Space Adventure Cobra: The Movie (1982) ****

Like an anime mashup of Danger: Diabolik (1968) (review), Barbarella (1968), Our Man Flint (1967), and Star Wars, I only wish I’d seen Space Adventure Cobra: The Movie (1982) when I was a teen in the early to mid ‘90s. 

Back then I loved films like Akira (1988) (review), Fist Of The North Star (1986) (review), Vampire Hunter D (1985) (review), Wicked City (1987), Ninja Scroll (1993), Robot Carnival (1987) (blogpost), and Golgo 13: The Professional (1983) (made by the same director as SAC, Osamu Dezaki). 

I would have loved SAC too (and do now), an endlessly inventive adventure brimming with incredible cell animation and chock-full of non-stop psychedelic sci-fi action galore! (Inadvertently I had previously seen footage of SAC via Matthew Sweet’s 1991 “Girlfriend” music video, which was directed by Roman Coppola.)