Summary: >

Cobra is a tough guy who has managed to tangle with the most powerful force in the galaxy: the space mafia guild. But even Cobra can't take the heat from such an organization so he decides to lay low. Another person, Jane; is also sought by the guild and decides to seek out Cobra as he's the only one who's ever managed to evade them.

Jane indeed finds Cobra... then sort of falls in love with him. Now for Cobra this probably doesn't seem to out of the ordinary, except that this girl is one of three lone survivors of a lost planet. If the three sisters unite with the man they love then the planet will be revived. But the leader of the space guild known as "Crystal Boy" isn't just going to let either of them get away without a fight. Are you buying all this? Me neither, it's hard to swallow but they actually made an anime based off of a story this corny.

Thoughts: >

A bit of history. Space Adventure Cobra is pretty dated - copyrighted back in 1982. It had been overlooked by anyone wishing to bring over anime apparently. Then Mathew Sweet is all like, I like anime, I should make a video with all anime. But why pay animators like those crazy people in Two Mix? We'll just use some anime no one has ever heard of. Yeah, actually I'll give Sweet some credit here, who else has single handily managed to drag some obscure anime title out of the depths for a U.S. release? Yeah I can't think of one either. Well I like the video for "Girlfriend" so Sweet made the right choice. But how about the anime behind the video?

Space Adventure Cobra is very 80s, but not in a good way. Cobra is a guy who' supposed to be "smooth" but doesn't quite pull it off in a realistic way. He takes a wild romp throughout the galaxy shagging every girl in sight, but doesn't seem to have any redeeming features that make him appealing to the women, or the audience. It's fantasy fulfillment, but oriented towards an ideal most of us probably don't care for much. Even so, I can't fault the motives of this guy. He's seeking survivors of planet that happen to be three hot chicks that are triplets. What guy WOULDN'T give that a shot? Unfortunately it's cheap, because Jane just "falls in love" with Cobra... just because. The other two are psychically linked so the also automatically fall in love with Cobra. It's like a bang one get two free sort of deal. It's seriously no deeper than that. Like the universe was just waiting for the right chance to promote "free love" and Cobra happened to be there.

The animation is the main reason I'd tell anyone to watch it. There's a high level of artistry in the way the presentation is done. It's really great stuff, and often has some funky music to go along with it. The character designs are pretty dated, but that's to be expected. The bigger problem is that you'll have to put up with unlikable characters in a plot that is pretty dumb. Yeah that's my rundown of the story: it's dumb.

In order to appreciate this one, you'll want to be a classic anime fan. Space Adventure Cobra has a lot of 80s era cheesiness, but doesn't really have the charm that many older titles do. Is it worth the watch just for the animation? Actually it just might be. There are many classic titles with very good animation, but few break into the level of being true art. I think this one manages to squeak into that category. It's visually impressive, good material for a music video, but not so good for an anime collection. Not recommended for most people.