SPACE ADVENTURE COBRA Episodes 6-14

Posted On December 16, 2007

I’m right around the mid-point of Cobra now, and it’s pretty rockin’. I will admit I was slightly disappointed in the first arc, but ended in a more than satisfactory fashion, so all is well.

Episode 12 saw the end of the three sisters’ story, and episodes 13 and 14 are both one-shots. I found the progression of the three sisters’ arc to be kind of uninteresting, with lots of a planet hopping and woman gathering. However, each episode did have good opportunities for action and Cobra being a badass, which is what you’re really watching the show for anyway. Other fun touches are things like Cobra’s special top-of-the-line computer which uses a piano as an interface, his mind-reading device and tanks that can dig underground and traverse through sand. The climax of this arc is really what makes it worth it. It’s a showdown at a pyramid, with lots of fun Indiana Jones traps and James Bond gadgets at work. The story works its way to an awesomely ridiculous climax that I won’t spoil because it’s just too fucking awesome.

The 13th episode is a story about stolen gold and casinos and the 14th episode is about being racist towards Arabs (in the best way possible way, I assure you.) They’re both fun SF adventures that’ll tickle any boy’s desire to run about, shoot stuff and spout manly one-liners.

Half way through the show, and each episode still looks just as good as the first. I’m beginning to see why people call the ’80s the golden age of anime, since you can really see the bubble economy budget behind this. The animation is never jerky and the use of lighting effects is quite amazing. One fun thing about the animation is the use of dramatic stills. I understand this sounds weird considering I just talked about fluid animation, but let me explain. Dezaki has this thing that he does where he highlights dramatic moments with epic stills. For example, Cobra will do something badass and while he’s in the middle of doing so the cut will suddenly fade into an awesomely painted version of same image. For a good example of this, look at the image I used for this post.

One thing I should probably note is that ILA’s subs for the first 10 episodes of this are absolutely terrible. The wording is dodgy, grammar and spelling are often off and the translation misses a lot fine details. By episode 11 things seem to be back on track, but it is kind of bothersome for those first 10 episodes.

I have about 17 episodes left of this thing, so with luck, I should be done in at least a week or two. It’s not a terribly complex show so it’s easy to get through without too much effort. Provided it keeps delivering the wacky SF pulp, I’ll be satisfied.