Yoshiko Sakakibara

Cobra is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Buichi Terasawa. Set in the far future, the series tells the story of Cobra, who lived an adventurous life until his enemies began to hunt him down. Cobra surgically altered his face and erased his own memory in order to hide from his foes and lead a normal life. Eventually, he regains his memories and re-unites with his old partner Lady Armaroid and his ship Tortuga. Cobra travels the galaxy, fighting the outlaw Pirate Guild, but also fleeing the law-enforcing Milky Way Patrol. Along with his charm and wit, Cobra survives thanks to his Psycho-Gun, a weapon embedded in his left arm.

The manga was originally serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1978 to 1984. The individual chapters were collected and published in 18 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha. The Cobra manga spawned various sequel manga series, one-shots, a feature-length anime film, two anime series —a 1982 anime with 31 episodes retelling the film’s story and a 13-episode broadcast in 2010—, two original video animations, audio albums, video games, and other merchandise. In 2010, the production of a live-action film was announced by Alexandre Aja.