of EX online magazine praised it as a "rich fantasy" that was unmatched by any other. She said the main character took "after James Bond, albeit somewhat on the silly side, and the costumes and bizarre worlds are but a shade shy of plagiarizing Barbarella". She was impressed that the series "is surprisingly devoid of the sexual innuendo and exploitation that anime fans have come to associate with decorative female characters"; it avoids the stereotypical, beautiful women, and instead creates its own "extreme" world. Upatkoon also said that modern readers might find the manga dated and would be discouraged from reading it, despite the improvement in artistic quality as the series progresses. Writing for Anime News Network (ANN), Jason Thompson described Cobra as "a significant piece of manga history". Thompson wrote that the women of the series have a "realistic physique and not some moe jailbait or grotesque bakunyu explosion". Thompson deemed Cobra as a parody of both Western action heroes and Star Wars and 1970s shōjo science fiction and its concept of beauty". Pedro Cortes from Japanator affirmed, "Space Adventure Cobra is interesting in that it takes a shard of an idea from a classic and then spins it out into its own epic." Cortes praised its "charming" designs, but criticized the main character's lack of development as "the only negative thing." He added, "There isn't a ton of depth, but the show doesn't pretend to be anything but a fun, sci-fi romp around the galaxy." ANN's Theron Martin praised its "surprisingly solid" art "for a series of its era" and affirmed, "it does stand up well as high-spirited, fun-loving action fare with occasional darker overtones." Chris Beveridge of The Fandom Post said, "It's simple but full of adventure, interesting characters and locations and a sense of fun that definitely makes it work in a very good way" and has "a solid visual design." Washington, in a review for Otaku USA, commended it for being "entertaining overall" and having "an overall fun vibe" because of its "smooth" art; he, however, criticized what he called "serious misogynistic tendencies." Chris Beveridge from Mania.com praised the Cobra the Animation anime series and its visual design, compared to those of The Psychogun, but said it is not for those who are unaware of the original series. He said the anime has "a healthy dose of action, the kind of sexuality that's a trademark