"Spriggan" Copyright (C) Hiroshi Takashige, Ryouji Minagawa/ Shougakkan, Bandai Visual, TBS, Toho, 1998
I saw an anime movie "Spriggan" on 09/19/98.
Spriggan (English title is "Striker") is the first cinema-type animation directed by Hiroshi Kawasaki. He is an excellent animator and one of followers of Katsuhiro Outomo.
Katsuhiro Outomo, as you know he is the great anime director in Japan, this time, supervised the movie.
The movie was released on 09/05/1998. However the producer intended to stop showing the movie on 09/25/1998. In USA and Germany, there are a lot of Outomo believers. Of course, they appreciated the movie, too
.
However Japanese anime fans did not appreciated the movie. I watched it at Yurakucho Marion, Tokyo. The movie attracted few audiences.
Perhaps it was not satisfactory.
The original cartoon is a long story. But the movie was a 90-minute long movie. Details in the original were skipped.
In the movie, the hero was Yu Ominae (CV = Shoutatou Morikubo). He was trained by US army as an assassin. Thereafter he deserted. He became a high school student and a special agent "Spriggan" of Arcum.
Arcum is a secret private organization which consists of a small private force and researchers. Arcum understood the true character of Noah's Ark. Noah's Ark was a life body generator and an earth environment controller. They found Noah's Ark in Turkey. They fought against US Pentagon to seal the Ark.
US Pentagon wanted to monopolize the Ark to control the earth. But the Ark might have ruined the human civilization.
Arcum had several Spriggans to fight against US army. Especially they tried to kill the most excellent Spriggan Yu Ominae.
First US Pentagon sent Ominae's classmate as an assassin. Of course the classmate was dead. US Pentagon kept menacing Yu Ominae.
He decided to go to Turkey to fight against US Pentagon. He reached Noah's Ark.
US Pentagon sent two assassins. Their names are a kind of irony. They are Little Boy, a ninja fighter, and Fatman, a big man with an artificial arm including a machine gun. Of course, in 1945, US Air Force used two Atomic bombs. One was Fatman. The other was Little Boy.
Little Boy (CV = Katsumi Suzuki) and Fatman (CV = Kenji Takano) tried to kill Yu Ominae. But Ominaeran recklessly to kill Fatman. On the other hand, Ominae's friend, Jean Jacquemonde (CV = Takehito Koyasu, a popular voice actor in Japan), a Spriggan, killed Little Boy.
Yu Ominae was a famous fighter. In fact he was one of the managing staff of Arcum. The leader of Arcum researchers was Dr. Maezel (CV = Ken Shiroyama). His assistant was Margaret (CV = Sakiko Tamagawa). They are friends of Ominae.
They gave Ominae armored muscle suits made of orihalcon.
On the other hand, Arcum researchers found the entrance of the Ark. However they could not enter the Ark. What? Inside the entrance, time flow stopped.
To enter the Ark, they needed a medal, a kind of LSI board. US Pentagon had the medal.
When Yu Ominae returned his base, Colonel Magdogal (CV = Ryuji Aigase) appeared. What? The colonel had an extraordinery ability. He was made by US Pentagon. He always needed special drug.
Then Ominae was defeated once. The colonel brought Dr. Maezel and Margaret to the entrance.
Using Colonel's medal, the entrance opened. Light could not enter the inside of the ark. They entered the inside and reached the center of the ark. Colonel began to drive the ark to heat up the earth.
Then Yu Ominae appeared at the center of the ark.
Yu Ominae began to fight against the colonel. This time Ominae won. Therefore the colonel destroyed the ark.
Yu Ominae was pinched. But Jean went there to help Ominae. Dr. Maezel, Margaret, Jean and Ominae escaped the crisis.
The story was simple. Three evil characters were killed easily.
What was the true character of US Pentagon? We could not understand it because they still have a lot of atomic bombs as trumps.
Last, the work is famous for the fusion of painting and CGs.
Hiroshi Kawasaki was born in 1958. Under the direction of Katsuhiro Outomo, he has made a lot of anime movies.
He used 85,000 cellophane pictures.
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