Kaiju (Giant Monster) Appreciation Post : Agon: Atomic Dragon (Nippon TV)

By Chris Hammond

Giant Monsters are a thing that Horrorpatch embraces. Our love of Godzilla, Gamera, King Kong etc is a passion. I love digging and finding lost gems from all over the world. Japan, is one place that has an abundance of Kaiju material.

About 9 years or more ago, I scoured Japanese auction websites for 怪獣 material and came across a retail DVD for a hidden gem called アゴン(AGON). I knew of the 1968 tokusatsu, kaiju Nippon television miniseries from a friend who was a kaiju wizard (his online name was KAIJU). He knows everything there is to know about Kaiju material (giant monster films and shows).

I readied my credit card and bid on this magical monster disc, I won! After about 2 months a package with my disc arrived. The disc was actually brand new (even though the auction stated used). The disc included a bunch of pamphlets, which I scanned in on one of my monster movie drives.

My first thought on AGON: Atomic Dragon is it tries very hard to be Godzilla, even TOHO Studios felt the same. They even prevented the episodes from being broadcast back then. When they found out Shinichi Sekizawa (Japanese screenwriter noted for his contributions to films by Ishirō Honda, including classic Godzilla films) and Fuminori Ohashi (apprentice of Eiji Tsuburaya, Toho’s head of special effects) both worked on AGON, they allowed the show to be broadcast. TOHO realized that both men were not copying Godzilla, but rather bringing forth a new Kaiju for fans to enjoy.

My love for this show grows each year, maybe it is the fact it is shot in black & white like the original Godzilla film (Gojira), or maybe because it’s just a fun little oddity that most people don’t know about. It could also be the fact that the AGON monster suit was repurposed and used in other Japanese productions like the Tokusatsu show The Space Giants (マグマ大使, Maguma Taishi). When it first showed up on the show it was just a dinosaur, then later retitled “Giant Fire Monster Aron“.

Agon’s plot is like most Kaiju monster plots of the time, a monster is awakened from slumber, and then the monster wreaks havoc on Japan. This is a very simple plot breakdown, all the viewer needs to know is that this is an entertaining thrill ride of a show. There’s tons of man-in-monster-suit action and miniature-building stomping. The acting by the cast is serious, making the drama of the destruction serious.

I’ve uploaded the Edited together AGON : Fire Dragon film complete with English Subtitles for everyone to enjoy (Thanks goes to the subtitle, whoever you are).

If there’s enough interest, I’ll upload each episode over the coming months.