No, but really. Why doesn’t she just… take the device, herself?

Cutie Honey Universe
Studio: Production Reed
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Comedy, Magic, Romance, Shounen

These episodes have so far done nothing to convince me that Sister Jill is, in fact, not an idiot. Again, we see in the first episode that she’s more than tough enough to just take Honey on, herself. Far more capable than any of her goons. She’s not lazy. She’s not prissy. She’s downright monstrous. So why is she even bothering with all of these overly complicated schemes? She knows where Honey lives and where Honey works. Honey is the only thing in her way, and her only objective in the entire series, so far. It’s not like she’s after something else and Honey constantly gets in her way. Honey is the end goal. Yet this makes two episodes where she tries some asinine means of trapping her with a few cronies who she knows Honey can beat.

Other than that, these episodes were basically fine. Episode 3 basically focused on Honey’s best friend, Natsuko, who is currently the only supporting character in the thing with any merit. Though having researched the original, I have a bad feeling about where things are going to end up with her. I kind of hope this deviates from the source material is all I’ll say on that. But anyway, her part in the episode was a bit… odd. I liked the bully’s comedic role in the episode, actually. The joke was genuinely funny. And it did lead to an actual payoff that was pretty cool. But given how the episode plays out, I have very grim expectations for later.

I am having so many bad feelings, right now.

There wasn’t a lot to the episode, otherwise. Natsuko meets Sister Jill (in her disguise, of course). Jill takes Natsuko on a “date” to prod for information on Honey. She also sets up a trap for Honey to come rescue Natsuko when the Panther Claw attacks the store they’re in. Honey, of course, manages to save her. Actually, the action sequence of this particular episode was fairly lackluster.

It’s made up for in Episode 4, where Honey and the others at PCIS (including Sister Jill) devise a trap for the Panther Claw. Of course, it’s actually a trap for Honey, herself… somehow. Point is, Jill is actively sabotaging the means of PCIS getting in touch with her. But once again she leaves Honey with a few cronies. So, naturally, she gets out of that situation with relative ease after a pretty cool action scene, definitely making up for the previous episode’s.

A cool costume too, if a bit fanservice-y. But that comes with the territory, I guess.

Though the entire sequence after her escape is just… uncomfortable. And not in a good “you’ll grow from it” way. It’s just… tasteless, really. I don’t generally mind fanservice, but that was just nooot okay. I’m not gonna get into what it actually was, but it was not pleasant to sit through. Once it’s over, though, the episode more or less concludes. Sister Jill has a chat with Tarantula, who seems to be the only competent one of her underlings. Competent enough to know when she’s beat and hightail it out of there, anyway.

Overall, these episodes were fine. The first one is basically Harmless. Nothing about it really does a lot other than set up for something that’s definitely going to wind up happening later and I hope goes very differently from the original. But the second episode is perfectly serviceable Junk Food… except for that last part, which just drags on for far too long and almost single-handedly brings the whole thing down into the negative side of What Did I Just Watch? territory. I’m still not really sure what I’m thinking about this series, overall. I love the art style and the action. But the narrative could stand to be a little stronger. We’ll see. In the meantime, if you want something a little more cohesive, check out EvilBob’s coverage of Hisone to Masotan. It’s actually pretty enjoyable.

“You look displeased…” “He didn’t seem to like us much.”

Cutie Honey Universe is currently streaming on HiDive.