Sometimes you just have to wonder how a series managed to get made. Usually it’s for terrible series with questionable origins, like a series based on a pachinko machine. This isn’t always the case though. Sometimes you wonder this same thing about series that are actually good, such as Cobra the Animation. I don’t know how anyone could think Cobra would resonate with today’s otaku. It’s based on a manga series that’s over 30 years old about a muscle-bound, cigar smoking space pirate who shoots people in the face, with a sexy busty blonde women at his side. There’s so little in this show that appeals to today’s otaku that it’s a complete mystery as to how it was allowed to be made.
In The Psychogun, Cobra faces off against the pirate guild who are searching for an artifact that is capable of creating new galaxies, or destroying one if it ends up in the wrong hands. In Time Drive, Cobra’s companion Lady is starting to vanish, and Cobra must travel back in time to discover the cause and put a stop to it. The TV series sees Cobra going on several different adventures, from saving planets to searching for undersea treasure.
It’s easy to tell when watching Cobra that it hails from a different time. Everything from the content of the series to the design calls back to a time when manga aimed at teenage boys was about adolescent fantasies instead of the power of friendship. What teenage boy wouldn’t fantasize about flying through space, shooting people with an awesome laser gun and making out with hot blondes? Cobra the Animation is like a time capsule, showing what a successful anime/manga for teen boys looked like in the past and standing in contrast to almost every anime coming out these days.
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