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

Beniya, Yoshikazu Producer

Imanishi, Takashi Producer

Yamakawa, Norio Producer

Shimoda, Masami Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Mar 12, 2008

slpless

Recommended

I’ll admit I was quite biased when I heard that Sunrise was going to make yet another mecha anime. One day I said “why not?” and watched the first episode afterwards I knew this was something quite different than your usual mecha fare. One of the major things that struck me was the OP (disguised as the ED in the first ep), “Kimi e Mukau Hikari” sung by Akino Arai. This was not a fast paced song with intense mecha action in the background. Instead the OP featured a slow, beautifully sung ballad predominantly featuring the characters of the series, not ... the giant robots. This really sets the tone for the entire series.

Many people say that the beginning of Zegapain starts off very slow and doesn’t really start till a few episodes in. However, for me I was quite intrigued by the many subtle hints found in the first few eps. What is Shizuno’s relationship with Kyo? What was the deal with that scene? What is really going on? The story effectively builds upon itself and builds several layers of complexity. Each episode flowed quite well with each other, thus making many cliffhangers. Although, if I had to complain about the pacing it does somewhat falter a little in the midteens. In addition, the story features several classic philosophical ideal from Descartes to Berkeley (?). However, unlike other anime titles Zegapain doesn’t bog the viewer down with its ideas.

Animation-wise there really isn’t anything to complain about, it seems Sunrise put a decent about of money into producing this anime. CG for the fight scenes at least in the beginning was kind of weak however, they managed to fix that mid series.

In terms of sound, I really like the OST and it really accents many of scenes while not being too forward and in your face. However, it’s the OP and EDs which really stick out for me and are constantly appearing in my playlist.

In general there is an overarching sense of sadness throughout the series and quite a bit of drama. However, not so much as to make the viewer go numb. Do not watch Zegapain for the action, watch it for the story and characters. While the action scenes are nicely done there are far better shows out there if that’s what you are looking for.

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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Jul 24, 2025

Stefan_Stefanov

Not Recommended

This show is unfortunately very average.
It was not easy to watch all 26 episodes.

There could be mild spoilers below by way of inferring from the context of my review, but nothing will be revealed/spoiled directly in the text below.

Interesting plot, mysterious mysteries. When all is revealed in the end, it makes perfect sense, there are no plot holes that I could find in the plot itself. If you have experienced a lot sci-fi works however, you are likely to guess very early on what is actually happening.
This can be either good or bad, depending on viewer perspective - things are foreshadowed in a good way, ... I guess, but for me it was very obvious what was actually happening a few episodes before the reveal (it happens in episode 6).
I'm not sure if I liked or disliked that I was able to figure it out so early.
But luckily there are more mysteries to follow after episode 6.

Unfortunately, the way they are handled is in the worst possible manner - the show teases you with things like "what is up with this character", but then for a few episodes, there is no reveal, just tease. I say it is done in the worst way because there is no 'plot' reason for the mystery - it is just characters concealing things from other characters, not for any plot reason, but for the viewer to be left in the dark for as long as possible.
Like a mystery about one (or two) of the characters is teased, and then the show will not reveal anything on purpose for a few episodes, but keep showing you that there is something important going on that's been hidden from you.
Then a few characters even ask questions about it - and then the scene ends and nothing is shown or revealed. This was very annoying to me, especially when after the reveal it was obvious that there had been no reason for the 'secret'.
This was probably what I hated most about the show.

Another thing I really disliked is the MC. He starts off kind of dumb, standard short tempered protag, not very interesting but serviceable. As another reviewer said, it could be very interesting to put this kind of protag in such a sci-fi story where their beliefs are challenged, and they can't just remain a dumb short tempered MC.
... buuuut unfortunately this is exactly what happens.
The MC at some point learns some bad things about his world and goes through a bit of an existential crisis. He even stops being so dumb and shorttempered for a while. So far so good, actually I was very happy by this point in the show as it showed great promise.
But then after a few eps MC comes to terms with his situation, and goes back to the dumb angry boy he started as, and he stays this way for the whole show. Just terribly boring and uninspired protag, showed big promise at an early point, only to turn out completely disappointing and follow all the worst cliches. I find no redeeming qualities in this kind of protag.

Honestly this show could have been great if it had better characters.
The only one I liked was Kaminagi, even though not the most original or interesting character, she was normal and consistent, she was never annoying, didn't have any exaggerated personality traits, and her relationship with the MC was quite realistic, so I enjoyed that.
The ending was very abrupt, although it did end kind of conclusively.
But after 26 episodes, the least the could have done is to spare some more time for an epilogue, you know, show how things turned out, give us some proper closure/happy end, instead of just hinting at it very briefly.

I can not ever recommend this show, even though I have it a 5 (AVERAGE), I was rarely excited for what would happen next, I was just mildly curious. Also I'm a sucker for any kind of romance, so I wanted to see MC and his girl get together, I guess this is what kept me watching. Unfortunately you don't see much more than friendship until the very last episode. Even though it's obvious there are romantic feelings, nothing comes of it during the show, so this itch remains largely unscratched.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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	Poll: Zegapain Episode 15 Discussion ShanaFlame - May 28, 2009	5 replies	by tygaclaw »» Apr 30, 2025 11:47 PM
	Poll: Zegapain Episode 26 Discussion ShanaFlame - May 28, 2009	41 replies	by Kuroneko1415 »» Feb 7, 2025 6:25 AM
	Poll: Zegapain Episode 18 Discussion ShanaFlame - May 28, 2009	4 replies	by Kuroneko1415 »» Feb 4, 2025 3:27 AM
	Poll: Zegapain Episode 25 Discussion ShanaFlame - May 28, 2009	5 replies	by scrapegoat »» Oct 20, 2024 1:02 PM
	Poll: Zegapain Episode 1 Discussion Grandy - Jan 4, 2009	11 replies	by NoviSun »» Nov 26, 2023 6:25 PM