Space Adventure Cobra

Original Title: SPACE ADVENTURE コブラ
Romanized: Space Adventure Kobura
Literal: Space Adventure Cobra

Plot Synopsis

A hundred years ago, a planet that wandered through the galaxy with no star to call its home entered an unpleasant area of space and was purged of life. The only survivors of the civilization that called the strange world home were the identical triplets born to be its three future queens: Jane, Dominique, and Catherine. To revive the planet, the three queens must unite with the man they love (if one falls in love, they all do) and return home together. Jane, now a bounty hunter, is searching for the most nefarious space pirate in the known universe, Cobra; you see, Cobra happens to be the only guy who's ever escaped the wrath of the Mafia Guild, headed by the mysterious and very powerful being known as Crystal Boy.

She immediately falls for the rather sleazy Cobra (who's been laying low with his shapely robotic co-pilot Lady for the past few years) and proceeds to enlist his help in rescuing her sister Dominique, who's been captured by Crystal Boy. But does she want to be rescued? And then there's the third sister, who's been hanging out with a bunch of Snow Guerrillas. On top of all this, Crystal Boy is searching for that rogue planet, intending to use its power for his own nefarious purposes. Cobra isn't exactly sure what to make of this whole mess, but he's never been one to turn a pretty girl (or three) down (even if they are being followed around by a weird guy in a floating bubble called Dr. Topolov), and he's got a bone to pick with old Crystal Boy anyway.

Quick Review

Rating: 3 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2006-07-28

Based on the Buichi Terasawa manga series, Space Adventure Cobra is classic, cheesed-up, chauvinistic, camp-laden '70s sci-fi at its best. Loaded with bad science, bizarre (and random) plot twists, lots of action, and even more "action," don't come looking for intellectual science fiction, and don't even expect typical anime characters. Think a sillier, dumber James Bond in space, with some Barbarella mixed in. It distinguishes itself for a wild but surprisingly interesting plot and a hero that isn't quite as cool as he should be, making the willful cheese and sleaze of the movie that much more fun. It's not even bad looking for the era, and it's loaded with neon-colored retro style. The only real problem it has is that it gets rather more serious than the campy premise can handle toward the end, draining some of the guilty fun.

Very cheesy, pretty sleazy, action filled, and by turns sillier and more serious than you'd expect, Space Adventure Cobra is worth a look if you enjoy low-minded '70s sci-fi and cheesy action movies. It's also prime late-night material for Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans.

US DVD Review

No US-release DVD exists as of this writing.

Content Guide

Morally pretty loose, but not particularly graphic. Probably a 16-up, mainly on account of rather abstract nudity.

Violence: 3 - Not wild or gory, but a fair amount of violence.

Nudity: 3 - A couple of rather arty nude scenes.

Sex/Mature Themes: 2 - Mostly implied.

Language: 1 - Not so bad.

Notes and Trivia

Space Adventure Cobra is an old theatrical movie based on a manga series by Buichi Terasawa (creator of Midnight Eye Goku). There was also a TV series that aired later in the same year the movie hit theaters. More recently, a sort of "video comic book" was released for the PlayStation in the mid-'90s. As of this writing, nothing but the movie has been released in the US, and even that is out of print.

The music video of Matthew Sweet's 1991 "Girlfriend" (from the album of the same name) features a lot of animation from the movie, and is included as a bonus on the VHS release. This wasn't a random choice--Sweet was relatively popular in Japan, and in fact even released a Japan-only tribute album.

Availability

Available in the US from Urban Vision on subtitled and dubbed VHS, now both out of print.

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