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.

Directors:

Hirotsugu Kawasaki, Katsuhiro Ôtomo

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 | driving | knife | power | artifact | 

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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

Did You Know?

Trivia

Originally, the international title for this movie was going to be "Striker," which was the altered American manga name used and created by Viz Manga. This name originated in the mid 1990's for no other reason than the American translators thinking that "the name Spriggan didn't sound cool." But even after their first Striker release, Viz Manga double-dipped and re-released what they had already translated before - three heavily edited volumes out of a total of eleven original volumes from Japan - in an anthology under its proper name "Spriggan." Yet at the same time in 1998, Studio 4c announced that that they were going to make a Spriggan animated movie and told Viz Manga that they liked the name "Striker" so much that they were going to use it as the title for the international release of the film. Viz Manga then hastily re-lettered their "Spriggan" re-release back into "Striker," hoping to benefit from cross promotion with the movie. But Studio 4c then changed their minds without telling Viz Manga and used the original "Spriggan" name as the worldwide title for the film.

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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

Waitress: Coffee?
Yu Ominae: Thank you.
Waitress: I heard that Dr. Miesel is examining the Noah's Ark site, and Mrs. Margret is there too.
Yu Ominae: So it's been busy huh?

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Crazy Credits

"The Spriggan Ice Cream Social Club"

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Alternate Versions

In the original subtitled prints of the film, Dr. Meisel says, "You Americans are so arrogant" in the scene where he's walking with McDougall. On the US DVD, the line was later changed to, "You're the product of arrogant minds." This was changed due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

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Connections

Referenced in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001)

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Soundtracks

Jing Ling
Performed by Saju, Dennis Gunn, Nitza
Composed by Kuniaki Haishima

User Reviews

The best Anime since Akira

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...

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