Zegapain



Zegapain is a 26 episode 2006 series about a high school student named Kyo Sogoru. He is a model student, gets good grades, and is the sole member of the soon to be dissolved swim team. One day he sees a beautiful girl on the diving board and rushes there in excitement for a potential new member. However when the girl dives and hits the water she disappears and Kyo has no idea what's going on. He sees the girl again, whose name is Shizuno Misaki, and asks her to be in a promo video for the swim club and in exchange he agrees to pilot a mecha called the Zegapain Altair against an enemy known as the Gards-Orm. When he asks what this world is he's told it's a game.

What follows is a tale of a world gone by that questions what it means to be human and just what is reality.

It's very hard to talk about the plot without giving away major plot points as the amount of spoilers below will attest.

"Shima: Form is void, void is form."
 * Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Justified
 * Ace Pilot: Justified
 * Airborne Aircraft Carrier: The Oceanus
 * Almost Kiss
 * Amnesiac Lover:
 * Anyone Can Die:
 * Applied Phlebotinum: LOTS AND LOTS OF IT.
 * Armor Is Useless: First Subverted then played straight when
 * Artificial Human:
 * Battle Couple: Chris and Arque. Later on, Kyo and.
 * Beam Spam: The Zegapains and Gards-Orm gun attacks.
 * Bishonen: Lu Shen.
 * Break the Cutie
 * Breakout Role: Kana Hanazawa had a previous minor role in Last Exile, but got popular voicing Ryoko.
 * Bridge Bunnies: Projected bunnies, but still.
 * Came Back Wrong
 * Catch Phrase: Kyo's "It can't be".
 * Chekhov's Gunman:
 * Chekhov's Skill: Kyo's penchant for  comes handy later.
 * Clone Degeneration
 * Come with Me If You Want to Live:
 * Conspicuous CGI
 * Contemplate Our Navels: Very important to the story and VERY well done.
 * Cool Ship: The Oceanus.
 * Cyberpunk, or Post Cyber Punk
 * Death Is Cheap: Also  But also subverted in that
 * Defector From Decadence:
 * Destination Host Unreachable
 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Played straight since Kyo Also subverted when
 * Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Happens when Kyo
 * Determinator: Kyo.
 * Distant Finale:
 * Emotionless Girl:
 * Evil Counterpart: Sin and Abyss.
 * Evilutionary... Physicist?:
 * Evolving Credits: The opening credits change slightly to fit the circumstances of the plot.
 * First-Episode Resurrection:
 * Forgot the Call:
 * Girl Next Door: Ryoko.
 * Gratuitous English: In the Zegapain Cockpits, although the voice actor chosen clearly speaks English fluently if not as their first language.
 * Gratuitous French: In Chris and Arque's cockpit due to them being French Celebrants with assumedly French-made Zegapains.
 * Gratuitous Spanish: In the original broadcast their cockpit uses Spanish.
 * Gratuitous Greek: Duetera is Greek for Monday
 * : Caused by the Maihama Server.
 * Hard Light: The Zegapains' armor.
 * Holographic Terminal
 * Hollywood Science: Genetics don't work that way. And Memory Waves aren't a part of Quantum Physics.
 * Hot-Blooded: Kyo is pretty much a Shonen hero.
 * Ho Yay: Possibly also Tomigai--since he was willing to
 * Humongous Mecha: The Zegapains.
 * I Just Want to Be Normal: Kyo at least for a little while.
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Shizuno to Kyo. Ryoko to Kyo. . What is this, Toradora!?
 * Japanese School Club: Kyo is obsessed with his Swimming club, and Ryoko's membership in the Audiovisual club plays a part on the story.
 * Jumped At the Call:
 * Katanas Are Just Better: Kyo's specifically asks for a katana for his Zegapains close range weapon. Subverted in that he almost always uses his gun first and only uses the katana when he runs out of gun ammo or an enemy gets way to close.
 * La Résistance
 * Loss of Identity
 * Male Gaze: For balance, Kyo is a Walking Shirtless Scene.
 * Matrix Raining Code
 * Meaningful Rename:
 * A Mech by Any Other Name: The Zegapains.
 * More Than Mind Control:
 * Multinational Team: The Oceanus Celebrants.
 * New Transfer Student: Subverted
 * Nietzsche Wannabe:
 * Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Nope.
 * Onee-Sama: Shizuno.
 * Ontological Mystery
 * Parental Abandonment: Justified.
 * The Power of Friendship: Anti-tank stoning.
 * The Power of Love: Can create a Witch.
 * Psychic Powers:
 * Recycled in Space: It's with Humongous Mechas!
 * Redemption Equals Death:
 * Reincarnation:
 * The Reveal: One every two episodes or so.
 * Rocket Punch:
 * Rule of Symbolism: Bad guys have a snake motif (Naaga, Orm - ancient Norse for dragon -, Coatlicue - feathered Aztec snake god -), good guys have eagle-related names. Snake-slaying eagles are a common good-vs-evil symbol; to stress the religious meaning, the good guys are called Celebrants. Tao/Zen is also invoked; a tenet of which is "going with the flow" and not messing with the natural order. The good guys' ships are named with Deluge mythology in mind, which emphasizes humanity surviving even against overwhelming odds against them.
 * Shonen Upgrade: Layered QL.
 * Shout-Out: The famous "butterfly dream" of Zhuangzi is mentioned early in the series.
 * Last Year At Marienbad is mentioned in Episode 18. This movie's theme is memories and their relation to reality... Interestingly enough, the movie was supposedly inspired by Adolfo Bioy Casares The Invention of Morel, a novel about . The book is also strongly reminiscent of a certain TV series about weird events in a desert island.
 * Discussing irreality and betrayal over an elegant virtual supper.
 * Save Both Worlds:
 * Schrödinger's Butterfly
 * Sphere of Destruction: Deutera Areas
 * Surprisingly Good English: The Zegapain cockpits. Is it you, Raising Heart?
 * And the Hraelveg cockpit speaks pretty good Spanish.
 * Sword and Sorcerer: Gunner and Wizard, Type 2.
 * Take a Third Option:
 * Taoism: In case using Zhuangzi's butterfly dream didn't spell it clear:
 * And the Hraelveg cockpit speaks pretty good Spanish.
 * Sword and Sorcerer: Gunner and Wizard, Type 2.
 * Take a Third Option:
 * Taoism: In case using Zhuangzi's butterfly dream didn't spell it clear:
 * Taoism: In case using Zhuangzi's butterfly dream didn't spell it clear:


 * Tear Jerker:.
 * Theme Naming: Oceanus Class Ships have names having to do with flood mythology. Gards-Orm mecha usually have ophidian names, Zegapain mecha have the names of mythical birds.
 * Those Two Guys: Kyo's old middle school swimming team.
 * Tron Lines: The units are some of the shiniest Mecha on record.
 * Two-Teacher School: Justified.
 * Viewers Are Geniuses: Orm is an old Norse term for dragon... and ORM is also Object-Relational Mapping, a programming technique for creating virtual object databases.
 * Walking Shirtless Scene: Kyo, with the excuse of being a swimmer.
 * The War On Straw:
 * Wave Motion Gun: GASPR cannons.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Explored with the Gards-Orm, contemplated with the artificial intelligence characters among the Celebrants.
 * Who Wants to Live Forever?: Well, some people do.
 * Wistful Amnesia:
 * Xanatos Gambit:
 * Your Days Are Numbered:
 * Xanatos Gambit:
 * Your Days Are Numbered: