Spriggan (1998) User Reviews

Big, loud & brash

[mighty_pickman · 6/10 · 31 August 2003]

A big, loud brash anime that in many ways has more of a Hollywood blockbuster feel to it than a normal anime film. This film moves along at a smart pace, with very few, if any slow patches.

The animation is of a high standard, especially the scenes set in Istanbul, although some of the CGI effects used in the film were not necessary. Spriggan has one of the best English dubs yet seen in anime, the quality of the voices & the technical mixing of the soundtrack both excellent. A must see for anime fans. 8/10

Great production values... pity about the plot.

[erebus53 · 6/10 · 20 July 2002]

Spriggan is an animé action film of extreme proportion. With production supervised by Katsuhiro Ôtomo (director of Akira), this is not surprising. Our main character is Yu Ominae, a 17 year old special operative, code named Spriggan. The story is one of warring covert government factions as they race to take possession of "Noah's Ark", an ancient artifact with immense power.

All this seems simple enough. Yu is the stereotypical action hero; he catches swords with his bare hands, dispatches "bad guys" without flinching, sustains near mortal injuries and still manages to hurl abuse at his oppressors, and yet, still swerves to avoid hitting innocent pedestrians. Our bad guys include a big guy with body armour and replacement cybernetics with a very, very large gun, a small guy who is fast and also cybernetically enhanced, and a mysterious, small boy.

Spriggan is based on a comic that ran in Shonen Magazine in Japan between 1989 and 1996. As such it has a following in Japan, but in the west (where it was known by the title "Striker") it has very few fans, as distribution of Japanese manga and animé is only now beginning to pick up.

As far as production values are concerned, Spriggan is a showcase of modern cinematic animé. Huge rotoscoped panoramas form gorgeous backdrops for scenes such as a car chase through the streets of Turkey and you feel a true sense of immersion in flurries of mountaintop snow. What little CG there is, is integrated fluidly and adds to the film, unlike in many other productions where it may distract the viewer. The score is brilliant and the 5.1 surround mix caught me off guard. A couple of times I caught myself turning to see if there was someone behind me.

I am generally a fan of subtitled animé, so I watched it in this form first. It is interesting to note that in most animé the character animation is done before the voices are added. However, in this production (as it was a cinema release), the voices for the Japanese tracks were recorded first and then the animation was made around those tracks, much in the same way Disney movies are made. Now this may bode poorly for the English dub, as the mouths instead of flapping open and closed are actually forming the shapes of words, yet great care and attention has been put into the English dub. In places the English track is a lot more plausible than the Japanese... it makes more sense that folks at the Pentagon sound like Americans. Had I my way I would change languages tracks part way through so that the English stuff is in English and the scenes set in Japan were in Japanese (more like in Blood: The Last Vampire) but that is just me being finicky. (If you get a chance to see the DVD you may want to check out the ADR team's commentary.)

I feel that Spriggan is a film that has used mythology from other cultures and Christianity (in much the same way as Neon Genesis: Evangelion) to make the plot seem more interesting and arcane to a Japanese audience. The word Spriggan describes a faerie from Cornish mythology, with an ugly visage, large head and small body, and a penchant for stealing babies and replacing them. This draws some symbolic similarities to the main character as he is a character of power in a small body who was "adopted" by his organisation at a young age. I don't know how readily Americans will receive this film, as it portrays the American government in a bad light and says blatantly that the Christian Bible is wrong.

Spriggan has a running time of 90 minutes. The first 60 of those play pretty much as a stereotypical action/adventure flick, but at about 60 minutes it starts getting weird. All of a sudden the plot moves from high action to metaphysical stuff and that may leave the viewer behind or feeling a little disjointed. During this section are some pretty cool visuals but to my mind the plot falls flat on its face. It seems that the film has fallen into the old animé trap of freaky villains and blood-spattered heroes yelling at each other for a bit, having their final confrontation, barely tying up the loose ends of the plot and then the bad guy threatens that there will be a sequel.

In overview, I'd say that this is a technical film enthusiast's dream, not for kids, a good film for action buffs and a poor one for people who like good drama. So, to quote Douglas Adams: "Ten out of ten for style, but minus several million for good thinking".

A fast-paced high-tech bloody buddy film.

[surenm · 7/10 · 21 June 2001]

"Spriggan" is a fairly decent piece of anime showcasing some of the best high action / movement animation I've ever seen; technically it is quite a well-developed film with many intricate cuts and superb editing. For anyone interested in a decent action / sci-fi thriller, I recommend this movie without prejudice.

Thematically, I don't think it is as deep or metaphysically intriguing as films like "Akira" or "Ghost in the Shell" nor do I think it raises enough questions and insights about its subject matter as say "Neon Genesis Evangelion," particularly in how it deals with its own use of religious iconography and mythology; they are more of a "technology" than anything else, however, the film is still enjoyable.

And of course there's the completely benign homo-social relationship between Yu and Jean to add to the fun.

raiders of the lost arc on drugs with akira

[nobbytatoes · 7/10 · 24 October 2005]

Yu is a member of the group ARCAM; a organization set to hide and stop people from uncovering ancient artifacts. Yu is also a Spriggan, an elite fighting machine. He's strong, fast, agile and extremely deadly. When one of Yu's friend commits suicide with the message that Noah will be your grave, Yu starts to investigate. Colonel MacDougall, a psychic experiment kid, has found Noah's Ark and intends to use it to start a new world.

Spriggan is a visually amazing animation that puts you right into the action. The action sequences are fast paced and intensely violent. The inter film moves at a lightning pace, it doesn't stop to take a breath. So in that respect it isn't boring. But the draw back is the script. At times it seems heavy handed and doesn't explain everything. It doesn't have much depth to it, but its a very interesting topic to use. The action does pick up the flaws of the script, but action cant always save a film from bad writing.

Taking it ques from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Akira, its a wild and extremely fun ride, it just could have been a lot more.

Not sure why there's so much hatred for this piece.

[KidSixXx · 18 July 2003]

Person who said that Spriggan "isn't revolutionary but is still fun" summed it up best.

Only thing that I found negative was the scenes of really pointless, over-the-top, violence. The only reason Little Boy had the offensive capabilities he had, was so that the viewers could see his victims explode in explosions of gushing blood.

More flash than substance, but still a fun rental.

BTW, the word "Spriggan" (as far as the title reference goes) has nothing to do with the ugly, baby-stealing gnomes of European lore.

"Spriggan" is the "Americanization" of the Japanese word "Supurîgan," which means "Striker" and is the original name of the manga series "Spriggan" is based on.

Liked it fine.

[twizzle777 · 7/10 · 19 February 2001]

Directed in a style similar to western action/adventure films (esp Indiana Jones) the art leaps off the screen. The backgrounds are particularly well done, and the animation is smooth. Though I did notice some scenes that were almost experimental in there use of techniques. Particularly shading in some scenes and the methods they use to do motion blur. It looks great, but it's often only employed once and so is somewhat inconsistent. The story which has been summed elsewhere is very easy to follow and stays within action movie lines quite nicely, though for this reason it's easy to find it lacking any kind of stimulation. Otomo's hand can be seen in the way certain scene play out, and the style of animation, though not the individually drawn cel. The music is good, but traditional action fare. The voice acting is on, except for that child col. when he laughs, it sounds so forced, even the non-Japanese speaking will pick up on it. So if you like action oriented animation, or are drooling for another Indiana Jones movie (plus anime staples like cyborgs, psychic powers, and armored muscle suits) Spriggan is one the best films to come out that fits that bill perfectly. Look for a Region 1 dvd and VHS later this year (2001). They're even speaking of a theatrical release. In the meantime, unless you speak Japanese look for a fan sub.

not as good as I was expecting

[cyberbat · 7/10 · 2 January 2003]

I saw this on my dvd. The people were too quiet and the sound effects too loud so I was continually fiddling with the remote.

The animation is ok, but not worth gushing over.

Story was not really all that interesting to me, I wasn't expecting a war epic like gasaraki.

But a solid bit of work none the less. 7 out of 10.

music was good.

Very pretty but nothing new.

[evilasahobby · 7/10 · 19 August 2002]

Spriggan is very pretty. You can easily see that a large amount of money has been invested into making this anime shine, even down to the dubbing of solid voice actors and near perfect lip synching. Spriggan also has all the necessary parts of a great anime, with an incredible hero, a powerful villain and enough nonsensical metaphysics to make some of the dialogue come out sounding intelligent (provided you don't think about it, of course). The superpowers that each of the main characters possess are interesting enough and the action doesn't pause for long.

But something is missing. The bad guy is evil for no particular reason, which is pretty standard in anime but in Spriggan he appears to be just following the manual: "Use powers to take over powerful artifact. Use artifact for own ends". A little bit of dialogue to give him some purpose would have been nice.

The fact that two world class organisations are fighting each other for the fate of the world means very little as the narrative never really bothers to outline the ethics of either group. Which one is the evil? Oh, the one that the protagonist fights against. Of course. Both seemed as bad as each other to me, but I recognise that the movie comes from a much longer series of manga comics so I'm probably not getting the whole Spriggan story.

Overall, Spriggan hits all of the anime action cliches with a higher production value than most. Switch your brain off and enjoy the ride.

just wasn't for me.

[leyenda61 · 8/10 · 29 August 2003]

This movie had so muh going for it. Great production value, the animation was excellent, and the action, while more-than-a-little over the top, was extremely fluid. But what happened? I just don't know. I think a developed backstory would have helped. Without that, the protagonist guy is little more than a fungible super-powered action star. It's true, it felt way too much like Akira. I've seen countless anime feature films, but for some reason I felt my perspective was too Western to appreciate the way the director tells the story. It's a tough call. Bottom line, I would have preferred rented it than buying it. It's not a "bad" film, and yes it's worth seeing just for it's stylised action-sequences and art, but this isn't the kind of movie you can watch over and again like other anime.

It's better than AKIRA

[simon-47 · 6/10 · 25 April 1999]

This movie is about fights between American military special forces and japanese AKAAM, which is a foundation organized to protect mysterious relics left from presumably hyper-cultural and hyper-technics being on earth in the past. Here, Noah's Ark is described as a thing which can control weather and evolution on earth.

I read cartoon first and then saw the animation. Animation picked just one of the cartoon stories. However the movie was as good as cartoon. Cartoon AKIRA was absolutely better than the movie. Once you read the AKIRA Cartoon, we will notice how the movie wasn't made responsibly. Katsuhiro Otomo who directed the movie AKIRA was involved in making of Spriggun, but not as Director at this time. Cartoon AKIRA is superb, but when compared as movie, it is far below the movie Spriggun. Spriggun was made of rigid story-telling and had the final, AKIRA was finalized in the middle of the whole story of cartoon though.

You may think some scenes are similar to those of the Fifth element, and I also thought that way even though I considered the firth element as a plagiarism of three animations which are the Transformer (Movie), Heavy Metal and Ghost in the Shell in its essence of story and some scenes (copying scenes may not be a matter 'cause he already told us he did it from Ghost in the Shell, but more unbearable thing is to copy stories and it's my personal opinion.)

Spriggun is worth to see and to keep. The Japanese dubbing actors are good except the one who acted as the child Colonel. When he laughs, everyone will know it's unnatural. Except that laughing, that actor was also good and fit to that character.

Spriggun is well made to cover one part of the cartoon. But if you saw the cartoon, you better not imagine any other things from the movie. It's the same to see the cartoon and the movie. However, I enjoyed it.

Not worth your money or time

[j-bullfrogger · 1/10 · 16 January 2009]

Spriggan is one of the worst types of anime movies one can watch. The characters are undeveloped, the plot is ridiculous and the plausibility impossible.

The main character, Yu, for example, recovers multiple times after being a hair breadths away from death. Likewise, his partner Jean survives every major catastrophe from being run over by a giant snowmobile, falling off a cliff, being torn to shreds by dinosaurs and even being shot by accident by Yu.

The plot of Noah's ark as a climate control and human creating device has absolutely no relevance to the movie. That ark's purpose is to merely serve as an object in which two competing forces - the Pentagon and AROAM, the unit Yu serves - are fighting for.

Many times the duologue goes into ridiculous, incomprehensible speech such as third dimensions, and whatnot.

Other random crap: 1) Only one woman in the entire movie - Maragaret, who plays no significant role - only serves to pull a professor from death by the antagonist, a wire wielding genetically modified toddler 2) Random enemies who were once Yu's partners but whom he seems to enjoy killing mercilessly 3) Jumping from scene to scene with no smooth transition or logical connection at all, such as traveling from Istanbul to Mt. Arrarat In Conclusion: This warped, disconnected plot and unaffable characters make this movie a sure miss. Don't watch it. You'll pity yourself afterwards.

For all the people left scratching their heads after Akira

[ipkevin · 10/10 · 9 January 2000]

Spriggan is a full-steam-ahead, kick-ass-and-take-names, gun-crazy anime action fest like nothing else I've ever seen. If you like your films slow and philosophical, then look elsewhere. The director of Spriggan wanted to create an anime movie in the vein of big budget Hollywood blockbusters and he succeeded in spades. The camerawork, pacing, script, everything - they would be equally at home in the latest James Cameron action extravaganza. Actually, scratch that. Free from the physical constraints of live action (like gravity), Spriggan's action scenes ratchet it up a notch beyond any live action movie around. The animation is brilliant, on the same level as Ghost in the Shell (though Ghost is still a tad nicer).

While others may consider this the worst aspect of it, what I love most about Spriggan is that it is FINALLY a big-budget Japanese animated film that is NOT slow and ponderous and full of deep ruminations on the human condition. Not that there's anything wrong with the likes of Akira, Ghost in the Shell, or Perfect Blue, but in most big-budget anime you only see brief glimpses of the stupendous action of which Japanese animators are capable. With Spriggan, you finally get to see more than just a glimpse.

Bottomline: Pure, adrenaline-pumping eye candy. Worth seeking out.

Simply excellent, Total entertainment from act1 thru the finale.

[dwlarry · 7/10 · 16 November 2003]

Maybe it's cause I'm new to anime, or maybe it's cause I'm a dinosaur looking for a fresh face on entertainment ... I dunno exactly what it is, but I found Spriggan to be the absolute best movie I've seen in years ..., make that tens of years. I've read reviews that lament the lack of story line and character development; Hogwash! I found these areas to be well covered and extremely easy to follow & cheer for. Granted the movie offers an extremely over-simplistic view of world politics by blaming all of the world's woes on the good ole U.S. of A., but that's to be expected when you're the number 1 world power & the world is as screwed up as it is. We all know, hopefully, that evil & greed existed before America & will continue for a long time after the USA, but it makes for one helluva story line. Action packed, extremely well drawn and acted, I found myself completely absorbed from the very first minute. A previous viewer commented on the sound problems, I experienced this too. I found that at times voices were very faint, while background effects were overloud, this was not very discomforting & did not at all distract from the on screen fun.

This movie is horrible

[Applerod · 2/10 · 2 August 2005]

Shame on me. Shame on me for mindlessly buying this movie based on internet recommendations. I went to an anime site that allows you to enter a movie you like, and you will receive recommendations. The movie I entered is Akira. This was the number one recommendation. I cannot begin to conceive how and why this movie came up. Akira is EXCELLENT, in every facet of it's execution--plot, characters, animation, etc... This is sh*t.

To begin to review this pile of garbage is to grant it too much consideration, but I will allow some of that. I think the problem starts with the fact that the object of mystery is Noah's Ark. This of course means hearing scripture. (Remember, I'm embarrassed even to be writing this, because I just bought the movie.) The scripture is quoted *just enough to be vaguely unsettling in the fact that it is Christian. I don't mean to belabor this point though, as you'll probably hear less than 20 seconds of the stuff; but in a movie in which the combined dialogue runs for 5-10 minutes, it's something to think about. The whole plot is right out of Indiana Jones, minus the good movie part.

Really it's just a mindless shoot-em-up with a VERY thin plot, and completely disposable characters. Two of the characters are called Fatman and Little Boy (just brilliant). This should appeal to boys ages 8-10. The dialogue, sparse as it is, is totally laughable: "We can't all be Schwarzenegger." or French Spriggan: "I don't bluff, mon ami." I wish I was a member of the site that recommended this movie, so I could try to attempt to understand how this movie came into comparison with Akira. I would personally rate Akira about a 9. I'm giving this a 2. I was going to give it a 3, because of the animation, but the style of the animation is totally generic; in point of fact there IS no style.

TEN THUMBS DOWN. I was on the verge of crushing the DVD when I considered that there might be some resale value--to some eager young child, or mindless schlub such as myself.

Hollywood style action in an animated film

[slind · 26 July 1999]

The movie starts out with a fairly typical premise: Japanese High School student, Yu, is actually a super-soldier (A "Spriggan") and part of a secret army that recovers and protects ancient artifacts. From there, however, the movie is anything but typical. Lots of wild, incredibly animated action and over-the-top fighting with an actual plot behind it.

In short, the secret army's just found Noah's Ark on Mt. Ararat, Turkey, and they dispatch their best agent, our Yu, to check out what's up. The enemy, the naughty United States military forces, sends their best agents in the U.S. Cybercorps to stop the project and recover the ark. Interestingly enough, these agents are codenamed 'Fatman' and 'Littleboy' - the same names of the two A-bombs that dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The movie veers madly between plot scenes and wild, edge-of-your-seat action sequences until it gets to it's stunning, and CGI-assisted finale. Highly recommended, even with it's vague anti-US slant.

"Spriggan" - Anime' goes bang - big time

[dee.reid · 7/10 · 7 August 2005]

Hirotsugu Kawasaki's 1998 film "Spriggan" is a Japanese Anime' piece like no other. It's the second Anime' film I've viewed in the past three days that shares the traits of a twisted, turning plot and (mostly) one-dimensional characters. But like a lot of other Anime' films that share such qualities, I found myself deep into the on-screen action, characters, and animation.

For the most part, "Spriggan" avoids many of the stigmas of Japanese animation - sex, gratuitous nudity, deep philosophy on man's origins (like 1988's "Akira" or 1995's "Ghost in the Shell"), and graphic violence. Though there is some pretentious bloodshed here and there in "Spriggan," it's hardly of the super-graphic kind.

And "Spriggan" also has a plot (from which none other than Katsuhiro Otomo shares a credit on and is itself based on a Manga series called "Striker"), that as near as I can remember, is not thematically deep and is, hence, easy to follow. A relief, for once, for this Anime' fan. The action begins with the accidental discovery of a monstrous structure at the top of the world, the Mountains of Ararat (Bible scholars, take notice).

The discovery, "Noah's Ark," lies deep within the Mountains of Ararat. For those who remember Sunday school, the story of Noah's Ark came when the eponymous Noah was told by God that a great flood was coming, and he was to build an ark and he and his family could stave off the apocalypse along with two of every animal species while a raging God drowns the rest of civilization for its sins.

After the waters receded, God's wrath had subsided and life began anew, the resting place of Noah's Ark was said to be in the Mountains of Ararat. Over the centuries, many individuals have tried to locate the Ark but with no avail, though there are conflicting reports that say its final resting place is actually in China somewhere and some have claimed they found it but their stories are hardly conclusive ("Unsolved Mysteries" did a real good investigative piece on it once).

But in "Spriggan," which is actually the name given to a group of elite soldiers and the film's main character Yu Ominae, Noah's Ark is actually an alien spacecraft that houses man's possible extraterrestrial origins as well as the dinosaurs and other creatures specifically designed to populate the earth once we were annihilated.

As you have it, Yu gets swept up in a government conspiracy to reach Noah's Ark after several friends of his are killed by shadowy characters, and he himself is then targeted for elimination. Putting to use his extraordinary military skills, he's able to make fodder out of the lot of them. When he finally does reach Noah's Ark, he finds an excavation with scientists and military personnel hard at work and eagerly trying to unlock its secrets.

But things turn deadly when the site is attacked, and an American colonel, MacDougall, assumes control of the daily operations there. MacDougall is especially dangerous because, like in "Akira" (which this film may borrow from liberally), he is a kid. But they shouldn't let that fool them; he is a brilliant military strategist as well as a psychopathic psychic and I'm assuming he's really an adult trapped in a kid's body (which could be explained by those wires in the back of his head, though I'm not sure if this was ever explained either).

MacDougall of course wishes to unlock Noah's Ark, and use its technology to wage war on mankind, which we all know will have disastrous consequences for anyone who wishes to toy with a power of alien or religious origin. So Yu, the scientists, and the military align with each other to stop MacDougall and keep the Ark's power from being used to wipe out life on this planet.

I remember distinctly reading in the Amazon.com DVD review about its American attributes, which said "Spriggan" shares the plot qualities of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981), "Universal Soldier" (1992), and the aforementioned "Akira." "Spriggan" does have those traits, which are ever-present in the plot and characters. But we're not looking at a deep, mystifying adventure like "Akira"; we're looking at a film that is very much in the same category as most Hollywood blockbusters.

I can assure you these are accurate criticisms, but they don't take away from the enjoyment of the picture. "Spriggan" takes an old story and puts a nice Anime' spin on it. Though it could anger some Western audiences, it's obviously best they don't see it anyway.

Still, "Spriggan" is nothing more than pure popcorn entertainment, plain and simple. If you're looking for deep philosophical dialogue on man's origins, go elsewhere. If you want hardcore action with little plot, stick with "Spriggan"; I promise you, the viewer, this: you won't be disappointed.

7/10

Follow up

[twizzle777 · 7/10 · 23 August 2001]

Personally I tend to like somber anime with flashes of action/violence that really hit you full on because you (as the viewer) are invested in the story and characters. For example: Ghost in the Shell, Jin-Roh, Rurouni Kenshin OAV's, Grave of the fireflies, and even Blood. I also like action for actions sake, but only if it's done well. For this reason Drunken Master II is one of my all time favorite films (That last fight in the steel works... drool) but so is Ran, because the latter is one of the best movies ever made.

I can appreciate both types of films, I guess not everyone else can.

Spriggan is definitely vapid, you don't see it for it's characters or clever plot. What you see it for is the technical brilliance used during the action. And sadly most of the best stuff is at the first 1/3 of the film, but that's another issue entirely.

Despite what some people may think it takes a great deal of creativity and talent to compose world class action sequences. There's definitely skill and genius to be seen in John Woo, Cameron, Wo Ping, Chan, Otomo, and a host of other people, often noted for action rather than drama.

Spriggan has those world class action sequences and for that reason is worth seeing at least once, preferably in the best possible format. Just don't expect symbolism from the movie, it's critical of the U.S. but not in any subtle or clever ways. And I often laughed because the comments made about the States work equally well for Japan, it just came off as finger pointing.

So to clarify... As is so often the case, the extreme views are not exactly with it. Spriggan is not the next Akira, not the next Mononoke, and it's certainly not the piece of garbage some people would like to think.

Pretty decent, exciting action anime

[Speechless · 9/10 · 18 November 2000]

I've only seen this film in its raw, unsubtitled Japanese form, so I'm not much of an authority on the details of the plot, but it's obvious that plot isn't much of an issue here. Spriggan is an action movie and doesn't really pretend to be anything else (despite the sci-fi stuff that starts happening towards the end). The animation is beautiful and similar in style to Ghost in the Shell, and there are some character design similarities to Ninja Scroll (one of the villains is a huge, bald, heavily armed walking tank reminiscent of Ninja Scroll's big rock ninja). The most obvious influence, though, is from Akira; anybody who has seen Katsuhiro Otomo's genre-reworking masterpiece will instantly be reminded of it the moment the freaky little psychic kid is introduced.

I barely understood a word of the dialogue, but the action sequences are sheer pulsating excitement. A memorable battle takes place at a mountain research station at night during a snowstorm; the poetic setting becomes the backdrop for a festival of violence worthy of a John Woo movie. I particularly like the villains who appear prominently in this scene-- in addition to the big armored gun guy I've mentioned, there's a scary little weirdo who rips his victims to pieces with tiny little strands of piano wire. And because the film is animated, we never think about stunts or computers or any of that stuff that can be so distracting in live-action films. Though somewhat predictable and derivative of other movies, Spriggan's action sequences are very impressive.

Again, I can't really comment on the plot, but if it's as good as everything else in this film then we may have a new anime classic on our hands. See it on the big screen if you get the chance.

Utter Garbage

[Severance Darkseed · 1/10 · 22 July 2001]

Spriggan should stand out as one of the single most stupid and garbage packed films in anime history. This film is nothing more than a "Rambo-The Teenage Years" mock up. The main characters is totally uninteresting and is relatively indestructible, so there's no reason to have any anticipation what-so-ever.

The story is rather stupid as well, centering around the discovery of Noah's Ark. Apart from that the movie involves many explosions, graphic deaths, and more explosions.

What adds insult to injury is the animation. While rather good and relatively fluid, it shows that more money went into making a lousy movie look good than actually starting out with a decent movie in the first place. Polish a turd and it's still a turd. Also, if you're looking for something along the lines of Akira animation, look elsewhere as this movie has none of the style, daring use of lighting and color, or technique that Akira pioneered.

Another rather bothersome element is the terrible voice acting done by the child in the movie. While original voice actors are always superior to a dubbed voice, I don't see how a dubbed voice could sound more "mechanical" or "forced" than that child did.

This movie appeals to the lowest common factor in people. It offers nothing more than explosions, an idiotic plot, and utterly unlikeable characters. Avoid at all costs.

The best Anime since Akira

[Grail_Plus · 9/10 · 1 January 2003]

This movie is a roller coaster ride of awesome action sequences, fantastic characters and visually stunning animation.

The movie is based around an elite International peace keeping force known as ARCUM, who has a special agent in every country, Spriggans. The story revolves around Spriggan Japan, Yu, who's past demons resurface to challenge him in a race to find an ancient artifact.

Part Akira, part Indiana Jones, Spriggan is non stop action but with a great story. Unbelievably entertaining...

Good production and impression of good movie, but so much wrong with it for mature viewers

[rubn0 · 3/10 · 18 June 2014]

This movie is very good in its production and in impressing the viewer with deepness of things and mystery and tantalizing emotions and so on... just, like some other reviewers wrote, like Akira. However, there are some things so wrong with it, I could not agree less with the praise in total. For me, this movie was a waste of time. This is why: - It's sci-fi, but it doesn't apply to its own rules of reality. For example: whenever there is no solution for the good guys to win, something miraculous happens around which the story clearly put boundaries before (like sudden loss of enemy abilities without reason), just to make the good guys win. Actually not even miraculous at all, right? Clearly an example of lack of imagination or time put in the movie. - It's the typical movie where shooting goes on in all directions and everyone is shot except the main characters (good and bad), which could happen with super-strong powers, but suddenly when the main characters fight, they need to protect their faces and weak spots, some even get killed with weapons from the "weak troops" before, only now held by the hero. These sacrificial troops obviously couldn't even shoot a target with 50 to 1 men ratio... Wow, they must have hired the worst soldiers ever! Wait, maybe that was also in the plot and all planned by the bad guys? Yeah, right.). - The story and the ethics don't make any sense if you pay attention. It's as if the writers forgot how good they were and just copied their former stories, only without consistency. Well, maybe the target audience are children, but still..

One of the best Anime ever made

[Gunstar_Zero · 10/10 · 26 April 2002]

Spriggan is arguably one of the best Anime to come our way. Based upon the manga of the same name, Spriggan tells the tale of Ominae Yu, an elite commando/superagent/operative for a powerful corporation known as ARCAM, whose mission is to protect and defend various ancient ruins scattered around the world. The codename Spriggan is to denote men and women with special abilities and skills in the employ of ARCAM whose combat abilities far surpass that of a normal human being. Ominae Yu is Japan's No.1 Spriggan but he is not the only one in the world. Namely his best friend Jean-Jacques Mondo who is France's top Spriggan.

Personally, I've read the entire manga series and watched the anime way before it was released in the States. I basically loved the story and concept behind Spriggan and enjoyed every minute of the anime. Although some fans may argue that the anime didn't do justice to the manga by omitting certain unique features and characters which is somewhat central to the original story. But we must remember, this is a movie. It could not possibly squeeze in hundreds of pages of details into a 90 minute show. I admit I was somewhat disappointed by the changes. However, my fears were quieted when I saw how they brought alive the entire plot by introducing better script, better dialogue and better cinematography. Not to mention advanced animation techniques supported by cutting edge CG. However, the production staff chose the manga's second volume which tells about the discovery of Noah's Ark as the main plotline's premise rather than first volume. I guess Noah's Ark is a far more interesting story to tell and I have to agree on that.

With a strong plot and cool-looking fight scenes that is fluidly animated to create a level of realism rarely seen in other big-budget anime movies, Spriggan still has some quirks that I need to mention. Except for Ominae Yu, Fattman and Colonel MacDougall, the rest of the cast's background were not clearly fleshed out. We were just told they were either the villains or the good guys and that's it. Other than that, this anime movie is definitely worth a watch many times over. Spriggan is truly a classic.

How many cliches can you pack into one anime?

[emaan · 3/10 · 30 August 1999]

I watched Spriggan at the local Film Festival back in April '99 and I really think it's a piece of unashamed, over-commercialised, fan-boy rubbish.

There were just too many parallels to Akira, from the art direction to the use of a prematurely-aged, grey-haired boy with blow-your-brains-out pyscho-mental powers,... except, this time the kid is American.

Then there is the "hero" who seems indestructible, is filled with angst because of his traumatic past at the hands of his grotesgue former commander (who is now of course his prime enemy). Said "hero" has kungfu moves so flashy he puts Street Fighter to shame. And when he REALLY gets in trouble - no problemo, he's got an even more-indestructible side-kick who always appears in the nick of time. (Even after he's left for dead in an earlier battle.)

Then the all-explosive "climax" as the doomsday Ark is blown away (was there ever any doubt?). Oh yeah, the fist pumping and high-fives being passed around by the surviving grunts really sent a shiver down my spine. Hard to believe Otomo allowed his name to be associated with this piece of junk.

Avoid, avoid, avoid!

Breathless !

[crisbene · 10/10 · 12 November 2000]

This movie is simply incredible. Actually this is a japanese blockbuster, a kind of armed responses to every movies Hollywood sent to the whole world for decades. Spriggan is the most exciting movie of the last decade : simply the very best action movie since John Woo's Hard Boiled. It's got the most incredible action sequences one has ever seen combined to the best SFX ILM could never build. You'll not find magical sissy girls, invicible stupid armored guys and giant robots. Go, Spriggan, explode them all ! And most of all it's so brilliant and extremely clever. If you slept during Ghost in the shell, didnt decide to give money for Titan AE, and was aware that Blade Runner, Matrix and 2001 were just overestimated, Spriggan is the bomb you'd like to taste.

One for the die hard fans.

[DukeEman · 5/10 · 6 January 2002]

What a piece of enjoyable apocalyptic junk crap!!! Based on a Manga, this manic mayhem doesn't settle down until the last thirty minutes when we get to see some creative use in animation. The rest is just bombarded with ridiculous and sometimes laughable action scenes.