Scotland Loves Anime (Edinburgh Edition) kicked off last night, when self and Girdy found ourselves at The Cameo to see Promare (2019)!
The event was hosted by Andrew Partridge, SLA festival director who explained he was standing in for Jonathan Clements, what with him being “held hostage” in London and all.
Andrew proceeded to give us a lovely little introduction to the film (which I appreciated, as I knew nothing about it) and explained how it had travelled far and wide (including getting rave reviews in the Orkney news – mayhaps the Orcadian?) and had induced countless rewatches since its release in 2019.
He explained how Studio Trigger had worked really hard on the detail, which was particularly evident in the shapes – mainly squares and triangles. He noted how the antagonists in the film have triangles, which is the alchemical symbol for fire – and also have of a square – with the reason for this being revealed later in the film.
Partridge ended with a Trigger-related joke, about how he’d been very anti-horse but was very pro-mare now. It was just as terrible as it sounds. Anyway, on with the review!
The story and characters
Like I said, I was going into this one completely blind, with no idea of the story, or anything else, to do with this film directed by Hiroyuki Imaish. This was the subbed version of the film, and apparently it’s quintessential Trigger, for those who know what that means; I didn’t.
But… now I do. NOW I do. It means sensory overload, verging on the ridiculous in terms of fight scenes and characters, and, at times, some very pretty visuals.
Promare “stars Galo, a member of a rescue team that quells the flames of people who spontaneously combust called the Burnish. Combustion isn’t death for all Burnish, though, and some of these mutants like Lio Fotia can control the fire to cause chaos.”
Here’s the trailer for Promare in case you’re interested:
Now, let me talk about Galo for a second. From the second he was introduced, he came in with BIG hair and main character energy, but was over-the-stop annoying as all hell with it. Maybe I’m wrong – surely it’s the comic relief? Nope, this is the character we’re going to follow all the way through.
There he is below, in all his glory. Firefighter pride, a sense of misplaced trust in an authority figure (who happens to be ridiculously called Kray Foresight) who was once credited with saving his life, and little else apart from young spunky male with the HAIR.
DISCLAIMER: Since this film came out in 2019, I *WILL* be posting plot spoilers below. It’s your choice whether you want to keep reading beyond this point.
I don’t know why I found Galo so annoying – aside from just everything about him. To his credit, he was all about putting out fires, and quickly finds himself up against The Burnish… the supposedly evil terrorist group who go about firestarting for… reasons.
As you can probably tell, there’s a lot more to the story than that, and it progresses quite quickly without too much meandering about. Galo is called a ‘hero’ for stopping the Burnish, awarded a medal by that authority figure he looks up to and who we know as ‘Good’.
We discover the Burnish are really just people too, who need to eat and breathe and live, and who have this odd power we don’t at first understand. And they’re being hunted and used for experiments by the authority figure who actually turns out to be evil after all and who wants to use the Burnish’s life force to power the engine of a spacecraft that will save 10,000 people on Earth, and destroy the rest of the planet.
Plus, if the lovely and talented pizza chef manages to lose part of his fingers in that one little test, what sort of shape are those thousands of people in when they’re running that engine for so long using their lifeforces later in the film?!
Yeah, it’s pretty grim, but is dressed up with distractingly pretty visuals, over-the-top tech fights, and fun characters – to whom, the word ‘eyesore’ seems to be the absolute worst insult you can possibly give. It’s used multiple times.
The film feels very silly, but with some very dark themes. But it’s silly! But hell, that’s grim. But lookit this shiny thing! And this plot device! Aren’t we funny?! Yeah, Promare knows what it is, and that it doesn’t always make a lot of sense – but as long as you’re along for the ride, that’s the main thing.
As for characters, the practical, fiery little inventor, Lucia Fex, was my fave, probably followed by Lio Fotia – who also seems to be Galo’s favourite, rather than the character I initially thought may have been the love interest, Aina.
But nah, he seems way more interested in Lio (a bit of homoeroticism definitely occurs) and Aina just kind of fades into the background. Aina, whose sister seems to think supposedly saving 10,000 lives is pretty much completely pointless unless one of them is her sister. What even.
The look and feel
The part of this film I found to be the most pleasing was the visuals; I appreciate Partridge pointing out all the hard work that had gone in, because at times the film is visually stunning. But in a classic anime sort of way… I don’t look at it and see anything groundbreaking.
EDIT: However, it does combine a use of 2D, 3D and CG, so maybe what the hell do I know? It looks good either way.
In fact, if I hadn’t known it originally came out in 2019, I’d have guessed it was earlier. Some of the scenes with the gorgeous colours and skyscapes caught my attention, but I also really REALLY enjoyed a scene where the characters are travelling in an elevator and are surrounded by grey and red lines.
Promare also features music work from Hiroyuki Sawano (Attack on Titan) which I also found very interesting. None of the music particularly stayed in my head, though.
I came away feeling a bit split about this film, and certainly is nowhere near up there with some of my faves when it comes to anime – not that I’ve watched a lot of it, as I’m a relative newbie.
Overall
I found Promare to be entertaining, and kept my attention with stunning visuals. Grim themes, combined with ridiculously silly moments, and an over-the-top annoying lead character meant I really struggled at times to take the film seriously, and the disconnect often pulled me out of my enjoyment of it.
Names like Kray Foresight and a superweapon called Dues X Machina just had me giggling. Kray Foresight clearly didn’t live up to his namesake either.
I left feeling a little confused about exactly how I felt, to be honest, and Girdy echoed a lot of my thoughts. It’s a film that doesn’t take itself too seriously (and I don’t think you’re supposed to, either), but has some very serious themes.
At least I can tell you now that no part of this film… was an eyesore.
🍻 Sponsor: Cheers, Dusk Wave Arts and Barheim, the beer tower defence game, for enabling our Scotland Loves Anime trip
Have you seen Promare? And do you disagree with me? I’d welcome your thoughts, even if you think I’m speaking a whole load of nonsense.
