Space Adventure Cobra: The Movie

Space Adventure Cobra: The Movie is a 1982 Japanese animated space opera film directed by Osamu Dezaki, adapted from the first story arc of Buichi Terasawa's 1978 manga Cobra. It was the first anime feature to use Quadraphonic Dolby Surround sound.

Plot

The story begins with bounty hunter Jane Flower killing a creature and taking its head. While boasting in a bar, she attracts the attention of a man calling himself Cobra, though she doubts his identity—the real Cobra supposedly died two years ago and carried a unique weapon called the Psychogun in his left arm.

When Cobra follows Jane home, the creature's head attacks them; Jane kills it and suspects the Pirate Guild is responsible, as she is on their hit list. After a Guild death squad chases them, Cobra reveals his Psychogun. This is reported to his archenemy, Crystal Bowie, and Jane admits she sought Cobra's help.

Cobra and Jane meet his partner, Lady Armaroid, and travel to the planet Sido, where Jane's sister Catherine is imprisoned. Jane claims Catherine was falsely accused by the Guild.

Cobra infiltrates the prison alone, finds Catherine, but is captured and cryogenized by Bowie. Meanwhile, Catherine—who has fallen in love with Bowie—deceives and kills Jane. Cobra survives the freezing temperature due to Jane's love, as Catherine interprets it, escapes with Jane's body, and is rescued by Lady.

At the request of Professor Toporo, a mentor from Jane's home planet Myrus, Cobra releases Jane's body into space. Toporo directs him to find Jane's other sister, Dominique, and the Snow Guerrillas. Dominique explains that Myrus is a man-made star the Guild wants to control to destroy the Seventh Galaxy; Bowie later confirms the Guild cares little about losing one galaxy.

Bowie kills Sandra, the Snow Guerrillas' leader, and Dominique, who dies in Cobra's arms after asking him to kill Catherine to prevent the Guild from seizing Myrus. Cobra escapes, confronts Bowie on Myrus, kills him, and frees Catherine from his influence. Catherine then sacrifices herself to divert Myrus into the nearest sun, joining her sisters in death, while Cobra leaves alone.

Production and release

The film was released in Japan on July 23, 1982. In Japan, it came out on VHS in December 1991, on DVD by Digital Site on June 25, 2001, and re-released by Happinet on August 29, 2008. Manga Entertainment released it in British theaters in 1995 with an alternate soundtrack by the pop group Yello.

An American dub by Streamline Pictures, using the original soundtrack, was released in U.S. theaters by Tara on August 20, 1995 (according to animation historian Jerry Beck), though Fred Patten claims the theatrical premiere was October 19 at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After Orion Home Video declined Streamline's home video plan, Urban Vision distributed it on VHS on June 16, 1998. Madman Entertainment released it in Australasia on December 5, 2007. Manga Entertainment issued a DVD in April 2008.

Hulu began streaming the English dub in January 2012. Discotek Media released it on DVD on August 21, 2012, on Blu-ray on December 15, 2015, and on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on November 26, 2019—the second domestically-produced anime in that format after the German release of Your Name. The UK dub (the "Yello Dub") was released on Blu-ray in 2026.

Reception and legacy

Reception has been mixed. Daryl Surat of Otaku USA called Cobra a classical pulp hero, "part Han Solo and part Sean Connery-era James Bond," and said the film exemplifies the 1980s golden age of anime sci-fi. Sandra Scholes of Active Anime compared it to Barbarella, Zardoz, and Star Wars.

Darius Washington of The Fandom Post likened it to Derek Flint films and said its worlds resemble those in Outlaw Star and Bodacious Space Pirates. T. Strife of Anime News Network praised its faithfulness to the manga and its theme of "love as a power beyond compare," calling it a masterpiece worth viewing. Conversely, Charles Packer of Sci-Fi Online dismissed the plot as pure nonsense and the dialogue as laughable, with animation resembling a Saturday-morning cartoon.