Here's something that will be familiar to two completely separate groups of people. For one, old school fans of Ishiro Honda's work will delight at the fact that they can finally watch another notable entry into his catalogue domestically. From the beginning, you get the unmistakable notion that this is an iconic part of his oeuvre. On the other hand, there's the new rising legion of kaiju fans teethed on the millennium-era Godzilla flicks. These cats will recognize the film's super-powered submarine right off the bat, thanks to its appearance under the brave, mustachioed control of fighter Don Frye in Ryuhei Kitamura's FINAL WARS. 

Neither of these groups will be disappointed in ATRAGON. Heck, neither will anyone else. Honda's 1963 sci-fi yarn about an ancient race trying to bully their way up from the ocean in hopes of ruling us all is as epic as it sounds. Everything from the lavish sets and miniatures of the Mu empire to the Goten-go itself looks fantastic. If comparisons could be drawn to any other of this team's productions off-hand, THE MYSTERIANS would be a sure bet. There are a lot of similarities when it comes to exploring the strange, almost neo-archaic world of the Muans. Sure, they won't ask you to don a cape when you enter their base, but their presence in the movie lends a remarkable magic to the production that is indicative of the quality expected when you get a feature from Ishiro Honda and FX master Eiji Tsuburaya. 

ATRAGON is about patriotism and nationalism just as much as it is about cool special effects and snaky sea monsters. Captain Jinguji, played sternly by Jun Tazaki, is a man left burning from a long-passed war in contrast with a nation that has had time to think. His "never surrender" resolution is an ideal that parallels that of the antagonist, the Empress of Mu. Captain Jinguji is just as much of a relic as the ancient civilization that threatens Japan, and it takes something as drastic as his daughter's abduction to really kick him in the ass and wake him up. 

Tsuburaya's effects are memorable, to say the absolute least. Aside from a few exceptions, the world created here seems pretty tangible. There are definitely a couple of sequences that will have everyone doin' the Manda Dance, though. What's Manda, you ask? Why, it's the obligatory giant monster of the movie, of course! Honestly, the awkward way in which this sea dragon is implemented does a good job of giving away the fact that it wasn't a part of Honda's original vision. Rather than providing a hulking menace to the ordeal, Manda almost comes off as an otherworldly comic relief of sorts; it writhes and wiggles with the monster-effects equivalent of a worm on a hook. As essential as giant monsters usually are to pretty much anything, one wonders what Honda's film would have been like without a tacked-on rubber menace. 

A great cast portraying mythical nutjobs and clingers-on of the war, another brilliant score by Akira Ifukube, and one-of-a-kind effects that only this camp could provide; what more can you ask for? At its simplest, ATRAGON succeeds thanks to its Weekly World News-esque tabloid reality. If you're not already sold on the whole tokusatsu/kaiju thing, then classics like these are a good place to start. Pop this in your DVD player and start swaying to the rhythm like Manda post-haste.