Flames as a Beacon- Promare

 

There’s a certain art and character style and certain aspects one expects from a Studio Trigger show, including angular hair and joints, ham-fisted personalities and dialogue, and oftentimes interactions with aliens.  The last Studio Trigger series I had watched, “Darling in the Franxx,” was quite disappointing, but seeing the trailer and premise of “Promare” got my hopes up as it seemed to signify a return to form.  Due to scheduling issues, I was only able to watch the movie in the dub format.

 

Now, this wasn’t the first time that this has happened, as this was a “Fathom Events” showing, which means that dubs were shown on Tuesdays and subs were shown on Thursdays.  The same thing had occurred with another anime movie earlier this year, “Okko’s Inn,” but I wasn’t too put off by it, and any reservations I had about the language were put on hold when the movie started with the story’s background.  Here, Earth had suffered a calamitous event of half the population being wiped out due to certain human beings spontaneously combusting due to pent up stress and aggravation.  The humans who had developed pyrotechnic capabilities are henceforth known as the “Burnish,” and over time have become ostracized or gotten arrested whenever they are unable to control their abilities.

 

Years after the tragedy known as the “Great World Blaze,” cities have developed heavily mechanized and high-tech fire and police departments to deal with the threat of the Burnish going out of control.  It is here where we are introduced to the main characters in a very dramatic fashion which sets the tone for the rest of the series.  The main protagonist, blue-haired Galo, is the brash and headstrong member of the high-tech firefighting group “Burning Rescue,” who are all responding to a fire caused by the terrorist organization “Mad Burnish,” headed by the snarky green-haired Lio Fotia.  In the ensuing firefight, fought with mech-like vehicles that defy the laws of physics, Lio and his gang are arrested by the high-tech and not-ethically-sound police force “Freeze Force.”

 

Now, let’s get my complaints out of the way first, because they can almost be completely encompassed in this one single fight, and none revolve around the fact that I had chosen to watch it in English.  First is the fact that the characters themselves, while entertaining and with good chemistry that develops well later on, have their designs heavily influenced, if not essentially near carbon copies of characters from existing properties.  Galo is essentially “Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann’s” Kamina sans cape and tattoos, while his teammates in “Burning Rescue” are quite obviously expys of the student council members from “Kill la Kill,” and there is more than a hint of Yoko Littner in the pink-haired Aina.  Perhaps the only other aspect that annoyed me would be that many of the secondary characters are not given enough screentime or focus to develop into anything more than just window dressing or “assistants” on the sidelines.  Even identifying characters’ names is a hassle and chore.  Sure, this is a 2-hour long movie rather than a full-length anime series, but at least a little more focus on them could have gone a long way.  There is a definite hierarchical flavor that permeates the movie, like it or not.

But those aspects aside, this first fight also highlights all of the plus points the movie has to offer, and it essentially sets the scene and previews the style used from the start of the movie to the finish.  The action and animation are sharp and bold, with sassy and attention-grabbing dialogue, even if scenery and characters designs are quite basic.  Boundaries and lining are also not emphasized here, but that is overshadowed and can be partially forgiven by the attention-grabbing neon shading and colorization of almost the entire scene.  Galo’s amusing choice of deployment to fires involves him being shot out of what looks like a Soviet ballistic missile launcher, and the rest of the firefighting vehicles are deployed from essentially a mobile command center and integrate with the cohesiveness of something from a tokusatsu series.  The choreography and teamwork just oozes excitement and extroversion right up until the end of the battle, and a little bit carries on over into more relaxed scenes.  Interactions between Burning Rescue and Freeze Force show the politics and acrimonious relationship between the two organizations, with a sprinkling of fantastic racism against the Burnish thrown in for good measure.  The brash, straightforward dialogue moves the plot along quickly but smoothly and seamlessly, and in the meantime also furthers character personality and development.  Clashes firmly draw the lines in the sand as to where characters stand, necessary when there is limited time to work with, but the way it is done reveals a plotline that layers itself in a most excellent fashion.  This could have been a simple us-versus-them anime but it is much more than that and is instead multi-faction, even if major plot elements have been cribbed from “Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann” and the movie “2012.”

 

What really seals the deal regarding the conflict is the development of Lio as a character, who is one of the centerpoints to the entire conflict and one of the best personifications of the phrase “one’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter.”  There is much much more to this character than what meets the eye, and the juxtaposition between how he is perceived by the Burnish versus other characters is a sight to behold, to say nothing of his motivations and personality.  This is a character who thankfully was not given the ham-fisted treatment, though there are times when the producers infuse him with a spurt of extroversion, and it gets channeled in some of the most useful ways.  The conversations and clashes he has with Galo are the best of the movie, though his interactions with the rest of the characters round him out and show just how multifaceted he is.

 

Thankfully, “Promare” is a movie that does not lift its foot off the accelerator until the very end, and the end itself is conclusive and leaves a lasting and long finish.  However, despite the movie’s liberal usage of plot elements and character designs from other intellectual properties, that should not put one off to watching it.  This is a movie that excites and engages its audience to the point where what feels like a little bit of excess turns out to be just the right amount of stimulation.  Do have a look at the trailer and I look forward to having this film come out on disc.