Promare focuses on an Earth where select humans have gained pyrokinetic abilities, becoming known as the Burnish. A terrorist group known as the Mad Burnish is soon formed, with a firefighting team known as the Burning Rescue, is put together to combat any attacks by the Mad Burnish. When the group’s leader, Lio Fotia, is arrested, it leads to a series of events that causes Galo Thymos, a member of the Burning Rescue, to get involved and soon discover that there may be more to the Mad Burnish than meets the eye.
This is the first feature film from production company Trigger, who’s mainly known for the series Kill la Kill, and for this, they even brought in that series’ director Hiroyuki Imaishi, who also directed the series Gurren Lagann, which centered around giant mechas (or, giant robots) getting into elaborate, over-the-top fights. Stylistically, Promare will feel very similar to that series, as it features no shortage of wild, off-the-wall fights as these two sects of humanity fight over potentially the world’s future.
And it’s the visuals that probably stand out stronger than anything with this film. This is very colorful, with bright, shining visuals remaining consistently at the forefront. The landscapes are absolutely fascinating while nearly all the designs of the mechas, Burnish, and other characters are almost instantly memorable. Plus, the film also delivers on one of anime’s most well-known features, which is characters giving overtly cartoonish, exaggerated reactions to even the smallest piece of news, which always manage to get a good laugh and ease up moments of tension where need be.
While the movie does have its share of both serious and humorous moments, tonally it doesn’t always balance out the two properly. There are moments in which the film seems to acknowledge it has some truly silly concepts, and will go for names that are purposely on-the-nose for the sake of a great joke (there’s a mecha who saves the heroes at one point, literally known as Deus X Machina). It can really be larger than life one moment, but other times, feel overly sappy and trying too hard to pull on the heartstrings. The music is clawingly sentimental, and characters will give passionate speeches about doing the right thing that seem like they’re just trying too hard. And sometimes these sentimental moments will follow something ridiculous, and it can be enough to throw audiences off at times.
The film also suffers at times in terms of story and characters. It starts off well enough, with much of the film’s first half offering some really nice social commentary. The film serves as a metaphor for prejudice, with the Burnish being discriminated against and almost all of them being labeled as terrorists, even when they’re just trying to live their lives and treat everyone kindly. And this is further explored as more information is revealed about Lio Fotia.
However, as the film goes on, it does begin to lose sight of that commentary and go more for a straightforward “good vs. evil” plot, as the Burning Rescue go up against a group of antagonists who have involvement with the Mad Burnish. During these moments, there are a few characters who undergo drastic personality shifts that don’t feel totally justified. And other characters will simply just go into speeches that simply reiterate how good or how evil they are.
The film runs for just under two hours, and truthfully, it could have done with about twenty minutes either cut or reworked. It suffers most when it comes to exploring their characters. When the Burning Rescue is introduced – in a gloriously over-the-top fashion, by the way – they all clearly have very distinct, humorous personalities that will get a lot of good laughs. Yet, they’ll disappear for large portions of the film, and they’ll come back after long stretches to service the plot in some way. Yet, they never make as much of an impact though as they should have since not enough time is spent with them. Which is a shame, since they are so many characters that seem so fascinating, and it felt like so much more could have been done with them.
However, the film at least does its main two characters justice, which are Galo Thymos and Lio Fotia, and it’s the solid writing for both of them – in addition to the madcap visuals – that keeps audiences heavily invested. Fotia is by far the more interesting of the two, as he has a heavily layered past that gets gradually uncovered as the film progresses. He gets nearly just as much screen time as Thymos does, and the film is all the wiser for doing so, as every scene involving him contains moments that will reflect certain real life issues that are handled quite well.
Thymos does go through a typical “hero’s journey.” He’s initially brash and arrogant, and it’s fairly obvious that part of the film will involve him learning a lesson as he uncovers more about the Mad Burnish. Despite feeling a little familiar, the film handles his journey well, plus he gets in plenty of humorous moments that makes following him a good time.
Promare serves as an overall solid debut for Trigger, even if it’s not a fully cohesive experience. While the film could have benefited from cutting out about twenty minutes of repetitive sequences to better serve some of its supporting characters, it does have some truly noble intentions with the parts of its story that are really fleshed out. It does have some great moments of social commentary as well as two really solid, interesting protagonists that help drive the story forward. Plus, the film also contains some truly stunning visuals, and it’s at its strongest when it shows characters in action and giant robots engaged in gripping fight sequences. Overall, despite some issues, it’s a really fun movie, and should make a great stepping stone for Trigger’s future efforts.
Recommendation: Watch It
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