Fresh off the debut of its Dragon’s Dogma anime, Netflix is continuing the wave with new details on Spriggan. In a tweet posted on October 6, 2020, the @NXonNetflix Twitter account revealed a poster image for the new show:
Spriggan agent Yu Ominae, reporting for duty. Here's your first look at the new anime series adaptation of Hiroshi Takashige and Ryoji Minagawa’s classic action manga Spriggan. @DPInc_official pic.twitter.com/oPtw4cZiC1
— ⚰️😈 The NXorcist 👻🔪 (@NXOnNetflix) October 6, 2020
The poster image displays the series protagonist, Yu Ominae, his lower half covered by the Hebrew script that serves as a plot device in the story. Yu is a high school student who also moonlights as a Spriggan, an agent for the mysterious ARCAM corporation. Spriggans protect the OOParts (out-of-place artifacts), relics from an ancient advanced civilization. Working against them are rogues, governments, and other corporations intent on using the artifacts for their own gain. Hiroshi Takashige and Ryouji Minagawa co-created the Spriggan manga in 1989 and continued the manga until its 1996 conclusion. Three of eleven total Spriggan volumes were published in English by Viz Media under the name Striker.
This isn’t the first time Spriggan‘s been animated. A feature film based on the manga’s “Noah’s Ark” story arc was produced in 1998. The series even received a game adaptation: 1999’s Spriggan: Lunar Verse for the PlayStation 1, developed by Demon’s Souls and Armored Core creator From Software.
The series will also be directed by Hiroshi Kobayashi, who worked on Rage of Bahamut: Genesis and Kill la Kill. Hiroshi Seko, a writer for Mob Psycho 100 and Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress is handling series composition, and character design will be handled by Shuhei Handa (Little Witch Academia). Netflix is working with Japanese studio David Production to animate the new series. David Production has a number of notable credits to its name, including all five extant seasons of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime. Hyperdimension Neptunia, Cells At Work!, Fire Force, and the currently airing Strike Witches: Road To Berlin all heavily involved David Production’s work. It was not confirmed if Spriggan will be a CG animated series, but given the studio’s experience providing both 3DCGI and more traditional 2D animation, it could go either way.
Spriggan will air worldwide via Netflix in 2021.
