page_title: Cobra (manga)
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Cobra (manga) / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: Osamu Tezuka (taken in 1951).日本語: 手塚治虫（1951年）
context_page_description: 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 lives an adventurous life until his enemies begin to hunt him down. Cobra surgically alters his face and erases his own memory to hide from his foes and have a normal life. Eventually, he regains his memories and reunites with his former partner Lady Armaroid. Terasawa devised it as a mix of spaghetti western and samurai stories, and aspects of films, varying from James Bond to Disney.
  The manga was originally serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from November 1978 to November 1984. Later, Shueisha collected the chapters and published them in 18 tankōbon volumes. The Cobra manga spawned various sequel manga series, one-shots, a feature-length anime film, two anime series—a 31-episode series in 1982, and a 13-episode series in 2010—, two original video animations, audio albums, video games, and other merchandise. In 2010, Alexandre Aja announced the interest in producing a live-action film.
context_section_description: Cobra is Buichi Terasawa's debut manga series. Previously he had written and illustrated between twenty and thirty science-fiction shōjo (targeted towards girls) short stories for manga contests held by manga magazines, with one of them earning an honorable mention. Terasawa created Cobra by combining the spaghetti western subgenre and Japanese stories featuring a "wandering swordsman". Terasawa wanted to create a hero who would be able to carry a concealed weapon and then the Psychogun was created before the titular character. His concept of a hero has been greatly influenced by "spaghetti westerns with a James Bond-type spin to them." Also from Bond series came the concept of several women who circulate around Cobra. For Cobra, he also drew inspiration from the French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo and his "phlegmatic style", specifically from his characters on Breathless (1960) and That Man from Rio (1964). The then rising actresses Dominique Sanda and Catherine Deneuve also inspired the names of the Royal Sisters.
  In general, Terasawa has been influenced by films, including Star Trek, Star Wars, René Laloux's animations, the James Bond film series, Akira Kurosawa's films, and Disney films prior to The Little Mermaid (1989). For example, Jane Fonda's performance in the cult science-fiction film Barbarella (1968) served as a direct model for his character Jane, whose hairstyle was also inspired by Princess Aurora's in the Disney animated film Sleeping Beauty (1959). For his storytelling, panel layout, and narrative pacing in general, he draws influence from manga artist Osamu Tezuka, who mentored him. Terasawa declared, "Without him, ... Cobra would never have existed.
caption: Osamu Tezuka (pictured) was the main influence for the series, inspiring Terasawa's storytelling, panel layout, and narrative pacing[15]
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