Honey Honey no Suteki na Bouken
Literally "Honey Honey's Wonderful Adventures", first a 1966 manga series by Hideko Mizuno, Osamu Tezuka's assistant and one of the first successful female mangaka. Later it was made into a 29-episode anime series by Toei Animation for the Kokusai Eiga (Movie International) company in 1981.
It has been distributed as: Honey e il gatto birbone (Italian); Honey Honey (Portuguese, Latin-American Spanish and English); I fantastici viaggi di Fiorellino (Italian); Las Aventuras de Silvia (Spanish); Les Aventures de Pollen (French); Miodulinka (Polish); Pollen (French); and هني هني (Arabic). Unfortunately the story was cut short because of how poor the ratings were back in Japan, but most of the manga's plot had been adapted, besides a few better subplots. And the series did become rather popular in Europe - two different dubs exist in Italy. An English dub produced by a company called Modern Programs International was shown in the United States on CBN cable and a handful of episodes were also released on VHS, making it one of the earliest shojo anime series to reach the States.
The story begins in Vienna, 1907 (sort of) with vain Princess Flora's nineteenth birthday celebration, where suitors from all over the world are gathered to try to get their hands on her vast fortune and her hand in marriage. The classy masked bandit named Phoenix crashes the party and declares brashly that Flora wouldn't be nearly as beautiful as she is without her ring. Shocked at Phoenix's brashness and fed up with her suitors' motivations, in a fit of rage, she tucks her priceless diamond ring, the "Smile/Star of the Amazon[1]", into a cooked fish and chucks it out the window. A little white cat named Lilly eats the fish whole, swallowing the ring along with it. Flora then declares that she will marry whomever can retrieve the Smile of the Amazon and return it to her.
Lilly belongs to Honey, a young orphaned waitress. Phoenix catches up to her and asks her for her cat, her closest companion, and Honey demands 100 million for her while running off in a hot air balloon along with Lilly. From then on, it's all about the wacky chase over all of Europe, in a race to retrieve a missing ring, with even more surprises in store for the princess, suitors and Honey & company. These surprises range from encounters with more racial stereotypes, King Kong, the evil Slag, Vikings, and more...
Note that unlike most early shojo series, Honey Honey refuses to take itself seriously ( except once or twice, towards the end, and that doesn't stick too much).
Not at all to be mistaken with Cutey Honey or Candy Candy[2], the latter being a Melodrama.
The rights to the series are currently held by Enoki Films USA.
- Anachronism Stew: Played for Laughs
- Arab Oil Sheikh: One of Flora's many suitors, all of them encompassing one offensive racial stereotype and playing it for laughs.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Between Honey and Phoenix.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall
- Domino Mask: Phoenix wears an uncharacteristically frilly red one.
- Door Step Baby: Honey herself. Actually a variation on this trope, as Honey is left not at someone's door but in a field in the springtime, surrounded by honeybees - which is where she got her name from - and subsequently brought up in a (presumably Catholic) convent. Her cat Lily was also abandoned, and as Honey explains in the first episode, that's why she and her cat are so close.
- Dub Name Change: Honey's name is almost always changed, but most of the rest of the other characters' remain unchanged.
- Engagement Challenge: As per usual with the trope, sets off the plot entirely.
- Hair Decorations: Honey's enormous bow.
- Excited Episode Title: the English dub played with it. The hammy announcer would often exclaim! every title, the first episode's being "The CAT ate the RING?!?!"
- Fallen Princess: What Honey turns out to be.
- Fiery Redhead: Princess Flora.
- Gag Dub: Particularly the Portugeuse dub, but the original Japanese is equally silly.
- Gag Series
- Gentleman Thief: Phoenix
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff: A popular and fondly remembered series in Europe and Latin America despite its relative failure in Japan.
- Hey, It's That Voice!: A girl with Sayaka Yumi's voice travels the world with a gentleman jewel thief with the voice of Captain Harlock.
- Hidden Purpose Test: The Vikings capture Honey and force her to walk on red-hot coals. She thinks it's just to torture her. Actually, she has to remove her shoes because they are looking for a rose-shaped birthmark that represents royalty on a young girl's foot. Guess what, she has it!
- Historical Fiction: Played for Laughs.
- Horny Vikings: Kidnapped by Vikings. Yes. They turn out to be former retainers of Honey's parents (hence why they knew about the rose-shaped mark), and their leader Erik is also Phoenix's father.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Phoenix, perfectly complimenting Honey's Tsundere.
- Meal Ticket: Princess Flora, and she disapproves.
- Medium Awareness: Depending on the dub, but most characters make references to the writers or the commercial break.
- Minori Matsushima
- Mysterious Protector: Phoenix seems to serve as this, being the well-dressed fellow with an eyemask far before Tuxedo Mask, although his role is taken far less seriously than in BSSM.
- Only in It For the Money: Repeatedly claimed by Phoenix, but as the series continues it becomes clear that he doesn't mean it.
- Shout-Out: Flora is kidnapped by a giant ape and carried to the top of 70's skyscrapers in a King Kong reference, and the show makes no apologies for that.
- Spot the reference when she goes to Hollywood
- One episode is an entire reference to I Dream of Jeannie.
- Tsundere: Combined with Plucky Girl in Honey. She may be an orphan, but she's not particularly the heartwarming/helpless type, and she does what she can to keep Lilly safe and doesn't hesitate to tell Phoenix off.
- ↑ depending on the dub
- ↑ although both Candy and Honey Honey share the same Japanese voice actress