Warning: Light spoilers for Promare (2019)
Going into promare I thought I knew what I was expecting, over the top mecha anime with a very basic plot that I would think was cool but overall shallow. I got exactly that and it was phenomenal.
Promare opens up in a world where some people are born with a mutation where they can control and summon fire, known as Burnish, this is the setup for our heroes, the burning rescue squad (mostly our protagonist, Galo Tyhmos) to face off with a terrorist group made up of Burnish and their Leader, Lio Fotia. The plot immediately shows themes of inequality and discrimination which was surprising to me as I wasn’t expecting such a heavy topic to be discussed within the film, overall these themes are never properly explored within the film and are sadly surface level, although for this film it doesn't matter due to what the film attempts to be.
If i had to describe Promare in one word its maxamalist. In a world where film seems to be getting quieter and more introspective with comic book films like Joker (2019) Promare rejects that and says “lets fuck shit up”. The fight scenes are explosions of pink and blues and constant camera movement with the main character screaming about how he has to win because of his “burning firefighter soul” Its absolutely absurd and stupid and I love it. The film uses a mix of 2D and 3D animation for its fights scene, its typical for anime action films to do this (Look at Berserk: The golden age arc: The egg of the king (2012) for an example of a poor mix of 2D and 3D) but the film is able to mix them so effectively that it I hardly notice the switch and when I do im in awe of how amazing the 3D looks.
Sadly the film cant all be positives, outside of a few select characters the character development in this film is non existent. The other members of the burning rescue squad hardly impact the story at all which makes it feel like some potentially interesting characters go to waste. The film also sets up a deeper look at how society treats the Burnish but ultimately it goes no where, although it sounds weird I didn’t mind this. The film knew what it was and it stuck to it, it felt like a love letter to mecha and it just wanted to show cool fights and that’s what it did and it did it spectacularly.
You cant really talk about the film without mentioning the homoerotic nature between our two main characters, Galo and Lio, (Light spoilers start here) what starts out as a rivalry develops into a mutual need for each other to defeat the actual antagonist who is introduced about halfway through the film. It all culminated in Galo having to give a kiss of life to Lio to revive him after the final battle. It would have been interesting if the film actually went further with this and went against the standard Heterosexual relationship we would usually see, thank fully there was no romance subplot between our main character and the female lead, Aina. If their was I feel as if the film would have suffered from it as it would have taken away from what the film excels in, beautiful animation and exciting fights.
In the end Promare is a love letter to Mecha and thats all it needed to be, the film is like a roller coaster, its insanely fun and it takes you all over the place, but it doesn't explore anything deeper and that’s fine. Because a roller coaster doesn't have to be deep to be fun.
9/10
