Spriggan (1998)

An elite superhuman agent must stop a foreign military unit from seizing control of an ancient artifact that holds the key to ultimate power.

Director:

Hirotsugu Kawasaki

Writers:

Yasutaka Itô (script), Hirotsugu Kawasaki (script)

Stars:

Shôtarô Morikubo, Ryuji Aigase, Takehito Koyasu

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Shôtarô Morikubo	...	Yu Ominae (voice)
Ryuji Aigase	...	Colonel MacDougal (voice)
Takehito Koyasu	...	Jean-Jacques Mondo (voice)
Katsumi Suzuki	...	Little Boy (voice)
Ken Shiroyama	...	Dr. Meisel (voice)
Sakiko Tamagawa	...	Margaret (voice)
Kenji Takano	...	Fat Man (voice)
Fumihiko Goto	...	Turkish Agent B (voice)
Dai Matsumoto	...	Manager (voice)
Hiroyuki Oshida	...	Guard B (voice)
Ikumi Kimura	...	Stewardess (voice)
Katsuhisa Hôki	...	Turkish Agent A (voice)
Kenichi Sakaguchi	...	N.C.O (voice)
Kinryû Arimoto	...	Yamamoto (voice)
Masaaki Yajima	...	Narrator (voice)

Storyline

Yu is a young man who has a past he desperately wants to forget. His present is that he is a superhuman top agent for Arcan, an organization dedicated to protecting ancient artifacts to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands. However, he receives several bloody messages, culminating in the suicide of a friend, telling that Noah would be his death. In response, Yu travels to Turkey to visit the Arcan dig at Mount Arrat, where Noah's Ark is supposed to have rested. Along the way there and at the destination, he learns of forces of his past have returned to stop him and sieze control of the Ark, which turns out to be an alien device of ultimate power.

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Plot Keywords:

older actors younger roles | power | artifact | death | suicide | 

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Taglines:

They were looking for a sign. What they found was a warning.

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

5 September 1998 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Spriggan

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$7,420, 14 October 2001

Gross USA:

$25,824

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$25,824

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bandai Visual Company, Studio 4°C, Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS)

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The though Spriggan is a Japanese movie, the theme song "Jing Ling" sung by Saju is in Chinese.

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Goofs

During the fight with Colonel MacDougal Ominae's arm was broken in multiple places and left hanging limp. However, when he was falling with Jean after escaping the Ark he used the broken arm to shoot his grappling hook and hung from it, then after landing was using his 'broken' arm as if it weren't injured at all.

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Quotes

Yu Ominae: No! Don't do it Tanaka!

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Crazy Credits

"The Spriggan Ice Cream Social Club"

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Alternate Versions

The sound of a school bell after Yu's flashback in class was added for the English dub.

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Connections

References Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

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Soundtracks

Jing Ling
Performed by Saju

User Reviews

Hollywood style action in an animated film

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.