Konchuu Monogatari Minashigo Hutch

i can't emphasize enough how beautiful and impactful this anime is
it almost slipped through my watching list, i was talking about "Alps Monogatari: watashi no annette" with my uncle and he said how in his childhood he watched it and we talked about how modern cartoons and anime isn't deep anymore and during our conversation he jokingly said how he hated the nightmares he kept getting from watching "Hutch the honeybee"
my uncle really hated it because it was tragic and a horror show
unlike my uncle i really enjoy reading tragedies, so i thought i should give it a shot, when i first looked ... at the cover of the anime and how the MC looks like i kinda wanted to skip it but i'm so lucky i decided to watch it anyway

there are so many different versions of "hutch the honeybee" but only the original 1970 worth the watch

the story is dark and mature which is why a lot of its scenes are censored in Europe and other countries, there are so many tragic moments but there are fun times as well
the MC looks dumb but is close to a Greek hero

this is an episodic anime about hutch who is searching for his mother and in each episode he encounters new insects and he has to fight against them and so many of his friends end up dying
there is so much character development, there is barely any dull moment
the soundtracks are great and so is art
getting this anime isn't easy, there is only Japaneses version out there without any subs
but maybe i missed a website, anyway if you ended up watching this anime because of my review please message me about it

Strangely enough, this series has a long history with a sequel, remade movie in 2010, and a spinoff. The studio that made this was Tatsunoko Production, a long standing studio that is still in the industry today. Ippei Kuri, the man whom co-founded the studio, was the lead episode director and series production director worked along with another now-veteran anime industry man by the name of Yoshiuki Tomino or better known as the man behind all things Gundam. Unfortunately, at the time of this review only four known episodes of the show were able to be found. However, they really show off why the show ... was quite good for 1970.

For a show aimed at young children, this anime is actually quite violent, depressing, and has many sad undertones. Honeybee Hutch starts out with a scene depicting the entire bee hive being attacked by a swarm of swaps that proceed to murder everyone, stand over the corpses, and drink their honey. The bee queen somehow escapes leaving the bodies of her children behind. A sole female worker bee from another hive (whom also escaped a genocide of her own) happens upon a single egg left and raises this bee as her own among her 9 other children. However, Hutch is different because he is not part of the hive. The other kids bully him and isolate him constantly. Hutch inevitably is told by his pseudo-mother he is actually an orphan, so an upset Hutch sets out on an adventure to find his real bee mother.

Each of the other episodes follows a formula in which Hutch will befriend another insect such as a child grasshopper and by the end of the episode another insect or creature higher of the food chain will murder/eat said insect Hutch has befriended. For example, the child grasshopper’s parents are eaten by a lizard in front of Hutch and the child with half the corpses hanging out of the lizard’s mouth. Despite the constant death and destruction surrounding Hutch, he remains a hopeful optimistic idiot which the viewer can’t help but feel for.

Character art is quite reminiscent of a cross between an old Disney and warner bros cartoon, and yet Hutch’s face and expressions usually makes him seem “special” most of the time. Music plays a huge role in the show. It always matches the mood of the scene ever changing and adapting including most insects knowing how to play an instrument leading to episodes focused around that character. Watching the 2010 remake movie is evidence of these things.

Much of the show can be compared to the movie “A Bug’s Life” how the insects interact with each other and world such as children insects using a shape of a leaf as a slide. No doubt that movie took a lot from this show.

Overall, based on what was seen and little understood language wise, events and character expressions show the viewer more than enough to understand what is happening. That says a lot to the caliber of Honeybee Hutch. It is a real shame more episodes could not be found because it was actually pretty good despite coming out in 1970.