65 were impressed!
15 are disappointed in the use of CG
10 thought the visuals were good but not readable
10 are tired of watching the same movie over and over again
Late to the party as usual, but here we go. Promare is yet another production by acclaimed studio Trigger. I feel like there isn’t a whole lot to be said about Promare that doesn’t apply to literally every other Trigger production, however I’ll try my best and parse out specifics. Overall Promare is just fine. It makes a reasonable showing and if you haven’t seen any Trigger films/shows before than I imagine it could seem revolutionary, but it’s really just more of the same thing.
Let me be clear that if you watch this movie and love it that’s totally okay and I’m not here to take that away from you, but what I found when watching this film was an experience derivative and of lower quality than its predecessors. A popular internet funny man once said that the “mecha as a genre is dead” and that’s very evident here. There are a lot of vehicles, robots, and mechanical objects in this movie and Trigger despite its reputation doesn’t seem to be immune to falling into the sinkhole of cutting corners and using nothing but awful CG for your 3d geometry like every other anime studio. The film alleviates this somewhat with its highly stylized and geometric style, but crappy CG is crappy CG and sticks out like an uncanny thumb against the rest of the drawn elements in the film.
I will point out a particular grievance in that usually what sets Trigger apart is its style and details. Kill la Kill is incredible because the crazy over the top action scenes were done with a high production and readability. A lot of the action in Promare was very hard to follow and seemed to simply use debris and stretching lines of particles as an excuse to change scenery rather than lead the viewer to the next segment of a sequence.
Despite my best efforts I could not invest myself in the characters of this film. I enjoyed the personalities and characters alright, but the film is really just a carbon copy of Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill. Trigger seems to have one story/message they want to tell and that’s not necessarily a bad thing just don’t expect me to be surprised or excited every time when you pull the same rabbit out of your hat. The plot felt a bit messier than normal for a Trigger show and that was likely because it was operating in a motion pictures run time. It’s rare I watch a movie and think that it should be shorter OR longer. This film would have benefited either from being 30 minutes shorter and cutting chaff or getting extended to a short series. As it stands the plot seems to hit beats it needs to as a formality and certain reveals only seemed to make sense to me because I knew I was watching a Trigger production.
I don’t think Promare was a bad film, but I do think my own metaknowledge affected my viewing experience negatively. I would say you could watch the rest of Trigger’s older works and miss absolutely nothing skipping Promare, but if you just want more of the same then go for it.
