series) reborn; Honey wounds Dolmeck, and his body releases the fallen evil souls of all the countless villains Honey has killed. Zora then absorbs them, evolving her body into that of a fully adult woman. Honey tries to re-seal Dolmeck's body, while Danbei destroys the airship. After the entire Hayami family escapes the ship with Danbei's jet pack, Honey emerges alive from within a falling rock. The next four episodes are set an unspecified time after the battle with Dolmeck. Chokkei has grown older and fond of Honey, and the Hayamis remain with her to fight off antagonists who transform and gain their power through direct influence by Zora. Mayor Light rarely appears in this half of the series. A girl named appears in the fifth episode as a criminal who wants to use a nuclear bomb to get a ransom; she joins Honey's group by the sixth episode, often stays near Chokkei, and calls him "boy" to his annoyance. Her presence reminds Honey of her old friend of the same name who died at the hands of Sister Jill in the original versions of Cutie Honey and vows to protect her. Natsuko is initially confused by this until Chokkei explains the reason why. Later Chokkei and Natsuko start to have feelings for each other. In the seventh, Daiko—now a leader of a "United Thug Alliance" of gangs—goes with Honey and the Hayamis to rescue fellow thugs imprisoned by an army of "Thug Hunters", and reveals she fell in love with Akakabu for his persistence in an earlier fight with her. Peeping Spider returns in the eighth, last episode; there, Honey and her friends capture him and use his technologies to defeat a teleporting gold thief. Production Background and development The first anime incarnation of Cutie Honey was broadcast from October 13, 1973 to March 30, 1974, alongside the Go Nagai Cutie Honey manga that had started publishing on October 1, 1973. Fred Patten wrote in the liner notes for Rhino Entertainment's CD The Best of Anime (1998) that the series, even untranslated, was a favorite among early anime fan clubs for its nude transformation sequences and innuendos. Even as brief nudity became commonplace in 1980s anime, the continued popularity of Honey inspired New Cutie Honey creation in 1994. Toei Video announced the series in a press conference dated October 12, 1993, with Go Nagai, series director Yasuchika Nagaoka, Hitomi