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Spriggan [スプリガン] #3
Striker Vs. The Third Reich
In this volume of the Striker series, the Arcam Foundation faces its greatest challenge in the ongoing struggle to protect humanity from magical artifacts of an ancient civilization. Operative Yu Ominae must travel the globe to secure these powerful relics from neo- Nazi evildoers who would rule the world.
160 pages, Paperback
First published May 6, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 11, 2025
berserkerrr, damn the depths of human history this story goes down just for a dude to shoot up crazy shit is fun
June 6, 2022
Diría que es el mejor tomo hasta ahora, me alegro de que se vayan desvelando más cosas y se cree una trama más allá del formato episódico de misiones.
January 12, 2025
3.5 stars.
May 16, 2015
I don't quite know how to approach this book, since a) I haven't read the previous two books, and b) Aside from this volume, I'd seen the movie, which was called Spriggan. Since I picked up an Americanized Striker volume, I had no idea the two works were related until a few months after I got and read this book (which happened a few months after I first saw the movie).
This volume is split into two segments, both involving Nazis searching for artifacts that will give them more power, etcetera; Yu Ominae is an agent of the Arcam Foundation sent to stop them, with the help of a few friends, and--here's the weirdest part: Adolf Hitler himself was resurrected by the Nazis and is somehow convinced to become a good guy.
Well. I'll give this story props for its creative weirdness.
The first mission involves Yu as he fights to take a mysterious crystal skull treasure with more power than a nuclear bomb from the Nazis before they can use it for their own destructive means, while also protecting the life of the daughter of the original archaeologist who discovered the artifact in the first place.
The second mission has Yu infiltrating the Nazis' secret snowy mountain retreat to stop them from resurrecting Hitler. The fact that I mentioned Hitler coming back anyway isn't really a spoiler since it occurs pretty quickly.
Team Hiroshi Takashige (the brains behind the words) and Ryoji Minagawa (the hands behind the artwork) conjure up a weird pair of stories that both prove to be as underwhelming as they are unique. Sometimes the artwork is fantastic, and a joy to look at. Other times, it looks lazy and hastily scribbled onto the page. The character designs suffer the most from this drawback. As for the writing, well, the dialogue has more bad moments than good, and the stories aren't that well-executed, despite having some genuinely cool ideas. Character motivations also inexplicably shift about a little too quickly, which was annoying.
I'll come to the defense of the writing in some way, at least. This is an early Americanized version--a manga volume with its format reversed so that it reads like an American comic, and many flaws and horrid bits in the dialogue may or may not be due to the translation.
Would I read any other volumes? Sure. Did I like the movie? It was decent. I don't hate the series, but I do think this volume is mediocre.
This volume is split into two segments, both involving Nazis searching for artifacts that will give them more power, etcetera; Yu Ominae is an agent of the Arcam Foundation sent to stop them, with the help of a few friends, and--here's the weirdest part: Adolf Hitler himself was resurrected by the Nazis and is somehow convinced to become a good guy.
Well. I'll give this story props for its creative weirdness.
The first mission involves Yu as he fights to take a mysterious crystal skull treasure with more power than a nuclear bomb from the Nazis before they can use it for their own destructive means, while also protecting the life of the daughter of the original archaeologist who discovered the artifact in the first place.
The second mission has Yu infiltrating the Nazis' secret snowy mountain retreat to stop them from resurrecting Hitler. The fact that I mentioned Hitler coming back anyway isn't really a spoiler since it occurs pretty quickly.
Team Hiroshi Takashige (the brains behind the words) and Ryoji Minagawa (the hands behind the artwork) conjure up a weird pair of stories that both prove to be as underwhelming as they are unique. Sometimes the artwork is fantastic, and a joy to look at. Other times, it looks lazy and hastily scribbled onto the page. The character designs suffer the most from this drawback. As for the writing, well, the dialogue has more bad moments than good, and the stories aren't that well-executed, despite having some genuinely cool ideas. Character motivations also inexplicably shift about a little too quickly, which was annoying.
I'll come to the defense of the writing in some way, at least. This is an early Americanized version--a manga volume with its format reversed so that it reads like an American comic, and many flaws and horrid bits in the dialogue may or may not be due to the translation.
Would I read any other volumes? Sure. Did I like the movie? It was decent. I don't hate the series, but I do think this volume is mediocre.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews