Spriggan

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.

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

... * Plot that takes you all over the world for variety? CHECK

* Spectacular action scenes with blowing up vehicles, hand to hand fights, hand to gun fights, gun to gun fights, artillery fights, flying vehicles, land vehicles, vehicles in desert, vehicles in jungle, vehicles in snow? CHECK

* Extremely well choreographed action scenes with kick ass sound and animation? CHECK!

* Plot that starts getting religiously and philosophical towards the last one third to try to make the movie seem more "deep" than just a regular action packed flick? CHECK!

* Somehow the fate of the world rests in the hands of our hero spy, because the bad guys would really mess stuff up? CHECK!

This is a great action flick if you like these sorts of movies. Because it is animated there is a lot more licence to make the action even better, in live action I bet insurance wouldn't have covered this! The characters are sort of one dimensional but there's so much eye candy and other stuff to see one can't help but be entertained. An action movie of this calibre is like taking all the best scenes of Black Lagoon and compressing it into 90 minutes of adrenaline. Great fun and you'd enjoy this if you like a combination of James Bond, Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones.

An organization codenamed ARCAM has a mission to retrieve ancient artifacts and keep them secret. One of their teams discover the Ark of Noah spoken of in the Old Testament. Another organization wants it, and they're leaving a path of destruction in their pursuit of it. The Ark has the power to completely change the world. One of ARCAM's top agents in an elite group called Spriggan named Yu Ominae is pulled into the confrontation. Yu journey's to the heart of the conflict. -summary

Spriggan is another anime title that condenses its story to fit into 90 mins., when in truth, it would have been ... a much better outing in an OVA or even a TV series format. Well, no sense on crying over slashed stories. Spriggan is an action first, deal with characters and story later type of deal. The action and production values are so well done I know plenty of people whom forgot about the story altogether.

The production values are the main selling point. The artwork has many moments of beauty from snow laden mountain tops, to dark and dreary caves. There's a great amount of detail in the backgrounds, and although the character designs feel reminiscent of Akira, there are moments of creativity. The locations and set pieces are simply eye candy, and there's never a dull moment. The animation which does use a small amount of CG turns in some heavily appealing action segments; the viewer will be treated to bodies being ate up by gun fire, and very well choreographed action assisted by splendid camera work. The action fan will find quite a bit here to keep them occupied. I also like the mature feel of the anime, as it has this level of darkness to it which frees it completely from that "light up the mood" feel. In regards to the voice acting, it's been awhile since I saw the sub so I can't recall anything from it. However, the English dub had a competent cast, Chris Patton playing Yu was just as good as normally, while Kevin Corn as Colonel McDougall hammed it up with an annoying child-like high pitch voice, that hasn't gotten any less annoying over the years.

Spriggan maintains a very consistent tone on the serious side, and it definitely needed to sustain that feel because it does handle some dark material. The story takes a stab at a different variation of the Great Flood, and some of the things will probably get under the skin of the religious; but in the end it all comes off as window-dressing, because the entire story for the most part plays second to the action.

The plot follows Yu and another Spriggan operative by the name of Jean-Jacques Mondo, as they battle against heavily armed and powerful cyborg warriors. The plot is heavily action-saturated with small pieces of story here and there. It would probably be insulting to even say character development is brushed upon, since Mondo is only there to fulfill a role, and outside of how he fights you learn nothing about him. Yu's background is crammed in towards the end, but he becomes a pretty cool character early on, so he's easy to get into. The lead villain by the name of Colonel McDougall for the most part was that bad guy with serious delusions of grandeur. He wants the Ark to use its power and begin a second Great Flood.

Spriggan really could have been better. If only the writers chose to flesh out the character and story, plus take full advantage of its heavy themes. Instead, they wanted to focus on high production values. The only reason I don't completely have a problem with this is because it did very well on what it set out for. I will mention that it has a couple of deus ex machina moments that had me wondering could they have thought of something better.

I found Spriggan to be a mildly enjoyable action-fest. It doesn't suffer from tonal shifts, and it sticks to its guns. If you're searching for that little popcorn flick and you want to leave your brain at the door. Then this is that anime for you. If I had to liken it to other anime titles; it would probably be similar to Afro Samurai or Ninja Scroll.

Highs: Production values, nice action segments

Lows: All it appears to care about is looking pretty

Cool premise. A lot happened in the first 30 minutes, but then it just stopped. The rest of the movie was boring and blue, really blue. I mean physically it was just blue. There was no color, except for blue. The kid was blue, the background was blue, the characters were blue, the lighting was blue, and the story was blue.

Dear readers, the rest of this review is written to fit the 105 minimum word count. Feel free to skip this, like I would recommend skipping the last 2/3rds of the movie. As I have previously stated, its just blue.

If you like blue 10/10, however ... I cannot recommend.

Story:
I'm a sucker for evolutionary narratives with symbolism but I was suckered into Spriggan because of this. Right off the bat we're introduced to poor pacing that shows no sign of correcting itself. The entire story jumps around at the most awkward times and it doesn't help that a lot of things are ignored after the fact. It's not that there are subplots, as the main plot is already pretentious enough to cloud out anything else, but the events surrounding the main plotline are, more or less, canon fodder to increase the run time.

Combat sequences are fun and exciting early on but the movie transforms ... into more of a dialogue later on. A bit of a bummer since the first sequence is a lot of fun and felt super cool, but even the action scenes have some strange pacing issues and transitions that are stunted. Still, pretty cool stuff.


Art:
The animation is pretty dang solid. Loved it. Settings were lively and exciting during the first act but the second they reach the mountain the world quiets down and becomes very boring. However, the animation still flows well and things look fantastic. It's definitely the thing that kept me watching.


Sound:
Certain tracks are absolutely wonderful and the rest are invasive. Certain scenes are turned humorous due to the overly dramatic and completely non-sensable score. The sound effects themselves are pretty good but go unnoticed for the most part. A shame, since sci-fi's have the opportunity to create otherworldly, impressive effects. However, the work is more worried about the quality of the animation than anything else, which is ok. A shame, but ok.


Character:
Empty and vacant shells to carry out the narrative. Nothing more. That said, the main character had some depth that was pretty neat but it comes in mostly at the end. Everyone else isn't a real bother and doesn't bog down the flow so it's sufficient to get to the end of the work, but things have to happen and there's little reason for them other than "oh this character did this and that happened." They're used conveniently to make sure things move forward and nothing more. Nobody matters.


Enjoyment:
Pretty boring. A neat feature to gaze at the animation but nothing else matters. It's very similar to Akira except Akira has better pacing, a stronger world to explore, and many other neat features. Beyond that, this is a slightly above boring narrative that I'll probably forget about in a few weeks regardless.


((If you liked this review, friend me for new reviews on other works, both manga and anime!))

Let's start with the good. Spriggan is notable for its sakuga. The animation is very smooth and the choreography is decent. The art style is quite aesthetically pleasing too. It's easily up there with Ninja Scroll and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust as far as popcorn action flicks go.

Now let's talk about the story. Well, the story is quite poor and cliched. It's like an Indiana Jones movie. An ancient artifact is found that is used to destroy the world by an evil villain. Protagonist goes to stop the villain. So, nothing really to talk about here.

Most of the fight scenes are really, really stupid. In ... the first fight, the Fat Man has grabbed Yu by the neck, and is slowly crushing his neck. Yu doesn't do anything except grab at the Fat Man's hand, even though he has a knife. Then Jean calls out to Yu, and Yu suddenly becomes smart and remembers that he has a knife and cuts Fat Man's arm off? Why didn't he do that before?

But the final fight scene is what really ruined the movie for me. The main villain has the power of telekinesis. He can knock people back from a distance. Every time Yu tries running up to him, he uses his power and knocks Yu back. Yu keeps doing this and he gets knocked back every time.

Does Yu learn from this and try a different strategy? Nope! He just continues to run directly at the bad guy, and every single time he gets knocked back, he gets back up and tries the exact same thing again, running at the bad guy screaming at the top of his lungs. Until eventually he suddenly gets really angry and runs really fast, and this time he doesn't get knocked down, even though the bad guy is using even more power than before. Yeah, it's as stupid as it sounds.

Having said all that, I liked the little touches here and there. Moments like when Yu was disassembling his pistol and cleaning it (what was he using? WD-40?), for example. The dialogue, although it was pretty stupid at times, was direct and snappy. All of this contributed to the anime having the "feel" of a classic 90s action movie.

Yeah, it's nothing to write home about. But it's not unwatchable either. It's no worse than Ninja Scroll. If you just want to turn your brain off and watch some mindless action, at least this movie is direct and to the point and doesn't waste your time with useless filler.

Rate a 6
seen via English Dubbed

School can be rough at times-- Sorry, could not continue with that statement. School is mostly rough at times. You have to deal with friends. You have to fit in. Study for different classes big tests on the same day. Work with some uncool teachers. Sit for long periods of times. Some action or thrill seeking event is needed. Thankfully, you get just that and more with this movie. Showing, even as a student you can get into some fun events.

Story
Plot wise simple. Governments fight for the unknown. Material wise eventful. In more simple terms you can quit a ... job for example and move on to your next job or go out in a bang. Both objects are simple one is just more entertaining.

Art
not quite as detailed on the blood. I understand this movie is not a horror film but since it is an action flick if the blood is more realistic it allows the audience to become more attached. Smooth transitions.

audio- no complaints

character
moderately depth in background on some of the major characters. As for simple layaway characters they might as well be extras.

Enjoyment
spy-kids or tomb raider fans would get the most joy from this in my opinion.

Spriggan really is the Indiana Jones of anime with a bit of Akira thrown in. I am a big fan of Indiana Jones and anime so I really enjoyed this movie. I find this film extremely overlooked and underrated. Most anime fans do not know of Spriggan. When I look at MAL (myanimelist.net) it gets a fairly low score, which I don’t think it deserves. It’s their opinion, but I don’t get it. Spriggan will always have a special place in my heart because it was one of the anime that got me into anime. I had watched ... other anime before this like DBZ, Yu-gi-oh, Pokemon, Gundam Wing, and other anime from Toonami and KidsWB. I did not understand what anime was at that time. This was one of the first anime I watched that I knew was anime and really enjoyed it. As a result I wanted to check out stuff like it, which in time made me an anime fan. So I will always have an appreciation for this film.

This film has a lot going for it. The art and animation look very stellar and cinematic. The fight scenes are fluid and engaging. The music is also on point. The whole story and premise of this ancient technology really drew me in. Subject matter such as that always peaks my interest. The characters are good enough for a film like this. In these types of movies you’re not really looking for stellar characters, but just ones good enough to keep you invested. Yu is a badass lead character with an interesting and sad backstory. He has to carry the film but he does a good job. The other characters I like okay. I also like the villain Col. MacDougall. He looks like a kid but that just makes scarier. He has telepathic and telekinetic powers and can literally kill you with a thought. This is where the Akira element comes in.

There are some minor grips. I wish we got more information on certain characters and on ARCAM itself. We don’t know a thing about Jean besides that he is a Spriggan. I wish we got to know more about MacDougall and his past. We can take an educated guess, but it is never really stated how he came to be the way he was. We know enough about ARCAM for this story so we’re not confused but I wanted them to go into a bit more detail of their origin and how they even recruited Yu. The majority of those things were probably going to be tackled in the sequel that was never made. Near the end MacDougall said that there were other sites like Noah being activated. That tells me they wanted to make a franchise out of this but it never came to be and, sadly, it most likely never will. It really is sad because I wanted to see more of this. I wanted to know more about the lost civilization and go on more adventures with these characters. I know this is based on a manga, but I’ve never picked it up, because it’s very hard to find.

Overall, if you enjoy action/adventure movies like Indiana Jones, then definitely check this out. Copies are hard to find so you probably have to search amazon for a copy or to stream it, but if you somehow come across a copy at your local store then pick it up. It can get pretty violent, so it’s probably not for people too squeamish. I highly enjoyed it and thank it for having a hand in getting me into anime.

Spriggan is an anime that would've benefited from NOT being a shounen. It's true potential only realized after going full adult (and not in the perverted sense most viewers mistake that with).

It presents a rather interesting, perhaps too interesting premise for an action flick. You get gorgeous animation, expertly crafted environmental design and music ( credits to the ever amazing Kuniaki Haishima). But the story department is lacking as are the characters and their motivations.

I am understanding enough to consider the time period this was made in. They weren't going to be able to and provide anything ground breaking or particularly intelligent here. It ... just caught me by surprise that they tried to at all. Was planning to give this one a pass, but the mention of it being a movie set in Turkey.. kept hovering in my mind's space. So with that said.. this viewing was kind of inevitable for me.

I would say, the visual presentation alone makes this a fair recommendation for people looking to get into something with a little more thought put into it's creation. Split between giving an overall 7 or 8.

Let me put it this way. 7 is my personal score. And 8 is more suited, when compared to the junk that's popular today.

Spriggan is Indiana Jones meets Metal Gear Solid with a little bit of Akira and Assassin's Creed thrown in. I so strongly miss fun, well-animated 2D action features like Spriggan that every so often I go back to watch it and other similar era anime films like it (Akira, Ghost In The Shell, X/1999). Spriggan features a nice combination of less cartoony 90s character design, gorgeous sakuga sequences (i.e. the Istanbul chase), and fun kinetic combat that is rare from anime these days. This film feels like it was made at a time when the overall skill of 2D animators was much higher than it ... is today. Check it out before the 3D Netflix adaptation ruins the IP. I think the film is underrated for what it is.

Action. There's a lot of it, for sure. Or better said - it's the only thing going for this movie.
Let's start with a little synopsis, though. Spriggan is about Yu Ominae, a 17 (because of course, it's a shonen manga's adaptation afterall) years old members of an organization called ARCAM, which retrieves ancient artifacts to prevent them from being used for... destroying the world.

A cliché old story, which can still be done well... that is, if that was what the movie focused on.
Expect, it only focuses on fighting scenes. Which is not a problem itself, if there's enough time to still have a well-done ... story, but this is just not such an example.

But said scenes are done *very* well. I'm not a sakuga expert, but everyone can see how good they are and how pretty it looks as a result - the one and only Katsuhiro Otomo worked on it.

The story clearly suffers because of all the attention paid to the animation, though. Bland, boring characters - If we can even call them such, since they're basically plot devices. - without anything making you even remember about them. The MC, Yu, has a bit of a backstory, but it's still not enough to make the viewer care about him.

It tries to throw a "deep" plot with religious symbolism like Noah's Ark, and even "ecologist" bits in 90 minutes. It seems the manga it comes from has many small episodic arcs with no connections with each other (expect, well, having the same protagonist.). Then why not doing a series with like, say, three (?) episodes to each arc instead of this rushed mess?

It's rare, very rare for movies that try to fit too much into so little time to become something good, something you'd recommend to others, something worth watching. It got the production going for it, though! Again, the animation is very very good. I haven't seen and don't know how good the Netflix ONA version is since the CGI is off-putting for me, but the movie's 90s artstyle (may be a bit biased though.) still holds up today. That's just how 90s anime are probably.

So it is probably a 6 out of 10. Nothing to write about home and to suggest if you want a good plot - but if you want something cliché to turn your brain off while watching and maybe doing something else, with pretty animation and just looking for some cool fights, it's perfect for this job.