Videotape Swapshop: Space Adventure Cobra (1982)

Dir. Osamu Dezaki

This film has grown on me. The imagery. The sensuality. How damn cool it is while still being humourous in the same way the Lupin The Third anime I have seen is. Its sad that something this playful, that's not the ultraviolent anime of the nineties for men only, but more larkish while techincally beautiful and experimental, is missing now. It proves you can have a romp while pushing the boundaries of how animation can look. Without being silly because its able to be silly itself and completely sincere in its too. I can hope one day that this changes, when everyone gets bored with anime high school, or the industry collapses and the crazed offspring of the most die hard animators, who wanted to cut their teeth on their own work, get the chance to try something. I'm hoping for something ludicrous, but something this awesome and fun is something I'm begging more for.

Review Link - http://www.videotapeswapshop.co.uk/18173/space-adventure-cobra-1982-director-osamu-dezaki/

From http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz278/Jexhius/CobraTheMovie.jpg

This Is Anime 18: Introduction And Review Of Sword For Truth (1990)

From http://www.videotapeswapshop.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/key_art_sword_for_truth.jpg

The following is a start of a new series at Videotape Swapshop dealing with the more scuzzier, adult and more explicit end of Japanese anime, specifically how it has been released in the United Kingdom. This season does revel in more lurid content then I usually cover, some of it difficult to defend, but as I have found with everything I've written about on that site and this blog, good and bad, it all brings up so much to say about the stuff they touch upon, the creators and viewers like myself when you give them the chance to be chewed upon and thought about more. I'm also getting a lot braver in covering material like what is covered in this series. In terms of the anime itself, there's two works covered in the series that I will argue have legitimate merit, one that's an amusing failure, and one that straddles the line between unnervingly sincere and a brave attempt at a parody of the content its repeating. Only the ill-advised review of censored erotic anime is indefensible and even then that was compelling for all the wrong reasons.

Introduction To Series - http://www.videotapeswapshop.co.uk/15537/this-is-anime-18/
Review of Sword For Truth (Directed by Osamu Dezaki) - http://www.videotapeswapshop.co.uk/15348/sword-for-truth-%E2%80%93-1990-director-osamu-dezaki/

From http://chroniques-d-un-newbie.fr/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/%C3%A9p%C3%A9edev%C3%A9rit%C3%A908.jpeg

Pull my trigger lovingly... [The Professional Golgo 13 (1983)]

From https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2NQK0Y09tIYiSW9oaGA6iP6XKsc8fWvEYdghDpmznPyBj4g9InbxJaiXYEFSI1dItoFWtAWmtVLHYvbUsMHjR9htekhKbjzvmCvAhYdVG4Rx7Zyim_v4cThVFPhcvvLwNcW_wrdh9ibag/s1600/TITLE01_0002.jpg

Dir. Osamu Dezaki

Japan

The following review is part of The Bond Season on the Videotape Swapshop website, part of a series dedicated to films inspired by, ripping off, or within the same Sixties attitudes of the James Bond series (including an actual Bond film amongst the reviews). This review is for the sole feature length adaptation of one of Japan’s longest running manga series Golgo 13, loved by Japanese salarymen and, while directly inspired by Bond, the more cold blooded of the two.

Film Link - http://www.videotapeswapshop.co.uk/11660/the-professional-golgo-13-%E2%80%93-1983-director-osamu-dezaki/