Good day, folks, El Cosmico here with a review of a film that's been making the rounds at festivals and such, and may yet be coming your way....It's SPRIGGAN the movie, brought to North American shores by our friends at ADV Films. It's currently being shown in Japanese with English subtitles, and casting for English dub voices is in progress right now. For a little more info, check out the Spriggan website and the home of ADV Films.
Here's the story synopsis from the official website.
"The advance of technology has come full circle with the discovery of an ancient artifact like no other: THE ARK OF NOAH.
As world powers struggle in the shadows for this key to both man's origin and his future, the mysterious Arcam corporation fields its ultimate covert operatives known as SPRIGGAN to bury the apocalyptic revelation of the God Machine."
This is a truly difficult review. I'm going to get in trouble with anime fans for this...before you talkback or fill my mailbox, let me say this, I've watched this film over and over, and given it a great deal of thought. I've also seen a TON of Japanese animation in my time. I also watched this with my buddies Robo and Kolchak, both of whom have seen an assload of anime too, and essentially agree with my synopsis. Okay, enough qualification, let me provide some background information on Spriggan.
Spriggan is brought to us by director Hirotsuge Kawasaki, who was the chief animator for Akira and Ghost in the Shell, two films which are both well known and well-loved by followers of Japanese animation. The film is also "supervised", "presented" (I take it this means executive produced?) by the great Katsuhiro Otomo, who was the mastermind behind Akira, both the manga and film, and among his other works is one of my favourite films EVER, the collection of anime shorts called ROBOT CARNIVAL, to which Otomo contributed two pieces. By the way, I would kill many people for a copy of Robot Carnival on either Laser or DVD. I seriously love this film.
Okay, back to Spriggan. Spriggan, like Akira, is a film version of a manga series, which necessarily reduces the scope of the story, as well as the amount of plot exposition and character development. Those who have been fortunate to read the entire Akira manga series and view the film will understand my feeling that even though I loved it, Akira may have been better suited to a series format than a single feature film. By the way, can somebody make a North American DVD release of Akira? There's an absolute ASSLOAD of cash waiting for the people who do...
Anyway, my impression of Spriggan, although I haven't read the manga, is that it is similarly troubled by the transition from manga to a single feature film. There's a LOT of information in this film, which bears watching at least two or three times, and unfortunately may be inaccessible to American audiences for this and other reasons. I have no doubt that starved anime fans will flock to theatres to see this film, just as I don't doubt they'll pick up home video releases, but I honestly don't think this is the kind of film that can break out of the traditional anime fan base into crossover success. I really WANTED to love this film, but it has some issues. Anime fans should definitely see it. Those curious about anime should too, but should understand that there is more engaging anime to be had.
Let me start with the good....the animation, of course, is first-rate. Truly outstanding, and at moments really beautiful. The artistic interpretation is thoroughly enjoyable, and the motion is at times so life-like as to seriously blur the distinction between animation and reality. In short, Spriggan presents some of the most masterful animation I've seen. The action sequences are some of the most thoroughly ass-kicking action sequences I have EVER seen in anime, or anywhere else, for that matter. On the basis of the animation alone, this movie is worth seeing. My problems with Spriggan come from the storytelling and character development.
The main character, Ominae Yu, is a special agent working for a paramilitary/scientific organization called Arcam, which is dedicated to preserving the integrity of a certain secret, which is at the heart of Spriggan. Throughout the film, we are given hints of Yu's background, and relationships with other characters, but I was left with the impression that there was a great deal more to the character, and that I hadn't really gotten to know the character...I was left wanting. Similarly, I was left wanting with regard to the plot. I KNOW there's more to this story than I saw in the film, and the film unfortunately takes so much time dancing around the central issues, that it never coalesces into a coherent and focused storytelling. It always hints at what's happening, seeking in a way to keep the audience from knowledge, just as Yu is kept from it, but in my opinion, it goes too far in this respect. There are many interesting ideas in Spriggan, but somehow they never quite come together.
Spriggan also feels somewhat derivative, and will seem quite strangely so to those viewers who have also seen Akira. There is a telekinetic kid with ghost-white skin, experimental numbered patients, gigantic nuclear explosions, one universe being sucked into another, it was a little disturbing to see so many seemingly borrowed elements ("homage"?).
To be honest, though, there was only one problem in Spriggan that I couldn't force out of my mind, which was the main antagonist, MacDougal, the telekinetic kid with ghost-white skin. You see, throughout the film, during the hyper-badass action sequences, we are met with two pretty cool enemies, Fatman and Little Boy (yes, those were the names of the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan by the United States, more on this in a second). As cool as these two enemies are, they present a problem: MacDougal, the final enemy, is not impressive or convincing enough of an antagonist to provide for an engaging climax and ending, and he is overshadowed by Fatman and Little Boy. Fatman and Little Boy's motives are clear enough, they're just plain EVIL and following orders, but MacDougal spouts conflicting philosophy and in trying to make an argument for his evil acts, he left me thinking, man, this guy is just a dumbass. Not a super-cool arch-enemy of humanity, just a dangerous idiot. Call me crazy, but I like my arch-enemies to be super-cool badasses. So, because of MacDougal's weakness as an antagonist, Spriggan seems more than a little bit front-loaded. It also doesn't help that the final action scene is the least compelling in the entire film.
Anyway, there are some interesting elements in Spriggan, like the fact that Little Boy, Fatman, and MacDougal are all working for the U.S. Department of Defense (seems that the Japanese trust the Pentagon about as much as Americans do), and the whole film makes a statement about American militarism and imperialism which, whether you agree with it or not, is at least interesting to hear.
Do you get the feeling this is a complicated film? Well, it is. Like I said, I really WANTED to love this film, but I don't. There are some things I like a lot. The action scenes absolutely rule. The animation is great, really outstanding. I didn't like the story or character development, which felt very compressed, and at times really nebulous.
If you love anime, go see this film. It's worth it. If you don't, you may be confused, but there are definitely things to appreciate. Now, what I hope is helpful advice for ADV Films. First off, ADV Films should be praised for consistently bringing anime Stateside. Like Quentin Tarantino's Rolling Thunder pictures, which brings fine Japanese and Chinese live-action films Stateside, these guys do it because they really love what they're doing, they understand the films they work with, and because, well, SOMEBODY has to. So, what would I do with Spriggan if I was ADV Films? Well, I would probably continue to show it at festivals, depending on expenses, I would do a limited theatrical release in anime-friendly cities and arthouses, and then I would release it to DVD and VHS.
I wish anime was more successful in the United States, but if I was going to make a concerted media effort to push for anime's crossover success in the US, I wouldn't spearhead the project with a theatrical release of Spriggan. I hate to say it, but mainstream American audiences just aren't ready for it. In my opinion, the only properties that really should be pushed to the big screen right now are the masterworks of Hayao Miyazaki, like Laputa, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, etc.; they're just a lot more accessible to the American mainstream, and VERY appealing to both children AND adults, and, well, they're precious gems, true masterpieces. Of course, Disney has the distribution rights in the US for Miyazaki's films, so this doesn't really help ADVision.
My plan, then, if I were running ADVision, would be to push not for film distribution, but for TELEVISION distro of some of the absolutely wonderful shows in their library. Call up Cartoon Network, and ask them why they're showing DragonBall Z, Dudley Do-Right, Magilla Gorilla, and freaking SWAT Kats (God DAMN that show sucks ass), when they COULD be drawing consistent, rabid fans with ASS-KICKING shows like Blue Seed, Cat Girl Nuku Nuku, Dirty Pair, City Hunter, GUNSMITH FREAKING CATS!!!, Ushio and Tora, and BUBBLEGUM CRISIS!!! Get that stuff on Cartoon Network, and the good old US of A will take notice. Or, go for the gusto, team up with other US anime distributors, and start an entire anime network. Now THAT would take some balls, but it would rock REALLY HARD, and you'd get much better ratings than plenty of other cable and satellite networks do.
So, there you go. I await flames and talkbacks from Spriggan lovers, but I really am trying to be helpful, both to viewers, and to ADV. So, here's hoping you appreciate my honesty, because I really LOVE my anime, and I want what's best for it.
-El Cosmico
mail me at: elcosmico@austin.rr.com
