Space Adventure Cobra

This is not your everyday anime movie to watch these days, especially one thats oldskool and special as this one, andhonestly i was inpressed that the traditional anime was left out and a more mature animation was given througout the movie.The story is quite nice and because it was 1982 it was´nt influenced by the macross big spacefights that later anime woud get, but then again it is some sort of space opera, and one worth seeing again, good music there as well.

An 80s psychedelic sci-fi spectacle. It's really amazing looking, and features some stunningly creative layouts, choreography and animation for its time. Miyazaki and Dezaki (along with a spry Ryuutarou Nakamura!) are working together here, so it should come as little surprise.

I feel it's an appropriate time to say that I personally watched this film out of an interest in Osamu Dezaki's work, expecting to see a fun and visually spectacular piece of anime. That's truly what I got, and I can't say I'm at all disappointed. However, I watched the Ace wo Nerae film with similar intent, and while Ace wo Nerae is a bit ... older and not as awesome in the visual department as this is, I rated them about the same because I am far more interested in checking out the story of Ace wo Nerae beyond the film, than I am in the story begun here in this introduction to Cobra. That's just me, though.

Back to Space Adventure Cobra: It's kind of like an 80s Redline without any trace of the latter's tongue-in-cheek self awareness as an inheritor of the fun sexy action anime tradition. If we put Cobra on Freud's couch, the first things we'd have to note is that he is constantly playing around with a cigar (dick) and has a massive magical gun (dick) growing out of his elbow. His penis arm is called the psycho-gun. He's an utterly silly picture of outmoded masculinity and his life is a ridiculous juvenile fantasy. The hottest babe in the galaxy and the Queen of Miros (who's actually three babes in one, scattered in 3 different locations) is in love with him and he has to save 1/3 of her from an evil crystal man named Crystal Bowie (or boy?) with a skeleton made of energy (or something). Crystal Bowie's skeleton doubles as a sort of devastatingly powerful armory that he can access by reaching into his own body and pulling his bones out, and he's brainswashed the 1/3 of space babe in his possession, Catherine, to be in love with him. Is it not equally suspicious that whenever Cobra makes out with Jane or Dominique, he starts tripping balls and finds himself hopelessly enamored by her? I guess perfect, unearthly beauty is supposed to have that intoxicating effect.

The scenarios and characters here are as dweeby by design as the scenery and action are visually dazzling, though they aren't totally without a certain cheesy, boyish charm and cutting-edge style. In any case, it fortunately works out that devil-may-care Cobra's hidden feelings for Jane/Dominique that he himself doesn't seem aware of coincide with "doing the right thing," e.g. destroying the guild before they destroy the galaxy, and preventing Crystal Bowie from ruling the 3 in 1 space babe's special home planet of Miros. All this means Cobra gets to fulfill the role of casually disinterested hero that we so love to see. I tell you, the ending I would've preferred would've been if Catherine had been pretending to be under Crystal Bowie's control, seeing as how the power of Love allowed Cobra to resist being brainwashed toward the beginning of the film; in turn allowing Catherine to be the one to save the 7th Galaxy. But what are ya gonna do, eh? The story is far more conventional than that, not that it's a surprise.

I don't want to spoil things too badly, but let's just say, despite what the characters explicitly say about Cobra's feelings for the Triple Waifu Queen of Miros, he doesn't really act like he feels all that strongly, even through the very end of the story. Also, I think it's pretty clear that the Cobra character "works better" as a sort of womanizing space ruffian, and in that sense he certainly doesn't undergo a major arc of character development over the course of the series (as a side note, would people remember Kamina as fondly if he lived to love Yoko, or would he have changed too much? I wonder... TTGL is another series this one reminds me of). Fair enough I suppose, since there's a lot more story (in the TV series and manga) left to go by the point this film leaves us.

In short, you can turn your brain off for this one (and perhaps you should. jk, never turn your brain off. critique everything you see!!) and just enjoy how cool everything looks, and how hot the space babes are if you're into those.

WARNING - THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

I'll start off by saying my review is not at all reflective of the rest of the Space Adventure Cobra series - simply the one I've watched. Cobra is a Gary Stu. This needs to be said simply because male characters need to be called out just like female characters. Does this mean one can't enjoy the movie? No, but it's not a bad idea to go into the movie a bit wary.

The next thought popping into my head regarding the Anime is how "that's not how love works". This movie definitely tries playing up the true love angle for ... the viewers, yet no matter how the series tries painting the interaction as something more than lust on the part of the characters, what we have is a guy lusting after three hot babes who just so happen to be triplets which is supposed to be one of those wet dreams guys have.

I also felt the narrative rather sexist with how the viewer ends up hit over the head regarding how a female protagonist needs a man to save her. We've a brainwashed female, but two females who don't know anything but the need to find their true love because they need a man that much. Added, the planet needs a woman of just the right proportions and only one female of these proportions exist - the Queen.

Wait! But doesn't the lives of these three girls end tragically meaning that the Gary Stu doesn't get his happy ending? While your classic Mary Sue often ended up with a happy ending and the guy she wanted the classic Gary Stu often ended up with their love interest dying. After all, that means no kids to tie them down and they can have as many love interests as possible. The dynamics between a Mary Sue and a Gary Stu changed because of differing expectations, but he's a Gary Stu none the less.

Was there anything enjoyable about this movie? I'm actually a fan of B-movies, so I loved watching how bad this one was, but I knew this would be one of those rides when I saw the bouncing head earlier on. For me, that made this a lot of fun - but for others - no, not fun at all.