Spriggan

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: スプリガン

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Information

Type: Movie

Episodes: 1

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Sep 5, 1998

Producers: TBS, Nichion, Toho Music

Licensors: ADV Films

Studios: Studio 4°C

Source: Manga

Genres: Adventure, Sci-Fi

Theme: Military

Demographic: Shounen

Duration: 1 hr. 30 min.

Rating: R - 17+ (violence & profanity)

Statistics

Score: 6.67¹ (scored by 13,328 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #5506²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #3622

Members: 32,753

Favorites: 56

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Synopsis

Long before the era of prehistoric man, an advanced alien species inhabited Earth. Negligent of the power they held, these beings ultimately caused their own demise. However, the aliens left behind a warning to future civilizations on indestructible tablets: to destroy any remains of the ruinous technology created by their kind.

In modern times, the ARCAM Corporation and their paramilitary unit—the Spriggans—seek to seal the relics away and prevent renegade actors from exploiting their powers. Following ARCAM's recent discovery in the Ararat Mountains of what is believed to be the mythic Noah's Ark, Spriggan Yuu Ominae has been dispatched to investigate.

However, the site is ambushed by the US Machine Corps—a radical faction of the Department of Defense led by Colonel MacDougall. On the Pentagon's orders, MacDougall seeks to secure ARCAM's lead scientist and seize the artifact. Teamed up with fellow Spriggan Jean Jacquemondo, Yuu must stop MacDougall and the Machine Corps' elite soldiers from advancing on the Ark before it is too late.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Spriggan
Alternative version:	Spriggan (ONA)

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Characters & Voice Actors

Ominae, Yuu

Main

Morikubo, Shoutarou
Japanese

MacDougall, Colonel

Main

Aigase, Ryuji
Japanese

Dr. Meisel

Main

Shiroyama, Ken
Japanese

Jacquemondo, Jean

Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito
Japanese

Director Yamamoto

Supporting

Arimoto, Kinryuu
Japanese

Narrator

Supporting

Yajima, Masaaki
Japanese

Takanaka

Supporting

Makishima, Naoki
Japanese

Margaret

Supporting

Tamagawa, Sakiko
Japanese

Fat Man

Supporting

Little Boy

Supporting

Suzuki, Katsumi
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Otomo, Katsuhiro

Producer, Script, Mechanical Design

Kawasaki, Hirotsugu

Director, Storyboard, Screenplay

Tsuruoka, Youta

Sound Director

Watanabe, Akio

Key Animation

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Opening Theme

No opening themes have been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding an opening theme here.

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Ending Theme

"Jing Ling" by Saju

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Reviews

Jul 25, 2008

Beatnik

Recommended

Spriggan's got a relatively interesting premise behind it, but doesn't do anything interesting with it.

Don't let that put you off though, there's still some fun to be had in the form of cool 90's action!

This is the first, and currently only time I've seen Turkey depicted in anime. The crew did an ok job capturing its diverse nature; that of being stuck between Europe and Asia. We see metropolitan Istanbul briefly, and far eastern parts like Diyarbakir in the anime and it looks good.

Well actually, the animation in Spriggan is more than good; its impressive considering it was made in 1998. As ... expected of Studio 4C. Facial reactions and action scenes are detailed and you find yourself scanning the whole screen to take it all in.

For a moment I thought this anime would be totally realistic but that notion goes out the window with a chase scene in Istanbul which made me grin like an idiot. I swear the main character's modelled after Jackie Chan. He moves around like a hyperactive monkey, doing back-flips and swinging on cables, its fluid and very dynamic watching him beat people up mercilessly.

Unfortunately that is all the character has going for him. Why did he have to be a 17 year old school kid anyway? Why not just a regular guy in his 20's or 30's? The anime doesn't delve into his dual lifestyle, that of being a school kid one day and ARCAM operative the next, and his extremely brief flashback-assisted back-story is almost like an afterthought. All it does is explain his origin, not shed light on anything in his personality, because he doesn't have one to begin with! He's a walking cliché.

So in the end I just see the character as a cynical attempt at appeasing teens. "Hey check this out! Wouldn’t it be cool if a kid just like you was a kick-ass mercenary!?" Not really. Unless he's getting the shit kicked out of him by a girl called Chidori Kaname, I'm not interested. At least Full Metal Panic gave us a compelling back-story to make the entire story have weight. The action scenes in Spriggan may be unrealistic, but they could have retained some sense of coherency with the narrative, it feels very lazy and my Suspend-Disbelief-O-Meter just wasn't compatible this time.

I can enjoy an over the top action-fest as much as the next Read or Die fan, but here it's not fun and it's not dramatic, and when it finally builds to an ever-increasingly illogical Akira-esque climax with a psychic super powered deformed kid and apocalyptic style crap blowing up, I'm losing even more respect for it to be even contemplating Katsuhiro Otomo's masterpiece, let alone riffing off of it.

Spriggan feels both old-school with its late 90's violence; the kind where people and objects are eviscerated with unabashed glee that would make the guys who worked on Ninja Scroll hyperventilate in joy, but the anime also feels ahead of its time because of that attention to detail and unconventional setting. You get the sense that if only the story were much much better, as in: if Studio 4C took a different approach at adapting the manga or just took an entirely different one to adapt in the first place, it would have been nestled comfortably in a list of Top Anime Movies Of The 90's; next to stuff like Production I.G's Ghost in the Shell which came out a few years earlier.

The story isn't even worth mentioning; it's just a bunch of plot points ticked off one by one. Guy has to go from A to B; objects have to get from Y to Z. Spriggan has to go from 'plan-to-watch' to 'completed' with a score that means it barely entertained me for the running time and I'll probably never watch it again. An interesting if disappointing look at Studio 4C's earlier efforts. They've come a long way indeed.

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Mar 27, 2008

Stormy_77

Recommended

A secret government rogue agency sends out two of its best agents, called Spriggans, to thwart an evil organization's plot to acquire Noah's Ark and all the secrets contained therein.

Sounds like the plot for a spy action adventure movie? Correct.

* Hero. Cool, young, Japanese Spriggan Yu Ominae (who actually looks Japanese) with amazing physical martial arts skills and ability to take damage? CHECK

* Sidekick. Cool, sexy French Spriggan Jean-Jacques Mondo who has insane skill with guns? CHECK

* Three to four evil villians, all with special kick ass powers? CHECK

...

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Sep 2, 2018

Hanakotaba

Not Recommended

There is a certain balance when it comes to putting effort into animating fluid motion, free flowing movement within each frames and putting effort into writing a complex narrative that sucks you in until the end of the journey. Spriggan; a 1998 anime film adapted from a manga with the original English title "Strikers". The name Spriggan was derived from a Cornish mythological creature but no correlation into the film however. The work was ambitious in its animation production quality but sacrifice its time constraints of writing a story that would be decent at best if it were to be memorable. Spriggan, as a film, ... was absolutely atrocious. The film itself can be boiled down into something out of a 90s Hollywood blockbuster action thriller with no substance other than the impressiveness of the beautiful looking animation/artwork. Spriggan was directed, screen-played, and story-boarded by Kawasagi Hirotsugu, whose track record being that he directed the second Naruto movie and an obscure supernatural anime called Onigamiden.

Spriggan's core plot revolves around the mysterious prophecy of a lost civilization and fast forward to the present day, an organization called ARCAM are assigned to stop the prophecy from happening. Our protagonist, Yu Ominae, is Japan's number 1 elite super soldier who is basically indestructible like a German cockroach. Judging from the traits of said bland "badass" protagonist who can do anything, there is no depth regarding his personalty other than a plot device to move the narrative forward. He can be also described as a character projection for the audience as a cheap attempt to be immersive. The side characters are no better as well; they serve as exposition walkie talkies to explain the plot for the dumbfounded audience who don't pay attention to the screen. The so called villains are merely nuisances to obstruct the protagonist to pad the run-time. Regarding the plot, there isn't much happening until the climax of the film. Albeit, the action sequences, though are exciting to look at, there are plot conveniences (Yu being overpowered) and plot holes/logical inconsistencies (who was driving the jeep while Yu was in the turret?) that are distracting enough to ruin the immersion. The dialogue exchanges is half ass and not engaging. Most spurt out the most uninspired lines what can be heard from other action films, TV and so forth. Yu's one-liners can come off as cringe in today's standards but the film was from 1998 so it could let itself slide if the dialogue wasn't low quality.

These are the contrivances that dropped the quality of the film rock bottom. Albeit, the writing wasn't top tier, what it excels was its use of animation. When the production shows effort, it really shows. The best use of the animation or sakuga are found in fight sequences; the sense of fluidity, exciting and fast fight choreography that is jaw dropping to look at. The art is also impressive; immaculate details in the background and locations that resemble so much like real life counterparts such as Japan and Turkey, two major settings that took place in the film. The weapons are also drawn with immaculate detail as well. The best example of fluidity in motion is the chase sequence in Turkey; ambitious in its shot composition and choreography. It is actually the best thing about the film, that the chase sequence was so exciting, filled with heart pumping adrenaline. The only praise of the movie that is worth mentioning; if not, skip the movie and just watch the chase sequence alone.

Spriggan was a prime example of sacrificing the quality of the writing and characters for the sake of making the movie looking pretty as possible. In other words, it was style over substance. Spriggan failed as a feature length film, several instances where things don't happen does happen such as explaining the whole plot pads the run-time. If the opposite were to occur, this film would've done something differently in terms of quality, it would stand itself as competent film among the greats such as Ghost in the Shell. In retrospect, the film was a dumb fun action thriller done in anime. Spiggan doesn't offer any merit other than its impressive sakuga to hold up to any other superior media. It's an anime film with pretty colors (this can be compared to the Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works in terms of style over substance). Skip this movie for the chase sequence.

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