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 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: 4/10
Sound: 7/10
Enjoyment: 8.5/10
Overall: 7.5~8/10
