Ask John: Is Spriggan a Bad Movie?

Question:
Why is Spriggan getting such a bad rap? I’ve read online anime reviews of the movie and it’s not getting all the fanfare praise that it did when it was previewed months ago. Was Spriggan an over-hyped movie that just came out bad? What do you think of the movie and it’s content (storyline, animation, etc..)?

Answer:
There are so many different ways to analyze and critique a film that it’s difficult to universally call any film “bad.” Even terrible films usually have their fans and supporters, to whom the film is “good,” ironically possibly because it’s so bad. Judging by virtually any set of standards, though, Spriggan is far from a “bad” film. Spriggan does have its flaws, but its positives far outweigh its negatives. What may affect perception of Spriggan is a combination of elements, each individually relatively insignificant, but cumulatively very significant.

Spriggan premiered in Japan in 1998 and cost the equivalent of nearly $5 million American dollars to produce. At that time the anime industry in Japan was still heavily dominated by relatively non-violent, mainstream-friendly anime. Spriggan went against the grain by being a big budget, major studio release intended exclusively for young male audiences. The film was a major success in Japan, and American fans were eager to see it, partially because of the hype surrounding the film in Japan, and partially because it was so unlike virtually everything else the Japanese studio system had produced in the previous decade. The fact that the film was genuinely exciting and action packed and tensely directed didn’t hurt the appeal of the film either.

Just as the fervor about the film had begun to die down in Japan and among American fans, AD Vision officially announced their acquisition of it, and the possibility of a major American theatrical release. Because of the pure action spectacle of the film, many American anime fans predicted that Spriggan would be the film that would burst forth into mainstream American consciousness and be the film that introduced the full scope and power of anime to Americans. At the same time, a faction of American fans predicted that the potentially controversial content of the film would bury its chances of ever seeing major support in America. This controversy helped fuel the desire among American fans to see for themselves the movie that was so unlike anything else and so potentially wonderful and dangerous at the same time.

Because Katsuhiro Otomo’s name was attached to the film, Spriggan almost became the next Akira in terms of legendary status and respect, and many fans hoped that it would. However, the myth of Spriggan soon began to overshadow the fact that the film itself was nothing more than a simple, unpretentious action film. Then AD Vision continued to delay the film’s release, further raising anticipation and expectations that the film couldn’t possible meet and was never intended to.

But meanwhile American television broadcast programs like Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star and Gundam Wing, and American fans who’d had their fill of these action series found the idea of another action movie not as original or revolutionary or as unusual as Spriggan had been only 2 years before. The fact that AD Vision heavily touted the film as having fantastic animation quality also probably didn’t help the film’s eventual release. Action and pacing is Spriggan’s emphasis and strong point- fluid animation quality is not.

Spriggan is a highly entertaining action film; however it’s no more than that, nor is it intended to be. I know from first hand experience showing it to friends, that the film is most effective when watched by viewers that don’t bring pre-conceived expectations to it. I think that some of the backlash against the film is rooted in the coincidental circumstances surrounding the film’s release and the impossibility of the movie to live up to the hype that’s been constructed and construed about it. And I suspect that part of the derision of the movie is not directly related to the movie itself, but grounded in the attitude of anime fans that first saw the movie a year or more ago and now think of its delayed American release as dated and now “uncool.” However, taken as the simple, straightforward yet not condescending action film that it’s intended to be, Spriggan is one of the very best and most entertaining examples of its genre that exists.