Zegapain

Average high school student Kyou Sogoru is an avid swimmer living in beautiful Maihama City. He spends his days hanging out with friends, swimming, and playing video games. However, his normal life turns upside down when a beautiful and mysterious girl named Shizuno Misaki approaches him with a strange request—jump into their school's pool together.

This fateful leap transports Kyou into a war-torn world where humans pilot impressive humanoid robots known as Zegas to fight against malicious aliens known as Gards-Orm. To spearhead this endeavor, humans have formed Cerebrum, a rebel organization working to prevent the Gards-Orm from eradicating humankind.

As Kyou participates in combat operations, meets his fellow Zega pilots, and witnesses countless deaths, he begins to question the true nature of this world as well as his own life.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kaminagi, Ryouko Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Sogoru, Kyou Main

Asanuma, Shintaro Japanese

Misaki, Shizuno Main

Kawasumi, Ayako Japanese

Minato Supporting

Inoue, Marina Japanese

Mao, Lu Sheng Supporting

Park, Romi Japanese

Abyss Supporting

Katou, Masayuki Japanese

Avenir, Chris Supporting

Yanaka, Hiroshi Japanese

Tomigai, Kei Supporting

Watanabe, Akeno Japanese

Kaminagi, Kouji Supporting

Ootsuda, Hiromi Japanese

Isola Supporting

Murai, Kazusa Japanese

Imanishi, Takashi Producer

Beniya, Yoshikazu Producer

Yamakawa, Norio Producer

Shimoda, Masami Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Dec 20, 2023

_yunxue

Recommended

Zegapain is definitely a hidden gem. If you enjoyed The Matrix then I believe this anime can offer you an experience as deep if not deeper than that trilogy, personally I'm leaning towards Zegapain.

The episodes do a great job of plunging you from slice-of-life happiness into despair, and every single episode has unpredictable plot twists that will push the symbolic knife deeper into your heart, inch by inch. Usually, I don't appreciate how nihilism is portrayed in anime and manga, but Zegapain portrayed hopelessness beautifully and dealt with it in the only proper way it could've been dealt with in the context of the world ... of this anime: not through fancy theories and flowery words, but through the protection of the person loved by the protagonist. Sometimes simple works best. In the oppressive world of Zegapain, where our protagonist is carrying innumerable burdens and a heavy duty, this simplicity was really a breath of fresh air. A very much needed breath of fresh air at that. Oh, and I don't mean "dumb" by saying "simple" by any means.

Unexpectedly, the character development was absolutely excellent. I'm saying "unexpectedly" because the main character is a loud rowdy type of guy. Annoying, right? Except he actually thinks about stuff pretty deeply and the changes to his character are really felt by the viewer and by the people around him. His childhood friend also has great character development at one point, but I can't say the same thing about everyone else. They kind of feel "complete", however there's a very good reason for that feeling, and it makes sense from the perspective of the plot, so the fact that everyone else doesn't get character development ends up making the story better. Amazing, huh? It's the first time I've seen something like this.

The scientific concepts were used very liberally, however the explanations were plausible enough nonetheless. At the end of the anime there were barely any plot holes left, and the ones that were left weren't serious enough to warrant criticism from me. Without spoiling anything I can say that the ending was conclusive enough on all aspects, romance included, and it left me satisfied. But I felt that it wasn't big or epic enough. We're saving the world from a mad-scientist, you know? Why not go out with a BANG?

As far as the animations go, it's above average for 2006, but it's nothing special either. I can't say that I appreciate the way the post-apocalyptic world was portrayed though. Everything is in ruins, everything is grey. I wish there were more colors, more greenery growing on the buildings, more wild animals and not just birds that pop up occasionally. Yeah, the world is supposed to feel dead, but it's just too dead. The mecha fights were meh at best too. Definitely not the strong point of this show.

That being said, if you want an interesting story that will keep you on your toes, then this is a great anime, probably approaching the levels of a masterpiece, especially if you can appreciate character development and a protagonist that grows stronger mentally and not "physically", as he's already the best pilot around from the start. But if you just want to watch robots fighting and don't plan on paying too much attention to the plot, then this isn't for you. The plot is definitely what makes this anime good, the mechas and the fights are just there for some tension.

9.4/10, best girl won (watch the post-credit scene of the last episode). MAL ratings really can't be trusted, I put off watching this for so long...

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Aug 22, 2020

Shadow777Star

Mixed Feelings

Wow is the beginning of this show terrible. I considered dropping this show so many times for the first ten episodes. The only thing that kept me going was all of the great reviews about this show. After sticking it out, it did get significantly better.

At first it appears to be just a dumb mecha/high school anime, but it dives into deep questions of reality and perception. The concept is honestly pretty cool after you get into it.

I gave this anime a six mostly because of the concepts and ideas. The deployment of them was so-so. This mixed with the slow beginning almost ... made me give this show a five. The action is also pretty lame. I wouldn't say not to watch it, but I would never give it as a recommendation. I don't ever plan on watching it again.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Oct 21, 2019

Gonomon

Not Recommended

Zegapain, namely how do you waste a grand potential the anime.

It's one of those shows that you will not be really liking, but watch until the end wishing that it will get better and you will see something that will make you amazed. Well in this case you will be only mildly amazed since even if story is really good the way its told just sucks.

Story: 3/10
In a Science fiction show/anime/novel/etc. i really value if the things can really happen in the world and if they have any value over fantasy because if they do not it wont be a science fiction for me its ... genre will be fantasy for me and i don't really like fantasy since i m into more realistic stuff. Well i am glad to say this anime is really realistic in terms of its scientific things. And the main point i watch this anime was because it was full of realistic imagination. Even though imagination is really good realization of the story is just really bad. It moves really slowly in the moments you don't want to see but it moves really fast on the ones that you want to see. Also later episodes has a feel of really odd rush on them, like you see fights and stuff a lot but they really skipped the main story elements for last few episodes.
So overall even if the idea is perfect, realization lacks a lot.

Art: 4/10
Really, there is nothing catchy about it. Battle scenes are mostly CGI and i mean i don't know if its a bad thing or not but don't expect to see really good animation here. But also don't expect to see really bad one either.

Characters: 2/10
Well i really hated characters and their relationships most of the time. It was not realistic at all. I only enjoyed to watch Arque's story and stuff but other characters were just like teenagers from a disney drama.

Enjoyment: 5/10
Even it was bad and slow in the scenes i want to be fast and vice versa, it still made me watch itself so it is good in this regard.

Sound: 6/10
Sound department is alright imo, there were nothing bad and i liked opening and ending musics a little at the first time i listened to them.

Overall: 4/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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'Zegapain' TV Anime Sequel Announced

The official website of the Zegapain anime series announced the production of a sequel to the television anime, Olta Moda-hen, on Thursday, revealing a teaser visual...read more

Aug 30, 2023 9:36 PM by DatRandomDude | Discuss (28 comments)

Summary Movie of 'Zegapain' TV Anime Announced

Animation studio Sunrise has announced at AnimeJapan 2016 that its 2006 mecha anime series Zegapain will be re-edited into a movie titled Zegapain ADP. The movie wil...read more

Mar 26, 2016 10:13 PM by arsonal | Discuss (22 comments)

	Poll: Zegapain Episode 25 Discussion ShanaFlame - May 28, 2009	5 replies	by scrapegoat »» Oct 20, 1:02 PM
	Poll: Zegapain Episode 1 Discussion Grandy - Jan 4, 2009	11 replies	by NoviSun »» Nov 26, 2023 6:25 PM
	Poll: Zegapain Episode 2 Discussion Grandy - Jan 4, 2009	8 replies	by Soap »» Jan 10, 2023 4:44 PM
	Poll: Zegapain Episode 26 Discussion ShanaFlame - May 28, 2009	40 replies	by Coolzweg2 »» May 27, 2022 1:02 PM
	Poll: Zegapain Episode 20 Discussion ShanaFlame - May 28, 2009	4 replies	by Coolzweg2 »» May 26, 2022 12:05 PM