Yoko Maekawa/Kumi Koda/GO!GO!7188 -- Cutie Honey (キューティーハニー)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/breville/8723949838

It's possible that I may be coming down with a cold or some hay fever today. My nose has been running like a faucet and there's a cough coming in. A cup of some hot honey & lemon would be quite nice right now.

Speaking of honey.....HONEY FLASH!!

Yes, I'm seguing again...let it go. Ahem...anyways, it's time for me to bring out an old but famous anison from the 1970s. To be specific, this is the theme song for the 1973 anime "Cutie Honey" (キューティーハニー). I never saw the show myself but even I know about this heroine in Japan who fights the good fight while having a certain allergy toward being fully clothed. And the theme is also one of the most famous elements as well as being one of the more recognizable anison ever made.

Written by lyricist Claude Q. (aka Fujio Iwasaki/岩崎富士男 now of the Osaka University of Arts) and composed by Takeo Watanabe（渡辺岳夫）, "Cutie Honey" has got a lot of soaring boogie and spunk done in a spy-show style with lyrics describing the fine attributes of android Honey Kisaragi (I can only imagine her on a date with Commander Data). And singer Yoko Maekawa（前川陽子）interprets it like a Linda Yamamoto（山本リンダ） hit, and that is no surprise since it had been intended for the sexy and dynamic Yamamoto but for some reason, that plan fell through. Still, Maekawa does a fine job resembling the singer.

As I said, I was never a fan of the show but even I paid attention when I was watching the morning news back in Ichikawa one day and learned that there was to be a live-action version of "Cutie Honey" which was released in 2004. Ohhhhhhkayyyyyyyyy, I remarked. And the star was Eriko Sato（佐藤江梨子）, a tarento whose star had been rising at the time.

Kumi Koda（倖田來未）performed the new version of the theme song in an even sultrier way with more of a nightclubby/hip-hop feel. Looking at the music video, I would have thought Koda could have portrayed the heroine but perhaps she was a little too short at 154cm. Sato is actually my height at 173cm.

Man, do I love the fat bass and drums on GO!GO!7188's cover of "Cutie Honey". This is the surf rock version of the song that was included on the band's cover mini-album "Tora no Ana"（虎の穴...The Tiger's Eye） from July 2002. It was able to reach No. 15 on the Oricon charts.

From what I've read, there are plenty of other covers out there on YouTube as well so enjoy!