Kobura/Space Adventure Cobra/Súper Agente Cobra

Chicks & Adventure.

Continuing with Animé that brings joy & nostalgia to the connoisseur, we leave the sassy 70's to enter the early 80's with one magnificent Animé that combined the best of Star Wars, James Bond, and 70's sexploitation: Space Adventure Cobra! 

Kobura, AKA Space Adventure Cobra is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Buichi Terasawa. Set in the far future, the series tells the story of freelance space agent Cobra, who lived an adventurous life until his enemies began to hunt him down. Cobra surgically altered his face and erased his own memory in order to hide from his foes and lead a normal life. Eventually, he regains his memories and re-unites with his old partner Lady Armaroid and his ship Tortuga. Cobra travels the galaxy, fighting the outlaw Pirate Guild, but also fleeing the law-enforcing Milky Way Patrol. Along with his charm and wit, Cobra survives thanks to his Psycho-Gun, a unique weapon embedded in his left arm.

The manga was originally serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1978 to 1984. The individual chapters were collected and published in 18 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha. The Cobra manga spawned various sequel manga series, one-shots, a feature-length anime film, two anime series —a 1982 anime with 31 episodes retelling the film's story and a 13-episode broadcast in 2010—, two original video animations (OVAs), audio albums, video games, and other merchandise. In 2010, the production of a live-action film was announced by Alexandre Aja.

it's a man's job.

Whatever you say ma'am!

Space Adventure Cobra, The OVA

TMS Entertainment adapted the manga into a film titled Space Adventure Cobra, which was released on July 23, 1982 in Japan. Manga Entertainment released the film in the United Kingdom in 1995. The Manga Entertainment version's dub had an alternate soundtrack from the pop group Yello. It was released in American theaters on August 20, 1995 by Tara, and later distributed by Urban Vision in VHS format on June 16, 1998. The film was released in the Australasian region by Madman Entertainment on December 5, 2007. On April 8, 2008, Manga Entertainment re-released it. Discotek Media released the film in the United States to DVD on August 21, 2012. Matthew Sweet's "Girlfriend" music video used footage from the film, and become one of the most-watched videos on MTV.

Space Cobra, the Animé

The series was later adapted into an anime adaptation titled Space Cobra. Loosely based in the first eight volumes of the manga, it was directed by Osamu Dezaki, and aired on Fuji Television between October 7, 1982 and May 19, 1983. The Space Cobra anime was later released in box set form on October 25, 2000 by Digital Site. The series was licensed for a DVD release and digital distribution by Right Stuf's publishing division, Nozomi Entertainment, who plans on releasing the series in two subtitled sets beginning in Northern America; the first one will be available on March 4, 2014. The Animé was known as Space Cobra mostly in English speaking countries. In Europe it was just known as Cobra & in Latin America it was known as Súper Agente Cobra.

   

This series is James Bond in Space. Quite ridiculous as far as realism goes but has that "I'm too cool for school" attitude. The way I see it, Space Adventure Cobra was back then, what date sims are today. For some reason, all retro sci-fi series pictured the far future as a vast harem of skimpy clothed women the all-mighty lead captain must fight and save from ugly aliens, so he can have sex with them. Well, this erotic/ romantic picture gave place to more serious and realistic forms of sci-fi, while the erotism was replaced by fancy erogames and romance was replaced with mild arlekin stories for middle-aged housewives. Hm, time changes everything. Anyways…

Not your average hero.

Don't touch my babes!

What Cobra is about.
 

Oh, Cobra, what a big laser you got!

Well, being a retro-flavored series, means it doesn’t take itself seriously. Just find an excuse for the lead to save some chick, explain the situation in the old days of corny sci-fi and throw in some funky showdowns with weird supernatural aliens and you have yourself a formula any toddler or 40 year old would like. Think of it like a film-noir, where the detective is a cool looking, aloof, half-funny, unrivaled space pirate, taking dangerous missions just for the fun of the adventure… or just so he can have fun with the various femme-fatals running around half-naked around the universe.

The structure of the plot is separated into individual story arcs/mission. Like some James Bond clone, Cobra will be relaxing in his spaceship before someone (usually a chick) asks him to find something or save someone by ruthless pirates and planetary tyrants. So, Cobra will use his super-special-awesome Psycho Gun ™ to blast through armies of identical mook underlings and have a standoff with their leader, who so much happens to have some queer power. Usually Cobra’s robot companion (no surprisingly, also a mechanical chick) gives him info and ways to defeat him, save the day and have a nice off-screen sexual evening with some beauty… sometimes even with a lot of beauties at the same time, way to go Cobra!

That’s pretty much it. There is no overall objective purpose, no real plot continuity and the initial scenario is just teasing. It is pretty generic and predictable, although not repetitive all the times.

a hero can  be anyone.

Are you talking to me punk?

CAST
 

Hey babe, wanna ride my spaceship?

The characters all come by some really lame stereotypes and frankly speaking, you should like them for being exactly the stereotypes they are. Down to it, this anime does not have much of a story or memorable characters. It plays along that lost retro feeling of oldies like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. It is only good as a nostalgic trip back to time where space was full of air, aliens had one eye and women had no shame to walk around wearing barely enough to hide their boobs and ass.

 

PRODUCTION VALUES 

 
In similar tradition, animation and sound have high values for such a series. Although not super by today’s standards, they have exactly what this sort of series needs. Funky spaceships, weird alien worlds, a Psycho Gun and lots of bare skin. Almost like an American b-movie, it has lots of action, many explosions and corny dialogues that never make you think what the hell you are watching and just absorb you to a silly yet enjoyable fantasy. As usual, the villains won’t be able to hit a target two meters next to them, yet Cobra can use his super laser which can bend its rays anyway he likes to kill a dozen mooks hiding in different places and behind steel walls with one shot while safely hiding behind a wooden wall, which is impregnable to their machineguns. Yes, the battles are THAT fair. And no, no bold sex scenes and yet not that lame harem kind of humor with chickenshit boys and tsundere girls. Cobra is wild and offensive and slaps a bitch when she doesn’t listen to him… And she loves it and wants to have sex with him. Hooray for Phallocracy!

Ok, I'll fuck you if it makes you feel better.

Ready for some space action!

As you can probably guess with all I am writing so far, this series is not meant for women as it depicts them quite frail, defenseless and objects of desire… Just like in real life. (kidding of course) anyways, if you have a thing for retro Animé, Cobra will definitely make you smile and enjoy space adventures with sexy girls all over.

Here's the Latin American opening for the original Space Cobra animé:

Here are the two opening sequences for the 2010 Animé sequel  Cobra the Animation: