Voice Actress Haruko Kitahama Passes Away
Voice actress Haruko Kitahama passed away on November 2, 2023 due to a chronic lung disease. She was 86 years old at the time of her passing.
Kitahama was born in Tokyo on July 1, 1938. She had a long career voicing numerous characters in anime and games, and she also worked as a dub voice actress for Western films, as a television and commercial narrator, and as a radio personality. Her first…
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Let's jump into some trivia for Cutie Honey episode 12: A Red Pearl is Forever.
Screenwriter: Susumu Takaku
Art Director: Eiji Ito
Animation Director: Shingo Araki
Director: Hiroshi Shidara
The creative team behind Cutie Honey sure love James Bond. The title of this episode is a spoof of the 1971 film Diamonds are Forever.
This episode originally aired on January 30th, 1973 but was later shown in theaters as part of the Toei Manga Matsuri on March 16th, 1974. Also known as the Toei Animation Festival, this was a film festival created by Toei Animation to showcase some of their popular series during seasonal breaks in the school year. The festival not only included original films but “theatrical versions” of selected episodes from their popular series as well.
The line-up for the Spring 1974 festival featured:
Yaemon The Locomotive
Eye-Popping 3-D Movie: Inazuman
Kamen Rider X (Theatrical version of episode 3)
Mazinger Z vs. Dr. Hell (Theatrical version of episode 57)
Limit Miracle Girl (Theatrical version of episode 5)
Cutie Honey (Theatrical version of episode 12)
Reportedly the theatrical version of episode 12 was going to be included as an extra for the original Cutie Honey Premium DVD-Box but the proper materials couldn’t be sourced. The "theatrical version" would've had the episode cropped for widescreen viewing and probably would've omitted the title card and next episode preview.
This episode marked the first collaboration between director Hiroshi Shidara and animator Shingo Araki. Reportedly, both men were set to handle the last episode of Cutie Honey but were too busy at the time working on Toei’s next magical girl series: Little Witch Megu.
Shidara and Araki had such a fondness for Honey, they included her in Megu’s 27th episode, “The Curse of Scorpio.” The episode opens with Megu watching Misty Honey performing the Cutie Honey theme on TV. In that same episode, Non is seen wearing Hurricane Honey’s helmet.
Araki had previously included Seiji in the first episode of Megu, where he can be seen among a group of angry men. Araki would later include cameo appearances of both Seiji and Honey in UFO Robo Grendizer episode 50. That episode also featured characters from several previous Toei Animation series: Babel II, Devilman, and Getter Robo.
The haunting siren’s song heard throughout the episode is taken from Kosuke Onozaki’s musical score for the 1969 Toei Animation film, Flying Phantom Ship.
For some reason Seiji’s car has two different license plates. One says “Shinagawa 5132” while the other reads “Shinagawa Maichi 300F.”
Despite her name appearing in the opening credits, Noriko Watanabe does not voice Sister Jill in this episode. Haruko Kitahama fills in for her.
Sea Panther was originally designed by Ken Ishikawa, who most likely drew inspiration of the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Her finalized design was done by Shingo Araki.
Sea Panther was voiced by Haruko Kitahama, who previously voiced other Panther Claw minions. Amusingly, Kitahama would go on to voice the Sea Witch and one of the older mermaid sisters in Toei Animation’s 1975 film, Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid.
Sea Panther is referred to as an “android”, though this is technically incorrect. An android is a mobile robot that is made to look like a human. For example, Honey is an android. She’s completely mechanical but looks like a human girl.
Since Sea Panther was originally a flesh and blood mermaid, she’s actually more of a cyborg, which is “a person whose physiological functioning is aided by or dependent upon a mechanical or electronic device.” However, since she was originally a mermaid and not human, I suppose the term “cyborg” is dubious.
The other agents of Panther Claw (aside from Zora and Jill) are also referred to as “androids” in the anime, although it’s unclear if they’re fully mechanical or not. In the original Cutie Honey manga by Go Nagai, he makes it a point to mention the members of Panther Claw are in fact cyborgs not androids. It could be that the anime producers got their sci-fi terminology mixed up.
The music that plays during the closing scene is Auld Lang Syne, a song typically played or sung during New Years Eve. It was probably included due to the fact this episode originally aired on December 29th, 1973.
That's all for episode 12!
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