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April 29.2018 Space Adventure Cobra

From Betamountain.org

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April 29. 2018

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Crunch Month

Took some time off this month as April is usually "Crunch Month" and it was a refreshing break. I have a final next Thursday so I'm not entirely in the clear right now, but the finish line is near. A little digital-detox never hurts anyone.

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Tune Up

The guys over at the Series 6 Podcast posted their 12th episode and review of "Tune-Up" this month:

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Jay misses Angry Doc, falls in love with a cyborg skunk’s vehicle, and breaks the first two rules of Fight Club.


Check that over at https://series6podcast.com/2018/04/21/galaxy-rangers-reviewed-series-6-podcast-episode-12/ or on iTunes (or subscribe to the feed)!

12 Episodes? We looked back and sure enough, the Series 6 Podcast has a birthday next month!

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Space Adventure Cobra

If you watch the Robert Mandell bonus clip included on the GR DVD set, you'll hear about some of Mr. Mandell's projects and influences. I started re-watching Thunderbirds 2086 and though I remembered parts of it, it sits at the edge of my non-mainstream cartoon history as I was roughly 10 when it aired. I figured it might be good to stop and back track a little into a show that Mandell cited as a major influence: Space Adventure Cobra.

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Before you sit down with the kids to watch this one, be aware that by episode four you'll get your first view of breasts and that Cobra's main weapon tends to go right through whatever it is shot at. If you are aware of the movie Barbarella, be prepared for the same female clad (or unclad) costumes.

Cobra, where had you been hiding all my life? Or did one of the Becker brothers try to clue me in back in the early 2000's?

I'm not going to go into a description of the show or why it might look familiar in some scenes, if you want that go read Space Adventure Cobra Offers a Dazzlingly Strange Final Frontier by Mike Dent. What I will say here is that over a handful episodes you can see a few character archetypes that are eerily familiar. From the back-alley information giver in "One Million Emotions" to a moment of holy crap is that Darkstar? No.. wait, that's a mask. Subtle things here and there. The left arm of the protaganist being a weapon and the word "psycho" in the weapon title? Subtle things.

Space Adventure Cobra, at least the 1980's version that I'm up to episode 16 in, is a fun watch. Very tongue in cheek and if you're watching the subtitled version then you're getting all the awesomeness of the original voice actor: the vocal effects of Nachi Nozawa while dodging shots fired is hilarious. Villains like Crystal Boy (Bowie?) are just... villainous and ruthless. While the majority of GR stories are self-contained, Cobra maintains a two-three episode story arc approach that allows for some time to develop a villain along a single plot point. This not only grabs you for the "what happens next" element like we get in Gift of Life and Sundancer, but hooks you in a little deeper than the "in and out in 23 minutes approach" because things are fleshed out a bit more.


Of course, there is only one Lady Armaroid.

I didn't even mention that this is a TMS Entertainment (Tokyo Movie Shinsha) product, so there is the house that your families all grew up in.

A few episodes appear to be over on CrunchyRoll and I found the 1980's series by way of Nozomient's playlist over on the YouTubes.

Things to check out

Manga

1980s Anime

2000s Anime