Promare

Let's be real. We came for Trigger. For over-the-top anime nonsense. For incredible and wild animation. For their one-of-a-kind music. For the Kamina protag.

With Trigger you know what you want, and they give you all they've got. I was so happy with Promare. It was upbeat and fun and didn't try to overcomplicate things. Would love to see this movie as a series so that more characters and plot points could be fleshed out, but as a standalone movie it's great entertainment and I'm already looking forward to watching it again. Fans of Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill will surely enjoy this burst of animation.

Set 30 years after the emergence of the emergence of pyrokinetic humans called Burnish. The movie follows Galo, a firefighter who as part of Burning Rescue, fights against blazes started by the burnish. After going against orders to take out Burnish separatist leader Lio, Galo finds himself a national hero, but eventually finds that the nature of the Burnish isn't as black and white as he's been lead to believe.

Hiroyuki Imaishi and produced by studio Trigger, the film definitely feels like a natural progression of the approaches, styles, and craft honed by a team whose work originated with studio Gainax on tonally similar material like FLCL and Gurren Lagann. The movie is filled with dynamic visuals and engaging action aplenty, but its plot often takes a back seat to the style and action and the ending becomes so action heavy it borders on exhausting.

Much like Gurren Lagann the movie has an approach that feels self aware and lovingly mocks the tropes found in shonen and mecha anime. Galo is a very familiar Maverick type protagonist who doesn't follow the rules and is more prone to action than thought or planning. Likewise Burnish rebel Lio is a very familiar melancholy stoic but strangely enough his character feels like it's played relatively straight. The movie alternates between over the top humor and apocalyptic action and for the most part it uses its jarring tones to its advantage to create an engaging viewing experience reminiscent of its usage in Gurren Lagann.

The movie unfortunately has some drawbacks to it. At a length of just under two hours the movie feels way too long to justify itself, especially with a third act which consists of nearly a half hour worth of non stop back to back action sequences. The action is well done and beautifully animated, but once it starts it never stops and it does become a bit much. The movie also piles on revelation after revelation over complicating the narrative. In many ways Promare's plot feels better suited to a TV series because if it had more breathing room for its story some of these revelations and heel turns seen in the film might've been able to carry more weight.

Promare is a case of style over substance, but its so stylish and so energized that it makes up for a cluttered, chaotic and confusing narrative. It's a showcase for some of the most dynamic and visually interesting animation one can recall seeing in an anime film and makes a welcome viewing for any anime fan in spite of its flaws.

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.

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.

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.