Honey: "I can see why it is popular—the glossy animation, the well-endowed chicks, the scant clothing. If that isn't your thing, however, there is very little to draw you to this series." Reviewers have noticed Go Nagai's influence on New Cutie Honey; several considered it among the best anime based on his works, while others preferred different series. Dozier said that Nagai is "recognized in the anime world as an influential artist and storyteller who is known for preferring extra helpings of nudity and violence in his work", and that such influence "definitely comes through" in the series. Carlos Ross of THEM Anime gave earlier Nagai anime bad ratings, but called Honey "another Go Nagai-based anime that common logic should dictate that THEM rate harshly – except that we actually enjoyed it immensely", while calling its "awfully ugly backdrops, and weird-looking characters" "standard Go Nagai". Beveridge says he greatly preferred Honey over other Nagai offerings, but that "it really doesn't rise up too much higher than thinly veiled fan service with something of a story". Scott Green of Ain't It Cool News praised "Nagai's tasteless sense of strangeness" as the series' "highpoint", saying its "bright American style superhero design, with kaleidoscopic oddity, humorously gratuitous nudity and violence" make it "amusing nonsense". In his negative review, Carter said the Devilman-based Devil Lady was a more entertaining anime with a similar "impressively built woman fighting monsters" premise. Many reviewers also contrasted its portrayal of main character Honey as a powerful figure with how it also shows off her body through her nude transformation sequences. Susan J. Napier, author of Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke, distinguished the series from more pornographic anime such as Wicked City, Twin Dolls, and La Blue Girl. Napier thought that the series "sends mixed messages" because even though Honey has great strength and heroism, her transformations are very sexual in nature. She wrote that "the presumably male viewer is invited in, to participate in the unclothing and clothing of her nude body, while both male and female viewer alike are allowed the vicarious participation in the ecstatic transformation process", but quickly added: "Despite the regressive and voyeuristic aspects of her characterization, she is still clearly the film's hero, one worthy of admiration and emulation ... in the film's several violent scenes she more than holds her own." Dozier did not share that sentiment: she said "Honey does