English Dub Season Review: Spriggan Season One

Overview:

Many years ago, an ancient civilization ruled Earth. They had very advanced technology but were destroyed in the end due to the misuse of their creations. These people left messages for later generations in the form of indestructible message plates written in an ancient language.

Several armed organizations began to secretly search for these artifacts to use them for their own good and against their enemies. The ARCAM Corporation is trying to stop these forces from destroying themselves with these “advanced” machines. The story’s main character, Yu Ominae, is one of the elite agents that work for ARCAM under the name of Spriggans.

Our Take:

Spriggan is a remake of sorts. There was a movie made in the late 90s’ that I had been meaning to watch. I still might but this seems to be that but much better. Apparently, it was heavily edited for American audiences because there was a lot of anti-American sentiment in it. I can tell you they did not edit that out in this series. Which I honestly kind of like, we don’t always have to be the good guys.

As for the Spriggans themselves, I thought the few we got to see were really interesting and I would like to meet more! Yu Ominae was a pretty cool protagonist and I want to know more about him. The peeks we got were awesome but I was left wanting more, which is what you want from something like this. I really liked the slice-of-life parts but they were few and far between, the character of Yoshino was really interesting to me. Yu being just a regular teenager, for the most part, was both laughable and awesome. It felt almost like an anthology series because outside of Yoshino in one episode there weren’t too many recurring characters.

This is one of the rare anime that starts with some questionable CGI and then gets wayyyy better. For a second during the final episode, I thought I was watching a different show. Spoiler alert, the fight scene in that episode is really good. The modern military tactics mixed with the fantastical technology they have was also really unique to me. A lot of the tropes and ideas from this anime aren’t groundbreaking but I imagine when it was first released they were. Or at least less trodden than they are now. An ancient civilization that was more advanced than us isn’t exactly new but I think this was one of the first.

The voice acting was great, they chose amazing actors. But outside of Kyle McCarley, almost everyone was voicing multiple characters. I understand, that things like that happen but when the same talent gets recycled repeatedly it becomes noticeable and kind of takes you out of it.

Ultimately, Spriggan was fantastic and I really hope Netflix renews it. With it being Netflix though I don’t have the highest of hopes. They have slashed their animation budget but it does feel like this might be a series they want to stake some investment in. Only time will tell but Spriggan is definitely worth your time.