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

Dec 20, 2023

Crichigo

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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Jul 24, 2025

fastghosthunter

Mixed Feelings

(warning:This is going to be one of the most unstructured reviews I have made but just wanted to post something so bare with me.)
Zegapain is a 2006 anime made by Sunrise, brainchild of the infamous Hajime Yatate, a pseudonymn for a collection of Sunrise creative staff. Zegapain is a mecha, that was ahead of its time but behind at the same time. All art, especially media reflects the period of time it was made while also remaining wholly unique. When I think of the 2000's, this was the rise of the slice-of-life genre with works like Haruhi, Aria, Azumanga Daioh, and various other, non plot ... heavy anime coming out around this time. Zegapain was pretty much a commercial and critical flop largely because it did not fit into those existing trends and I think that was largely it. The production quality, plot, and characters of this are very similar to another one of my favs Rahxephon, however this was 4 years earlier and had it come out around then it may have been able to stand out a bit more but the tides were changing and general audiences were craving something different.

This is a 26 episode mecha, anime original,coming-of-age, existentialist series very similar to Rahxephon (and Rahxephon was just a spiritual successor to Eva). For those who have not watched Rahxephon, Rahxephon back in the early 2000's was pretty much THE anime people recommended if you also liked Evangelion and wanted something else to scratch that itch. Rahxephon is an amazingly set-up show, the first few episodes is probably one of the better opening acts of anime I have seen. Seriously if you haven't, watch Rahxephon for no other reaosn than that.

You can say a lot of things about this site, you can not critique the scoring system. Outside of controversial anime, like School Days and Oreimo. The scores are pretty reflective of the overall quality of the show. There are things I love about Zegapain and you can clearly see the Sunrise staff and directors were taking cues from other original anime productions around this time (Gonzo was still in operation at this time) and using the full medium of animation, really getting creative with the visual storytelling to give the audience something new. There are some really impressive fight sequences, storyboarding, and plot points here that as an anime nerd, I just can't help but give the show credit for. Although their was clearly a great deal of passion and storytelling experience on display here it just wasn't enough to move otaku.

Currently, you just don't have a lot of 20+ episode, original anime. The industry changes, trends change, but watching Zegapain has made one thing clear. It IS a big risk financially for anime studios who, in order to keep their doors open have to carefully evaluate risk. Moreso than that, it's HARD. Like really, hard to have 26 episodes of an original story, often times you have to have a really talented director and writer to pull it off. Writing a good poem is hard, writing a short story is even harder, writing a novel is even harder. All three are different styles of writing but just the sheer length requires a great deal of creativity to keep your audience engaged, to keep someone on the hook takes craftiness, and discerning audiences are even harder to keep on the hook because they tend to know when a story is frankly just wasting their time.

Zegapain just did not stick the landing, and given the intrigue that the show builds nothing really comes of it. There is very little payoff on the plot, things are resolved but don't feel resolved. Plot points that you thought would be pivotal to the story just kind of linger and don't develop, which is just dissapointing. I wanted to like this show but objectively I just can't give it more than a 6. I love it's ambition, I love aspects of this show but realistically if you dropped this around maybe episode 18, I don't think you would be missing much.

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