Promare

Hiroyuki Imaishi of Dead Leaves and Kill la Kill fame has been one of my favorite people in animation for years and once again he didn't disappoint, this was absolutely mad next level.

The characters and story are a bit underwritten for the length of the movie, and it could have used more of Imaishi's trademark irreverent humour, but the true star here is of course the wild animation which is an almost distractingly crisp mixture of 2D and 3D that blends incredibly well.

I usually hate toon shaders outside of video games but this was done masterfully. Promare always manages to stay visually legible and firmly inside the language of japanime despite the absolute overkill of colours, shapes and movement. And I do mean overkill, this was crazy. Half of these colours I didn't even know existed, and I work in graphic design and illustration! Yet it never gets messy in any way. The design and composition are done with such a very keen eye it's rare you get an image that isn't an absolute banger.

It actually takes a little while to get your eyes acquainted to. Even if you're familiar with studio trigger's work this is probably unlike anything you've seen before.

Your mileage may vary though, it can be exhausting but it's a fresh style that made me hungry for more.

Don't ask me what the story is about. Firefighters using some advance tech to battle fire generating mutants. Some sort of world destruction plot. I missed a lot of that, cause the animation was so on point I could not focus on anything else. That's what I like to see, animation that pushes the limits of the medium and this does that. If only I spoke Japanese so I did not have to read the subtitles and take my eyes off the animation. Soooo Great

Promare is very over the top and parodies almost all clichés modern animes do have. But unlike the majority of animes out there, this one is not boring. It is scene after scene of pure stupidity as an excuse to entertain and honestly, it works great. This movie is fun as hell.

The comedy does not work in animes. It is the usual screaming with dumb faces, but luckily that is a very small part of it. The majority of humor is the absolute ridiculous and over the top action and animation.

Kill la Kill and this one share the same director, writer and componist. So the script does not take a break. Instead of pacing the have a train on LSD. There is a lot of action that happens and pretty much all of it visually stunning, creative and some of them are hilarious. The soundtrack is obviously FIRE as well.

The few issues I have is the annoying dialogue of the main character and the break-neck pacing.

At the same time the anime knows how annoying the main character is and everyone calls him out for being an idiot. His passion for helping makes him also quite likeable as well.

The pacing is honestly a breeze of fresh air. In a normal movie it would be a problem but since the majority of modern animes are designed to have a pacing of a glacier with a lot of meaningless dialogue that only exists to pad time, it is very refreshing to see stuff happen in a short amount of time.

This is not the best anime of all time, but it would be a sin to pass on this.

Promare has some of the best animation I've ever seen. The colors, spacial definition and overall production design of everything on screen is top notch. Studio Trigger's work here is not only above many of its contemporaries, but also some of best animation of this era. The premise is great, and the personification of fire and water is very exciting. My eyes were glued to the screen for a majority of the first 60 minutes. Unfortunately, the narrative becomes a bit too drawn out during the 3rd act. Although the various twists and turns are well done, it just takes too long to get there. I truly believe that a 90 min cut could be a masterpiece. Overall, really enjoyed the film as a whole, and I think that anyone could find something to appreciate here.

This film made my computer crash twice. The animation style is unique, colourful and energetic - perhaps too much! The characters are spread a bit thinly and not all of them were necessary. It would have suited a series better. Other than that, the setting and plot were really cool.