Line #16 Anime/SuperAtragon


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/superatragon_5931.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Undersea-Battleship Ra, ENGAGE!!!]]]]
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4	''Super Atragon'' (''Shin Kaitei Gunkan'') is a two-part anime OVA animated by Phoenix Entertainment, made in 1995, with a total running time (excluding credits) of a little over 1.5 hours. It centres on a {{Phlebotinum}}-powered [[MilitaryMashupMachine submarine-battleship]] named the ''Ra''. It has the same plot premise as the old Japanese SciFi {{Tokusatsu}} movie ''Film/{{Atragon}}'' ''(Kaitei Gunkan)'', and the two novels that it was based upon[[note]]''The Undersea Warship'' by Shunrō Oshikawa and ''The Undersea Kingdom'' by Shigeru Komatsuzaki[[/note]]. It could be seen as a HumongousMecha show as it uses many of the genre's tropes, but with a {{Dieselpunk}} battleship instead of a robot.
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6	The show opens with a [[ColdOpen prologue scene]] depicting the ''Ra'' in 1945, under the Imperial Japanese flag, engaging in a broadside match against an American submarine-battleship, the ''Liberty''. After which we have the opening credits, and then the action skips to present day Antarctica, where a mysterious black object is rising from the ice and an expedition is sent to investigate.
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8	They discover that an advanced race of [[HollowEarth subterranean dwellers]] tested humanity in 1932 with two sources of power and two emissaries. For decades the emissaries lay in a coma, but now they have awakened, and one of them has decided that humans have failed the test and must be exterminated. War machines of devastating power have risen around the world; and humanity's only hope is the ''Ra'', rebuilt in all of its big-gunned glory, with a bombastic soundtrack to match.
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10	----
11	!! This show provides examples of:
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13	* AdaptedOut: Because of how protective Toho is of their characters, the kaiju Manda is completely absent.
14	* AndTheAdventureContinues: The OVA ends with the ''Ra'' flying away to find any more awakening weapons.
15	* ApocalypseHow: The BigBad is attempting a Class 3a to the Earth's surface while using a method that would have actually caused a Class 5.
16	* ArtisticLicenseShips: US battleships are named after states, not abstract concepts.
17	* BookEnds: The opening battle and the final battle both pit the ''Ra'' against the ''Liberty''; [[spoiler: both battles ended with a head-to-head drill ramming action.]]
18	* BlindIdiotTranslation:
19	** Captain Hayate shouts, "ENGAGE!" when issuing "Fire" commands.
20	** He also refers to the main guns' shells as "Missiles" despite the animation clearly showing they're shells.
21	* TheBridge: Much of the fighting footage show the captain giving out orders on the bridge.
22	* CainAndAbel: [[spoiler:Annette and Avatar were very close before they were sent to the surface. Then they grew apart.]]
23	* TheCaptain: Captain Hayate.
24	* CatchPhrase: Hayate manages to develop one in the 1.5 hours of runtime, "UNDERSEA-BATTLESHIP ''RA'', '''ENGAGE!!!'''"
25	* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler: The captain hands his family sword to Go as a symbolic gesture, but later the sword is used to cut his bonds and save him from drowning.]]
26	* CoolBoat: Both the ''Ra'' and the ''Liberty'' runneth over with cool.
27	* ColdOpen: The prologue battle scene set before the traditional TV Show opening.
28	* CurbStompBattle: Every time the enemy fights anything but the ''Ra''.
29	* DieselPunk: The series glories in the ''Ra'''s use of 1940s-era naval and air technology with a heavy seasoning of ImportedAlienPhlebotinum.
30	* DoABarrelRoll: The ocean-going ''Ra'' pulls one of these in her first engagement. ''Ra'' 's main guns cannot elevate high enough to shoot the enemy target. In order to elevate them to a high enough angle, they flood the the port side ballast tanks, tilting the entire ship another 45 degrees off-keel and bringing the guns to the desired elevation.
31	* DontCallMeSir: Tashibana says this verbatim when Go meets him for the first time in Antarctica.
32	* EnergyWeapon: The enemy's [[WaveMotionGun powerful laser shots]]; bonus points for the "gravity lens" that bends the lasers, aiming them at targets.
33	* EvilLaugh: [[BigBad Avatar's]] cackle is used so much, it goes into Narm territory.
34	* HollowEarth: Where a race of subterranean dwellers can produce kilometer-wide cylinders.
35	* HotBlooded: Go Arasaka gets into a fight inside a helicopter, nearly punches the ''Ra'''s captain (his father) and impulsively steals a DieselPunk seaplane to go rescue his girlfriend. All this while hamming up his lines, especially when impulsively going to rescue his girlfriend in the seaplane he jacked from the ''Ra''.
36	* JustAStupidAccent:
37	** Annette has a British Accent in the English dub for no reason beyond the producers ensuring the lead female protagonist doesn't get mistaken for American.
38	** The ''Ra'''s chief engineer has a vaguely German/Eastern European accent for no reason.
39	* LargeHam: Captain Hayate, Go, Annette and Avatar all serve up truckloads of ham enough to [[{{Pun}} sink]] the show's seriouness. [[MST3KMantra Just let it ride]] and watch more StuffBlowingUp.
40	* LetsYouAndHimFight: Avatar leads the U.N. fleet (read:{{Eagleland}}) to the doorstep of the ''Ra'' 's island base to commandeer the Undersea Battleship, then fakes an attack to bait the fleet into a full attack.
41	* LimitedWardrobe: The only change of clothes after the prologue are Annette putting on her native ceremonial clothes and Go with a pilot's suit.
42	* MilitaryMashupMachine: Both the ''Ra'' and ''Liberty'' are submarine battleships.
43	* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: The ''Ra'' shows new features in the middle of fights, most are used exactly once. It is likely that the OVA was a pilot intended to be followed by later episodes, which might have seen it have a consistent power set.
44	** A self-leveling bridge.
45	** [[IfItSwimsItFlies The (completely gratuitous) ability to fly]]. (Though the original ''Atragon'' could as well, at least it did in ''Film/GodzillaFinalWars'')
46	** Weaponized, rocket-propelled anchors.
47	* NoIndoorVoice: Captain Hayate has volume control issues, even when issuing otherwise routine/mundane orders.
48	--->'''Captain Hayate''' ''(after a battle is over & the ''Ra'' is still airborne)'' "GO TO SURFACE MODE!"
49	* ParentalAbandonment: Go's father was a merchant marine captain that supposedly died when his ship capsized near Antarctica during Go's early childhood. Go's mother died later in life. [[spoiler: His father is Captain Hayate.]]
50	* PunctuatedForEmphasis: Captain Hayate is prone to saying his CatchPhrase this way, "UNDERSEA-BATTLESHIP ''RA'', '''ENGAGE!!!'''
51	* [[RedShirtArmy Red Shirt Navy]]: The massive US-led, UN fleet gets swept from the ocean in one shot.
52	* RammingAlwaysWorks: The climax of the opening battle and the final battle: [[spoiler: the ''Ra'' and ''Liberty'' turn to ram each other. In the 1940s, both ships are destroyed; in the final battle, the ''Liberty'' 's drill-missiles are foiled by the ''Ra'' 's rocket-anchors, freeing the ''Ra'' to plow through the ''Liberty'' 's bow, destroying her and killing Avatar.]]
53	* SchematizedProp: The opening credits roll over blueprints of the ''Ra''.
54	* SecretTestOfCharacter: The two power sources sent to Earth's surface were ostensibly supposed to be this for all of humanity. Considering they were sent up during the middle of a raging war, and ended up in opposing hands, it comes off as more of a setup and PretextForWar than anyting else.
55	* SchizoTech: Modern mach 2 fighters and their missiles could not scratch the enemy's advanced weaponry. A fictional, WWII-style, seaplane armed with nothing but machine-guns could swat down several before being damaged.
56	* ThisIsADrill:
57	** The huge drill mounted on the bow of the ''Ra''
58	** [[BigBad Avatar's]] ship has ''three'', with the upper two mounted side by side on its bow; it makes for DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything moment in some scenes.
59	* UniversalDriversLicense: Go can go from antarctic tracked vehicles to WWII era seaplanes with no training or control familiarization.
60	* WaveMotionGun: The enemies' giant black cylinders fire lasers that can cut a modern destroyer in half in a second.

Context Anime / SuperAtragon