent made transparent" was the same in the live-action film and drama versions, "You would understand, wouldn't you?" You're okay with this, right?" and I feel as if I had been tapped on the shoulder by a classmate. Of course, I am getting older. I was in the first grade of elementary school when I was asked, "Can I see your boobs or not?" In addition to the immediate thrill of "can you see her boobs or not?", I was even shown the metaphorical eroticism of Honey in a dress getting her necklace ripped off ...... in the opening scene, so at that point, the bottle of "naughty things you get from anime" was full. I had to go. Every time I was shown something later, I increased the capacity of the bottle and forced myself to accept it, saying, "Oh, this isn't so bad either.

So, not limited to the sex factor, the fact that I am expanding the capacity of the bottles I can accept to "this and that" must be a sign that I am getting older. It seems to me that a state of hunger, of "not enough yet" or "not satisfied at all," is preferable. I think I prefer a state of hunger that is "not enough" or "not satisfied at all.

(Text by Keisuke Hirota)