That quote can apply to the Macross franchise. The original series had some pretty bad animation, but a really good story and characters. Macross Delta, on the other hand, has some really good animation, but a bad story and underdeveloped characters.
To answer the question about what a "Spriggan" is, the literal Gaelic / Celtic concept is a creature made from the "bones of dead giants". They supposedly possessed extraordinary traits, the implication being the Yu and Mondo have the latent genetic gifts of this ancient world with its miraculous technologies making them natural candidates to be a sort of Super Soldier at some point in their lives. JT
*I swear, every time I bring this anime movie up to my anime friends none of them know what I’m talking about. Spriggan is lowkey a forgotten gem in the anime world*
You know, Spriggan was one of the first anime films I ever saw. Hell, it might even have been the first. And I remember its unique style drawing me in, so I kinda want to defend it. But at the same time, I really can't disagree with any of the critiques leveled against it here. I still love it, but would never recomend it to somebody. Sort of a guilty - I just want to watch gorgeous fight scene animations - pleasure.
That's how I feel about Gundam Wing. I absolutely loved it as a kid, but watching it as an adult? I notice the dumb plot points, the inane dialog and the cheap animation. But I can't hate it, and I still like to watch it for a nostalgia trip.
Vorteksio3 'Smack my B!£@¤ Up!' ? Nope, too hardcore ;) Also, I specified mainland Europe. Prodigy is from the isles of Britain, thus an other whole can of worms.
Spriggan has crisp animation, but at the same time, there is a missing plot. Great guilty pleasure of an action anime, but if it had more of a story, it would have been great. Those action scenes are epic however
I saw this at a friend’s house ages ago, and I didn’t remember what the name of it was until this very review. It left so little of an impression that I forgot the name, like, the day after-except the film’s repetition of “I’m not dead yet!” becoming a brief in-joke.
I agree with Sage on CG in anime: If your anime's going to be mostly CG, THEN *JUST* USE CG. IT'S NOT THAT HARD TO UNDERSTAND. Sometimes, when a CG anime has 2D parts, it can be really distracting.
I enjoyed Spriggan, giving it a personal 8.5/10, and that was in the late 90s when most anime was either trash or gold. Sucks most people never try to find the japanese versions of shows. Almost all of the time the english dub of an anime is going to kill a show, its just a fact, like watching a big budget film with subtitles, the mind recoils and shoots back to film class.
And here I thought Spriggans were those woodland creatures from the Elder Scrolls games that just pop up and attack you with nature when you least expect it messing up your health bar, especially when you're trying to fight a Dragon.
In the little that was released of the manga, this is half a volume condensed into a movie, it's like Friday the 13th the series /SCP (for a more relatable analogy) where it's ancient technology and treasure hunting race from Indiana Jones, the whole school student role was the lame duck stereotype in anime where at one point it's mission impossible, then it's that's so Raven all of a sudden where the character has to make in time for the track meet.
Counterpoint to your argument about people letting bad films slide if the animation is good enough: 8 Crazy Nights. The animation on that film was absolutely incredible... Unfortunately, the writing, acting, story and direction of the film makes one want to shit gallons of hate-filled and drano-laced evil down Adam Sandler's throat.
Adam Sandler creates an exception to every rule. The UN charter of human rights has a little asterisk after every clause that goes down to "*except Adam Sandler"
spriggan is epic in my opinion, if you have read the manga before this. it is anime created on the logic you already know the basic story. if you had, this anime has lots of sense. i love it.
That particular artistic decision to make anime movies based on manga specifically for readers of the manga and incomprehensible to everyone else was apparently very popular with anime movie creators and very _unpopular_ with anime critics.
God i loved the movie and i still adore it. I love the cheese and the animation and details concerning weaponry and combat, kinetics in general are amazing. For me its a 10/10 movie, but the story really is just a nice fantastical canvas. I tried reading the manga, but it really didn't click with me
Kakurenbo is a cgi anime short film but it was actually pretty well done when it comes to story. I got to know the characters well and as well as the story. The art style was very nice too and I enjoyed the small details in it as well. Sage if you're reading this you must check it out. It was made just last year and I wish it gotten a bit more attention.
Have you seen any of Makoto Shinkai's films ? His use of CGI is actually done really well...It's near seamless and the amount of detail is amazing...I know you don't like most modern animes but his films are a treat to the eye...
Before Spriggan, I never would have believed a movie where ninja Indiana Jones fights Noah's Ark, which is a spaceship full of dinosaurs, could be boring. Spriggan proved it could! ...Yay?
I just can't help but file this with charming 90's actioners like Face\Off, Broken Arrow or Replacement Killers. Silly, but oh so much fun. Granted this came out right when action cinema was trying to be more sophisticated. It missed the window.
On the subject of CG and Hand Drawn animation, CG works best with Hand Drawn animation when the former is complementing the latter. The 2 best examples I can think of are the two recent Disney short films Feast and Paperman.
I think the best CG-heavy anime I can think of, in terms of looking good, is Knights of Sidonia... which holy crap reminds me that I still haven't watched season 2 yet... man, time really got away from me there... I'll have to start that up soon.
Spriggan suffered from the same thing that Akira movie did. Trying to shove a thousand page manga into a (in the case of Spriggan) 90 minute movie. So many characters and plot points left out.( Like the fact that Jean is a fucking werewolf!) Still a fun anime IMO, to just enjoy the animation and spectacle
Anyone checking in after watching the Netflix series? It’s funny this just episode 2 of the Netflix show. The single episode a way better job of condensing the movie though, Yu is nowhere near as violent and the French guy is the super violent one now. Plus he “talk-no justu’d” the kid insta of killing him
Wow, that soundtrack is so full of Immediate Music tracks that you wonder if they spent all of their budget on the animation and forgot the music. I mean, I remember the trailer using Betrayal Voices, but that they actually used it in the movie itself, wow.
That intro reminds me of when i used to draw these silly homages & parodies to the short lived Sailor Moon Abridged series. In one of the comics where I think got some acclaim by Megami [AKA Bulma from Team4Star], I admitted to her Im terrible at drawing, so instead I decided to harness all of my effort into the comedic writing. "Parody over Pretty" Even rewriting drafts & writing alternate punchlines. Sometime after she even said something similiar to the effect when she was talking about a friend of her's higher effort of editting compared to her own when it came to producing her parodies. Theres a video of it somewhere online of her stating that, and the "Parody over Pretty" comment buried in wasteland that is my deviantArt page.
You should review the movie Memories(1995). It's a 3 part movie and I really wanted tiger your opinion on the movie. I noticed you put some scenes from the third movie in this video so I also wanted to know if you have seen the whole film.
It kind of sucks that Kevin Corn (Colonel MacDougall) isn't doing voiceovers anymore. He could be a perfect fit for today's Sentai dubs, as well as some non-union Bang Zoom and Studiopolis dubs.
How ironic that the studio who did Spriggan and all of its detailed and surprisingly fluid animation would substitute the traditional 2D animation for the CGI overload in the Berserk films.
It was very well animated and had a really good Istanbul chase sequence that matched up with a chase sequence in the more recent Skyfall, but I agree the characters and plot felt a bit flat and heavily recycled (the basic plot was very similar to Laputa: Castle in the Sky, with an evil colonel double crossing his superiors then using an old token to command an ancient giant superweapon to rule/destroy the world).
What I didn't get is why the organisation supposed to keep the ancient secrets hidden and inaccessible for ever more decide to go around digging up the ancient secrets and researching them!?!?!
It's cool to see an anime, from Japan, partially set in Japan, where the Japanese characters look somewhat like Japanese.
the combat in spriggan was badass
Agreed
The kid's voice actor is actually really not bad, child actors generally are god awful
In the words of Osama Tezuka a good story will save bad animation but good animation won't save a bad story
That quote can apply to the Macross franchise. The original series had some pretty bad animation, but a really good story and characters. Macross Delta, on the other hand, has some really good animation, but a bad story and underdeveloped characters.
I disagree with that quote.
This is ture.
Just like Kosuba.
Kurosawa said the same thing.
To answer the question about what a "Spriggan" is, the literal Gaelic / Celtic concept is a creature made
from the "bones of dead giants". They supposedly possessed extraordinary traits, the implication being
the Yu and Mondo have the latent genetic gifts of this ancient world with its miraculous technologies
making them natural candidates to be a sort of Super Soldier at some point in their lives. JT
When I hear the name "Spriggan", I think of those humanoid plant monsters from Elder Scrolls.
But they look like the kids from Akira.
***** fuck you
Mom, dad, please don't fight.
+I'm Very Angry It's Not Butter (#WTFU) fuck those things, seriously. They were more annoying in skyrim than the fucking dragons.
All that comes to mind is the friggin' giant bomber in Aero Fighters Assault :U
The new Spriggan was awesome!
Eh i dont think the child voice is that bad, hell at least he can deliver his lines properly.
*I swear, every time I bring this anime movie up to my anime friends none of them know what I’m talking about. Spriggan is lowkey a forgotten gem in the anime world*
You know, Spriggan was one of the first anime films I ever saw. Hell, it might even have been the first. And I remember its unique style drawing me in, so I kinda want to defend it.
But at the same time, I really can't disagree with any of the critiques leveled against it here.
I still love it, but would never recomend it to somebody. Sort of a guilty - I just want to watch gorgeous fight scene animations - pleasure.
That's how I feel about Gundam Wing. I absolutely loved it as a kid, but watching it as an adult? I notice the dumb plot points, the inane dialog and the cheap animation. But I can't hate it, and I still like to watch it for a nostalgia trip.
That '90's softcore porno music' reminded me a lot of Enigma.
Which '90s mainland european music video wasn't softcore porn back then?
demokratorkodo
Have you ever head of the motherfucking prodigy?
Sigh. Kids these days.
Vorteksio3 'Smack my B!£@¤ Up!' ?
Nope, too hardcore ;)
Also, I specified mainland Europe. Prodigy is from the isles of Britain, thus an other whole can of worms.
demokratorkodo Europe had some good music too, don't be a pretentious dickwad.
Like the Vengaboys or Ace of Base? ;D
Netflix just announced an anime series of Spriggan, damn!
Spriggan has crisp animation, but at the same time, there is a missing plot. Great guilty pleasure of an action anime, but if it had more of a story, it would have been great. Those action scenes are epic however
I like cgi but I do admit I miss traditional animated western films.
I saw this at a friend’s house ages ago, and I didn’t remember what the name of it was until this very review. It left so little of an impression that I forgot the name, like, the day after-except the film’s repetition of “I’m not dead yet!” becoming a brief in-joke.
I agree with Sage on CG in anime: If your anime's going to be mostly CG, THEN *JUST* USE CG. IT'S NOT THAT HARD TO UNDERSTAND. Sometimes, when a CG anime has 2D parts, it can be really distracting.
*cough* Ex-Arm *cough*
I agree with you on this review, but I still love it. It's a good looking anime B movie.
"...we can overlook a film's problems if the animation is good enough..."
That defines pretty much every Hayao Miyazaki movie.
the kid actor's not too bad actually
This movie came out in Japan in 1998, then in the United States in 2001 (3 years later).
When in doubt, always watch the subtitled version.
Wow you said it better than anyone else when it comes to describing our association with hand drawn animation and cgi. It was almost poetic.
so... 3D animated Spriggan remake. the opening of this episode is prophetic.
Why I came back to what this ep
I wish Memories would get more attention, it still stands as my favorite film almost entirely based on the first segment alone.
"see also; jew" - this floored me.
And guess what's getting a Netflix remake!?
I enjoyed Spriggan, giving it a personal 8.5/10, and that was in the late 90s when most anime was either trash or gold. Sucks most people never try to find the japanese versions of shows. Almost all of the time the english dub of an anime is going to kill a show, its just a fact, like watching a big budget film with subtitles, the mind recoils and shoots back to film class.
5:08 Yu? Now it's just reminding me of better a anime/game I could be watching/playing!
persona?
ecgameplayer Yes, Persona
awesome, I love the series, although I don't get the hate over it, I don't know how "persona 4 made me hate jrpgs"
And here I thought Spriggans were those woodland creatures from the Elder Scrolls games that just pop up and attack you with nature when you least expect it messing up your health bar, especially when you're trying to fight a Dragon.
So, why is Yu a student? What point did those opening minutes serve?
In the little that was released of the manga, this is half a volume condensed into a movie, it's like Friday the 13th the series /SCP (for a more relatable analogy) where it's ancient technology and treasure hunting race from Indiana Jones, the whole school student role was the lame duck stereotype in anime where at one point it's mission impossible, then it's that's so Raven all of a sudden where the character has to make in time for the track meet.
Wow, usually I have to wait until the afternoon to watch the new episode. Hooray for staying up late.
Sage, this script was great. Top-notch. A+ for you.
7:16 "Stop, don't come back..."
3:29 Now put me on a plane so I can put'em in a hearse!
Spriggan are from Cornish folklaw
Counterpoint to your argument about people letting bad films slide if the animation is good enough: 8 Crazy Nights. The animation on that film was absolutely incredible... Unfortunately, the writing, acting, story and direction of the film makes one want to shit gallons of hate-filled and drano-laced evil down Adam Sandler's throat.
Adam Sandler creates an exception to every rule. The UN charter of human rights has a little asterisk after every clause that goes down to "*except Adam Sandler"
I went to Istanbul a few years back. I can attest that the inside of the Bazaar looks exactly like it's depicted here.
Spriggan didn't have much of a story and the characters were kinda bland, but boy oh boy the animation was fucking amazing... :)
spriggan is epic in my opinion, if you have read the manga before this.
it is anime created on the logic you already know the basic story. if you had, this anime has lots of sense.
i love it.
That particular artistic decision to make anime movies based on manga specifically for readers of the manga and incomprehensible to everyone else was apparently very popular with anime movie creators and very _unpopular_ with anime critics.
You think 90's softcore porn music is fun, go look up old 60's French porno soundtracks. That shit be HILARIOUS.
Considering the manga plot...
"Mein Fuhrer..."
"Yes?"
"The Spriggan boy got away."
"...Anyone who suggested hiring Scimitar Moron, leave the room."
How many views has this video gotten since the Netflix show came.
I remember as a kid just watching the first half of the movie for the action and turning it off.
God i loved the movie and i still adore it. I love the cheese and the animation and details concerning weaponry and combat, kinetics in general are amazing. For me its a 10/10 movie, but the story really is just a nice fantastical canvas. I tried reading the manga, but it really didn't click with me
Kakurenbo is a cgi anime short film but it was actually pretty well done when it comes to story. I got to know the characters well and as well as the story. The art style was very nice too and I enjoyed the small details in it as well. Sage if you're reading this you must check it out. It was made just last year and I wish it gotten a bit more attention.
9 minutes & 30 seconds,just hilarious,& the "niggardly" thing made me laugh till I was dizzy
I thought the child actors voice was really well done! Articulate and impactful enough. Leagues ahead of Anakin Skywalker from episode 1!
Have you seen any of Makoto Shinkai's films ? His use of CGI is actually done really well...It's near seamless and the amount of detail is amazing...I know you don't like most modern animes but his films are a treat to the eye...
Yu's got a Solidus Snake suit and all Sage references is Raven. Weird
Before Spriggan, I never would have believed a movie where ninja Indiana Jones fights Noah's Ark, which is a spaceship full of dinosaurs, could be boring. Spriggan proved it could! ...Yay?
So about that CG thing at the beginning, Spriggann and Memories, the other film he showed at the beginning, both have CG.
That Anime Abandon GREATNESS!!!!
I just can't help but file this with charming 90's actioners like Face\Off, Broken Arrow or Replacement Killers. Silly, but oh so much fun. Granted this came out right when action cinema was trying to be more sophisticated. It missed the window.
One of the first anime movies I saw in high school.
On the subject of CG and Hand Drawn animation, CG works best with Hand Drawn animation when the former is complementing the latter. The 2 best examples I can think of are the two recent Disney short films Feast and Paperman.
I think the best CG-heavy anime I can think of, in terms of looking good, is Knights of Sidonia... which holy crap reminds me that I still haven't watched season 2 yet... man, time really got away from me there... I'll have to start that up soon.
Who's coming back to this video because of the 2021 version?
Spriggan suffered from the same thing that Akira movie did. Trying to shove a thousand page manga into a (in the case of Spriggan) 90 minute movie. So many characters and plot points left out.( Like the fact that Jean is a fucking werewolf!) Still a fun anime IMO, to just enjoy the animation and spectacle
Otomo supervised the film (probably helped getting the film such a high budget), which explains why some of the designs look very similar to his.
Anyone checking in after watching the Netflix series? It’s funny this just episode 2 of the Netflix show. The single episode a way better job of condensing the movie though, Yu is nowhere near as violent and the French guy is the super violent one now. Plus he “talk-no justu’d” the kid insta of killing him
9:21 - That's why Colonel Spriggan changed his name when he immigrated.
This is still the greatest achievement in 2d cel animation to date
"harpo" kinda reminds me of the XCOM soldiers with power suits
Wow, that soundtrack is so full of Immediate Music tracks that you wonder if they spent all of their budget on the animation and forgot the music. I mean, I remember the trailer using Betrayal Voices, but that they actually used it in the movie itself, wow.
That intro reminds me of when i used to draw these silly homages & parodies to the short lived Sailor Moon Abridged series. In one of the comics where I think got some acclaim by Megami [AKA Bulma from Team4Star], I admitted to her Im terrible at drawing, so instead I decided to harness all of my effort into the comedic writing. "Parody over Pretty" Even rewriting drafts & writing alternate punchlines.
Sometime after she even said something similiar to the effect when she was talking about a friend of her's higher effort of editting compared to her own when it came to producing her parodies.
Theres a video of it somewhere online of her stating that, and the "Parody over Pretty" comment buried in wasteland that is my deviantArt page.
Did kenichi sonoda work on this anime? The guns have so much detail, say for the rocket launcher
What is the anime he shows at the beginning with the woman singing as she levitates? Looks familiar, but cant place it. Thank you.
6:46 that makes sense XD
Henchman 21? Gary? Is that you?
10:20 gives me flashbacks to old Red Shoe Diaries episodes. :D
Lets hope Netflix version is better.
I come back if i remember to tell.
It's looking good, so far.
will Bennett ever review The guyver Anime? both the Out of Control ova and the 26 episode series?
You should review the movie Memories(1995). It's a 3 part movie and I really wanted tiger your opinion on the movie. I noticed you put some scenes from the third movie in this video so I also wanted to know if you have seen the whole film.
i dont know why, but i loved it.
12:05 Or you know, it could be the anime equivalent of the ending to No Country for Old Men.
Returning after the remake was announced
...Is it me, or has Suave been showing up rather often lately? This is the second episode in a row he's shown up!
Maybe this is the year he reviews the Battle Angel Alita OVA
He needs to tackle the full metal panic series.
12:10 despite the blue balling. That would be an interesting ending that would make discussions
It kind of sucks that Kevin Corn (Colonel MacDougall) isn't doing voiceovers anymore. He could be a perfect fit for today's Sentai dubs, as well as some non-union Bang Zoom and Studiopolis dubs.
watched it liked it, but wasn't there a muscle enhancement suit that activates in the Dragonball shouting. also request Busou Renkin
I lost my shit at 9:48.
In this day an age of anime fanservice fiesta. This anime is a god send.
Less boobs, more blood, the good old days of anime?
The climax reminded me of the Mass Effect 3 ending.
I remember you sage! You used to work with zone tan 😂
I don't remember the title being written as Galaxy Express 3-9
Finally a Tf2 reference
Similar to this one (great animation, weird story), how about a review of "Steamboy"?
How ironic that the studio who did Spriggan and all of its detailed and surprisingly fluid animation would substitute the traditional 2D animation for the CGI overload in the Berserk films.
Katsuhiro Otomo still plans on making stuff, but all of it isn't animated.
Not you.
You sit!
No,not you, you sit.
You stand.
No!Sit!
No,you stand!
You walk to the Terrace Door and you go back to sleep!
*Watch out!*
Has anyone ever asked sage to review wolfs rain? I remember the show being on toonami briefly and it was kinda weird.
Chris Patton is in this? Hell yeah! 💖💖
It was very well animated and had a really good Istanbul chase sequence that matched up with a chase sequence in the more recent Skyfall, but I agree the characters and plot felt a bit flat and heavily recycled (the basic plot was very similar to Laputa: Castle in the Sky, with an evil colonel double crossing his superiors then using an old token to command an ancient giant superweapon to rule/destroy the world).
I'm curious as to why Colonel McDougall is a kid considering how long it takes to be promoted through the ranks?
YAY! Elder Scrolls reference. Although I was almost positive he was gonna make an SAO reference instead.
What I didn't get is why the organisation supposed to keep the ancient secrets hidden and inaccessible for ever more decide to go around digging up the ancient secrets and researching them!?!?!
Hmmm Spriggan looks kinda cool...think I wanna watch it now.
i like spriggan and i dont think its dull at all
Sage I dare you to review the Urotsukidoji sequal Legend of the Demon Womb