ZEGAPAIN 1 / (SUB) - ZEGAPAIN 1 / (SUB)
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| Product DescriptionReality and fantasy seem to be breaking down for student Kyo Sogoru. Is he really the smart but unpopular swim enthusiast at Maikama High School or the pilot of the giant robot Zegapain in a war-devastated world? From the day he meets the mysterious girl Shizuno Misaki, his life changes forever as he begins to question reality and his own sanity. Which life is real and which is fantasy? As he fights the forces of the enemy GARDS-ORM and tries to keep his school swim club going, Kyo searches for answers. But is the truth even stranger than he's ready to deal with? Animation by Studio Sunrise. Genre: Action/ Fantasy/ Mecha. - Actors: Zegapain
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
- Format: Animated, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
- Language (Original Language): English
- Language (Original Language): Japanese
- Language (Subtitled): English
- Region Code: 0
- Release Date: 2007-10-02
Customer ReviewsReviewed on 2008-07-17 
Never to be forgotten...
What do you get when you combine cyberpunk, mecha, and quantum physics? Ever since the Matrix came out it seems that anime and sci-fi creators have been enamored with the idea that the world is a computer-generated dream that everyone needs to wake up from. And lately Quantum Physics is the new techno-babble of choice (I'm sure Noein had more than a few people scratching their heads). This however, it not simply a gimmick show (despite the trasparent mecha reminiscent of the fabulous failed Wild Siderz comic). This is a genuinely new step in the realm of sci-fi, despite the familiar trapping of Mecha out to save the world and a reluctant plucky hero put through much melodrama. As the name implies, this show is about pain....but in a good way.
In the first episode we're treated to a somewhat confusing first few minutes that quickly jumps to the apparent "real world", where an optimistic and upbeat high school student who runs the swim club finds his old team-mates angry, his swim club in danger of being dissolved, his best friend enlisting his help for film projects, and a mysterious girl acting like her and him are an item despite her very cold and aloof manner. And then the girl drags him out of the "real world" into a crazy world straight out of a videogames, where the future of the world is in jeopardy and the only defense is mecha with glowing holonic armor with a pilot and a wizard (support) to control them). At first to us it almost seems like a videogame too.
The magic in this show becomes apparent as you watch. The everyday goings-on are interesting to watch, but rather on a realistic level. The interludes of conspirational talk amongst people with two lives and a slight strangeness to the world are subtle clues that it may take us as long to pick up on as it does the protagonist. But before long it becomes quite obvious that something is wrong with the world. What exactly has happened to the world is just the first of many plot twists. It's a bit of a spoiler...but the the question of weather the world is an illusion or life is an illusion proves true in both cases. The world that our hero knows is a computer generated fantasy. But in addition the human race itself was quantumized (reduced to data inside a computer) long ago, and that means no ones ages or otherwise physically degrades. But that doesn't mean they can't die. and that's where the pain in Zegapain comes in.
Like the inhabitants of Tokyo in Rahxephon, everyone goes about their lives totally oblivious to the fact that the world they know is fake. Kept in a continual state of complacency, they never notice that parents and friends NEVER come by, that certain shops NEVER have the owners present. And naturally the reason why they are never to be found...is that they are dead. The war between human beings and their persecutors who can regenerate themselves seemingly infinitely has had many casualties over the years, and even though human beings and a world for them to live in can be simulated, there are limits.
There's an awful lot of pain in this series all right. Every time someone quantum transports they slightly degrade (some data is lost). And eventually, a person's essence (soul) can no longer be reconstructed. The limited resources of the servers that store "reality" can reproduce people who have died, but when they do it's only in the state that they were in when the backup was made. And thus comes the double sadness of people being reborn with all their memories erased, and the terribly painful relization that you might not be real, and if so neither are the people you love.
In a rather interesting twist, this show features the opposite of the character norm. Instead of a stoic hero guy and an emotionally expressive girl, the show starts out with an extraverted guy and a stoic girl. She doesn't say much throughout the show, but as it progresses it's increasingly obvious that she is very disturbed by things not working out between the protagonist and herself they way they did before. She's in love with him, and he's focusing on his best friend (another introverted girl with a very gentle demeanor) instead.
As far as sci-fi, and especially mecha go, this show has a remarkable. The drama starts slow, but builds and builds. The characters all slowly reveal their inner emotions, and the plot keeps twisting and turning in ways you don't expect. When everything is a computer generated dream, life and death can become very relative indeed, making you question EVERYTHING. But the most touching moments for me are the small ones, like when our hero and his friend are standing in a field of flowers, and his hands pass right through them (in the real world, people are no more than holograms).
It's amazing. This is a mecha show and I haven't even talked about the combat. And combat sequences are really quite good too. The already-mentioned transparent mehca (holonic armor) have a really cool look, and everything moves very fast. The only downside is that the mecha don't really seem to have any weight, but I suppose that can be forgiven as they're largely made out of light. But rather than being the highlight of the show, the combat sequences push things forward, and provide breaks from the otherwise very meloncholy world of the show.
The animation is very beautiful, being both of high quality and very consistent. The world may be slightly ordinary or plain, but it still manages to have enough color to keep things from getting boring (like Kurau, for instance). And if you watch the show on a upscaling dvd player, the high quality transfer really shines. The music is moody and introspective, but also at times very touching and beautiful. I've only watched the show in Japanese really, because the Japanese dub is just so excellent. I also really love the way the music overlaps the cliff-hanger endings of the episodes (like Kurau in a good way). I like the opening and ending so much I always watch them (I've grown particularly attached to the way that the characters form and dissolve as if part of a dream).
If you like your Mecha philosophical, this is definitely the show to watch.
|  | Reviewed on 2008-02-23
another good mecha anime
The first DVD of Zegapain is very good and the rest of the series lookes very promising. At first glance it looks like any other mecha anime, but once you delve beneath the surface you find a very interesting and unique plotline with many twists and turns. All-around in my opinion Zegapain is a great series. | |
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