"Cutie Honey Universe" Anime Casts Yui Horie, Shintarō Asanuma

So, how long til we can call this “Cutie Honey and Her Amazing Friends?”

Earlier today, the official Cutie Honey Universe anime website updated with two new cast reveals. The series will add the following roles:

Natsuko Aki: Yui Horie
Seiji Hayami: Shintarō Asanuma

Visuals for both characters were also unveiled, which you can check out below.

Natsuko Aki

Seiji Hayami

Cutie Honey Universe will hit Japanese TV on April 8. AT-X will be the first to screen the show, at 21:00 (9:00PM). Tokyo MX and BS11 will air the series later.

The series is one of three projects being produced to commemorate Go Nagai’s 50th anniversary in the industry. The other two works include Devilman Crybaby and Mazinger Z: Infinity.

Akitoshi Yokoyama was tapped to direct Cutie Honey Universe at Production Reed, with Syūichi Iseki filling the dual role of character designer and chief animation director. Natsuko Takahashi (Love Tyrant, Urahara) is in charge of series composition.

Maaya Sakamoto will play Honey Kisaragi and the main form of Cutie Honey. The following were cast as other Honey forms, though their specific roles haven’t been named as of press time:

Maaya Uchida
Tomoyo Kurosawa
Kana Hanazawa
Yukari Tamura
Suzuko Mimori

Go Nagai’s Cutie Honey is a highly influential manga title, which laid the groundwork for the modern Magical Girl genre. The series, which ran from 1973 – 1974 in Weekly Shonen Champion, spans two collected volumes.

The Cutie Honey manga spawned numerous spinoffs and adaptations, including multiple anime series, numeorus manga remakes, a live-action movie, and a live-action TV series.

Seven Seas currently holds the rights to the Cutie Honey manga, which they describe as:

Cutie Honey, one of the most recognized superheroines in manga history, will finally have her original story in print! Experience the ultimate collection of both volumes of Go Nagai’s 1973 cult classic in one oversized hardcover tome. With a career spanning 50 years, Go Nagai created many immensely popular series including Devilman and Getter Robo, and Cutie Honey–his edgy magical girl aimed at boys–remains one of his most influential works to this day.

Visuals for each of Honey’s forms were previously unveiled, which you can check out below.