Super Atragon
Entry updated 12 October 2026. Tagged: Film.
Japanese Original Video Animation (OVA) (1995-1996; original title Shin kaitei gunkan; vt The New Submarine Battleship). Toho, Phoenix Entertainment. Based on Kaitō Bōken Kitan: Kaitei Gunkan ["Bottom of the Sea Military Ship: A Mysterious Story of Island Adventure"] (Tokyo: Bunbudō, 1900) by Shunrō Oshikawa. Directed by Kazuyoshi Katayama (OVA 1), Mitsuo Fukuda (OVA 2). Written by Nobuaki Kishima. Voice cast includes Kikuko Inoue, Junko Iwao, Yasunori Matsumoto, Tetsurō Sagawa, Tomokazu Seki and Kouji Shimizu. Two OVAs (52 and 47 minutes). Colour.
In 1945 the Japanese submarine Ra receives news of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima (see Nuclear Energy; World War Two). Captain Masashi Hyuga is told by Annette (Iwao), a strangely garbed woman sitting nearby, that "further fighting is unnecessary. Otherwise, Ra will exhibit not only its awful powers ... [but will lead] all of mankind to destruction". They are then confronted by The Liberty, a US submarine similar to Ra – both resemble a battleship with a drill at the front – where a similarly dressed woman is also at the helm, named Avatar (Inoue); despite Hyuga messaging that they have no desire to fight, The Liberty fires on them. Annette tries to communicate Telepathically with Avatar, to no effect, so uses her Psi Powers, which puts them both in a coma. Hyuga orders one of his officers, Mitsugu Kageyama (Shimizu), to take Annette in a mini-flying craft and tell the world what is happening; the submarines battle and sink each other.
In the present day icebergs have drifted north into the Pacific as far as the Equator, and contact has been lost with several Antarctic research bases: a UN mission is sent to investigate and includes Gō Arisaka (Seki), Hyuga's grandson – his father, Magane Arisaka (Sagawa), had disappeared on a polar expedition years ago. They are briefed: the Antarctic ice is being melted by radiation emanating from a 100km high, 250km diameter column which has appeared at the South Pole. A forward team from the mission is attacked, and only Gō and his friend Anne Sugawara (Iwao) survive; in retaliation the cylinder is bombed but unharmed. The mission's ships and submarines are then attacked by giant rings that Anne identifies as "Gravity lenses" and calls out "What the hell are you doing!? Avatar!" At the North Pole another column appears and rises into the sky.
Ann is the adopted daughter of Mr Sugawara (Shimizu) ("a leading figure in the financial world") who explains to the Japanese Prime Minister that "the Earth is an empty shell ... [inhabited by] subterranean humans" (see Hollow Earth; Lost Races) who wish to annihilate all those that live on the surface (see Holocaust). Mr Sugawara is Mitsugu Kageyama and he has been preparing for the Subterraneans' attack; we have seen Gō rescued from the sea and finding himself at a dock filled with missing ships – including Ra – which have been repaired and upgraded: for example, Ra can now deflect the effect of the gravity lenses and has a gravity shield (see Force Field). Led by the bearded Magane Hyuga (Sagawa) who now captains the Ra, they see off a Subterranean attack. Though the captain has told Gō that Magane Arisaka died in an accident, he eventually realizes Hyuga is his father; as he berates him Anne appears, now recognizable as Annette. Meanwhile the two columns, orbiting Earth, join, and the first OVA ends.
The second OVA opens with an "unidentified object" crashing into the forests of Fengtian, Manchuria, in 1932. This contains an "unknown form of energy" (see Power Sources) and is unearthed by the Imperial Japanese military, who had invaded the country the year before. We then return to the present, where the UN is told cylinders are continuing to issue from the Poles and are linking up to form a "Megaring" around the planet: once completed it will be able to irradiate the planet with microwave radiation wiping out all life – nuclear weapons have no effect; "there is just one hope ... the undersea battleship Ra". The Ra can also fly, and we see it destroying the enemy's aerial fortresses and gravity rings as they attack cities – but, the cylinders themselves are impervious to its weapons. However, they realize the enemy has a mobile undersea base sending instructions to the rings: if they can locate and destroy that, the ring will not be formed.
Mr Sugawara arrives at Ra's home base and talks to Gō: before the launch of the first Ra, Annette had appeared and explained the Fengtian object's power had been a test for humanity. Her people – worried that surface humanity were such an irredeemably warlike race they would inevitably invade the Subterranean world – had given Japan and the US access to "meteorites" and watched to see whether their power would be used for peace or War. Annette and Avatar were sent to the surface as monitors, but Annette whilst has had second thoughts, Avatar – horrified by World War Two – was determined to wipe out the surface people. Later Annette talks to Gō and explains her people have lost qualities still possessed by humanity – such as putting ones heart into an endeavour and other kinds of love; Avatar believes her people have evolved beyond such things and were right to weed them out
Unhelpfully, the UN forces now try to confiscate Ra for their own use. However, the Subterraneans also attack, enabling Ra to locate their mobile base and destroy it – but Avatar now reappears in The Liberty, and they realize the Megaring's instructions emanate from there. The two submarines battle, with Ra victorious, Avatar dead and the Megaring falling to pieces. The Ra flies off, on its way to explore the Subterranean world and its inhabitants' motives, in the hope of finding a way to co-exist.
Though the credits state this is "based on the novel Kaitei Gunkan by Shunno Oshikawa", it is probably more accurate to consider it as based on the film Kaitei Gunkan (1964; vt Atragon), which used both Oshikawa's novel and Shigeru Komatsuzaki's stories in the magazine Kaiyō Kagaku E-Monogatari Kaitei Ōkoku ["Marine Science Picture Stories: Undersea Kingdom"] (1953-1955); though the latter were clearly inspired by Oshikawa they added elements such as an inhabited hollow earth. Annette suspects Avatar made the decision to destroy humanity unilaterally, though it seems unlikely that the Subterranean authorities would be oblivious to such a substantial use of their Technology and resources. The impotence of the UN and nation states in comparison with the dynamism of private enterprise might be an intended moral (see Politics), though the latter seems to rely on having a Scientist capable of taking the Subterraneans' science beyond what they themselves achieved with it. Super Atragon is fairly good, with the animation and action scenes being its strengths, but the characterization is lacklustre. With too much plot crammed into two OVAs, the narrative relies on providing backstory through Infodumps. The suspicion that at least one more OVA was intended may explain some loose ends, such as how little we learn about the hollow earth's civilization. [SP]
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