Name: Old school gimmicks. Old school problems
Item: SPRIGGAN (ONA)
Rating: 34
Author: R2R

Old school gimmicks. Old school problems · Waifora

/anime/108353/spriggan-ona

There have been a few modern adaptations of old manga that were successful even in our modern era like Dororo, Ping Pong and Parasyte. Following this trend, Netflix made Spriggan (though they did Devilman Crybaby too) that was animated by David Production (studio behind JoJos & Fire Force) and after that teaser and trailer I was quite hyped (like many) to see this action-packed old-civilization story but it had... a lot of problems. This anime is pretty much the same as a certain full CGI Anime that aired last year; Night Head 2041 which is also a spin-off for the manga "Night Head". They both are pretty terrible in many ways with only one selling point. For Night Head 2041, it's the Backgrounds and for Spriggan, its the decent fights (Yes, just decent). Though one main difference is that Spriggan is an episodic story while Night Head had an overarching plot (a terrible one).

Each episode of Spriggan is different and follows Yuu Ominae, a Spriggan equipped with "Armored Muscle Suit", a high-tech body armor/enhancer working under a organization called ARCAM, whose aim is to find out all the lost old civilization technology before baddies use it for...you know, world destruction/domination.
One of the main problems with Spriggan is that, it's old school in a very terrible way. Badass 16-year old protagonist with a lot of plot armor (no Pun intended)? Check.
A high-level secret society com organization plot? Check.
Bland villains with non-existent/stupid motives? Check.
Characters with very small relevance to story? Check.
Unsurprising/straight-up stupid reveals? Check.
Maybe Netflix believed in the "Old is Gold" motto a bit too much, because this Anime is pretty terrible. I'm not saying all these "modern adaptations of old manga" are terrible btw. Crybaby, even though I don't like it that much is actually one of the most successful Anime on Netflix; Dororo which is like 50 year old still has some of the most emotional & dark moments; Parasyte falls into the same category and you should know about Ping Pong's legendary status even if you haven't watched it, then why is that Spriggan failed while others succeeded? Because Spriggan is;

Outdated: With HS romcoms, isekais and hyped battle shounens taking the spotlight, stories like Spriggan lost their charm. Many are willing to watch trashy power fantasies, self-insertable isekais, high-school romcoms or the next hyped battle shounens than treasure-hunt stories which became very outdated. (Cries in Golden Kauny)
Horrible story/characters: I haven't read the manga but I'm definitely not willing to read it because this show is that terrible, like just watch episode 1 and see how the 'reveal' works. I can't say how bad it is without using words like bad/terrible/horrible like a 20 times (though I probably did). Not to mention the story is actually incomplete, we still don't know what those red eyes the MC have or his 'dark' past, but I don't even care at this point. The scale is ridiculously huge too; one episode sets in America, the next in Germany, India, Russia and we aren't even talking about the amount of historical/religious references it makes yet it felt very boring somehow. If it was atleast a bit well-written or atleast had decent characters, it actually would've been an decent ride. But it couldn't. It gets so bad that I couldn't even enjoy the fights anymore.

(Review for this Anime ends here. Skip to the last part for conclusion. But if you wanna see me talk about "old manga with new adaptations" I like...)

Some Anime like I mentioned above were able to entertain modern viewers despite the source material being old because they were pretty relevant. Crybaby took a storm on the community with those rap songs, uncensored angsty gore/nudity and that soundtrack, all of these elements made it look like a true modern anime and not just as "adaptation of an old manga". But the main thing that made them good is because they also had a solid story or good writing. Even though the gore put off in Crybaby, some of the drama in it is pretty amazing and it's ending actually made me like it when I initially hated it. Dororo & Parasyte, even though they took somewhat of a boring route they're still compelling shows due to either their plot or characters (they also had good soundtracks).

#Conclusion Spriggan is a terrible anime that had no reason to get a modern adaptation. If it wasn't for that decent CGI fights (& above average CGI overall), I probably wouldn't even watch this. Have your friends at your side and make jokes when anything stupid happens; you might enjoy this more that way.