Spriggan

Spriggan is a Japanese animated action film about an ancient artifact and the secret organization that guards such relics. Long-vanished civilizations left behind objects of enormous power, and the ARCAM organization deploys elite operatives known as Spriggans to find and seal them before they can be misused. When an archaeological expedition uncovers Noah's Ark in the mountains of Ararat in Turkey, an American military faction moves to seize the site and break its seal. Yu Ominae, a young Spriggan, survives an attempt on his life and travels to Turkey to stop the operation and protect the Ark.

The film was released in Japan in September 1998 and runs 90 minutes. Katsuhiro Otomo, whose earlier directing work includes Akira, Neo Tokyo and Memories, is credited as director alongside Hirotsugu Kawasaki, with Norihiko Sudo also listed; Otomo, Kawasaki and Yasutaka Itô wrote the screenplay. It was produced by TOHO, Bandai Visual, Studio 4°C and TBS. Showtaro Morikubo voices Yu Ominae, with Ken Shiroyama, Takehito Koyasu, Katsumi Suzuki, Sakiko Tamagawa and Kinryuu Arimoto among the cast. The production credits list 29 cast members and 97 crew.

Audience response has been moderate: on TMDB it holds 6.1 out of 10 from 115 votes, while critics' reviews give it 5.7 out of 10 from 14 reviews, a narrow gap between the two. It sits between Memories and Steamboy in Otomo's directing chronology.