Spriggan

Original Title: スプリガン
Romanized: Supurigan
Literal:

Plot Synopsis

Yu Ominae seems, to most people, like your average Japanese high school boy. And, most of the time, perhaps he is. But when the mysterious ARCAM Organization requires his talents, he is also a Spriggan--a superhuman weapon of the highest order, gathered like his comrades from around the world. ARCAM uses the Spriggans to fulfill their unusual goal: Heed the wishes of a long-dead civilization by keeping the incredible technological artifacts they left behind from destroying humanity. When an artifact identified as Noah's Ark is discovered and someone launches a direct attack on Yu, he is again called into action. Since just about every government in the world is out to get their hands on the long-hidden power within the Ark, Yu's considerable talents will be necessary, particularly since it has the potential to give the one who controls it godlike power over the Earth... including the ability to wipe out humanity! Faced with the most evil and powerful of US operatives, only the Spriggans might have the ability to stop them.

Review

Rating: 3 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2003-06-06

Spriggan is the sort of movie that anime fans love to get worked up about; it's got a big budget, slick visuals, hard-hitting action, a dark, metaphysical plot, and it has Otomo's name attached to it (as producer, in this case). Considering the success of other films that fit those criteria--Jin-Roh, Ghost in the Shell, even AKIRA--it's not surprising that Spriggan generated plenty of hype. Unfortunately, at least by my standards, Spriggan barely even registered on the worthy anime scale, managing to distinguish itself as little more than a half-decent action movie with the standard problem of manga-based movies doing a poor job of accommodating unfamiliar viewers. Considering what was there to work with, I can't call that result anything but disappointing.

What went wrong? At the beginning, very little. The movie opens with a nice mysterious scene involving something ancient and dangerous, and although the premise is rather loosely explained (unexplained, really--who exactly are these ARCAM guys?), we're thrown violently enough into some sort of espionage thriller setup that the momentum keeps things interesting. The story seems to jump around a little abruptly, but an absolutely beautiful and impressively realistic-looking action piece involving everything from a car chase through a middle-eastern town to wild Kung-Fu-fighting more than makes up for anything the plot might've been lacking. Action worthy of a classic Hollywood spy movie with with an extra kick of believable superhuman prowess is rare, and combined with a liberal helping of Indiana Jones-style mystery and adventure it's worth the price of admission for some.

Unfortunately, things start to go downhill from there. Once the plot kicks in, the characters start to feel a little cheesy, and the superpowered villains and gore are a little too close to the Ninja Scroll school of action to feel entirely at home in a spy thriller. Worse, it becomes apparent that if you haven't read the manga (of which this story is the second arc) they're not going to bother establishing the characters or explaining what the heck is up with all these secret organizations for you. Even so, there's plenty more high-budget action to go around. Given the impressively realistic intro, I would've preferred at least a little more realism and a little less shallow cheese with the characters, but it still could've managed to be a quality action movie by the halfway point.

Sadly, apparently there was some sort of mix-up or disagreement among the production staff, because right about when we're getting into big, fancy showdown territory, the movie grinds to a screeching, techno-babble-and-metaphysical-nonsense-filled halt. In all seriousness, about a third of the movie is spent listening to the insane villain ramble on about purging the earth of humanity or evolutionary dead-ends or pushing the cosmic reset button... or something. I've heard just about as much ranting by maniacal anime villains trying to kill everybody on earth because humanity is worthless as I can take--I was desperate for the hero to get it over with just because it'd get the villain to shut up. Yes, humanity deserves to be wiped out, we know. Will somebody please throw a grenade or something now? (Actually, that's pretty much Yu's take on the situation. Too bad he didn't get there soon enough to save the mood.)

Oh, and as if that weren't bad enough, the movie suddenly tries to bring in some backstory on Yu to fill out his personality. Not only is it too late by that point, but there isn't even any guy with big guns to have a final, cheesy shoot-out with at the end--that happened halfway through the movie. Nothing but a brainiac psychic ripe for a dramatic and fairly predictable showdown. To top it off, the story ends rather abruptly and with an entirely unsatisfying conclusion. That might have been fine where this story fit into the manga, but felt exceedingly weak if you look at it as a standalone movie.

Anyway, I've vented about the plot enough now. Let's move on to one thing I'm pretty sure just about anybody can agree on: Spriggan is one fine-looking film. From start to finish, it has the expensive look of movies like Ghost in the Shell, with abundantly detailed, very realistic backgrounds, sharp art, realistic character designs, and ultra-slick action.

The backgrounds and action are where Spriggan shines; some of the real-world settings have a wonderfully rich feel and impressive realism that add tremendously to the first half of the movie, giving it a nice international spy-thriller flavor. Even the second half, though set in considerably more sparse locales, presents some eerie and creative lost technologies. On the animation end of things, the action, as I already mentioned, has a superpowered touch (the Spriggans are quite capable fellows) but enough grounding in reality to set itself apart--hard-hitting, smooth, and mostly exciting.

Ironically, the impressively realistic visuals probably did quite a bit of damage to the movie for me; since the manga the story is taken from did not have particularly realistic art, the superhero-like abilities and cheesy characters wouldn't feel as out of place as they did in a movie that started out establishing a very realistic feel. Too bad the production team didn't do more to make the story work with the style they had chosen.

Rounding up, my only nitpicks with the visuals are that the character designs are a bit inconsistent in a few scenes, or at least look funny when drawn from certain angles. Also, that several chunks of the movie seem to be too dark to see clearly, though that could've been the fault of my TV. I definitely don't have any issues with the music, though--grand and orchestral, it is a lively and appropriate accompaniment to the movie.

The acting didn't stick in my mind all that much, but is solid enough in both languages. I personally preferred the Japanese version on account of slightly better acting, but the accents in the English dub add a bit of extra flavor, and in truth English dialogue is more realistic for the movie (in the Japanese version you pretty much have to assume the characters are speaking English for most of it).

To wrap up, I'll put it this way: The opening caught my attention, and I was having a good time by the middle, but by the time the credits rolled, I was glad it was finally over and wondered where the plot got lost. I've seen a lot of anime movies that start strong and finish weakly, but Spriggan is near the top of that class. Fans of the manga will probably have a great time, and there'll be plenty of people who haven't read the manga and will still get a kick out of either the action or the lost technology and Biblical tie-ins. Personally, although I did enjoy it overall, it seemed to squander a tremendous amount of potential, and the story never goes anywhere that hasn't been well-traveled by both anime and Hollywood before. At least it looks great.

Related Recommendations

Despite a very different heritage, Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture probably has a more similar feel to Spriggan than anything else. Among the movies it is more frequently lumped with, it's hard to say whether Ninja Scroll or Jin Roh is a better fit, but both share similarities--the former being more splatterfest, and the latter far more cerebral. Other dark action movies like Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Street Fighter II, and Kite share some elements as well. If you like biblical tie-ins, Crystal Triangle, despite being weird, has a lot.

US DVD Review

The DVD is a solid disc. The basics are covered with a clean, anamorphic video transfer and 5.1 soundtracks in Japanese and English. The video did seem a bit dark to me, but that could just as well have been the fault of my TV or the original film. For your pleasure, ADV kicks in some production sketches, as well as commentary by Matt Greenfield on the English dub.

Content Guide

Rated 17+ by ADV on account of some graphic violence and harsh language.

Violence: 4 - Though the bloody scenes were brief, there was plenty of gore, and a lot of fighting.

Nudity: 0 - Nothing of note.

Sex/Mature Themes: 0 - Not even any romance.

Language: 2 - Some strong language.

Notes and Trivia

Spriggan is based on the second story arc of a comic series written by Hiroshi Takashige with art by Ryoji Minagawa. This explains quite a bit of the under-established characters and rather inconclusive story. Fortunately, the comic is available in English from VIZ (under the title "Striker: The Armored Warrior"); unfortunately, it isn't very popular, so a lot of people who end up watching the movie will have never heard of the manga.

Availability

Available in the US from ADV Films on bilingual DVD (buy from RightStuf or AnimeNation).

Looking to buy? Try these stores: RightStuf (search) | AnimeNation | Akemi's a(nime)Store