SPRIGGAN

SPRIGGAN

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
11
RELEASE
January 25, 1996
CHAPTERS
62

DESCRIPTION

In the waning years of the Cold War era, national governments and paramilitary forces are in a race to uncover the relics of an ancient alien civilization that once ruled the Earth. The alien technology holds seemingly miraculous powers, but in the wrong hands, this power could spell disaster. Only the ARCAM Corporation’s elite special operatives, the SPRIGGAN, have what it takes to stand up against an international rogue’s gallery of power-hungry cyborgs and gunmen who covet ultimate power. Brash and fearless Ominae Yu, a teenage SPRIGGAN equipped with ARCAM’s strongest power armor, will do whatever it takes to keep the past’s forbidden legacy buried away!

Note: Includes bonus chapters 61 and 62: Gold Rush

(Source: Seven Seas Entertainment)

CAST

Yuu Ominae
Margaret
Little Boy
Fat Man
Tanaka
Yamamoto

CHAPTERS

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REVIEWS

Shadow654
60/100
Overall, if you're looking for a decent action manga with some politics, you can try this one out
Spriggan is a strange series. I quite enjoyed the 2022 ONA, in fact I'd even call it a good anime. However, I thought the manga was just decent, aka "fine". Why? Let me explain. What made Spriggan good to me was the great music, fluid animation and good use of cgi, as well as solid voice acting. These aspects alone were enough to make it a "good" anime for that. The story, while passable, was never anything to write home about.

Story: There's some politics and other countries get involved, but it all boils down to "MC fights other powerful people and flexes on them". Basically hundreds of years ago some ancient civilization ruled Earth and left behind artifacts/relics. Generations later, organizations are on a large treasure hunt to try and retrieve these long lost relics. However, a corporation, ARCAM, is using advanced machines to prevent these 3rd parties from destroying everything around them in the process. They use "Spriggans", which are advanced agents who have special training and abilities. And our MC, Yu is one of them. You've probably heard other series sound very similar to this. Any ring a bell? That's right. This is basically manga Indiana Jones but less fun and with more politics. While not absolutely terrible, the story leaves a lot to be desired as it does not engage the reader whatsoever.

Score: 5/10

Characters: A lot of what I said in the "story" section could be applied to the "characters" section. The vast majority of the cast are uninteresting, unappealing, bland and overall boring. Our main character Yu has about as much personality as cardboard. He is no different from your typical action manga MC, and the running gag with him is that he's not sure if he's able to graduate because he skips 80% of days at school while trying to save the world (spoilers: he ends up graduating anyways because of course he fucking would). Aside from him, the supporting cast is pretty weak. Oboro was a character that existed, and Jean had some sort of appeal, but I didn't find myself getting attached to any of them. The best character in the series is probably Yoshino, but she suffers from a lack of focus/shine. If she had more relevance, Spriggan could have been elevated and been an overall better manga.

Score: 5/10

Art: By far the best part of the manga. Spriggan has good, detailed art. The background art is nicely drawn and the fights are fluid and clean. You can feel every blow being exchanged, and the characters facial expression are well emphasized through this. I still prefer the anime fights, but the manga has good fights too and overall I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the artwork.

Score: 7/10

Overall, if you're looking for a decent action manga with some politics, you can try this one out
If you're not interested in that, you can skip this one and you won't really be missing anything as there are a lot of better manga out there. If you're not sure whether to watch or read spriggan, my advice is to watch the 2022 ONA as its faster and has more to offer IMO.
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