In Review: Zegapain

Sogoru Kyo aimed to revive his swimming club in his high school in Maihama, when he meets a mysterious woman named Shizuno. He is transported to another world where they must destroy Defter using a mecha called Zegapain–but is it for real? (circa 2006. Rating: Average)

Let me say that I take back anything bad that I said about Zegapain, save for two:
1) The first episode doesn’t impress;
2) The mecha CG doesn’t impress a lot either.

This show was 4th in my mecha rankings for 2006. I am so glad I picked it up again. But why o why did I drop it in the first place? Blame the first episode. It was not very impressive, and for comparison, even Innocent Venus’ first episode was better.

However, there was a turning point in the series. The show was able to introduce likable characters that I could actually care about. I think it was around episode 11, where a certain character died. To my surprise I found myself teary-eyed; I had begun to care about a character! That was when I started liking Zegapain. Perhaps, the intrigue of a love triangle also drew me in. I’m a sucker for things like that.

On the other hand, the mysteries involving the predicament of our heroes also unfold little by little. The story of living in a virtual world is not a novel idea, but somehow it felt a little fresh. There are actually a lot of surprises on the way to the nice (but still question-inducing) ending, but they won’t be surprises if I talk about them here, right?

• Animation at 0.50/0.75. I have no complaints this time. This is my borderline acceptable way of how a modern mecha series should be animated, unlike that Innocent Venus crap.

• Characters at 0.75/1. I don’t like Kyo, he was annoying at first, but I don’t hate him either. My fave is Shizuno. Well, one thing that I liked was that the characters became more interesting as the show went on. Although, it would have been nice if more of the past of Kyo and Shizuno were added/explored.

• Music at 0.50/0.75. Not bad, but not very memorable either.

• Story/Plot/Dialogue at 1/1. Ok, it’s actually based on a videogame but I don’t have anything significant to complain about that. Zegapain had a good story, and coupled with interesting characters, made for a good watch.

• Entertainment value at 1/1.5. Most of the earlier battles seemed repititive and quite dull. However, the series seemed to pick up steam when Kyo’s friend Ryoko shows the signs of ‘awakening’ to the reality of the virtual world. I also liked that episode where the ‘incident’ with the Maihama server occured.

Overall, Zegapain just falls short to be considered a classic mecha series (hmm what could have been done to make it better? Dunno). It’s also not a must watch, but if you wanted to know the better mecha shows from 2006, Zegapain is one of them.

Rating: 3.75/5