The first episode of Spriggan is a lot to take in. It feels like a one and a half hour movie had to be condensed into a 40 minute episode. The pacing is absolutely frantic. Everything happens at such a breakneck pace it is hard to keep track of what is going on.
The action is stylish and well animated; the blending of 2D and 3D animation is pretty seamless, with most character shots thankfully being 2D. But it is often hard to take in as the characters keep dumping story exposition while fighting (and of course, explaining exactly what their attacks do and why, but that's par for the course).
The pace makes it nigh impossible to connect to the story or characters on any emotional level. There is some relationship between the two main characters, but it never gets any time to shine as they really only have time to explain the plot to the audience. Everything else is sidelined.
The music is just as all over the place as the plot. The song heard during the introduction really says it all: it transitions from a beautiful ethereal choir piece, into a trap banger, into jazz in the span of about a minute. A real head scratcher. Music kicks in at strange moments and often misses the mark. It rarely feels like it elevates the mood, instead feeling misplaced and tacked on. It also feels like every track was made by a different composer. Instead of blending in the music often took me out of the experience, though it did give me a good laugh every now and then.
While this review has a relatively negative tone: it is still a mostly enjoyable experience. It's over the top, frantic, energetic and fun and never seems to take itself too seriously, gleefully indulging itself in anime tropes. And while everyone is constantly dumping exposition, you never go for more than a few minutes without any well animated, over the top and bloody action. I watched it with a friend and we had some good laughs. I remember the main character being in a helicopter and I said to my friend: 'It's never a good idea to take a helicopter in an anime.' And literal seconds after I mentioned it, the helicopter gets shot down by a bazooka, because of course it does, with the main character hilariously saving a character important to the plot while just letting the pilot die in a fiery explosion without a second thought.
Overall, it feels like missed potential. Like a story that should have been spread over two 40 minute episodes, giving the story and characters room to breathe, giving them some space for character development and to establish an emotional connection with the audience. But, as it stands, if you can turn your brain off for 40 minutes it's a fun distraction.