A heartless and greedy group named Panther Claw is terrorizing the city, in hopes of achieving a device that will give them all the luxuries they desire. Panther Claw is too much for the Japanese police force to handle, but luckily a new hero has arrived: Cutie Honey! Honey Kisaragi is an android created by Professor Kisaragi, whom also claims to be her father. However, Cutie witnesses the death of her father and she swears revenge. With a touch of her collar, she is able to disguise herself as Cutie Honey - a fearless warrior fighting for love!
Secret agent for the British Libraries, Yomiko Readman, has an infatuation with books. When she purchases one of the books that contain the notes for a plan to purge the world of humanity, Yomiko (along with the help of Ms. Deep and Drake) uses her powers of paper manipulation to stop a group of resurrected men from fulfilling the plan.
Another retro, heroine-duo with shades of yuri action comedy exists in this world, for better or worse. Read or Die may not be as seizure inducive as this OVA, but otherwise, it's on par in terms of insanity. In Read or Die's 007 inspired world, the British Library is a secret government organization and cloned literary figures are threatening to take over the world. It's up to a rather ditsy sweet heroine and her ice cold female playmate to stop them. That last sentence reminded you of Cutie Honey didn't it? Read or Die cuts a lot of fanservice in favor of some serious action, but the other charms of Re:Cutie Honey are all present in Read or Die.
F City, F Prefecture: the battleground where good and evil have finally chosen to decide once and for all who will rule the world…or at least that's the general idea! Neither side seems up for the task, as surviving the brutality of everyday life is enough of a chore. On the side of evil is the organization of Across, its only member the loudmouthed and abrasive Excel who struggles just to put food in her stomach; on the side of good, three disenfranchised, unemployed bachelors whose only pursuit in life is romance. Add in alien invasions, jungle warfare, and Mexican immigrant laborers to Japan, and this war doesn't seem likely to be ending soon!
Excel Saga and Re: Cutie Honey are similar in their style of executing the story. While there is some plot, the way they lay it out is purely spasmodic. Things are out of proportion and very silly. It's in the camera shots, the animation, and the character behaviour. Re: Cutie Honey has much more fanservice and a touching ending. Excel Saga parodies many other anime, so if you've seen a lot of anime, you'll have fun with this aspect.
In the early 21st century, insectoid organisms are invading the galaxy, searching for new stars to house their young. Mankind's only defense lies with space cadets such as Takaya Noriko, daughter of a celebrated admiral killed in battle, and Amano Kazumi, the top of her class. With their skill and the power of the mecha known as GunBuster, the girls must help fight to protect the galaxy from total annihilation...
Each OVA begins as silly cheesy fun with some fanservice (though the dollops provided in Re: Cutie Honey transcend the ridiculous). Directed by Hideaki Anno and animated by Gainax, both OVAs shift more serious tone at the end. This shift is far more pronounced in Gunbuster. Friendship between women is a major theme in each. Both have their share of otaku references - though Re: Cutie Honey mainly to previous incarnations.
Puni Puni Poemi is a spin-off of Excel Saga, the classic lampoon of all that is anime. It takes the daughter of two Excel Saga characters and puts her through parodies of shoujo, shounen, ecchi, hentai, and everything in-between. This eccentric show is the "Scary Movie" of anime: younger viewers need not apply.
Both Re: Cutie Honey and Puni Puni Poemy present a satirical look at stereotypical magical girl superheroes and act as a deconstruction of the genre. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the two both contain lots and lots of Ecchi and random humour filled with anime and otaku culture references that you may or may not understand.
Nono, a clumsy young girl living in the backwater countryside of Mars, dreams of becoming a space pilot. But when Nono witnesses Lal'C, a real space pilot called a Topless, and her brutal fight with one of the invading space monsters, she discovers that it may not be so easy as she's rocketed into orbit alongside Lal'C in the ensuing struggle. With guts and effort her only recourse, Nono reaches for the stars to become a "Nonoriri" and a Topless alongside her Onee-sama, as well as to fight back against hordes of space monsters!
Gainax just cranks out those ecchi comedies. Gunbuster 2 and Re: Cutie Honey both have spastic visuals very much inspired by a retro style. That only touches upon the surface of their similarities. Both follow the same recipie that calls for a ditsy, lovey dovey heart obsessed main character who meets a cold and calculating woman. The two develop a borderline romantic relationship as the main character melts her counterpart's icy heart, all while saving the world.