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Spriggan
Spriggan Japanese manga cover by Shogakukan
スプリガン (Supurigan)
Genre	Adventure, history, military
Manga
Author	Hiroshi Takashige
Illustrator	Ryōji Minagawa
Publisher	Shogakukan
English publisher	VIZ Media (Defunct) Chuang Yi (English)
Other publishers: Glenat (Defunct) Planet Manga Jade Dynasty Elex Media Big Balloon Junior Special Comics (Original), Daiwon C.I. & Gang Dok Mok? (Collector's Edition) Planeta DeAgostini Tong Li Publishing
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Sunday Shōnen Sunday Super
Original run	1989 – 1996
Volumes	11
Anime film
Director	Hirotsugu Kawasaki
Producer	Kazuhiko Ikeguchi Kazuya Hamana Haruo Sai Eiko Tanaka Ayao Ueda
Composer	Kuniaki Haishima
Studio	Studio 4°C
Licensor	ADV Films
Released	1998
Runtime	90 minutes
Game
Spriggan: Lunar Verse
Developer	From Liquid Mirror Software[1]
Publisher	FROM Software
Genre	Action, adventure
Platform	PlayStation
Released	June 17, 1999[2]
Anime and Manga Portal

Spriggan (スプリガン , Supurigan^?) is a manga series created by Hiroshi Takashige and Ryōji Minagawa during the early 1990s. It was initially released as Striker in the North American English translation, as it is the English translation of the word Spriggan from Celtic.^[3]

The manga takes places in the last years of the Cold War where mysterious and unknown artifacts called out-of-place artifacts were discovered in various parts of the world, leading to secret wars between various forces against the ARCAM Corporation, an organization that placed itself the guardians of the OOPArts in order to prevent them from being used as weapons.

Spriggan was serialized in Shogakukan in the Weekly Shōnen Sunday and Shōnen Sunday Super magazines before its material was partially used for an animated film. A PlayStation game called Spriggan: Lunar Verse was also based on the manga with some material created for the game.

Plot

Many years ago, an ancient civilization known for their advanced technology once ruled Earth, but were destroyed in the end by their misuse. So, they left messages for later generations in the form of indestructible message plates written in ancient Hebrew, informing them that if they could not find a good use for their creations, they should be destroyed.

Various paramilitaries, national armies, and armed private forces began to secretly search for these "mysterious artifacts" in order to be used for their own good and against their enemies. The ARCAM Corporation and their military arm, the ARCAM Private Army, can stop these forces from destroying themselves with their elite secret agents known as Spriggans (or Strikers).

Characters

Main

• Yu Ominae: A young Japanese Spriggan agent and the protagonist of the manga and the animated film.
• Jean Jacquemonde: A French Spriggan agent stationed in France and fierce lycanthrope, who transforms at the sight of his own blood and revert to human form if people are dead, wounded, or gone from sight.
• Tea Flatte: A British Spriggan agent stationed in Britain. She has mystical skills, including the ability to summon Calling Beasts.
• Oboro: A Japanese Spriggan agent stationed in Japan alongside Yu, using Qigong and Dim Mak attacks to disable or kill his opponents.
• Yamamoto: The head of the ARCAM Corporation's Japanese headquarters.
• Rie Yamabishi: A Japanese American linguistics expert who has graduated from Cornell University and worked as a professor before returning to her native Japan and assist the ARCAM Corporation.
• Yoshino Somei: A teenaged mercenary and thief who steals out-of-place artifacts and sells them to the highest bidder.
• Mayzel: An ARCAM scientist responsible for refining Omihalcon into various weapons and equipment.
• Iwao Akatsuki: A Japanese operative working for the Trident Corporation.
• Bo Brantz: A German neo-Nazi fanatic and agent for Kutheimer's Egypt-based faction.
• Larry Markson: The American head of the Trident Corporation, serving as its de facto leader, while using Campbell Company, the Clovers Heavy Industries, and Takasumi Zaibatsu as dummy corporations.
• Henry Garnum: The British ARCAM Corporation official.
• Sho Kanaya: A brainwashed COSMOS child soldier of Japanese origin.

Minor

Organizations

• ARCAM Corporation: Founded in the United States, it has branches covering all countries from across the globe. Its mission is to covertly secure and/or destroy all ancient artifacts (whether they would be items, machines, ruins, etc.) from all known enemies that may use them for their own benefit. Its breakthrough was the refinement of Orichalcum, a strong metal that was used for ARCAM's Armored Muscle Suit and on Yu Ominae's Orichalcum combat knife. MJ-12 and Trident Corporation were able to refine their own Orichalcum suits, mostly based/stolen from ARCAM's research.
• ARCAM Private Army: The ARCAM Corporation's paramilitary wing, its duties vary but their main purpose is to conduct offensive and defensive operations on various out-of-place artifact locations and its aggressors, ranging from private corporate military wings to national militaries.
• Trident Corporation: Founded by NATO originally as an R&D Division, it soon went rogue and broke away for unknown reasons and was soon declared as an illegal organization. Currently, it stands as an artifact-recovering corporation and it is heavily funded by the Campbell Company (European Corporation, possibly British), the Clovers Heavy Industries (American Corporation) and the Takasumi Zaibatsu (Japanese Corporation). Its greatest breakthrough was with the creation of the Orichalcum Armored Machine Suit. One of its users was worn by Japanese Trident Corp. operator Iwao Akatsuki, apparently based on ARCAM's Armored Muscle Suit. They use discovered ancient artifacts in order to refine them as potential military weapons.
• COSMOS (Children Of Soldier Machine Organic System): A black-ops unit of the US Army and sponsored by the Pentagon, most of its soldiers are child soldiers who were kidnapped by CIA agents/US Army soldiers from around the world and brainwashed.
• Spriggans: Part of the ARCAM Private Army's divisions, consisting of special agents recruited by the ARCAM Corporation in order to do covert work in hostile areas without compromising the company.

Publication

The manga was initially published in Japan by Shogakukan in eleven full volumes from July 1991 to April 1996, with reprints in both 2001 and 2006 (including the unpublished stories "First Mission" and "Gold Rush"). Shogakukan Productions Co., Ltd.'s licensing arm in North America, VIZ Media, translated and published three out of eleven volumes as Striker after it was first serialized in Manga Vizion, before the company curtailed further translation.^[4]

In Europe, two volumes were published in France by Glénat (similarly under the name Striker),^[5][6] in the Netherlands by Big Balloon, eleven volumes in Germany by Planet Manga,^[7] and one full volume in Spain by Planeta DeAgostini (the first two similarly under the title "Striker")

In Asia, the manga was released in Hong Kong by Jade Dynasty, in Indonesia by Elex Media Komputindo, in Malaysia as part of an installment in a fortnightly comic magazine, Komik Remaja (but was cancelled during the Noah's Ark story arc due to 'inappropriate religious elements'), in Singapore with all 11 volumes fully translated by Chuang Yi in English,^[8] in South Korea as eleven volumes by Junior Special Comics and in a collector's edition by Daiwon C.I., and in Taiwan as eleven full chapters translated into Mandarin by Tong Li Comics under the Youth Comic Series label and was released as 轟天高校生.^[9]

Media

References

External links

• Spriggan OVA (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Spriggan Manga (manga) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Spriggan Glossary Site (Japanese)