Ranked #2123

Cobra the Animation

Cobra is a show that is very much out of place in today's world. It is a pulp sci-fi action comedy that is ripped directly from the 1980s, and is a fantastic throwback to the days when anime was fun, over-the-top and testosterone-fueled. Gun arms, impossibly proportioned women, and comedic one-liners.

If you sat down to Cobra for the story, you would be sadly disappointed. As with most shows that could be described as pulpy, the plot is more a way to give Cobra things to do to be a badass. It does that well, and that is really all the show asks. There are a few story arcs, the longest lasting four episodes, and several one-shots. They're entertaining enough, but hardly memorable.

The animation is fairly good. There's no glaring animation errors, and the entire production has a low-budget, old school feel to it that lends a lot of flavor to the show. The CG is (intentionally?) fairly poor, but is perfectly suited to the throwback style that the show is trying to cultivate.

All in all, Cobra will a bit of a hard sell to most anime fans, looking for the next androgynous pretty-boy protagonist. However, if you yearn for the days where men were men, women were "dames," and arms were guns, against a backdrop of cool jazz... well, I think I have a show for you. read more

There are two ways you can look at this series:

1) It's something that's trying to be a serious action series and fails because it's terribly cheesy,
or
2) This is ~meant~ to be a throwback to cheesy cartoons of the 1970s and 1980s, and the cheese is, at least in part, self-satire.

Personally, I lean more towards the second interpretation, and find that the series is accomplishing what it's set out to do. If you don't like cheesy old-school or satire, you're really not going to like this series at all, I'll give you that as a fair warning.

First, you've got the typical daredevil macho hero with an arm that looks like it belongs on Megaman, then there's the scantily clad heroine and the villain I can almost imagine yelling "I'll get you next time, Gadget!" as she flies away in her ship after having her plans foiled. (I want to say again, but this is only the first episode so far)

Second, you've got what looks like a pretty typical plot - keep the key to the Universe from the bad guys while you get it to where it needs to be. Nothing fancy at all here.

So, why the (somewhat) high rating?

Maybe it's just that something feels almost nostalgic about this, or maybe it's that this type of "typical" is actually pretty uncommon in anime. I'd say the main character almost feels like He-Man with a gun arm, and certainly seems like he'd belong more in an American-style cartoon rather than an anime.

I also appreciated a couple of satirical bits in the first episode: Normally, when the hero blasts away a vehicle as it races towards him, the flaming debris that should remain seems to conveniently vanish. This wasn't the case with Cobra, as the flying vehicle speeding towards the hero simply became a flaming flying vehicle speeding towards the hero instead.

Given that we're only at the first episode right now, I could be wrong and this could turn out to be a terrible series, but so far I'm leaning towards believing it's satire and am enjoying it thoroughly. read more