MISC. MANGA, *Cutie Honey A Go Go!

Based on the 2004 live-action Cutie Honey movie by Evangelion's Hideaki Anno, Shinpei Itoh who created Hyper Dolls wrote and drew this adapted from Go Nagai's original story as an unfortunately unconcluded manga series that Seven Seas Entertainment collected into this single trade paperback. It borrows elements from the film, but incorporates elements from the first 1970s Cutie Honey manga and TV anime.

Set in the mid 00's, the super-powered bad guy posse known as Panther Claw is running a muck in Japan, and the only thing that stands in their way is the transforming android girl, Cutie Honey. After her father/creator Dr. Kisaragi is killed by Panther Claw under the leadership of Sister Jill, the public security inspector Aki Natsuko(who here is seriously remade as her Hyper Dolls counterpart)takes over protection of Honey in her civilian identity as a schoolgirl, who is now transferred to mountaintop academy. Panther Claw meanwhile plans to snipe down the members of the investigation team on their case, while secret U.S. forces keep tabs on Honey's activity who it turns out to be originally created for the American military. The story ends with some of Honey's comrades getting gratuitously killed off, and the "soldier of love" preparing for a showdown with Sister Jill.

The manga sold well enough in Japan that it continued to points away from the movie's plot, but not popular enough to fund its conclusion. The OVA remake of the movie's take was Re: Cutie Honey(still not released in English)also done by Hineaki Anno, and acted as more of an action story where similar to Itoh's prior works the plot more focuses on the supporting characters and the effect the superheroics have on the rest of the world. Anno took this similar approach when he created Shin Godzilla which is largely about how the Japanese government operates during a crisis instead of a kaiju attack. If you weren't able to collect the Cutie Honey 90 comic issues from Studio Ironcat, or want more of the original manga(also now available from Seven Seas), then Cutie Honey A Go Go is worth a read.