> Articles | Space Cobra, The Movie |
In January, Manga Video released in France the first Cobra movie.
Released on July 3rd, 1982, in Japanese theaters, it was followed three months later
(on October 7th) by a 31-episode TV show which got the success you know...
It's one of the first movies which, like the Osamu Tezuka's masterpiece Phoenix 2772
or RinTarô's Genma Taisen Harmagedon (drawn by Otomo), benefited from a sizeable
budget. You can see the obvious high-tech result, with an animation far above
what was usually done then. Osamu Dezaki (still helped by his assistants
Akio Sugino and Yoshio Takeuchi, who also worked with him for the TV show)
was given a free hand, so that he could create his own way the universe built by Buichi
Terasawa in his manga.
So he went away from the western movie concept (which, by the way,
was widely copied from Leiji Matsumoto !) and he created a true movie full of love and emotion,
which those who said Cobra is based on too much action won't dislike. Of course, the true
Cobra fans will be horrified by the very slow pace of the story, but don't
listen to them and rather consider that movie as a (wonderful) variation
on the same theme.
The script takes a few characters from the manga, Catherine, Jane,
Dominique and Sandra, but also Crystal Boy (Boy for his close friends), but
their part in the scenario doesn't have much to do with the TV show. A
great adaptation where we can enthuse over sequences more and more tearful:
the death of the sisters, but also Cobra's death (he was defeated by Boy),
and then when love brings him back for a last kiss to his dying lover.
An electroshock session that ranks among the greatest moments in the
Japanese animation ! The movie is supported by brilliant classic
background music which is very close to Yasuo Higuchi's style.
He was responsible for Gundam X, Princess Sarah and...
Phoenix 2772. The music for Cobra was composed
by Osamu Shôji, who was also involved in Wicked City.
Manga Video decided, for the English version (and so for the French
one), to change that soundtrack for a selection of the best music and
songs of the Swiss group Yello, not very famous except for
their final theme of the movie Ferris Bueller's day off.
Remember their Oh yeah,, right ? Yello started at
the very end of the 70's, and their first CD, Solid Pleasure
(1980), already included very trippy space music, which
is played in particular in the scene when Cobra jumps away from
his prison to go and kiss his lover a last time - wonderful and unforgettable.
In addition to the new-age music, we are also granted a few techno
ones pretty well done (when listened to again and again) and very good
songs. Yello is a very eclectic band and takes its numerous
inspirations from the whole world. For more information about that
duo, which I discovered with pleasure in that movie, just click on
the URL link below. And if you want some advice about their CD's,
just write me and ask me about the four CD's I bought after seeing
the movie ^_^.
Besides the quality of Yello's music, you can add the strength of
the pictures that might gain your respect (it's normal, when you see
that the key animators include personalities like Shinji Otsuka,
Keizô Shimizu, Kôji Morimoto, Hidetoshi Omori, Shingo
Araki and Michi Himeno !), and of course wonderful action sequences
that already announce the lightning success of the TV show that
followed...
Yello on the net: http://www.yello.ch/
Cyber Namida was created and designed by
René-Gilles Deberdt.
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