Warning this review may contain spoilers.

First impressions, so zegapain when I first heard about this show I was kind of hesitate to check it out because it looked really boring.
But eventually my interest got the the best of the me and I decide to check it out.

Story, 7/10

So the story of zegapain starts off with are Main character kyo who is a highschool student and wants to try and keep the swimming club that he enjoys still going so it doesn't close down because he the only member at this time.
One day while on his way to the pool as usual. He comes across a mysterious girl named misaki.
who after he tries to talk to her and try's to invite her to the swimming club she disappears in mid air leaving are main character mind fucked as all hell.
And to make a long story short. Missaki though a series of events gets are main character kyo to play some sort of video game/simulation/ Virtual reality sort of thing
where he is piloting a robot named zega pain and has to fight some sort of alien robots with an organization named Celebrum who are fighting these alien robots like the whole world hangs in the balance even though it just a video game or is it...........

Now by the sounds of this premise some of you are probably thinking here we go again.. Another mecha show about people fighting alien robots this sounds like the most generic mecha plot I have ever herd of.
Well if you think that then probably get ready because I am going to drop a bomb on you laps. Now before a go into detail.
I would like to ask if any of you have ever heard of the saying don't judge a book by its cover. Because that is definitely a phrase I would associate when talking about the story of zegapain.
Because for the first 5 eps it doesn't seem it offer anything interesting. Well I wouldn't say interesting because there are hints of something interesting here it just takes a while to pick up on that.
Because for the first 5 ep it's basically just missions and slice of life nothing really happens.
But what if I say that around ep 6 is where shit really starts to pick up.
So to go into details we find out that the video game that the main character finds out that the game he has been playing is actually not a video game but actually the real world where humans are actually extinct well extinct isn't really the right word for it more like we don't have a physical body's anymore and what's left of humanity is basically data on computer servers
Which these aliens are trying to destroy.
This is where the story steps away from the norm and says you know what I going to do this myself.
And from here on out the story becomes a psychological slice of life mecha.
Which is in itself is quite interesting.
We have characters coming to terms with the fact that the reality they were living all there life was a false one and also even questioning why they should fight In the first place if the world is all ready fucked.
Like What's the actual point if we are just going to keep on losing people to an almost endless horde of aliens robots that have pretty much backed humanity into a corner so tight that we would need the biggest asspull in history if we ever wanted to make some dent in their forces.
So by the sounds of this you can probably tell that zegapain covers some very interesting topics like for example...... (A where is my dam philosophy book so I can explain this shit oh here it is) materialism, Nihilism, existentialism. And also makes you question your sense of reality.
Which even forces you the viewer to even question your sense of reality. Are you real or heck am I actually real or am I just some data in a computer.

Which I find every interesting.
Plus in this show when they give you concepts they actually do something with it.
Like they expand and explore which helps adds some layers.
It's not like some shows where there like oh here an idea and only have it as a foot note, cough cough psycho pass cough madoka magica.

But to go into more detail.
Basically what happens after the bomb shell was dropped.
We basically have the character continue to do their mission where every battle they continue to lose something or come close to losing something.
Because death isn't the only thing that can happen to you.
Oh no there is much worse, for example you could lose your memories or if you not lucky you can lose you entire personally and become a soulless robot a former shell of yourself.
And after the day to day missions are done what is happening well fluffy life slice of life monuments. Which I found kind of boring.
But what it does very well is that it makes you actually care about what's going on.
because you have seen the world in a sense of a stable environment and when shit hits the fan it's a lot more impactful. And when something happens it stays that way there are no if or buts about it. So there are no asspulls or deus ex Machina.
Which help the show end in a very satisfactory way.

Now a few negatives I would have to say about it.

Is that it's very dry in pretension and pacing is pretty slow and it lacks a certain punch to really get in going.
But overall it pretty good.

Characters, 7/10

The main character kyo at first seemed like your average happy go lucky high school student. Who happens to really enjoy swimming and at first that is what I got from him. But as time went on I could see that there was more than meets the eye when it come to his character. Because after the big reveal
I see him slowly starting to break down, well brake down isn't the right word it's more like trying to rap is head around the questions that now plague his mind.
With him starting to use his happy go lucky persona as a mask in order to hide his true feeling.
And that is a pretty human reaction.
Now even personally kind of two dimensional but he starts to branch out and he gets some development.

The side characters just like the main they start off kind of two dimensional.
But like the main they also branch out With the psychological and mental problems that they have or could have.
So basically all these characters in some way is damaged.
They don't go though as much development as the main character dose.
But we do get to know these characters so it makes up for the development that was kind of lacking in some areas.

I also quite like that when something
Bad happens to a character like for example they die or the loose something it stays that way.
There are no coming back to life or getting back what you have lost.
There are ways to get it back to an extent.
but it will never fully replace 100% what you have lost.
And I think that something that quite a few people can relate to including me.

Art, 5/10

The artwork is quite mediocre and very choppy and it looks very dated especially for the time it came out.
Because when zegapain came out it was the year of ergo proxy and nana and other show that look good even today. And plus this was done by sunrise who have made shows in the 80s that look better than this.
Now I am not a hater of CGI in anime but the CGI looks really choppy and sometimes looks a bit off model at times.

The action scenes are also kind of choppy with not much a flow going through the battles

The character design where kind of bland.
I like the fact they have some cool colours and style for hair .
But other than that nothing really stands out other than some of the outfits.

The mecha design was pretty interesting not going to lie it was definitely different from what I have seen before.

Sound, 5/10

I quite like a op and ending songs.
But in retrospect it didn't really stand out to me much.

I was never like I got to find the full version of this.

And that also my thoughts on the ost has a whole.
Like there are some parts where the ost is really on point.
Which I quite enjoy.
But at the same time it never really got my full attention.

Enjoyment, 6/10

I really had a pretty interesting and entertaining ride overall when watching this show.
Because it not every day you come across an anime that makes you what to question your reality. Because generally you watch anime to get away from reality.
So seeing something like this was definitely different experience from what I am used to. But what really brought down my enjoyment is that it is very dry and that the ost and art could be way better if the people who worked on this put in Some more work into it.

Overall, 7/10

Now when it comes to zegapain you need to forgive it for lot of things like,
It's dry as sand pretension or its snail pacing and overall lack of punch.
But if you can look past that And see the the diamond in the rough then check it out.
Because it has interesting ideas, good characters and over all pretty good.

But if your they kind of person who really wants some sort of style or punch then probably stay away.