In Spriggan, Katsuhiro Otomo has the vague role of ‘General Supervisor’. There is certainly much of Akira in Spriggan – the central character of a kid with psychic powers who unleashes an epic-sized swathe of destruction, covert government agencies attempting to control the force. Spriggan is fairly generic in its plot as anime goes – superheroics, cyborg villains, psychic powers, big guns and explosions, an artefact of unbelievable power unleashing the potential for world destruction, a teen hero improbably charged with singlehandedly saving the world. Most amusing is how in the film Noah’s Ark undergoes a metamorphosis from the Biblical story, where it is merely a vessel carrying animals, to become more of a Raiders of Noah’s Ark where it is now an alien artefact that can control weather and change genetic codes.

Within the formulaic limits of the story though, director Hirotsugu Kawasaki creates an entertaining show. There’s some intensely exciting action scenes – a car and foot chase through Turkish streets, a massive all-out armed attack on the encampment, psychic conflagration and, of course, the big scale mass destruction climax. One has been spoilt by the recent high art animation of Disney, Pixar et al of late so you don’t at first tend to notice what an incredible degree of detail the more standard, less arty animation here has been conducted with when it comes to the backgrounds, landscapes and incidental texture.