It’s absolutely amazing to me that after years of being dormant, the Zegapain franchise is getting a sequel in 2024. The anime world will never cease to astound me, it seems.
First announced at the end of August 2023, the new sequel to the 2006 TV series will arrive as a brand-new movie this summer. Titled Zegapain STA (Zegapain Statement Alpha), the sequel will feature a brand-new lead character and a few returning characters, which you can see in the short 30-second trailer posted below.
CAST AND CREW
A lot of things will remain the same from the original series. Sunrise is returning to produce the animation. Masami Shimoda is back as the director, working off a script by Katsuhiko Takayama. Many of its character designers have worked on previous series iterations. And Ayako Ōtsuka is back to compose the background music.
As for the voice cast, the official website has confirmed that Kengo Kawanishi will voice the new lead character, Hal Velt. Meanwhile, returning characters — Kyo Sogoru, Ryoko Kaminagi, Shizuno Misaki, and Lu Sheng — will all be voiced by their original actors.
BACKGROUND
The story takes place in the Japanese city of Maihama. Kyo Sogoru, the main character, is the only member of his school’s swim club. Through a string of events, which include meeting a girl named Shizuno Misaki, Kyo is pulled into a strange new world where he must pilot a giant mecha and fight off aliens known as Gards-orm before they can destroy the world.
In the introduction, I mentioned I was shocked that Zegapain is getting a sequel because I honestly considered this a lost intellectual property. Premiered in 2006 originally, Bandai Entertainment released the series on DVD in North America. In 2012, when Bandai decided to close shop in the United States, Sentai Filmworks took over the license and has done absolutely nothing with the title within the last decade. You can’t even legally stream this series anywhere, let alone find a complete collection of DVDs for a reasonable price on the second-hand market.
I’d be surprised if any fans came into the anime-watching hobby within the last decade who are more than relatively familiar with this title. While I hope this movie finds its nostalgic audience, I wonder, too, how many newer fans would watch it. I wonder what information they are missing that would help make it a much fuller viewing experience.
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Source: Anime News Network
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