Pilot Candidate DVD

In the year 4084, humanity has destroyed every habitable planet it ever colonized. One world remains: Zion. To protect it from the Victim — a massive, relentless alien force that has hunted humanity across the galaxy — a secret training academy called G.O.A. recruits boys from the colony clusters who carry the rare EO blood type and a mysterious ability called EX. Their goal is to become one of five Ingrid pilots. The Ingrids — also known as the Goddesses — are enormous, semi-sentient humanoid weapons of staggering power, each bonded to a single pilot through a synchronization process so intimate and demanding that a failed sync can kill. Zero Enna is Candidate 88: impulsive, determined, and completely unprepared for what awaits him. On arrival he accidentally falls into the cockpit of the Ingrid Eeva-Leena and achieves an impossible full sync — something the Goddess has never done with anyone. Nobody can explain it. Before he can find out what it means, training begins. His chief rival is Hiead Gner — cold, ruthless, and possessed of a talent that makes Zero's accidental success feel like an insult. Between them is Clay Cliff Fortran, the sensible one, and their Repairer partners — the female cadets who serve as technical support and emotional anchors, including Kizna Towryk, Zero's partner, who is small, sharp-tongued, and almost certainly the most capable person in his immediate orbit.

Pilot Candidate — known in Japan as Megami Kōhosei (The Candidate for Goddess) — is a 12-episode science fiction series directed by Mitsuru Hongo and produced by Xebec, based on Yukiru Sugisaki's manga serialized in Comic Gum. It aired on NHK BS2 in early 2000 and is notable for its integration of detailed 3D CG mecha animation — the Ingrids and Victim creatures — alongside traditional 2D character animation, and for a plot that compresses a genuinely ambitious and complex mythology into a very short runtime. The series ends without full resolution; a 13th OVA episode released in Japan in 2002 extends but does not conclude the story. Released in North America on four DVD volumes by Bandai Entertainment between November 2001 and May 2002, and later as a Complete Collection boxset in 2005. The English dub originally aired on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block in 2002 after being redirected from a planned Toonami slot.

Notable Staff & Voice Talent

Director: Mitsuru Hongo (Outlaw Star, Spriggan)
Original Manga: Yukiru Sugisaki (D.N.Angel, Brain Powerd)
Character Design: Shinichi Yamaoka
Studio: Xebec (subsidiary of Production I.G)
Music: Tomoyuki Asakawa

Cast:
• Yukimasa Obi as Zero Enna
• Hiroyuki Yoshino as Clay Cliff Fortran (éX-Driver)
• Susumu Chiba as Hiead Gner (Ceres Celestial Legend, Labyrinth of Flames)
• Miki Nagasawa as Kizna Towryk (éX-Driver, Vampire Princess Miyu TV)
• Yuri Amano as Ikny Allecto (El-Hazard, Burn Up W, Tenchi Universe)
• Akira Ishida as Yu Hikura (Gokudo, Now and Then Here and There)
• Ayako Kawasumi as Kazuhi Hikura (Great Dangaioh, AD Police)
• Keiji Fujiwara as Azuma Hijikata

DVD Features

• Bandai Entertainment Previews

Spoken Languages: English & Japanese Audio, English Subtitles

Edition Details

Japanese Title: 女神候補生 (Megami Kōhosei / The Candidate for Goddess)
Runtime: ~300 Minutes (Complete Series, 12 Episodes)
Director: Mitsuru Hongo
DVD Release Year: 2001–2002 (U.S. Release, 4 Volumes); Complete Collection Boxset 2005
Original Broadcast Date (Japan): January 10 – March 27, 2000 (NHK BS2)
Publisher: Bandai Entertainment
Rating: 13+
Region: Region 1 (U.S. / Canada)
Genre: Sci-Fi, Mecha, Action
Themes: Last Planet Standing, Giant Goddess Mecha, Pilot Candidates, Alien Threat, Unresolved Ending

Media assumed VG+ unless otherwise noted.