After twenty-five years away, Cobra's back to steal some treasure, seduce a few women and deal with his long time nemesis in the Pirate Guild.
What They Say:
There is an man, impervious to pain, and his left arm has been replaced with a the Psychogun.
His name is Cobra.
He is a pirate alone on his own, pursued by the Pirate Guild, with a bounty larger than no other in the universe placed on his head by the Galactic Patrol, and he has disappeared for three years. Rumored to be dead, Cobra has changed his face and has been living a peaceful life. But then, one day he is told this tranquility will no longer last. Along with Lady, his beautiful cybernetic companion of Martian origin, they blast off into space in the Turtle, Cobra's favorite ship, looking for endless adventure.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
My experiences with the Cobra franchise aren't the most extensive, as I've seen the original movie but have far more recollection of the music video from Matthew Sweet, “Girlfriend,” in which he used clips from that movie. The original manga started back in 1978 and ran for several years, spawned the movie as well as a TV show, before hitting up various mini restarts in the years following. This series, Psychogun, is adapted from the manga done by original creator Buichi Terasawa back in 2005.
The Psychogun OVA series kicks off with very little in the way of a real introduction to the franchise, There's a nice moment early on when a few bounty hunters of sorts look at various wanted posters and talk about their past bounties, but when it gets to the long blonde haired man named Cobra, we learn that he hasn't been seen in three years. As it turns out, he doesn't look much like that anymore as he's got his more traditional short hair cut, but he waltzes right where these guys are and puts them in their place hard. Cobra's a man with a rare weapon called the psychogun, a weapon that he has to remove half of left arm in order to use. What makes it unique is that when the energy beams are shot, he can control their path as well as splitting a beam into multiple smaller beams.
The story for the Psychogun OVA is set up nicely in this first episode as we see a woman named Utopia More, a professor of Martian archeology, who is investigating a mysterious fossil creature and has discovered something key about them. Her discovery, upon returning to Earth and the museum she works out of, becomes the focus of the Pirate Guild who wants whatever secret it may lead to. They make their attack on the museum at the same time that Cobra is in there stealing an impressive piece of jewelry. While he's simply trying to get away himself, he has his longstanding grudge against the Guild and can't stand to see such an attractive woman getting killed along the way. So a good chunk of the episode focuses on their amusing and daring escape from the museum, before the pair of them find themselves meeting up again on Mars. Cobra senses there's something worthwhile following here and he's intent on figuring it out – and her as well.
One of the reasons I was interested in this show is that I've found some really enjoyable classic shows finding a new life in modern animation. A lot of seventies shows and manga tend to have a very distinct look in comparison to how things are designed today and that little bit of difference and approach in storytelling can make for a great break from the norm and nudge things in a new way. The Psychogun series is one that keeps to the classic character designs, just animated better, even though some of it comes across kind of poorly. Utopia for example has a really awkward look with her thong as her main outfit as a professor, but even Cobra kind of calls her out on it. The look of the show updates fairly well with better colors and animation, but some of the CG animation for the ships doesn't look good and gives it too much of a cheap feeling. There's a lot to like here but there are things that don't work well too.
In Summary:
Cobra – The Animation; The Psychogun is a good bit of classic space opera adventure in modern form. With a short form story that's bringing back the things from the original that defined it, there's a lot to get into here. Cobra himself doesn't come across like other male leads these days and he's got a bit of a James Bond flair about him as well, though a bit more crass and obvious at times. With a number of amusing and fancy gadgets, attractive characters with skimpy outfits and goofy fun science fiction elements, this OVA series looks to be a fun diversion that's all about being entertained. It's easy to see how the character designs will be off-putting to some, but other shows done in the last decade that have tried to revitalize seventies characters have worked well for me so there's a lot to like here.
Features
Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles
Review Equipment
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70" LCoS 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
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