kade18 - 2015-09-06 20:14:25

Hello everyone, today I’m about to review an anime that flew under the radar Zegapain! So without further ado, let’s get started.

The Story
Kyo is an optimistic teenager who loves to swim so he creates a swim club but sadly he’s the only member so it faces the danger of being shut down by the student council. One day however he witnesses a girl by the name Shizuno dive into the pool, excited he asks her to be in a promo video for the club. She accepts only under the condition that he pilots a mech to fight against alien forces known as the Deutera forces. He then soon realizes that the world around him might not be all that it appears to be.

Zegapain was an anime I went in with medium expectations, I thought it would be just another lame mecha series with a protagonist as annoying as herpes in my asshole. But then I got around to watching it and I have to say, damn what a splendid watch this was! Zegapain at first starts out as a fairly interesting show, there was hints for the first couple of episodes that the world of Zegapain holds more secrets than meets the eye, mysterious messages, deja vu, the show challenges your perception on reality while implementing subtle hints to allow the audience to craft their own theories. Many more questions arise when the big reveal happens sometime around episode 5 or 6 and the show evolves going in depth with philosophies and concepts without shoving it down the viewer’s throat such as what makes someone by definition a human, immaterialism which is the belief that material things have no objective existence, and existentialist themes. Everything from the interactions down to the themes are handled maturely and you really feel the insane level of danger the characters are in with the stakes being high, the consequences from previous actions negatively affecting characters and the constant dark enigmatic tone. The technology in the show is explained in such a manner that doesn’t rub off as an abundance of random science babble and the lack of any hefty amounts of exposition is a breath of fresh air opposed to the other titles of the genre. Also surprisingly the show safely leaves little to no plot holes open leaving the narrative almost flawless aside from some pacing issues in the middle of the show. The show borrows heavily from the Matrix, they tell 2 separate tales yet share similar attributes so when watching keep that in mind!

Aside from its themes the show presents a nice romantic subplot between our protagonists which never boiled down to just melodrama or disrupted the flow of the story. Zegapain’s conclusion was satisfying, it provided the thrills, closed off the themes, and though bittersweet it was one hell of a way to end a truly remarkable story.

The Characters
The characters of Zegapain may seem generic at first but as the story advances the characters evolve.

Kyo, our main protagonist at first appeared to be that loud, buoyant and irritating protagonist. However, after some time his character begins to mature and we witness him struggling to cope with the cruel reality of the situations that arise surrounding him. Like the title of the anime Kyo is carrying loads of internal pain, it’s fascinating to view how he handles all the built up mental frustration as he pretends to hide his pessimistic thoughts by acting optimistically. He’s a great protagonist with many flaws that adds a layer of depth to his character. Also he loves to swim so ladies you can get your Free! fix from this character.

The rest of the cast includes characters who also have to cope with some variation of pain whether it be physical or for the majority of the cast mental and psychological. Kaminagi is a jolly character who aspires to become a film director and is Kyo’s childhood friend, Shizuno is a sexy girl who has a mysterious vibe surrounding her, and the rest of the cast is full of characters ranging from decent to terrific. Every character has a purpose in the plot and their interactions are always compelling to watch. Overall we have a strong cast of characters with some minor bumps but the positives vastly outweighs the negatives.

The Art/Animation
Honestly, the art wasn’t abysmal but it was in an abundance of areas highly inadequate due to a massive lack of effort and lovesauce placed in this show. The show lacks any sort of style, the character designs appeared to be cheap but easily identifiable, and the explosions looked laughably fake and copy and pasted. I’m not a huge fan of CGI in anime, some areas the CGI mechs look swell, in others they don't fit in at all with the traditional backgrounds. I will say this as a pro, I like the mech design itself, it’s pretty original. The animation and choreography for the fight scenes generally improved starting from stale and becoming more captivating as the stakes increase. Overall however, the anime in my opinion lacked humongously in this department preventing me from giving this title a 9.

The Sound
The general soundtrack fit with the show, though it’s not the most memorable I felt some pieces gave the show a nice atmosphere and the battle music was on point but not stellar. I loved the opening and ending songs, they both were impressive tracks. The voice acting was a solid thumbs up, I felt the characters emotions and the performances were wonderful.

Overall I believe that Zegapain is a hidden gem, it only has 7,000 people who completed it on Myanimelist and I believe that is highly unacceptable. This title deserves more attention and praise so I highly advise everyone who is watching this video to check out Zegapain, the art/animation may be rocky but the story and characters make up for it tenfold. Zegapain gets my score of greatness so please guys and gals go watch it, especially if you’re a fan of The Matrix.

For recommendations I advise you to check out the film The Matrix because of their similar qualities and also for an anime I’ll throw in Brigadoon because they’re both sci fi shows that are highly underrated created by Sunrise involving a character shouldering pain and realizing the cruel reality of the world.

amalia88 - 2015-08-11 13:35:59

Zegapain is a show that contains all the elements of a show that should have met massive critical and commercial success both inside and outside of Japan. The latter is true, but the former isn't, which comes as a surprise of sorts if someone has actually finished the show. The show is complex, philosophical, very tightly written and has an amazing setting which is fleshed out in a spectacular amount of detail and has a lot of depth.

And yet, this show stands as one of the most underrated anime series of all time. This is in part to the show's seemingly weak beginning where a lot of elements that the show has are foreshadowed but never directly told to the audience, which leaves viewers with the misleading impression that it's just another generic mech anime and that the characters are simplistic and bland.

Neither impression is correct, as anyone who has actually finished the show would tell you. In fact, this show's biggest problem is that it doesn't show its true nature until most viewers have dropped the show and walked out with the worst first impression possible.

Zegapain is also well-known for the story and setting in itself being a massive spoiler for the entire show. It is recommended by most people to at least reach episode 7 before making a decision to drop the show, since the show doesn't show its true colors until that point.

The story is very tightly written and well-explained, and the setting is even better fleshed out than one would expect.
Presentation of the story is top notch and exposition scenes never insult the viewer's intelligence by bringing up things that the viewer already knows but apparently needs the show to explain. 

The setting is very distinct by anime standards, and while many people will be quick to compare the setting with the Matrix, I found the similarities superficial at best and outright wrong at worse. The setting is incredibly crapsack by nature, so heads up for anyone looking for something easygoing and happy-go-lucky; you won't find it here.

The themes are very interesting and captivating from beginning to the end, well-explored and fully fleshed out. Mentioning the themes is a spoiler as well, so I will only say that even that shows its true colors after episode 7, though very carefully foreshadowed at the beginning.

The characters are simplistic, but are very dynamic and work extremely well and develop very well over the course of the show. No character is left undeveloped or unexplored, though the villains aren't as developed as well as they could have been.

The soundtrack is of a high quality, fitting the mood of the show and some tracks having hearing value outside of the show. The ending song in particular fits the show very well, and is easily among my favorite ending songs of all time.

Artwork looks alright, but I couldn't help but feel that with better animation quality this show's presentation would've been a lot better and it would have been nice to see where the creators could have experimented with it. The animation is consistent throughout the show, and there are no real quality drops, but even then the show was too good to have animation that barely gets an average score.

Overall, Zegapain is an exceptional show which doesn't play its cards properly instantly and saves the best after a certain point in the show. The story is amazing, the setting detailed and the characters constantly move forward from episode to episode. Patience will be rewarded while watching this show, and it certainly is a case where ratings don't tell the full story.

schroeder.oswaldo - 2014-04-16 22:38:28

Zegapain is a not so well-known sci-fi mecha show that is sci-fi first and mecha second. So if you're looking for some bombastic action-oriented anime and just want to see cool looking robots blowing each other up then steer clear, Zegapain isn't for you. However, if you're looking for a heavy sci-fi show strong in thought-provoking themes and a complex story and narrative then continue reading and maybe I can convince you to watch this.

Jumping into the first episode Zegapain seems like a generic Mecha show with high-school flavor but that's exactly what the show wants you to think as everything isn't as it seems. Our protagonist, Kyo, is living his normal life and starts noticing some weird occurrences and through a course of events finds himself piloting a robot and in an alternate game-seeming reality that after uncovering some truths will shake his very world and perception to its core. Existentialist themes such as Cartesian dualism, reality, identity, and some other minor themes such as natural vs. artificial are juggled without ever seeming pretentious, preachy, shoehorned, or unexplored; Zegapain is great at handling its themes to the fullest.

A typical problem a lot of similar shows have is collapsing under the weight of its complex story and setting because of plotholes, infodumps (or the opposite, lack of exposition), and plot contrivances, none of which are problems here. Zegapain manages to maintain a complex fully-explored setting and plot advancements without any of those, the show is really maturely handled, always evolving with its characters and plot developments, always rewarding, and never breaking its rules. I would talk more about the setting but it's a bit hard to delve into without spoiling things, just keep in mind that it's never as simple as it seems and there's always another twist to rattle it up. We may have some pacing problems here and there but it's nothing too bad, it's never painfully dull or too fast, it can just be a little erratic sometimes due to the frequency that plot-twists are thrown and dealt with, it's never unsatisfying or impedes with dealing with its themes though. I mention that the show has lots of twists but it isn't one of those shows that throws twists at you for the sake of twists, they're very pivotal to the setting and narrative and are all excused and heavily, subtly, and intricately foreshadowed. To top it all off we arrive at an extremely well-polished and powerful conclusion that leaves no loose ends and compliments its themes nicely.

Zegapain also delivers with its characters about as much as with its plot, no archetypes or one-dimensional characters here. Everyone is well fleshed out and receives a ton of backstory, that isn't to say the show goes overboard with its flashbacks but rather that backdrops fit extremely well into its narrative and always makes use of them. The characters evolve alongside the plot and revelations as they are forced to confront reality and their beliefs in a way that can totally rock their perception of life and their situations, aside from adding to the dynamics of their character it really makes for some thought provoking ideas and intriguing angles of growth. All the characters have a purpose and definitely add something to the show but some of the side characters can lack some presence once in a while and are rather forgettable despite being well fleshed-out and having solid development and backdrop. Something that can also throw a lot of shows off the deep end is a shoehorned romance or love triangle that just isn't well handled in general, Zegapain deals with its romance very well. There is sort of a love triangle in the show but it's perfectly excused by former and current relationships between the characters and plot advancements without ever seeming forced, melodramatic, or used for a reason that doesn't aid in developing it's plot or characters, infact it's very important to them.

One area where Zegapain doesn't deliver however, is the art and animation section. The characters all look really bland and the animation isn't the greatest (though it's definitely not bad), sure the show has some neat visual effects but it definitely doesn't excuse this sections biggest downfall for the show; the CGI. The mechs are designed fairly uniquely (albeit look and move a bit clunky) but it's put to shame by some poor CGI. It's definitely not close to the worst case of CGI i've seen but it really does stand out. Despite being a mecha show, and done by Sunrise for that matter, the action scenes atleast for the first half are very dull and unengaing. It's partly due to the early action scenes lacking context and exposition as we don't know what we're fighting, what our main characters are fighting for, and what the stakes are, just that they're fighting some ugly CGI grunt robots that all look the same. That isn't to say that they shouldn't be there, they are definitely important scenes, just a little taxing. Zegapain definitely delivers in a lot of areas but this is not one of them, good thing the show is more plot and character focused anyway.

However the sound section is another area that the show delivers for. It's certainly not one of the strongest soundtracks i've heard but the pieces range from average to incredible, there's certainly a lot of great tracks used that really add to the emotion and feeling of the scenes as well as just sounding great in general, especially a lot of the music in the latter half. I myself wasn't too fond of the opening but I didn't dislike it, the main ending theme however im really a fan of and it seems to fit the show perfectly. The voice acting in the sub is stellar and has lots of impact, I definitely recommend it over the dub which ranges from average to bad and lazily done.

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I was really surprised by the high level of writing this show presented, it's a great sci-fi mecha show that really pushes the boundaries of what the genres are capable of. It's a pretty heavy-handed show and not easily digestible but it really stands out in the crowd and is one of the stronger hidden gems i've seen, definitely an underrated work that needs more appreciation. This really feels like one of the greater sci-fi show's of the medium and you should really check this out if it seems like your cup of tea and you can get past some bad CGI.

Story: 8/10
Characters: 8/10
Art/Animation: 3.5/10
Sound: 7/10
Enjoyment: 8.5/10

Overall: 7.5~8/10