Spriggan Movie Review By Rashad Moore
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"From the creators of Akira."

And so it said on the fansub box I picked up. First of all, right from looking at the entire concepts of "Spriggan," the Japanese Anime equivalent of a big-budget Hollywood-style action film, you have to say, "Hey! This looks just like Akira!" Indeed Spriggan, the new movie that's soon to arrive in theaters courtesy of ADV Films, does resemble Akira in many aspects. (Katsuhiro Otomo only produced the film.) Take a look, for example you have the main hero who has a shady past and background yelling "I am Ominae Yu!" battling a telekinetic kid named Colonel McDougal to the death. Spriggan does contain many of the familiar ultraviolent action sequences that made Akira such a huge hit. Yet another movie based on a popular manga, Spriggan has everything Akira fanatics ever loved, except a storyline that is. Spriggan is a visually fantastic film, but storywise Spriggan is a bit, no, VERY lacking. But entertainment-wise that's not really a bad thing....

Long ago, the ancient civilizations of Earth's past left a final plea to protect their legacy from evil, and therefore the elite fighting force "Arkham" was created. Composed of elite fighting soldiers called "Spriggans," and a team of dedicated scientists have taken up the job of protecting and gurading the secrets of Earth's ancient history. Recently, one of mankind's most amazing discoveries, the site of Noah's Ark, has been the target of the American Government who have been attempting to wipe out the agents of Arkham, including one young agent posing as a Japanese High School student, Ominae Yu, by using one of his friends as a human bomb. Enraged and refusing to stay out of action after the incident, Yu heads for Istanbul to protect the Ark. But the shady government's forces prove powerful, including opposition through a former comrade and their leader, an evil telekinetic youngster used by the Pentagon named MacDougal, who wishes to use Noah's Ark for his own ends and take over the world.

Part Indiana Jones and part Akira, Spriggan is quite an accomplishment. Based on the manga series "Striker," Spriggan manages to entertain with all-out action, from the thrilling chase through the streets of Istanbul which leads to a fight scene very reminiscent of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", to the Fatman's brutal attack on an army of Arkham troops, Spriggan never fails to entertain as an all-out war breaks out between Arkham and the American Government Agents for control of the mysterious "alien" ark. Spriggan is really just an all-out action film, nothing more. But Spriggan's action scenes DO tend to stretch reality a bit. Even though it's no worse than any action film you see coming out of Hollywood. For example, how can you still dangle from a helicopter clinging on to someone twice your size AFTER your arms and hands get broken and not to mention after surviving a mid-air explosion in the process? And how can anybody bat a villain 15 feet across the street using a huge vase? Spriggan is one of those films that just tells you to shut up and check your brain at the door. Japanese Anime does tend to add and change certain religious elements and put them into the storyline, which may not sit well with the religiously sensitive. Neon Genesis Evangelion is a prime example. According to Spriggan, Noah's Ark is an huge alien device that keeps lost species in suspended animation and also caused the great flood to boot.

Which brings me to the storyline, as I said earlier is Spriggan's major problem. on the plus side is that unlike X, Spriggan is still an enjoyable film for people familiar or unfamiliar with the manga. But when the main storyline is finally clear it turns out to be rather weak and cliche when compared to the ultra-confusing "needs to be watched dozens of times to fully understand" Akira, even though the concepts are more interesting. Spriggan's final moments break down into a cliche "stop the bad guy and save the world" ploy which ends in a rather awesome climax (thats still very reminiscent of Akira) with plot holes and impossibilities big enough to fit the budget it took to make this film. I make it sound like Spriggan isn't worth watching. No, it's far from it. Spriggan is no more than the anime equivalent of a big, brainless, blockbuster summer movie.

With that, Spriggan's animation is truly unbelievable and one hell of an awesome accomplishment. The character movements are very fluid it's frightening, even more so than the stuff Disney puts out and nearly realistic enough to accompany the action. (Not to mention that Ominae Yu is one of the few Anime heroes that actually look Japanese) From Ominae Yu's visually awesome military conflict flashback in the jungle at the beginning to the furious and violent final battle with that telekinetic runt MacDougal, the animation is so grandiose that seeing Spriggan on the big screen or DVD is an absolute must.(ADV Films is making a wise decision to release it in theaters) The small screen just doesn't do this film justice. The atmospheric, and sometimes haunting music by Kuniaki Haishima perfectly accompanies each scene. (Plus the music played when Noah's Ark is activated still heavily reminds me of Indiana Jones) But the most astounding piece of the film's score titled "Jing Jing" is only used for the ending song during the credits.

I seriously hope Spriggan gets the BEST dubbing job when it arrives in U.S. theaters. So far I question whether ADV will do a slapdash job or truly take it with proper care as it deserves. ADV Films don't have the best dubbing jobs in my opinion and I really hope they don't make Ominae Yu sound like a total dork as with their dubbed voices for male characters in the past did. But other than that Spriggan is an enjoyable and visually fantastic film that has the brain mass of a Hollywood action movie. Spriggan is really worth seeing even though it does lack the depth of other films such as Akira, Wings of Honneamise, Princess Mononoke, or dare I say it, X in order to make it truly stand out. But in a way Spriggan really does stand out....It doesn't screw with your head at all. But we all need a little break don't we?

Fansub Only/Coming Soon from ADV Films. Image shown is not created by atek studios. Review by Rashad Moore. August 2000.