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Spriggan

Spriggan

List Price: $29.98
Your Price: $26.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Pretty good anime title.
Review: This movie can best be summarized as Akira meets Universal Soldier meets Raiders of the Lost Ark. The basic plot is that one group has located Noah's Ark. Another group wants it. Both groups have elite soldiers who fight it out for possession of the Ark. The animation is this movie is pretty high quality, and the added in computer graphic effects are very well done. Bottom line: Good movie for anime fans.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A solid addition to you're library
Review: I really liked Spriggan. I disgree to other reviewers who rated this bad. Com'n. You just gave you're roots away and can't even enjoy a simple action movie. This is based as an western movie not much related to other animes. The art is nice, the action, etc. A solid addition to add to your dvd anime collection.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I can't stop laughing
Review: I can't stop laughing every time I read the title of this movie, why?, the ending of course. This movie rips off a lot of other original anime (*chough*Akira*chough*[I mean come on... a kid with crazy insane powers, he even looks like akira...sort of...]), and although the plot is pretty interesting and is fairly well developed, it never really explains who all the people they introduce are. Not only that, but the movie leaves you with a 'What the heck kind of ending was that?!' feeling, it's as though they were running out of money, and insteady of doing a ton of still scenes with a ton of talking, they decide to wrap the ending up without really letting you know what happens, it's like they end it with '...and some stuff happens, the end.' I'm not sure if it's worth buying, but it's at least worth seeing once.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Worship this show as your god.
Review: Seriously. This is an awesome anime. It's one of the few which just blew me away the first time I saw it, and it's enjoyable upon watching it for the second, third, twentieth time. ADV worked their butts off on the dub, and it shows. Spriggan is worth every penny.

My whole family enjoys it. Surprising, given that my sister usually goes for happy, fluffy, cutesy anime, and my mom normally detests anime. Buy this, and start pimping it to everyone you know.

And one you're done worshiping Spriggan, head on over to Viz and pick up 'Striker,' the Spriggan manga. Trust me.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Too many holes to story...
Review: This movie was lacking a couple of things. It was a great concept and story, but really need some filling to make it a worthy anime. I liked the "ark theory," that was a rather creative concept. The English dub over for the weird bubble boy did a nice job. However, there was just too much jumping around in the story. One minute you were viewing the main character leaving a room and the next minute he was on a plane with no indication when, where and why. It almost got to a point where you did not care. And leave it to anime writers to come up with some sort of cheesy method to make a young teenager have super human strength. But I guess that is pretty typical anime.
Regardless of all the negatives, I would casually recommend this anime. Watch it to experience it. The big explosions may make up for the small story.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Solid Title
Review: This was a great movie, but I dont think the people who already watched this may agree with me or not. The best part of this movie was the action. I also have Escaflowne the movie and Vampire Hunter D bloodlust. So if you like those titles you should get Spriggan if you havn't seen it. A solid title that should be recommended.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: I think I just lost a good portion of my brain cells...
Review: I have watched quite a fair amount of anime, but this has got to be one of the most disappointing titles I have ever watched. While there are a lot of slam, bam, kid-with-superhuman-strength-saves-the-world titles out there, Spriggan almost takes the cake when in comes this eye candy/zero-plot genre. In Spriggan, 17 year-old Yu Ominae fights for ARCAM, a secret organization focused on protecting ancient and dangerous ruins. He is a Spriggan, in essence an elite super solider trained from childhood to be an efficient killing machine. After an unsuccessful attempt on his life by a rival organization, Yu becomes involved in a case centered around protecting the newly-excavated Ark of Noah, which is in fact an extraterrestrial ship with the ability to destroy or create new life on the planet. To top this absurdity, the Pentagon deploys a genetically enhanced child, Col. MacDougall, along with some extremely powerful and insane cyborgs after the Ark to retrieve it at any cost....Now even I could come up with a better plot than this. But of course, you'd have to see the movie to see what I mean when I say the plot falls apart quicker than toilet paper left out in the rain.

I mean, the movie starts out intersting enough, but so much more time could have easily been spent developing the characters, plot, motivation, back-stories while at the same time keeping almost all of the action and fight scenes intact. We never really find out why the Pentagon wants the Ark, or how and why Yu originally became involved with ARCAM. And while religion is often prevelant in many anime titles (most of the times in a convoluted, misunderstood way), Spriggan does a good job of somehow throwing in Biblical references into the already disorganized plot and twists them to a whole new, annoyingly absurd level. When the sinister child Col. MacDougall proclaims that he was "chosen by God" to open up the Ark, I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Also, the constant referal to the characters being "inside Noah" as opposed to the Ark, had me wondering if the creators actually knew what Noah and the Ark actually were. By no means, however, were the misinterpereted Biblical references the only cliche in the movie.

Again, the United States (as in many anime titles) is portrayed as an arrogant, naive nation bent on controlling the world at all costs, often to the consternation of more "civil" nations and countries. While this viewpoint could be brought up at certain moments in real life, a no-brainer movie such as Spriggan certaintly does not have the merits or skill to present this topic in an intelligent way, and the theme of protraying America in a condescending manner only adds on more cliches to Spriggan.

While I know many action movies suspend the laws of physics, Spriggan goes so far as to present some of the most unrealistic action scenes known to man. Yu and his comrade Jean-Jaques Mondo face their fair share of abuse, but what they can withstand is obnoxious. You have to witness the scenes with Jean and Little Boy (and Jean doesn't even have on super-human armor!), or Yu's fight with Col. MacDougall to truly appreciate the level of absurdity when it comes how much of a beating they can take. My eyes nearly rolled out of their sockets when Yu and Jean escaped from the Ark. Nonsense I tell you!

Lastly, the soundtrack nearly left my ears ringing and my eyes watering. While the soundtrack throughout the movie seems to have potential, the composers obviously were uninspired. I nearly left the room when I heard the male vocals in English during the closing credits. That has to be one of the worst songs in anime history. Ha!

About the only thing I can recommend about this movie are the action sequences, which, while absurd, are pretty impressive. But unless you have some serious money to burn, don't even think about buying Spriggan; renting it is probably your best bet. By the way, what the heck is a "Spriggan" anyway?

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Visually stunning, yet lacking in a variety of ways.
Review: I have just finished watching this anime about ten minutes ago, with a variety of mixed feelings. I was bewildered by the stunning effects and wonderful artistic mastery, but the many rhetorical elements left me questioning exactly what it was I had just seen and how exactly it had resolved itself.

First of all, I'll play fair and go through the pros of the movie -- the stuff I liked. Being a person who is avidly interested in cinematography and the sorts, one can really appreciate the fine technique used in bringing such determined and bold realism into this anime. Yes, it has been done before, but Spriggan pulled it off rather successfully, and to an eye-pleasing extent. Careful measures were taken to illustrate countries and their cultural identities, changing character physical features and even background music to give a feeling of the culture of Turkey, which a few scenes take place in. It immediately gives the film a very international feel to it, barely keeping any storyline ties with its Japanese heritage. As mentioned many times before, the fight scenes ARE in every way stunning, and are usually hold-your-breath-suspense type things. Movement is illustrated incredibly well, giving off a fluid and realistic sense, especially in a certain fight scene in the Turkish markets and alleyways. Backgrounds were done with exceptional detail, and the violence wasn't necessarily overdone at all. The amount of blood that spewed about actually seemed plausible in account of the human body, which in most animes tend to be rather exagerrated. The plotline is intense, in-your-face type work which makes you think quickly, either that, or consider rewatching the anime. It's most impressive components lie visually, and in the directing of action sequences.

Now to the cons... that storyline, the anime in itself, doesn't seem to have a clear POINT to it. The BIGGEST problem is a very LARGE LACK in character developement, as pointed out by many. Yu Ominae is such a broad clichéd hero and Jean being his run-of-the-mill sidekick you simply become accustomed to having them succeed in everything! I was hopeful when there was a moment entering into Yu's past, that they would really come to illustrate his emotional value, but it just wasn't there. There was potential that was simply overlooked. One never really gets to KNOW Yu, the main character, at all. He's vague. You just expect him to save the day. As for the other protaganists, you don't even get to KNOW them. The doctor and his crew remain as subordinate as possible, and Jean, trustworthy sidekick, gets himself a few awesome action scenes but no worthy characteristics either than that. The "bad" guys are so incredibly blurred as to their point that you can't really get a feel of just WHAT they want. The colonel kid, the main adversary, seems to be a bit off his rocker and a little too over-confident, and that seems to be all his character is limited to, as if a puppet. As for the men who control him, being the Pentagon and what not, they are even MORE limited as to what their goals are. They just seem to be there because the Ark has power and they want that power. A reasonable explanation, yes, but one that has barely been fleshed out to anything unique or outstanding amongst the others that have gone the very same way. As for the relevance of the Ark and the whole environmental concept, that is BEYOND me. The ending seems to obliterate the whole POINT of the Ark in the first place, and there are a LOT of unresolved issues.. such as, didn't the polar ice caps just melt? Why isn't anyone doing anything about it? It's very unclear on a lot of important issues, which is it's downfall.

Overall, If you're like me and absolutely love watching animation and brilliant techniques, then by far, go rent Spriggan and buy it if need be. But don't expect all too much more than incredible cinematography and captivating fight scenes, which aren't all too high in calibur compared to many other animes out there who's plotlines shine a little brighter than Spriggan's did.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Just ok
Review: This dvd is one of my blind purchases. Overall, I think it is quite ok. not really a fantastic show. It talks about a guy trying to stop a evil kid from destroying the world. This anime is filled with actions. The drawing is ok but nothing to scream about. But at the last part, the drawing is quite good. If you like actions anime, you might want to take a look at this.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Wow. I can't believe how bad this was.
Review: This had to be one of the most useless effort that people pretended to put their time into. Basically it was an excuse to show some killing, special effects, etc which are not even remotely impressive. The story line is laugable. Believe me many elementary kids could and have written better things than this. It's not even worth pointing out the lowpoints. Believe me you will be kicking yourself if you buy this. Not to mention the America bashing that goes on in this film. Yeah Japan has a great moral record going for it to stand on that pulpit doesn't it? You can tell the [people] who put this worthless [movie] that they should get in return what they put into this - Nothing.


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