Promare

Thirty years ago, a new race of flame-wielding mutants suddenly appeared, destroying a large portion of humanity. These so-called “Burnish” have continued to appear at random, leaving a trail of death and destruction in their wake.

The autonomous republic of Promepolis is a thriving nation thanks to the incredible efforts of their leader, Kray Foresight, against the Burnish. A team of firefighters known as the Burning Rescue is tasked with stopping these horrifying monsters, using the most performant technology available thanks to their incredible mechanic Lucia Fex. Galo Thymos is an energetic young man, who considers Foresight his hero for saving his life and is the rescue team's most recent recruit.

A terrorist group calling themselves Mad Burnish has been causing havoc all over the nation. After an encounter with Mad Burnish leader Lio Fotia, Galo sets out on his fated journey to find the truth about these mutants, ultimately leading him to question everything he previously held to be true.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Fotia, Lio Main

Saotome, Taichi Japanese

Thymos, Galo Main

Matsuyama, Kenichi Japanese

Fex, Lucia Supporting

Shintani, Mayumi Japanese

Ardebit, Aina Supporting

Sakura, Ayane Japanese

Vinny Supporting

Kobayashi, Kendou Japanese

Gueira Supporting

Hiyama, Nobuyuki Japanese

Foresight, Kray Supporting

Sakai, Masato Japanese

Meis Supporting

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Ex, Ignis Supporting

Koyama, Rikiya Japanese

Puguna, Remi Supporting

Yoshino, Hiroyuki Japanese

Wakabayashi, Hiromi Producer, Art Director

Masumoto, Kazuya Producer

Ukai, Keisuke Producer

Imaishi, Hiroyuki Director, Storyboard, Art Director

Reviews

Jan 29, 2025

Curlybrace101

Recommended

"When I said take me to the moon,
I never meant take me alone
I thought if mankind toured the stars
it meant that all of us could go."

- Penelope Scott, Rät

The premise of Promare is simple. 30 years ago, some people randomly developed fire powers and are now an oppressed minority group (called the "burnish" here). It's a plot I'm sure you've seen before, especially if you've ever engaged with a single piece of X-Men media. However the way it approaches its plot surprised me with how much depth and nuance they were able to pack into a two hour action flick.

The main character of the ... story is a young man named Galo. He is a very proud, passionate young man who carries nothing but love and kindness in his heart, so he dedicates his time to protecting the city as part of a special force meant to apprehend burnish terrorists. He's very charming with how passionate he is about doing the right thing. However, he's also a perfect character for this story because of one thing: unconscious bias.

Most people would not consider themselves bigoted. In fact, most people would be offended at the idea they could be. And this is the problem. People who are granted privilege by society are often blind to what that privilege grants them as well as the reality of life for many minority groups, because they have never had to see that reality. Unlike minorities, they are capable of living in an echochamber that shields them from the truth of this world, and that's exactly what they do. This makes them susceptible to holding biases against these groups that even they are unaware of. They aren't aware of the fact that being kind and loving other people does not make you exempt from saying and doing discriminatory things.

Galo gets offended when other people say all burnish are terrorists, yet when he knowingly talks to a burnish for the first time ever, he asks them if they need to eat as if they aren't human. He very clearly thinks of himself as Not Bigoted in regards to the burnish, yet he works for a police-esque group meant to suppress the burnish. As far as he is concerned, he's just catching terrorists because some burnish are terrorists even if it's not all of them, but he is completely ignoring the reality that this "terrorist" group is really just fighting for burnish rights and they have to resort to violence because it is the only way to make a difference. He thinks that if the burnish simply stopped being violent people would stop discriminating against them, because he lives in a happy, privileged world where everything is black and white.

It is only through going out and meeting the burnish personally that he has his eyes opened, and it is because of that kindness and love he carries with him that his eyes are able to open. Empathy is an important skill to have, however it requires you to go out and actively try to use it. It cannot radicalize you if you never apply it.

And thus from then on is a "broken pedestal" plot where he has to reckon with the fact that everything he held dear is actually a corrupt system meant to exploit and kill the burnish, and the man he idolized is very specifically exploiting the burnish for the benefit of only the "elite" of society.

When the world ends, the rich are never around for it. They flee to space, to a private island, to anywhere other than here. Just how many spots are available on that ship? And just how many can afford them?

I will say that the allegory isn't perfect (largely for a spoiler reason, but you could argue that anytime an allegorical minority actually does have something different about them that makes them dangerous it doesn't work), but I still felt like it worked well enough.

Anyways, social commentary aside, the rest of the movie is good too.

As expected of Trigger, the animation is absolutely delectable. I wasn't even that bored watching the action scenes because of how pretty they were!

As for the other characters, the second most important character is Lio, the leader of the radical group. He serves as a good foil for Galo. Aina and her sister do well to add to the commentary (prioritizing your personal desires over doing what's right). The rest of the characters were also nice, if a bit underdeveloped, although that's to be expected with only a two hour runtime. It prioritizes action over character development, but it still managed to pack in enough character development to work.

And of course, I can't complete this review without mentioning Gurrenn Lagann. The movie obviously bears a lot of similarities to Gurrenn Lagann because it was clearly made to be TTGL's spiritual successor, but that's certainly not a bad thing. They took exactly what made TTGL work and did something brand new with it in a way that does all of the same things right but still manages to feel fresh and interesting. It also seems to have paved the way for Trigger's later show BNA, which would have many of the same elements of social commentary, and that's definitely a good thing as well.

Trigger definitely knows what it likes in its projects, and all of Trigger's signatures shine through in Promare in the best way possible.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Curlybrace101 (56)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Dec 15, 2024

Elhwing

Mixed Feelings

After watching Promare, I can't really recommend it and as a matter of fact, even if I went for the mixed feelings, I hesitated more with the not recommended option than with the recommended one.

I'll try to explain down below the few things done right by the movie and the many ones done wrong. I'll try to stay focused solely on the movie and won't compare it with other animes made by Trigger, although I'll say that I didn't like TTGL and dropped it quite early one, so I guess that I got off with the wrong foot with this movie since it shares ... many things with TTGL.


+ The animation : 9/10

That's the main feat of this movie : the animation. There are many well animated scenes, the fights are dynamic and you'll be served with many of them. It's colorful, flashy, it has this "Trigger" vibe that feels unique.

+ The ost : 8/10

Another great thing this movie has for itself is its music : there are a few great songs that help develop the epicness of the fights/situations. Moreover, we can generalize this to the voice acting that is pretty good and you'll probably recognize some famous seiyus.

Annnnd that's about the only two reasons you should watch this movie if it caught your attention. Because everything else is average at best...


- The story : 4/10

I won't spoil anything but it's the same kind of story you've already seen a hundred times before... And there isn't any real element that make it stand out, now to be fair, the movie doesn't take itself too seriously and the plot feels more like a "background" excuse to justify the fighting scenes and the whole idea of creating a well animated movie, but as a result, it gets boring rather quickly... The story isn't bad per se, at least there's some coherence in it, but everything is too predictable and in the span of 2 hours, one might expect a more complex/intersting story than what they went for with this one.

- The rhythm : 3/10

I mentionned the animation's quality above and it's true that this movie screams "eye candy" at viewers in many scenes, but man, the pace is so wrong with this movie. It's linked with how weak the story is I guess, but the ratio between fighting scenes and any other kind of scene is unbalanced, and without exaggerating, maybe like the last 40/50 minutes of the movie consist of fighting scenes with barely any breaks.

- The characters : 2/10

I guess there's about 2 characters that are developped a bit, Lio and Fray ( And for the latter, it's a bit of a stretch since he is so stereotypical it becomes funny, but at least he is developped ). Every other character is forgettable including the MC. I can't even write about side characters because they aren't relevant at all and have very little screen time anyway.

All in all, the result is quite disappointing : the story is as common as it gets, the characters aren't interesting and full of stereotypes, and to top it off, this movie is almost 2 hours long. So how can it be so long with such a poor story ? Fights. Tons of them. Are the fights well animated ? Yes. Do they feel epic ? Yes. Are the fights good enough on their own to justify watching Promare ? Well not really in my opinion, but that's the reason why I only went for mixed feelings. I think movies require a good story with memorable characters and that's subjective, but Promare is clearly lacking a lot in this department. However, for viewers who love fighting scenes and don't care much about the context behind them, you should enjoy this movie.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Elhwing (69)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Dec 25, 2023

samyugoburg

Not Recommended

I really wanted to like this more. Unfortunately, Promare peaks early on (the trailer... it's the scene from the trailer) and goes on to lose the plot and rehash Gurren Lagann way too many times for me to respect it as an independent work. It ends up attempting a play-by-play of key moments in Gurren Lagann that are super predictable and feel really phoned in. Too much action, not enough character time, not enough plot. Many fun moments, but it's a tough sell for people who aren't super into the concepts and animation. It's all flash, no substance, and the one memorable scene is... super ... flashy, with no substance.

The animation? Fun, dynamic, and an experience that I absolutely appreciated. The plot? Constantly undermined by attempts to escalate and internal confusion between being serious or comedic. The characters? Limp. The Kamina-esque protagonist Galo is not compelling in his tendency to go on about complete nonsense the entire time; the supporting cast constantly calling him out on speaking absolute nonsense does not quite rescue it. Lio, the Burnish leadership, and Kray are the only real characters here - and they're even very good at times - but they feel like crazy people in a caricature world.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by samyugoburg (5)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Annecy Festival Feature Films in Competition

by IridescentJaune

50 Entries · 1 Restacks

The 50 Highest Rated Anime Standalone Films of all Time

by l3en

50 Entries · 40 Restacks

Anime • Cinema

by ManicPixieTerror

50 Entries · 23 Restacks

North American Anime & Manga Releases for August

Here are the North American anime & manga releases for August Week 1: August 4 - 10 Anime Releases Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka II (I...read more

Aug 2, 2020 10:29 PM by ImperfectBlue | Discuss (3 comments)

North American Anime & Manga Releases for May

Here are the North American anime & manga releases for May Week 1: May 5 - 11 Anime Releases After War Gundam X Collection 2 Blu-ray Aria the Natural Part 2 Blu-...read more

May 4, 2020 9:44 AM by ImperfectBlue | Discuss (0 comments)

	Poll: Promare Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Dudi4PoLFr - Aug 4, 2019	177 replies	by Sidinica »» Nov 3, 2024 2:39 PM
	Poll: What Is With People Only Watching Promare Just For Lio? Equallady - Jan 31, 2021	14 replies	by deg »» Jun 23, 2024 5:17 PM
	Poll: Why Don't People Care About/Like Main Character Galo? Equallady - Feb 18, 2021	13 replies	by HEBI_TAN »» Oct 12, 2023 3:20 AM
	(!) Do watch Galo-hen / Lio-hen after *22 min* of the Promare movie Rob7 - Oct 20, 2020	5 replies	by callmethebigG »» Sep 19, 2022 9:49 PM
	Promare Blu-Ray? Shiki278 - Sep 19, 2019	5 replies	by Fishb0i »» Jan 22, 2022 5:29 PM