Agon The Atomic Monster - The Dragon Mightier Than Godzilla or Mothra ! In Japanese Language with English Subtitles

First of all, this is a DVD-R. It contains all four episodes of the Agon TV series, not the Toho re-edit film version. The episodes are accessed through a static, un-creative menu. Each four episodes include the same opening, but only episode 4 includes end credits. Episodes 1-3 are anamorphic, which is to say the original 4:3 aspect ratio stretches to 18:9 widescreen. Episode 4, on the other hand, maintains the 4:3 ratio as a default. There are no choices regarding audio or subtitles: original Japanese audio with non-removable English subtitles. There are three chapter breaks with each episode: one at the start of each episode, then roughly (very roughly) 1/3 and 2/3 of the run time into each episode. These breaks are random, in the middle of scenes; not at commercial breaks or scene changes.With respect to the packaging, the disc comes in a standard black amaray DVD case of decent quality, as opposed to an eco-case. The cover art leaves much to be desired. No effort went into the design, with the possible exception of choosing a single color - red, and lots of it. It could not be any more basic. The picture on the front is the sole picture on the entire cover. The back contains only a few superfluous words detailing the release along with the UPC box. The case does include a card stock insert with an off-center replica of the front cover and a blank white reverse side. The art on the DVD-R itself is another replica of the front cover image.As for the feature, one has to appreciate that it’s a 60’s Japanese TV show: black & white, 4:3 aspect ratio, low budget. Keeping that in mind, I enjoy the series quite a bit - enough that I purchased the DVD. The general story is derivative of Godzilla: nuclear test awakens kaiju, kaiju wrecks havoc on Japan, military & scientist struggle to stop kaiju. It holds a certain amount of nostalgic charm and I do find the end of episode 4 to be a rather novel way of defeating a kaiju. If you have not seen the series, you can probably judge for yourself. As of this writing all four episodes are available on YouTube under the title “Agon the Atomic Dragon.”Is the DVD-R worth $15, the price at the time of this posting? Frankly, no. Especially when one considers that there are quite a few quality kaiju DVDs and blu-rays, such as those from Classic Media and Mill Creek, available for $10 or less. It would be nice if this were a true DVD with the four episodes of Agon as well as the 90’s Toho film version and a few extras. This is more a $5 (or less) release. That being said, it is an obscure title with limited appeal. This may be the best one can hope for here in Region 1. I’m glad to have the Agon series in my collection, but a little bit of effort with the cover art would have been appreciated.

Let me guess why you're here. You were at Monster Island Toys checking out the DVD list. You saw this title. So after you looked at the whole list you went to you tube. There you saw some of the videos. The monster looked cool and you said to yourself "This looks cool. I gotta get this." So now here you are seeing if the price is better and checking out the reviews. The price is reasonable so you say what the hey! STOP! Go back to you tube and watch all 4 episodes then decide for yourself if you really want this.

Fun show that came out almost the same time as the original 1954 Godzilla! Subs are clean and crisp and this was just a fun 4 episode show. I fully recommend for the kaiju fan!

Agon's one of the early attempts by another studio to make their own Godzilla, and there's a reason why it's forgotten. Well, two reasons- due to pressure from Toho it's release was delayed so it came out during the crowd of kaiju rather than when it was first made. Also it was a 4-episode TV show originally rather than a proper movie (it was apparently edited together to a movie at one point but this disk has the whole original format, not cut down).As the kaiju genre was in it's infancy, the suit work isn't great. Storywise, the first half is ok, the second gets wrapped up in the plan of some thieves and has pretty poor pacing. There are some parts that are mockably silly if one wants to watch with friends but on the whole it's very skippable.Really only for people who want to be super-completionist of the genre/kaiju historians, most of the other kaiju movies of the time by studios like Toho and Daiei are better.

I love these old movies thanks

look like godzilla went he was an baby

it was not bad .it a very old movie .

The DVD packaging and presentation is of very low quality. I've seen $1 DVDs with better presentation, and I feel I wasted $15 on this disc. Cover art is a very low res JPEG printed on an inkjet printer and the disc is a DVD-R.The video is hardsubbed (captions cannot be turned off) as well as very compressed and stretched from 4:3 to 16:9. The audio doesn't fare any better.